Tuesday, October 16, 2007
I.
Welcome
Lucinda Sears called the
meeting to order at 9:40am. There were 9
people in attendance. See attached sign in sheet.
II.
Motion was made to approve minutes for September 19,
2007 meeting.
Minutes were approved and will be posted
on-line and on the PTO board at Gates school.
III.
Principal’s report
Walter reported the school
year is off to a smooth opening. There
has been some discussion about Grades 3 and Grades 4 because they have a lot of
students in those years. The Town of
Walter mentioned that while
he and Bill Ryan were discussing this issue the concern over lack of space came
up. Walter was saying ideally we would
have a room for Art and Music. There may
be a way to solve the problem in up coming years if
the number of students dwindles as predicted.
The idea would be to have only one half day Kindergarten which would
lead to having only 2 First grades classes the following year which would open
up two classrooms. This was just a
spontaneous conversation; no plans have been put in place. We currently have 501 students at Gates our
normal enrollment is 495 students at Gates.
IV.
Treasurers Report (see attached)
Sharon Berka Muzilla reported
that it is a busy time and financial activity makes it hard for her to give an
accurate report. Some of the current fundraisers
are:
Apparel Sales- orders in progress
Scripp Orders- ongoing sales
Fall Social- all deposits have not been made
Book Fair- first day $1500, started yesterday
V.
Auction Report
Jim
Tabner reported that the auction theme is Season of Learning, he has a logo. The next auction meeting will be held
10/24/07 at 7:30 pm at Gates. The time
was changed due to Tom Kamatarais’ open house for gym class. Jim still has to
fill the Silent Auction Chair and the Web Site chair. Lucinda will post this in
her next e-mail to the school. We agreed
to “thank” each person/business on the web site as soon as their donation comes
in. It will not be an advertisement
posted on our web site but it will be a thank you. Walter asked that we create a new position
for the auction which would be a logo chairperson; this person would create
items such as stationary using the beautiful logo and sell it during the school
year.
VI.
Fundraisers
Lucinda
reported on the fundraisers we have planned for this year:
A.
Child Art Fundraiser – this is wrapping up at this time
B.
Fall
Fundraiser - Ellen Smith did a great
job of running this. We had a good turn
out and everyone had fun!
C.
Apparel- Really taking off!
People love it and we are hoping to keep up sales.
D.
Direct Solicitation-Direct Solicitation may have to happen this year. We talked about giving people an option to
give a cash donation every year. We are
trying to tap into the people who don’t have the interest or time to get involved
with the fund raisers. Ellen Smith
offered to write a letter stating our goals and our needs and offering people
the chance to donate.
VII.
PTO Web site
Lucinda
is very proud to have the Gazette posted on the PTO web site. All the gates web sites are connected (Gates
home page, PTO, and Auction site).
Ideally we will be getting more traffic at all sites. We are also making sure the provider we are
using is cost effective and user friendly.
We may be looking for a new provider.
VIII.
Xuan
reported on the recent school committee meeting. He touched on the fact that we were given the
additional hours for assistants in grades 3&4. He said that Gates school, along with Douglas
and Conant, will need some maintenance if not new boilers and roofs. This money would come from Capital Funds; the
school committee discussed how they might plan for these things. Xuan reported that we spend about $20,000 per
year on building related expenses. He
also reported that SPED cost is very high and one area that was focused on was
the children who are being transported from school to get the services they
need. They are looking into trying to
control this cost better. Lastly, he reported
that both Merriam and
IX.
Announcements
A. Lucinda
announced we still need 6th grade play producer.
B. Chris
Fenniman volunteered to run Kindergarten Activity Day.
C. Xuan
said he has 7 PTO liaisons out of 21 possible
D. Thank
you to the Chinese school for the great event
E. Next meeting will be held 11/13/07 which is
the evening of gift wrap pick up
X.
Motion to Adjourn
Meeting
ended at 11:13AM
Minutes respectfully
submitted by Cindi Hoggard, Recording Secretary