Gates School Parent Teacher Organization Minutes

 Wednesday, February 6^th, 2008

 

I.                   Welcome

Lucinda Sears called the meeting to order at 7:10pm.  There were 12 people in attendance. See attached sign in sheet.

 

II.                Motion was made to approve minutes for January 8, 2008 meeting.

 Minutes were approved and will be posted on-line and on the PTO board at Gates school.

 

III.             Principal’s report - Walter McGrail

Walter started by commenting that the auction was a huge success.  The staff really enjoyed themselves and very much appreciated the free ticket.  Walter reassured everyone that although the amount of money earned is not enough to cover our operating costs that the evening was still a huge success.  We raised a lot of money, everyone had a great time and everyone involved in making the auction happen did a great job.  Because of the shortfall Walter thought the first step should be to make people aware of the situation by educating them on the ever increasing costs.  Second, to write a direct appeal letter to the Gates community.  Meanwhile, we should go to the school committee with our concerns.  He feels that all the PTO’s must be in similar situation and we should unite in our efforts in approaching the school committee.  

 

IV.            Interschool Council – Jeri Lee-Smith

Jeri reported that the Bill Ryan encourages everyone to attend the April 7 Town Meeting to vote on the budget.  The town and school have to allocate the Chapter 70 resources and it is important for our voice to be heard.  Bill Ryan also offered to come to a PTO meeting to go over the budget and answer any questions we may have.  The PTO’s of all 5 elementary schools face fundraising issues but each school handles the situation differently.  We have been very fortunate at Gates school to be able to raise such a significant amount of money that we have been able to support a lot of classroom assts. and the computer teacher.  Jeri also reported that grades 4 and up are struggling with the population boom.  While 3^rd grade and below have an expected drop in class size.  The Interschool Council discussed different solutions for this issue.

 

 

 

V.               Treasurers Report – Sharon Berka-Muzilla (see attached)

Sharon reviewed the auction numbers which are not yet solidified, the figures are close to what they will be but some expenses will still have to be justified.  Sharon reported that the auction was a success, with a profit of over $40,000. We are down from the last two years.   The amount we earned this year is in line with what the auction earned before the school year 2005-06 and it is a significant amount of money.  The taxes have been paid and we still have a few events that will earn a profit for the PTO (i.e. Ice Cream Social).  We would be able to cover our cost this year by dipping in to our “slush” fund, although this is not a situation that is generally favored  We will need to make a plan for next year to make up for this short fall or we will have to make cuts in the PTO budget.

 

VI.            Principal Search Committee – Lucinda Sears

The committee has had their first meeting.  There is a parent forum coming up on Feb. 26 in the evening.  A form with questions for parents to consider regarding the new principal has been sent home.  The advertisement will be posted in the Boston Globe for the next two Sunday.  There are currently no internal candidates.

Please encourage anyone you talk with to come to the meeting on Feb 26 because we want everyone to have a voice in this processes.

 

VII.         Auction Recap – Jim Tabner

Jim thanked everyone for the successful auction.  We got a good number of people to attend the auction.  Jim mentioned maybe the sports memorabilia is not as hot now that this is the 3^rd year we have had it.  He talked about getting thank you notes out to all who donated.  Jim will coordinate getting all the children to write thank you notes to the people and business who supported the 2008 auction. 

 

Two parents attended the meeting to voice their concern about the success of the auction.  They have children in the older grades and feel that Friday nights are too busy (Saturday was suggested).  The other issue is the classroom gifts from the upper grade classrooms’ that had no one present to bid on them.  Everyone agreed that sending out a direct appeal letter is a way to make up for the shortfall of the auction. 

 

 

 

 

VIII.      Fundraisers

We have on going fundraisers like apparel.  We will make a little money on the Ice Cream Social and the Lowell Spinners game.  But we need a way to make more money to support our costs.  We will do a direct appeal letter.

 

IX.            Announcements 

The next School Committee meeting will be held on 2/28/08. The two main discussions at this meeting will focus on class size and the computer platform that will be budgeted for to use in the classrooms.  Xuan Kong commented that the class size is a big issue for grades 4-6 and that more teachers are needed.  He noted that the school committee received a lot of letters from t he Conant School parents asking for smaller class size especially in the 4, 5, 6 grades. 

 

A new Gates web-site will be released soon!

 

Next PTO meeting will be a joint meeting between Gates and Douglas, held at the Gates School on Tuesday, March 18th.

 

 

X.               Motion to Adjourn 

Meeting ended at 9PM

 

 

Minutes respectfully submitted by Cindi Hoggard, Recording Secretary