November 2024

Minutes November 4, 2024 

El Camino Fundamental High School 

PTSA General Meeting 7:00 p.m.

1. Welcome and Opening Remarks

   - Meeting called to order at 7:03 p.m by Tracie Hewitt. Michelle Pearson (VP) is absent, SF is subbing.

Jen Flohr is sick, and Holly Fales is unavailable.

 People in attendance: Elizabeth Wright, Sarah Van Den Enden, Chrystal Bernasconi, Rosemarie Speth, Tracie Hewitt, Evelyn Welborn, Barb Lezon, Becka Stephensen, Shannon Fox

2. Approval of Previous Meeting Minutes: Shannon Fox, Secretary

   - Chrystal B. motioned to approve if minutes from previous meeting are fixed to say “minutes” and add Rosemarie Speth as an attendee, Tracie Hewitt  seconded.

3. Admin Report: Principal, Evelyn Welborn

• At 4:30 p.m. today there was a giant accident with a person thrown from a vehicle and debris landing by the large gym. The individuals were NOT students, but many students witnessed it. There will be additional counselors on site tomorrow in case students need to debrief. 

• Dec. 10 is the grad fair from 5:30-7:30 in the cafeteria

4. Student Report: Victor Bernasconi representing the Native American Youth Club, Running Club, and Football.  

• Tomorrow the Native American Youth Club will be taking pictures for the yearbook

5. President's Report: Tracie Hewitt 

• EC Open Enrollment Visitation Night was a success with lots of candy handed out. It was a very energetic evening. The students are starting to look younger and younger. 

5. Vice President's Report: Chrystal Bernasconi

• Open enrollment night had a lot of people who seemed involved and excited.

6. Treasurer's Report: Becka Stephensen 

• Insurance is due 12/20/24. She has the check and stamp and will drop it off at the post office tonight

• We have a raffle permit for the 2025 calendar year. We can’t hold more raffles than the number we put down. She signed us up for 10 raffles, and it’s okay if we don’t have that many.

• There have been no funds requests in a long time. 

• FINANCIAL REVIEW REPORT- 

• Reported on by Rosemarie Speth: The process…We had a financial review day that involved members of the PTSA getting together to go through each bulleted point on the required list. Becka (Treasurer) showed where each thing was in the very organized binder. We made a list of recommendations (see attached hard copy in the paper file) which were passed out for members of this meeting to review.

  • The Financial Review took 84 minutes to complete. Becka was very proud of that because she promised a max of 90 minutes. Well done!

  • It covered June 30 (end of the fiscal year) to July 1.

  • We need bank statements to be checked against our budget. 

  • Barb L. will check the bank statements at this meeting (she approved).

Treasurer/Financial continued: PTSA 11.4.24 Minutes

• Tracie Hewitt (finally) has access to Morgan Stanley

• Becka reviewed our budget. Not a lot of spending actually happens in the PTSA until February.

• Becka showed a copy of the ledger. 

• Budget changes that were approved - $124.68  (a check from 6-2-23) we be absorbed back into our budget. Chrystal B. motioned to approve (the check hasn’t been cashed and is past the time) and Tracie H. seconded.

7. Committee Reports: 

1. Holly Fales: (absent) They did a Trick or Treat candy theme for Halloween and it was completely emptied. It was a hit! They would like to do a luncheon in November. However, Evelyn Welborn mentioned the the staff is already having a potluck in November, and a December something would be preferred.

2. Scholarship Report: Barb Lezon- 

–She will put a call out to join the committee in January or February 2025. 

• Tracie will follow up on the balances in Morgan Stanley, and Barb L. will let the families know what the balances are.

• Sara V. pointed out that we need to be very clear about the PTSA scholarship (membership required) vs. the Morgan Stanley memorial scholarships not requiring membership, and list the requirements for each type of scholarship similar to how Amazon has a list that compares items. 

3. Social Media: Elizabeth Wright and Sarah Van den Enden 

    - They are doing a great job! Thank you ladies.

  - Chrystal needs a digital copy of the agenda and minutes to post to the website.

4. Events: Tracie Hewitt (for Jennifer Flohr)

• Taste of El Camino will coordinate with the 75th anniversary of the school. We’d like it to be an evening on a Saturday in September. We need to dodge the Homecoming Dance dates. We need to pick a date and then reserve a venue. 

  • For the Taste of El Camino, have we thought about a digital flier to send out to all the alumni Facebook groups asking if they’d be interested to attend or be a vendor (sort of like a “save the date” card)

• Membership Drive - Brainstorming ways to increase members. Possibly have a raffle every month and include people online (via Zoom). We could spin the wheel at the meeting and see who the winner is. 

8. Upcoming Action -  

• We will do a meat fundraiser in the Spring (via Joe Green). We were going to do it in the Fall, but Joe overbooked himself.

10. Open Floor / Questions for Admin

• We propose to change the day and time of the PTSA meetings. Voted on and agreed.

  • Meetings will be held on Dec. 9 @ 6:00 pm (next meeting)

    • January 14 (Tuesday) @ 6:00 pm

    • February 10 @ 6:00 pm

    • March 10 @ 6:00 pm

    • April 21 @ 6:00 pm

    • May 12 @ 6:00 pm

*Reason for the change is because a 7:00 start time is too late, especially for staff members who stay after school to attend and then don’t get home until 9:00 pm.

• We discussed possibly having only 4 in-person meetings, but Elizabeth suggested that the inconsistency might result in people not attending. 

• Upcoming to discuss: Awards Ceremony & Desserts in May

  • Senior Honor Breakfast in May

Other random things we discussed: 

• No El Camino school employee should be president.

• We could possibly have an “informal meet up” on zoom after the PTC Board meetings rather than meeting in person. To be determined. 

• Student Government students are desperate for service hours. Do we want to have a holiday wrapping and goodies? 

  • Chrystal said that she has a ton of wrapping paper she could donate

  • We would like to check with Emigh’s Hardware to see if we can sell/wrap outside of their store

Meeting Adjourned: 8:01 p.m.