January PTO Minutes

PTO MINUTES – 1/13/2015

Mark Your Calendars                                                                                                              

1/24 – Shelburne Community Days @ Chef Contos.  She will donate 10% of sales from that Saturday to PTO!

1/30 – International Potluck Dinner.  (This year will include activities with area exchange students!)

2/6 – SCS Bowl-a-thon at Champlain Lanes ($20 ticket includes bowling, shoes, dinner and raffle ticket.  4 tix for $70)

2/10 – PTO Meeting 6pm

Help Wanted                                                                                                                           

•  International Potluck Dinner – 11/30--Set up, clean-up, help during.  Contact Randy Sweeney:  sweeneyrs@gmail.com

•  Bowl-a-thon – 2/6--silent auction, check-out table, raffle sales, etc.  Contact Courtney Tharpe:  ctharpe25@gmail.com) help with

•  Book Fair in the School Library--2/9-2/13--shifts during school hours and 2 nights. Valerie Richardson:  valerie@estimated.com

Principals Report (compilation of December and January)

•  All students experienced coding during December.  K-2 on ipads, 3-8 learned about writing code in the lab

•  red ribbon week "kindness counts" sponsored by middle school LEAD, student council and 5th gr. leadership council

•  mentoring--we were awarded a Mobius grant, allowing us to increase the mentoring matches from 17 to 25!

•  grand rounds--Join us on the 21st for a presentation on adolescent suicide prevention.  CY has a teen parenting class as well                                                                                                                                                                                

Team Updates--what's happening around SCS?--a quick peek:                                                                                 

•  Wonder-5th--Book club unit using DCF books.  Creating journals.

•  Winton-6-8-- attending Flynn performance of 'To Kill a Mockingbird'

•  Holden-6-8--55 students participating in Scripps spelling bee.

•  Journey-K--sea creatures unit--each student chooses & researches a creature, then creates a poster to share

•  PE (Mrs. Olson)--Focusing on Body and Brain connection.  Cross fit warm up; Dancing/music cues.

•  Believe-3--creating and performing adaptive fairy tales--would love to come to a PTO meeting to perform for us!

•  Firefly-1--Studying works of a few authors;  Hosted an authors tea.

•  Holden-6-8--Hosted a team breakfast for parents & students, then ice skating at Leddy Park.  Also constructed  speghetti/marshmallow towers

•  Music (Buckingham)--Preparing for Cabaret Night! (Would love parent help during this planning phase).  15 students participated in Low Brass workshop.  Winter band concert is March 9.

•  Guidance--focus on mental and emotional health--how to we know when we need to get help for our friends--who can help us, where do we go?

•  Team Dreams--walking field trip to Shelburne Museum the day before vacation--visited exhibit, made jewelry out of clay.  Currently studying changes in the sky. 

•  Teachers would like to thank the PTO for Fall Grant support and for a successful craft fair!

Fundraising Update                                                                                                                

•  Shelburne Community Days –$513.40 raised at Flying Pig; $112 raised with Cucina Antica Half Baked Pizza Sale

•  Holiday Fair - $1,100 in table $$ which is the highest ever!

•  Used Book Sale – we made $178.50 and then donated the remaining books to the Pierson Library

•  SCS Bowl-a-thon --Flyer is out! Awesome list of auction and raffle items.  Good Comida selling desserts;  Dinner by Marcos.

•  Shop Amazon -- due to VT tax law, this program is no longer available to us.

•  Dynamic Dates -- Flyers will go out on Friday March 9 (paper and electronic), and are due back on 16th. 

Fund Spending Update                                                                                                           

•  Visiting Artist Program--Sally Stevens, first grade teacher, shared history and highlights of the Flynn Words Come Alive! Artist in residence program.  2012/2013:  8 teachers participated in the program.  Each team of teachers had one planning session with a Flynn artist to identify a topic to teach (fractions, red clover books, grammar etc.), then the artist came into the classroom 4 times to work with the students on that topic!  A Flynn grant covered $2,500, PTO contributed $2,650 (in addition to paying for musician Jon Gailmore).  2013/2014:  14 teachers participated (including all 5th grade teachers) with the grant covering $2,500 and PTO $4,000 (no Jon Gailmore).  2014/2015:  14 teachers would like to participate, but we did not receive the grant!  PTO promised $3,000 and the Flynn gave $1,250 (half the grant).  Sally asked PTO for $1,250 more.  Unanimously approved by those present tonight!  "This program is impacting lots of kids in our school in a very cool way!

•  Fall Grants - $5,666.30 awarded to teachers/staff! (books for classrooms, knives for kitchen, 2 sewing machines, interactive e-books, Starfall subscription, Typing club subscription, piano accompanist for winter concert, Flynn workshops for middle school)

Other Business/Discussion Items                                                                                             

•  Holiday Fair -- Entering brought through main entrance worked well.  Due to great turnout, parking was a big issue--especially people parking in fire zones.  Next year we will prohibit sale and/or use of guns (marshmallow, nerf and other) at all booths (game and craft).  Seems like more of a carnival than a craft fair--does this work?  Shall we hold a carnival separate from craft fair?  Thoughts on adult craft tables?  Ok if we have space?  After the deadline for tables, open it up to teachers and adults?  What are our expectations about distribution of table profits--$ to teams, charity, ?  **A small Holiday Fair Planning Committee will discuss these issues and report back to PTO before the end of the year.**  Interested?  Contact Randy or Courtney.

•  SCS App--Steve Trombley, SCS parent, developed an iPhone app (android to come) to be used by the school--weather, lunch menu, school calendar, school news--everything in one place!  Can build out sections to include more information.  Has the capability to hold school directory.  There was much discussion about the privacy and safety of including this information.  Directory content would not be on the app in the App Store, but would be downloaded to the app after the buyer proves (with 4 pieces of required info) that they are a parent at SCS.  Information would only be included with parent permission.   App will be rolled out without the student directory, but with the option for families to enter their own information to share.  Steve and Randy will work on an email to send to all parents advertising and explaining the app.  Steve has generously offered all proceeds from the sale of the app to support the PTO!

•  SCS PR--wouldn't it be great if we could share/highlight some of our great programs here at SCS with the community?  The Shelburne News welcomes articles, so if anyone is ever interested in writing an article about the awesome things going on in your child's classroom and beyond, please talk to a teacher and go for it!!

•  Winter Gear Drive--Please continue to bring in donations of winter gear--all sizes, anything to keep folks warm!

A big Thank You to:                                                                                                                            

•  Everyone who dined at the Open Arms Cafe and supported Shelburne Community Days!

•  Everyone who helped Jen and Meagan with the Fall Fundraiser distribution!

•  Sherry Senior and Shannon Baird for the beautiful Holiday Fair bulletin board!

•  Dawn Fragola, Valerie Richardson and Sherry Senior for putting together a very successful Holiday Fair! 

•  Everyone who helped set-up on Friday and clean-up on Saturday at the Holiday Fair!

•  Dave Kelly, Bob Miller, Randy Mushtare and the rest of the custodial staff for help setting up and cleaning up the Holiday Fair!

•  Lori Roberts who continues to produce the beautiful Shelburne Community Day Flyers & Ads to place in the newspaper!

•  Everyone who has volunteered and is here tonight!