November PTA Meeting Minutes

Tuesday, November 9, 2010 @ 6:30 PM in Dike Newell Library

Board Members in attendance: Geniene Marco, Claire Berkowitz, Kate Foye, Laurie Burhoe & Lisha Wentworth

Other attendees: Heidi Tucker, Candy Hernandez, Jean Edmondson, Perin, Anne, & Michelle

Meeting began with a discussion of FM and DN book fair set up and schedule. Books will vary in price, from $6 and higher. All kids go home with a free book. PTA gets 10% of the sales, which doesn’t completely offset the cost of purchasing the books for students. Parent night 6-7:30 on November 18 at DN Library. Wendy Ulmer will read her new book “Zero, Zilch, Nada” at 6:45.

Secretary’s Report

Claire submitted copies of October minutes for review. Heidi made motion to accept report, Candy 2^nd. Passed with unanimous vote.

Treasurer’s Report

Lisha presented the November 8 Treasurer’s Report. Current balance of $13,217.59 as of 10/10/10.

Harvest Dance raised approximately $570 after expenses. Heidi Tucker made a motion to accept and Candy 2^nd. Vote to accept passed unanimously.

Other Business

Discussion took place about how to better communicate to parents and get more engagement from the school community. Some parents say they don’t know when meetings are happening. PTA minutes will go out via newsletter, posted on a website/blog, sent to the PTA membership email list.

Old Business

• Innisbrook Update – items are being packaged up and shipped. Unsure how much we will be profiting – $9,072 in sales…we will get about 45-50% of that back for PTA funds. While we didn’t raise as much money as last year, given the economy we see it as a success.

• Harvest Dance – great attendance. Some families weren’t able to attend because of the price. We talked that no family would be turned away. Somehow we need to balance the fundraising with the financial needs of the community.

New Business

• Skateboard Fundraiser – Kate got skateboard from Chris Martin, pro skater. It will be raffled off to raise money to help purchase skateboards for the FM PE class. Skatepark will donate a 3 month membership and 10 month punch card for the raffle. Jason Carter is looking to raise approximately $500. Tickets will be $5/chance. Sell 200 tickets, open to all RSU1. The board will be on display at the skatepark. Money beyond what Jason needs will go to PTA.

• Summer Camp Scholarships, 2011-Heidi talked about the program – how worthwhile it is and important, but it is too much work for her to do on top of her job . Between the 2 school guidance counselors, Gretchen and Suzanne, and Heidi, it has become too much to manage. There were 33 camp slots filled in summer 2009, 76 for summer 2010. Looks like more than 100 could be filled given the trend/success. One area that Heidi felt needed improvement was on family feedback, which was a requirement of the Davenport funding. Only 5/76 families responded to the feedback form. Lisha assured Heidi that was a good response rate, not to be discouraged but rather encouraged. We need someone who has a lot of time to come forward between the 2 schools to manage the process. It would be a great volunteer experience for someone looking to gain program management skills. We either find someone to replace Heidi, or it won’t happen. A discussion took place on how to simplify the process and make some family accountability be built into the process. One idea is to have the family pay a portion of the camp fees. A small amount, like $10, that is not refundable if they don’t follow through and attend the camp. Heidi called Common Good Center at Bowdoin today to see if a student would like to take this on as a project. Candy suggested all of us brainstorming some ideas on who might be a good candidate for this project. We will be thinking through this moving forward.

• Christmas Fair-Looking at the 13^th & 14^th of December. No place to store the items. Could it be held at another location? Hyde School might be a possibility…but probably on the 20^th and 21^st would be better because kids are gone. Kate will explore this option and report back asap.

• Kate updated us on the Biggest Job Workshop, a program that comes from the Hyde School . Laura Gauld do a free workshop in March for the entire RSU#1 community, preferably around the 15^th of the month. Need to work out details of where it should be held and at what time. 6:30-8 PM seemed like an ideal time, not too early for parents coming home from work, but not too late. We will offer childcare. Open up to all schools in the RSU#1…parents and teachers. Registration would be a good thing so we can get a sense of #s. BMS might be a good location. Kate will meet with William Shuttleworth to let him know of our plans. Bath Elementary PTA could reach out to the other school PTAs to make this a success.

Principal’s Comment

No principals were in attendance.

Public Comment

Heidi mentioned the medicine collection/prescription drug collection happening this Thursday night and Friday at Mid Coast Hospital and other area locations.

Meeting adjourned at 7:45.

Next meeting on Tuesday, December 14, 2010 at 6:30 PM in Fisher Mitchell Library.