PTO Meeting Agenda
Monday, September 28th, 2020
6:30pm
Attendees: Phil Moore, Sarah Smith, Stephanie Eddy, Jamie LaVelle, Erin Stacey, Ali Houchin, Jodi Adler, Nikki Tourdot, Sarah Binversie, Jessica Grandt
1. Welcome and Introductions
2. Principal Update
a. Dr. Grandt thanked the parents for their incredible support to start the school year and briefly updated the group on the changes that have been implemented to keep students and staff as safe as possible given the current pandemic. She also thanked the PTO for their support of the electronic sign, which was installed in front of the school last week.
b. Parent/teacher conferences will be held on Oct 21 and 22. There will be no school on Oct 22 and 23. This year parents will sign up for a conference slot using sign-up genius. More info will be coming home on that soon. Families will also have the option to do their child’s conference virtually, face to face or by phone. Note: the book fair that we usually hold during conferences will take place solely online this year for safety reasons.
c. Our first Scoopie night of the year will take place on Oct 28. For health/safety reasons, staff will not be working in the restaurant. However, Culver’s is still going to give 10% of sales that night between 4-8pm to Harrison School, so please consider picking up an order to go that night. The class with the highest percentage of participation will still receive a prize from Culver’s.
d. Picture Day will be Jan. 26. Yearbook orders will be done online through Lifetouch.
3. Staff Updates
a. Mrs. Adler, Mrs. Tourdot, and Ms. Binversie each gave a brief update on the start the of school year. Each teacher commented on how well the students have adjusted to the changes for this year and how grateful we all are to be back doing face to face instruction with our kiddos.
4. Membership
a. The PTO membership form will be going home soon. Membership is $5.00 per family and includes a student directory. Erin Stacey has offered to help with membership and the directory.
5. Treasurer’s Report
a. Phil Moore is the PTO treasurer. He shared that the PTO’s current balance is $12,543. However, we have not yet received the bill for PTO’s portion of the sign purchase.
b. Dr. Grandt and Mr. Moore will meet before the October PTO meeting to review expenses and revenue and put together a draft of a 2020-21 PTO budget to share with the group.
c. Mr. Moore submitted paperwork to renew Harrison PTO’s raffle license and our annual 501c(3) report.
d. Two budget items were approved by the PTO members in attendance:
i. $50 reimbursement to staff for purchases they have made for their classroom. Teachers need to submit receipts to Mr. Moore by December 1 for reimbursement. Staff eligible for reimbursement are: the homeroom teachers (12), Special Area Teachers (4), English Language teacher (1), Special Ed Teachers (4), Academic Learning Coach (1), Interventionist (1), and Innovation Specialist (1). This item will cost $1200.
ii. A boxed lunch from GRs was approved to serve staff during conferences. Approximate cost will be $200.
6. Fundraising
a. Historically we have had one major fundraiser each year. Last year that was our incredibly successful Color Run. For health/safety reasons, we can’t do that this year. However, there are other options that we could do instead if fundraising is needed this year (e.g. a family scavenger hunt that is completed on their own time). We will review fundraising ideas again next month once we have a better sense of the budget and what the expenses for this year might be.
b. We will be asking parents to submit their box tops online again this year, which is a great fundraiser for us. Jenny Kallio will be putting together a note about this to go home to parents. A parent mentioned that there is a way for families to scan their online receipts, as well.
c. A parent suggested that Dr. Grandt add a reminder to our FB page about our Amazon Smile account as this is another simple fundraising idea.
7. New Event Ideas for this year?
a. Several of our usual PTO events will not be held this year due for health/safety reasons (e.g. the Halloween Party). Please feel free to share other ideas that you think would be fun for us to do virtually this year, instead.
8. Odds/ Ends
a. Dr. Grandt reminded the group that the SDJ has two referendum questions on the November 3rd ballot, a capital referendum and an operational referendum. Neither of these are “bells and whistles” referendums, but more maintenance in nature. For example, new boilers for Harrison are on the list of improvements if the referendum passes.
b. In order to communicate with parents and the community about the ever-changing health situation, the SDJ has added a Covid-19 dashboard to their website. It is updated weekly.
Next Meeting: October 19 at 6:30pm
