Gates School PTO 05-13-08
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
I.
Welcome
Donna Biscotti called the
meeting to order at 7:10pm. There were
16 people in attendance. See attached sign in sheet. Lucinda Sears out going chairman thanked the
PTO board for a great year. She said a
formal goodbye to Walter as this will be his last PTO meeting. She also recognized Lynne Newman who was in
attendance and will be taking on the role of principal next year.
II.
Motion was made to approve minutes for March 11, 2008 meeting.
Minutes were approved and will be posted
on-line and on the PTO board at Gates school.
III.
Principal’s report
Walter thanked everyone for
the support he has received from the PTO over the years. He recapped his career in the
Walter also said that at
Gates the students are currently taking MCAS tests and that everything seems to
be running smoothly. He mentioned that
today the students used the library as extra space for kids who need more time
in taking the tests and that worked very well.
Lastly, Walter brought up the
sick line phone in the school offices.
This phone line is paid for by the PTO.
The PTO, since we are trying to stream line our costs, recommended
cutting this annual expense. Walter
looked into two options. Option 1 we
could switch the sick line to Nextell for a monthly fee of $40. Option 2 is to
switch to the system all the teacher’s use which would be a set up fee but no
monthly costs to the PTO. Walter estimates
the set up fee to add another extension to the current system to be about $85
to $125. Walter mentioned two of his
concerns. One, it is nice to have the
phone in the office for students to use if they need to call their parents
during the day. Two, the Gates community
is used the to phone number which currently spells out SICK.
Everyone at the meeting discussed
how these things might be handled so as to least effect the Gates
Community. Fran Bitteker offered that
she feels communication with parents is very important and that she often
allows her students to use the phone in the classroom if it is necessary to
contact a parent. Lynne Newman added
that sending a student to the office to make a phone call does take away from
learning time and that using the classroom phone may be an option.
IV.
Treasurers Report (see attached)
Sharon Berka Muzilla reported
that the Spring Appeal letter has brought in just under $9000 and the Staff
Basketball Game earned $3060. These two
fundraisers made up for our shortfall that we were concerned about after this
year’s auction. These two fundraisers
have really set us up for next year.
Apparel has also been a great
success this year with Gates families spending about $10,000.
Currently, we have about
$98,000 cash on hand. We have about
$7000 still to spend this year. That
leaves us with $91,000 to work with for next year’s budget. We are in a very good position for next
year. We plan to spend $71,000 next
year. We will spend $61,000 to cover the
classroom assts., library hours, and Computer assist. We feel that is very important to keep $20 in
savings so that we can be assured we can cover any unforeseen costs. The PTO board presented a budget for next
year to Walter who agreed to the budget.
A motion was made to approve the budget and the motion was
approved.
Walter added that the
teacher’s used the money from the Granny Awards fundraiser to buy a
self-contained loud speaker system, walkie-talkies and an LCD screen.
Lucinda added that the
Donelan’s receipts were used to buy a digital camera.
V.
Fundraisers
The issue of the Fall
Fundraiser came up as we will not have another PTO meeting until early next
year. The event is scheduled for Friday
Oct. 24, 2008. A suggestion was made
that other schools hold their Scholastic Book Fair the same night as the Fall
Social. Walter was concerned as to how
this might work out. After some
discussion we decided to give it a try.
People seemed excited that it may increase traffic at the book
fair. Amanda Sullivan suggested the idea
and she is the book fair coordinator.
VI.
PTO Board (see attached)
The new PTO Board was
presented at the meeting and a motion was made to approve the board. The board was approved.
VII.
Volunteers
There are still a few open
positions for which we need parent volunteers:
o
Nature Walk Chair
o
6th
Grade Activities
o
Performing Arts
Enrichment Jr. Chair
o
Scrip Jr. Chair
o
Ice Cream Social
Chair and Co-Chair
VIII. Announcements
by Donna Biscotti
A. Mr.
McGrail’s Retirement Open House will be held Thursday June 12 7-9pm.
B. Activity
Day is now on June 13 with a rain date on June 16.
C. Lowell
Spinners deadline is this Friday.
D. Light
bulb fundraiser deadline is also this Friday.
E. Scrip
deadline for this school year is May 23. They make great teachers gifts!
F. Next Family
Photo Day is September 13. You can sign
up today! There is enough space for 40
families. Kelly Fitzpatrick will be the photographer.
Fran Bitteker commented that
Staff Appreciation Week was a big success.
Walter brought up two
additional points. One he suggested we
try a new photographer for the kid’s photos, everyone agreed to try someone
new. He also mentioned the Elementary
Principals and IT have been working together about getting emergency card data
for next year. The data must be
collected from each family. This will
give the principals a way to communicate to each family to tell them what
teacher your child has been assigned to.
Walter once again said thank
you to everyone he has worked with over this year and many others, and he
formally welcomed Lynne Newmann.
IX.
Motion to Adjourn
Meeting ended at 8:20pm
Minutes respectfully
submitted by Cindi Hoggard, Recording Secretary