Office / PTO Information
Northwestern Elementary PTO
Meeting Minutes
May 27 2020 AT 6:30 p.m.
(Virtual Zoom Meeting)
1. Call to Order: Stacie Chase called the meeting to order at 6:35pm
2. New Business:
A. 5th Grade Send Off:-We put together a middle school survival bag that will handed out by the 5th grade teachers at the reverse parade June 1st.
B. Treasurer-This was Marcelle and Rose’s last year as treasurers and Ashley Madara has volunteered to take on this role short term until we can find someone long term.
C. Yearbook-This was Dena’s last year doing yearbook. Jordan Kranz and Holli Waddell have volunteered to take this over.
D. Project Smart- This year will be Mrs. Kristie Johnson’s last year doing Project Smart. We need someone to take this over. If anyone would like to do so and shadow Kristie this year please let one of the PTO members know. If we do not find someone, we may not be able to continue the program.
E. Hand in homework: June 1st from 5-6:30pm.
F. Voting on officer positions: Tara Samules is stepping down from the Vice President position. Stacie Chase nominated Rana Kelley for the position. Stacie also nominated Ashley Madara as Treasurer, Ashley Melvin as Secretary, and she would like to remain President. Marcelle second the nominations. It was asked if all were in favor and all present at the meeting said “I”, then it was asked if there were any objections to the nominations and there were none. The officers for next year are President: Stacie Chase, Vice President: Rana Kelley, Secretary: Ashley Melvin, and Treasurer: Ashley Madara.
3. Treasurer’s Report: Marcelle reports we received a check from Giant Eagle for the Apples for Students program in the amount of $617.00 and we also received a check from Box Tops for $34. $635 was deposited from the orders for yearbooks. Waiting on the invoice from Lifetouch. Interest earned on the checking account in January was $.86, February $.77, March $.92, and March $.76. The balance of the checkbook as of today is $35,808.40. Marcelle reports a budget change that was agreed upon by all PTO officers and that was $2000 overspending from the teacher appreciation allotment. We spent a little more this year because of everything going on. This year we also did gift cards for the cafeteria staff, high school and middle school principle and secretaries. We pulled from other allotments that were not used due to the school being closed.
4. Mr. Christensen’s Report-Reverse Parade will be on June 1st from 5-6:30pm in the NWE parking lot. All homework will be turned in. Chrome books will be turned in if not keeping them for the summer. Report cards will be mailed out the second or third week of June. Grading will be done on a pass/fail/zero scale. Regarding returning to school in August there are 3 scenarios. Scenario 1-Normal return to school. Scenario 2-Hybrid approach where there will be some reopening of school and classroom learning along with virtual learning. Scenario 3-Virtual learning and no reopening of school. Mr. C thanks everyone for their support during this time!
5. Open Forum –Is there a deadline to have a return to school plan? Mr. C states he is unsure at this time, it all depends on the recommendations from the PDE. Will masks be needed if school reopens? Mr. C said there is a good chance masks will be required. A parent asked if school does reopen and a parent is not comfortable sending their child back will they be penalized? Will virtual learning be an option still? Mr. C states a survey went out and they are awaiting the responses from them for a plan to be made. Teacher allotments will continue at $150 so teachers may purchase things over the summer.
6. Meeting adjourned: Meeting adjourned by Stacie at 7:05pm
Northwestern Elementary PTO
Meeting Minutes
January 8, 2020 at 6:30 pm
1. Call to Order
2. Committee Updates:
A. Santa’s Workshop-Went well. Possibly use a different company next year. Still waiting on the invoice to pay, anticipating (as expected) a low profit. Possibly have honor students from the high school help with the Santa shop next year—Will be discussed with Natalie (from H.S.). The week before winter break worked well and will continue to hold the workshop during that time in the future.
B. Book Fair-Tentative dates do not work for Spring Book Fair because of PSSA. Date to be determined soon.
C. Meet Raffle—Sold 103 tickets and profit of $566.70. Possibly lower the price of tickets for better profit if we continue this type of fundraiser in the future.
3. New Business:
A. Project Smart-This is Kristy Johnson’s last year so someone is needed to take over. Spoke about possibly having packets at Kindergarten registration in hopes of getting new parent volunteers. No new director selected as of now.
B. Family Fun Night-No solid date yet. There will be a meeting 3rd or 4th week of January to decide-will definitely be beginning of March. Possibly have MELIA program end 15-20 minutes early to accommodate start time of Family Fun Night. Date needed for ordering bounce hosuses; decided on having 2 this year. Decide on order of operations to help for smooth transition into the “fun” part. Mrs. Loveranes to take over for Mr. Fuller.
C. Yearbook Next Year-Need someone to take over-it will be Deena’s last year. School google doc account for future ease of contributing pictures.
4. Treasurer’s Report
5. Mr. Christensen’s Report
a. Brad Johnson won Golden Apple award.
b. 1st and 5th grade grandparent breakfasts went well.
c. 1st grade Christmas show went well.
d. 5th grade has 2 teams going to the K’nex competition at Edinboro University.
e. MELIA program off and running. K-2 students Monday-Thursday participating in home literacy extension activities, ect from after school until 5:30pm. 43 kids attending regularly.
i. Rising K preschool program open to students who enter kindergarten in the fall. Will operate February 18th – August 14th, Monday-Friday, follows school time, has parent transport, 20 seats still open and is completely free. Only 3 applications gone home. Runs regardless of applicant numbers.
ii. 6 week summer school program for k-2 students, no solid start date yet.
6. Open Forum –
a. Star Lab (inflatable planetarium) suggested again but keep for 3rd and 5th grades only. Early May date TBA.
b. Kindergarten registration-all three sessions on one day May 24th with one session being a late day time. May discontinue having a PTO member there.
c. Kindergarten celebration grandparent breakfast wither May 7th or May 8th.
d. Mrs. Verga asks about traveling puppet show out of Cincinnati OH. 1 show is $765, 2 shows are $684 a show. Try to coordinate with other grades and other schools (possibly Springfield Elementary) or combining K and 1st grade field trip funds.
7. Gift Card Raffle Mrs Henley won the gift card
8. Meeting adjourned
NEXT MEETING MARCH 25 AT 3:45
Meeting Minutes
November 13, 2019 at 3:45pm
1. Call to Order by Stacie Chase at 3:47pm.
2. Committee Updates:
A. Spirit Week- $1328.50 brought in for this fundraiser. 2nd grade had the most and celebrated with drumsticks (ice cream). Marcelle asked if there are any other ideas of what they would like to do that week—someone mentioned wearing clothes with no buttons or zippers.
B. Parties Marcelle $2.00 for the per person includes teachers so make sure as a teacher you count yourself in with your student counts…if you have 23 students turn in 24.
C. Meet Raffle-Stacie reported that the drawing will be December 10th at the Winter Concert.
3. New Business:
A. Crime Insurance-Marcelle reported that Erie Insurance is no longer doing crime insurance as it was in the past. To continue having the coverage is going to be a lot of money and it only covers if one of the PTO members steal. We decided to drop the crime coverage and just have liability-which is required by the school district.
B. Santa’s Workshop-Stacie reported that Santa’s Workshop is coming up, dates still to be determined. It will be in the PTO room this year.
C. Yearbook--We need someone to take over the yearbook next year. It entails putting the yearbook together—attending school functions and taking pictures, uploading the pictures and using the software provided by Lifetouch to arrange them in yearbook format.
4. Treasurer’s Report -Marcelle-reported that we had a $979.24 profit from spirit wear sale. Kilted Kiln adult paint night brought in $194.00. The Alternative fundraiser has raised $220 so far. Spirit week’s total $1328.50 and we received a check from the Albion Fair (yearbook) for $576 for those that volunteered. Checking account interest earned for September was $0.76 and October was $0.78. Checking account balance as of 11.13.19 is $36,441.19.
5. Mr. Christensen’s Report -All classes are now on Class DOJO. For Halloween we did a Grease theme and in November we are doing No Shave November…money can be put in teachers containers to vote for the one who will have the fullest, thickest, greyest, longest beard at the end of November. All money raised will go to Toys for Cats & the Veteran’s Group. On November 11th—Veteran’s Day—5 Veterans came in to talk to the kids about being a Veteran and what they did for our country so they now have a better understanding of what Veteran’s Day is. Lastly, the kids are doing Christmas cards for soldiers. Each student is to try to do 2 cards that need to be turned in by November 26th so they can be sent out to our soldiers overseas for Christmas.
6. Open Forum – Same company is doing Santa’s workshop this year. Stacie Chase is in charge of the event and will be looking for volunteers. She will post dates to our Facebook page as soon as they are determined.
a. Mr. Fuller asked if PTO will be willing to help out and participate in Dr. Suess night. The PTO will definitely be participating in the event, we plan on having 2 bounce houses this year—one for younger/smaller kids and one for older/bigger kids. Mr. Fuller will no longer be in charge of the event this year, he is passing torch to Mrs. Loverances.
b. NWEwildcatpto@gmail.com is our new email address, please feel free to contact one of the PTO members using the new email.
c. It was asked if we could create an account from Google photos that all can uploaded to throughout the year and it can be one place to go to for pictures for the yearbook or other project that needs pictures. Stacie said that was a good idea and we will look into it.
d. Rana put in for a grant from WalMart to get a book vending machine. As of today she has not heard if we got the grant. It is a vending machine that has books in it and kids can earn coins to use in the machine for good behavior, helping others, ect.
7. Gift Card Raffle won by Mrs Henley
8. Meeting adjourned at 4:07 by Stacie and second by Jamie Sipes.
The next PTO Meeting will be January 8 at 6:30pm
Northwestern Elementary PTO
Meeting Agenda
September 18, 2019
6:30 pm
1. Call to Order by Stacey Chase at 6:33pm
2. Committee Updates:
A. Child Care during meetings-Free child care will be available for PTO meetings. It is provided by Abby Swantek-a senior at NW and Abby Hancox-a junior at NW.
B. Spirit Wear-Ashley Melvin reported that spirit wear should be in around Sept. 25th which is the Wednesday of spirit week and Homecoming.
C. Scholastic Dollars-Ashley Melvin reported there is a $714.34 reward balance that will expire in October. Asked if anyone attending meeting cared if it was used for books. Did anyone object to it being used to purchase prizes for give-a-ways. No one objected to how we use the reward dollars.
3. New Business:
A. Spirit Week—Next week—donations if you have them each day.
B. Fall Fundraiser- -New this year. $10.00 per ticket. Meat Raffle--McDonald’s Meats. 3 winners—choice steak package, pork and chicken package.
C. Replacement Treasurer—Marcelle and Rose are leaving. Nex year is their last year. Need a detailed oriented, organized and like numbers. Would like someone to shadow this year or next.
D. Box Top Changes-Ashley reported that box tops are going to a scanning app. You download the app on your phone and scan your receipt and amount is shown in real time. We are still collecting the other box tops until they are obsolete.
4. Treasurer’s Report
A. Review this year’s budget. Increased and added some things to help the teachers which in turn helps the students. Marcelle went over the budget for the year. Balance in checking is now 37,499.11. Our budget for the year is 20,722.42. Tara Samuels moved to approve the budget and Ashley Madara second the motion.
5. Mr. Christensen’s Report –Back to school night 83% turn out. Up from mid 60’s last year. Fifth grade attendance rose 90%. Mr. C felt it helped with the transition for the kindergarten and first graders since they met their teacher and knew where to go the first day of school. This year it was mandated that each teacher have a class dojo page. Staffing changes…Mrs. Parish went to Fairview and was replaced by Brandon Goetz. Kindergarten Intervention teacher is Abby DiPlacido. Mrs. Elnitsky left on maternity leave and Angelica Bettelli is taking her place for the remained of the year. Mr. Fuller went to 4th grade and Mrs. Frazier went to 3rd from 5th. Amy Loveranes took Mr. Fuller’s spot in 5th grade. Yvonne Teed curriculum director transferred to IU so new curriculum is in process for being approved.
6. Open Forum –Marcelle stated that we had a complaint regarding the amount of money we asked for on the alternative fundraiser sent out last school year. Feedback as to whether we should remove the dollar amounts. Last year $535 was brought in. Parents who were present said the sayings are cute and to keep it the way it is.
a. Rene mentioned Kilted Kiln is closing Edinboro store and he mentioned NW School in his post. He wants to continue doing the ornament fundraiser we do before the holidays.
7. Gift Card Raffle—Abby Hancox won the gift card.
8. Meeting adjourned -at 7:18 by Stacey chase.
NEXT MEETING IS NOVEMBER 13, AT 3:45 P.M.
Audit Meeting
July 23, 2019
We had our annual internal audit of the books. The following PTO members were present: Becky DeForce, Rana Kelley, Marcelle Risjan, Rose Kuhn, Ashley Melvin and Stacie Chase.
A new budget was created and is awaiting approval. We also planned events for the upcoming school year. The audit is available for review upon request.
Meeting Agenda
May 15, 2019
3:45 pm
1. Call to Order-By Becky DeForce at 3:49pm.
2. Committee Updates:
A. 5th Grade Send off-Michelle Kowalski reports all is in place. Pizza, Kona Shave Ice truck, a photo booth, popcorn and may activities such as cornhole are planned
B. Star Lab is Friday the 17th for the 3rd and 5th grades.
C. Coin Wars going on this week.
3. New Business:
A. Field Trips-Rose Kuhn reported some grade levels have not expended all their money allotted for field trips. It was asked if the money could be used for classroom things or recess toys. Will check with Yvonne Teed if classroom supplies and such are available under the Title 1 funding first because there is money to be used from that as well. Decision was made that this year teachers are going to be able to do that but going forward it will be for field trips since that is how it is budgeted.
B. Yvonne Teed-Title 1-Parent Involvement-Funds available for things such as every child has a book to read over the summer. If a parent requests this it comes out of this fund and not PTO’s fund. Asking for feedback on the handouts given at this meeting.
C. Voting for positions-Becky DeForce is stepping down as Co-President. Stacy Chase was nominated by Donnie Demorest and second by Jamie Sipes. Stacy accepted the position.
D. Jamie Sipes motioned that all others in current positions stay in those positions. Michelle Kowalski second it. Marcelle Risjan announced that next year will be her last year as well. She is the current treasurer. A detailed oriented person will be needed to replace her and would need to shadow her next year.
4. Treasurer’s Report – Michelle Risjan reported we received a check for $579.00 from Apples for Students. Book Fair we took in $2746.09 and wrote Scholastic's a check for $2788.90. Box Tops check was received for $399.80. We received a $100.00 donation from the Alternative Fundraiser sent out at the beginning of the year. Spring Fundraiser (Daffins Candy) we deposited at total of $11, 559.33 and our profit was $4088.23. So far selling Waldameer tickets we have deposited $889.00.
5. Mr. Christensen’s Report -Teacher appreciation week went well. The school is going to try a back to school night instead of open house. This is tentatively going to be Aug 22nd. Kindergarten popcicles under the pavilion at 5:30 and everyone else starting at 6:00. 1st grade parents are to go to the first grade pod area at 6:00. You have to show up to back to school event to find out who your teacher is for that year.
6. Open Forum-
7. Gift Card Raffle-Burger King gift card went to Rana Kelly.
8. Meeting adjourned at 4:24 pm.
Northwestern Elementary PTO
Meeting Agenda, March 20, 2019 at 6:30 p.n.
1. Call to Order: Becky Deforce called the meeting to order at 6:35.
2. Committee Updates:
A. Dr. Suess Night—Success! Possibly next year doing 2 bounce houses and separate them by grades: K-2nd and 3rd-5th.
B. Star Lab-will be 5/9 & 5/10— will be for those in grades 3-5.
C. Daffins-Pick up date April 2nd. Pick up time will be 3:30 – 5:30 in the multi-purpose room. Top 3 sellers get a gift certificate. 1st will get $75, 2nd $50 and 3rd $25..
3. New Business:
A. 5th Grade Send off—Michelle Kowalski will be in charge of this. It is the last day of school. We may need volunteers to help with this so please watch our FaceBook page.
B. Spring Book Fair-4/25 open until 5:00 pm and 4/26 until 3:30. Volunteers will be needed on the 24th to set up and also both days to help running it.
C. Penny Wars fundraiser—May 13th – May 17th. Each class will have containers to put pennies in. Each grade will also have containers for silver change. The pennies are positive amounts and the silver change are negative amounts. Kids will put pennies in their own grade/classroom jug and can put silver coins in other grade/classrooms to take away from the pennies they have brought in.
D. Teacher Appreciation – Budget of $268.00 for Tara to work with. Mr Christensen will talk with Tara and brainstorm what teachers may want. Possibly do something each day of that week.
E. Waldameer Tickets – We will be selling Waldameer tickets again this year. $21.00 per ticket for all day passes. Regular price is $41.50!
4. Treasurer’s Report - Marcelle reported Fall Fundraiser-profit was @2577.28. Received a $50.00 donation for the alternative fundraiser we sent home beginning of the year. We profited $360.19 from the Santa’s Workshop. Spirit wear profit from beginning of the year was $655.77. Deposited $11,559.33 for Daffins Candy Spring fundraiser. We usually get about 36% profit so that will be about $4000. Interest on the checking account in January was $0.88 and February was $0.75. The balance in the checking account as of 3/18/19 is $50, 171.37.
5. Mr. Christensen’s Report – Science Fair was in the Corder Gym this year. Over 100 projects were completed. Try have it every year about the same time—may try to co-ordinate the book fair with the science fair next year. Total people who attended Dr. Suess Family Fun Night was 344! PSSA’s will be: ELA’s April 15-17 then Math April 29th 30th and then science 4th grade May 7th and 8th. 36 people attended kindergarten registration which was very low! Not sure if it was a communication breakdown and that people were not aware of the date. Kindergarten teachers Mrs. Verga and Mrs. Lenz are permanent teachers to our kindergarten staff. There is a kindergarten intervention specialist for kindergarten only on staff as well. Mrs. Frasier moved to 3rd grade opening up a position in the 4th grade. May try to do back to school night instead of open house next year. School will be starting on a Monday next year and it will be a full week.
6. Open Forum – Next meeting is May 15th at 3:45-will be the last PTO meeting of the year. We will be voting on positions and Co-president is an open position.
7. Gift Card Raffle – Stacy Chase won the gift card.
8. Meeting adjourned – at 7:25
NEXT MEETING may 15, 2019
Northwestern Elementary PTO Meeting
January 16, 2019
3:45 pm
1. Call to Order-Meeting was called to order by Becky DeForce at 3:47pm
2. Committee Updates:
A. Classroom Parties-The PTO is going to reimburse teachers $2.00 per child per party for 3 parties a year. We are going to start this year and the first party will be for Valentine’s Day. $2400 was added to the budget to cover this. Tara Samuels motioned approval of the add on to the budget. Rose Kuhn 2nd it and motioned was granted.
B. Daffins Fundraiser will be Feb 25th – March 8th. Delivery will be April 2nd.
C. Scholastic Dollars Balance-Spend/Carry Over. $2625.54 balance in the account. We have enough books for Project Smart. Balance can be carried over. Becky asked if there were any suggestions on how to spend it. Can be used on anything in the Scholastic catalog.
D. Santa Shop went well. Stacy Chase ran it and volunteered to do so again next year. We had roughly a $300.00 profit.
3. New Business:
A. Dr. Suess Night – Mr. Fuller reported that March 7th will be Dr. Suess night. Rose K will check with Mr. Bielk if he would like to do the maple cotton candy again this year. We will have a bounce house again this year and other games.
B. Star Lab – Gym will be available Thursday or Friday. Exact date to be determined. Tara Samuels will let us know when the date is at the next meeting.
C. Co-President for next year- If any one is interested please let one of the PTO members know.
4. Treasurer’s Report -Marcelle Risjan reported we received a check for box tops in the amount of $664.20. Book fair we deposited $3002.67 and check was sent for $3213.52—difference was the taxes we paid for each purchase. Kilted Kiln went smooth this year. Profit was $238.91. Spirit Wear-we are still waiting for our profit check. Ashley Melvin is waiting to hear back from Creative Imprints. Yankee Candle final profit was $2610.00. Interest earned on the checking account in November was $0.91 and December was $0.86. The balance in the checking account as of 1/15/2019 is $43, 043.05.
5. Mr. Christensen’s Report -S.T.E.A.M. Day videos are on NWE website. 96% of kids were in attendance for school that day.
New website PA Future Ready Index—compares our school to other schools in the area. 18 or more days missed-excuses or unexcused-are considered chronically absent-it goes against our school
Emergency drill will be ran this Friday-January 18th. This will be an intruder drill.
Kindergarten registration is the 26th and 27th Feb.
Science fair will be held the 28th of Feb.
PTO room update: Feb 9th a U-HAUL will be here to collect what is left in the PTO room to take to the Erie Dioceses.
https://www.safe2saypa.org went live this week. It is an tip line that is meant to be a violence prevention site. Anyone can anonymously report concerns of violence.
6. Open Forum Teachers thanked us for the Microwave.
7. Gift Card Raffle Jen Banks won the gift card.
8. Meeting adjourned at 4:24pm
NEXT MEETING march 20, 2019
Northwestern Elementary PTO Meeting Agenda
November 14, 2018
6:30 pm
1. Meeting was called to order at 6:30pm by Becky DeForce.
2. Committee Updates:
A. Spirit Week-Made a profit of $1053.31 with Kindergarten raising the most money and enjoyed a popsicle party.
B. Kilted Kiln fundraiser-Nov 29th in the multi-purpose room from 6-7:30pm. Order and money due in by Nov.20th.
C. Book Fair-Was this week. Marcelle states she deposited about the same amount as she did last year. Will update on exact amount profited at next meeting. Also, this is Michelle’s last year doing the Fall Book Fair—we will need someone to take over that next year. Anyone interested can contact any of the PTO members.
D. Yankee Candle Fundraiser-We did over $7000 in sales, profit for this fundraiser will be given at next PTO meeting.
3. New Business:
A. Classroom Parties—The PTO would like to help out the teachers with paying for classroom parties throughout the year. For the remainder of this year we are asking teachers let us know how many parties are left and what is needed.
4. Treasurer’s Report –The alternate fundraiser (paper sent home asking for donations) brought in $385.00. The fall fundraiser (Yankee Candle) we have not received final invoice so profit is expected to be around $2,870—based on $7,595.55 in sales deposited. Project Smart festivities totaled $659.82. Spirit Weeks profit was $1,053.31 and Yearbook received a check from Assembly of God for $660.00 to cover yearbooks given out to those who worked for them-for ex: those who sold booster buttons at one of the fair gates.
Interest in Sept. was $0.75 and Oct. was $0.77. Checking account balance as of 11/14/18 is $43, 696.44.
5. Mr. Christensen’s Report – Golden Lunch Tray has been successful. The next lunch will be Friday Nov. 30th. If you would like to volunteer to help out the time would be from 11 am to 1 pm. 3 or 4 helpers are needed.
S.T.E.A.M activity day is November 20th.
K-3rd grade will be doing a P.A.W.S challenge. They are asked to re-site the Wildcat Pledge to Mr. Christensen or a teacher and then say the meaning of the pledge to them. 4th and 5th grade are putting the Wildcat Pledge to music and making a video. Students can win positive paws tickets, a phone with Mr. Christensen and the chance to lead the school in the Wildcat Pledge during morning announcements.
6. Open Forum – Mrs. Bennett asked if for teacher appreciation week if the PTO would purchase another microwave for the faculty room as they are down to 1 working microwave.
Dena Gresh announced next year will be her last running the yearbook. If anyone wants to take over that please let Dena or one of the PTO administration know. You will be able to work with her this year in preparation for taking it over next year.
Also 2 flash drives are needed for 5th grade.
7. Gift Card Raffle – Mr. Clapper won the gift card.
8. Meeting adjourned – Rose called meeting to adjournment at 7:20pm.
NEXT MEETING JANUARY 16, 2019
Northwestern Elementary PTO Meeting Agenda
September 19, 20186:30 pm1. Meeting called to order by Becky DeForce at 6:32pm.
2. Committee Updates:
A. Volunteers/Clearances – www.nwsd.org / other information / form downloads / info for school volunteers. We had a couple computers set up with volunteers from FBLA (Future Business Leaders of America) at open house. Handed out packets with information needed for clearances.
B. Project Smart – Participation down some from last year. Assembly is tentatively scheduled for Oct 12th or Oct 19th in the afternoon.
C. Box Tops – Becky Mikovich is handling box tops again this year. She is planning a competition soon. The first batch of box tops need to be sent in by Nov. 1 to receive the first check. Balance at end of the year last year was $1761.30.
D. Apples for Students – Rana put flyers in teachers boxes to be sent home with students with instruction on how to link your Giant Eagle Advantage Card with our school code – 0758. Any purchase grocery, gas or pharmacy that you use your advantage card for earns points for our school and we receive a check at the end of the year.
a. Since flyers were sent out an additional 10 people have signed up.
b. The flyer will be posted on the NWE PTO Face Book page.
c. The money we get will be used for recess toys.
3. New Business:
A. Spirit Week – Sept 17th – Sept 21st.
B. Kilted Kiln fundraiser – Rana spoke with the owner of the Kilted Kiln and we plan on doing this event again this year. Nov. 28th is date set for this.
C. Book Fair – Michelle Kowalski will run the fall book fair for us again. The book fair will be Nov. 13th and Nov. 14th. Set up will be Monday Nov.12th after school. Will most likely be held in the Library.
a. Michelle stated there is a balance of $1110.50 in scholastic dollars. $320 of that will expire next month.
b. This will be Michelle’s last year doing the fall book fair.
D. Facebook – Just a reminder that the PTO has a Face Book page. Search Northwestern Elementary PTO.
E. New fundraising ideas – Was going to try having a Bingo Day-that fell through when we found out our gaming license will not cover it. Bingo has their own license and will not have time to get it for this year. Will look into it for next year. Our fall fundraiser will be Yankee Candles.
a. Spirit wear will be with Creative Imprints in November. Will be doing online ordering this year.
F. Budget – Marcelle Risjan reported the overall budget balance is $15,825.00. She also went over the budget, Rose Kuhn moved to approve the budget, Jamie Sipes second the motion.
G. Vice President – Holly Braddock has stepped down from her position as Vice President. Marcelle nominated Tara Samuels who accepted. Jamie Sipes seconded the motion.
4. Treasurer’s Report – Marcelle reported that we made $245.00 from the alternative fundraiser that was sent home at the beginning of the school year. The checking account balance is $36,071,90.
5. Mr. Christensen’s Report –
a. Free lunch and breakfast for everyone regardless of income is new this year. It was estimated around 200 students would participate. It was a little lower – 160 but this past couple weeks the number is around 180.
i. The new drop off time for students is 8:15am so they have time to eat breakfast and be back in homeroom by 8:45am.
b. Dismissal procedure changes made this year. More organized so staff know where all children are and makes it easier to get the students to the right place/bus for dismissal.
c. Open House – Overall there was a 64% turnout. Kindergarten had the most with 83%, followed by 2nd grade – 71% and then 4th grade with 67%.
i. The middle and high schools both had open house prior to the start of the school year and turnout was higher then years past. Middle School turnout was 78% and High School was 54%.
d. Teachers asked that one or two PTO meeting times be changed from 6:30 to 3:45. We have changed the time of the January 16th meeting to 3:45.
e. Golden Tray Award – A gold lunch tray is given to the class who uses the most manners, cleans up after eating, is not overly loud, ect. at the end of each lunch period. At the end of the month the class that received the golden tray the most that month will get to each lunch in the Art room. Lunch will be served by Mr. Christensen and volunteers. The first winning class will be announced and receive their special lunch on Sept. 28th!
6. Open Forum – Thank you to Donny Demorest for the Fill the Jeep to help get supplies for the teachers.
7. Gift Card Raffle – Becky Deforce won a Dairy Queen gift card.
8. Meeting adjourned – at 7:35 by Becky Deforce.