PTA Meeting Minutes

Tuesday, January 10, 2012 @ 6:30 PM in Dike Newell Library

Board Members in attendance: Geniene Marco, Kate Foye, Claire Berkowitz, & Candy Hernandez

Secretary’s Report
The December minutes were not presented due to a computer issue. Claire will try to retrieve and post/present next month.

Treasurer’s Report 

Kate presented the budget. The balance in the checking account is $7,359.46 – enough to cover the approved budget for the rest of the year. Great fundraising efforts have gotten us to this point.

Old Business

• One Book, One School Events - Ocean Soup Tide Pool Poems
• Author Steven Swinburne will be at FM on Monday, January 30 (Snow Day Tuesday, Jan. 31^st).
• Reading and Journal Entries: 1/30-1/15
• The three week project will culminate with a full day, whole school celebration of science, literacy, and art activities led by community members and staff on Weds., Feb. 15. This will be like an indoor field day with classes traveling to different sessions throughout the day. Volunteers Needed! Please let Dr. Harriman or your child's teacher know if you could volunteer for morning or afternoon.
• February Family Dance – Friday, February 17^th in Fisher Mitchell Gym
• Celebrate the end of One Book One School AND kick of February vacation.
• Time: 6:30-8 PM.
• We’ll have some raffle items, Claire will DJ with Ipod, Popcorn – Christine and company, Candy & Reuben will sell tickets, Geniene will get disco ball, Kate will make healthy fruit punch. Snacks/punch $.25, water is free.
• Box Tops for Education – class with most box tops wins a ride on the Bath Trolley. Cut out and bring in box tops from January 9th to February 17th to help. Each box top is worth 10¢ and can be found on many different items at the grocery store. See http://www.boxtops4education.com/ to find products. Ask friends, neighbors, and family members to donate box tops, too. We’ve already received a check for $475 that will be used to buy every student a book for our upcoming One Book One School.

New Business

• Read-a-thon – March 12-23. More information to come next month. PTA will pay for winning classes gifts (Bath Book Shop gift certificates) if necessary. Candy will let us know.
• PTA will sponsor a coin drive in May.
• Looking to schedule the 5^th Grade Dance at BMS in the beginning of June (either the 1^st or 2^nd). Same format as last year. Will hire a DJ.
• Looking ahead – TV Turn Off Week is normally in April. Claire will check with Katherine Buotte.
• Dike Newell has received a $500 grant from Access Health to purchase healthy snacks (fruits and veggies). This should be enough to provide snacks 1/week. Volunteers will be needed to help prepare the fruit for the students. PTA will reach out to parents/community.

Principal’s Comment – Sally Brown talked about the School Advisory Group (SAG) meeting. Parents expressed a need to feel more connected to the school. They are only at DN for 3 years and then they move to FM. They’d like to see some of the events happen at DN. The PTA will make sure this happens in the future.

Public Comment – Talked about the School Budget and the need for parents/community members to be involved. There is a $1 million budget gap in the RSU1 and so people will need to weigh in on what’s important. A survey has gone out to the community for input.

Meeting Adjourned at 7:45.

Because of a concert at Dike Newell, the next PTA meeting will be on MONDAY, February 13th, at 6:30 PM in Fisher Mitchell Library.