Attendees
Allison Jones, Roger Blackburn, Angela Colyer, Angel Warf, Kim Zitt, Ronda Koehler, Kevin Thacker, Dawn Keith, Jill Cholmendeley, Lynette Beach, Kelly Shahan, Lydia Carson, Joy Hickey, Monica Geygan, Lorie Reese.
Call to Order
Meeting called to order at 6:31 PM by Allison Jones.
Review of minutes from September 4, 2008 meeting.
Motion to approve: Roger Blackburn, 2nd: Lynette Beach.
Treasurer’s Report
Presented by Allison Jones, Treasurer
Review Treasurer's Report
September treasurer’s report print-outs not available due to difficulty with printing report on Quicken. Print out for review of September and October reports available at next meeting.
Starting Balance on September 1, 2008: $18,740.14
Income for September: $1,319.75
Expenses for September: $9,154.60 ($7,085.16 Walk-A-Thon and $1,500.00 Homework Club funding)
Ending Balance on September 30: $10,905.29.
Motion to approve Roger Blackburn, 2nd: Lynette Beach.
Principal’s Report
Presented by Presented by Kevin Thacker, Principal
ProgressBook is up and running at this point. Mr. Thacker walked us through the process of logging onto ProgressBook via the school’s web site. If parents are having problems logging in, it may be necessary to have the student’s password reset by calling the office. Many options can be viewed in progress book including:
Averages for all scheduled classes.
Progress details that list each individual assignment and test grade. This section also lists the weight assigned to each grade.
Classroom homework for all core classes.
Capability to e-mail teachers with questions. Depending on the type of computer you use at home, the system may have trouble recognizing different servers. If this is the case, you can still identify 95% of GEMS teachers e-mail addresses and cut and paste them to your system.
Report card option will give you the child’s interim grade at this point.
Attendance according to school records. If a student is early or late (not present the entire day) they will be counted as tardy. Overall attendance has been very good this year.
This system is also utilized by the school to create IEP’s and communicate with the state of Ohio.
Please let teachers know if you have questions or concerns with what is available or viewed on ProgressBook.
Some teachers are currently using audio books on tape with their students in class. Currently we have approximately 20 books on tape that students are having difficulty listening to due to poor condition or quality of the CD players as well as the need to replace batteries very often. The school has IPods available to the students as listening devices, but these current books need to be downloaded using ITUNES before beginning this process. Mr. Thacker is requesting a volunteer to take this job on. A sign up sheet was placed in the volunteer binder.
Mr. Thacker is looking for volunteers to help him build up the current CIA program (building leadership team). The school has focused during the last year on recognizing positive behaviors of the different students in the school. The focus has been on recognizing teams within the school. After feedback from a recent audit, Mr. Thacker would like to redirect the recognition to more individual accomplishments. The plan is to recognize one student each week from each grade level that is caught being respectful, responsible, or active. During this recognition, the student would receive a certificate and a small token of praise such as a gift certificate from a local business. Volunteers would be needed to help solicit these business donations to be given out during the year and to coordinate the effort. A sign up sheet was placed in the volunteer binder.
Board Announcements
Presented by Joy Hickey, President
Thank you to Allison Jones for running the meeting in September and for all of her help that she gives to Joy during the year.
Congratulations to Mr. Roger Blackburn who celebrated his 78th birthday this week. PTO presented him with a musical card and flowers.
The position of Recording Secretary is currently being filled by Allison Jones until a replacement can be found. The proposal is made that Dawn Keith, who has volunteered to take over the duties of this position be voted in as the new Recording Secretary, unless anyone else would like to be nominated. The vote was unanimously OK’ed.
The recommendation to revise the By Laws Article IX, Section 5 was made to read as follows:
The Allocation of Funds committee shall consist of 4 staff members and 3 parents. It is the purpose of the Allocation of Funds Committee to evaluate teacher requests for their classrooms, books, and field trips and make recommendations to the Board as to the allocation of funds for each such request.
The remainder of the current section would be eliminated from the By Laws. The reason for the change is that the current language limits the use of fund raising proceeds to be used only for library and school beautification needs. It is the desire of the PTO to utilize this money for other needs that may arise within the school. The PTO will vote on this proposal next month.
Old Business
Presented by Joy Hickey, President
Six grade skating party was held on September 25th. The attendance this year was much greater than last year, with a total of 143 students at the event. The PTO earned $92.50 in ticket sales and $191.00 in spirit wear sales. Thanks to all of the parent volunteers and the one teacher volunteer that helped at the event. Many students were very excited to win the spirit wear that was raffled off this year.
Open house was held on September 11th. PTO sold $500.00 in Spirtwear at this event. The event was well attended this year. The flow of traffic throughout the night seemed to be better with the separation of parents coming through at different times depending on their last name.
Sixth Grade Student/Parent Luncheons were very well attended. Mr. Thacker reminded that parents are always welcome to join the students in any grade for lunch and this has been posted on the PTO website.
New Business
Presented by Joy Hickey, President
The idea of planning additional skating parties during this school year was discussed by those in attendance. The plan is to look at hosting a 7th and 8th grade skating party in January and another 6th grade skating party in February. Joy will contact the skating rink and see what dates are available at this time. It was suggested to attempt to plan the events on an evening prior to a scheduled off day.
Fall Fundraiser volunteers are needed to stuff envelopes that will go home with students. Volunteers will be needed on Wednesday, October 8th at 6:30 PM for around two hours. The group will meet in the lobby. Snacks and drinks provided. Students will bring home packets regarding the cookie dough sale the following Wednesday, October 15th. The PTO will make a 40% profit from the fundraiser item sales.
7th and 8th Grade Harvest Dance will take place on Friday, October 17th. Volunteers will be needed to sell tickets during the week of October 13th-17th. These tickets will be sold at the 7th and 8th grade lunches. The times for ticket sales will be 10:45-11:15 AM and 12:10-12:40 PM. Tickets will sell for $3.00. Volunteers will also be needed to chaperone the dance and to sell snacks and spirit wear. Sign up sheets are in the PTO white binder.
A discussion was held as to the required supplies list that was sent out to parents this year by teachers. All grades received rather lengthy requirements. In addition, many items that were to be purchased were items that would not be kept by students, but would be collected by teachers as community property. Allison Jones compiled a list of required supplies requested by all grades at GEMS and noticed that the requests were sometimes extraordinary. For example, combining all three grades, the total number of requested pencils that were required of parents to purchase at GEMS was 4000 boxes. Allison Jones has volunteered to get with teachers and compile a more realistic list. In addition, PTO is looking at the possibility of supplying teachers with items such as tissues, wipes, and paper towels. This would possibly relieve some of the burden from parents and cut down on cost.
Discussion of web administrator was held by those in attendance. Allison Jones handles this responsibility currently. However, she does not have a student attending GEMS any longer and will need to pass this duty on to someone else soon. We need to look at who will volunteer to take this position over in the future. If there is no volunteer, Allison would consider remaining the web mom if we made this a paid position. One suggesting was to get students involved in the formation and update of the web page with faculty advising. Another quick decision that we needed to make was the purchase of a one or three year continuation of the web site domain. This annual fee is due as of October 11th. We can renew for one year at a cost of $10.00 or three years for a cost of $21.00. Those in attendance unanimously agreed to renew at the three year cost. Next month we must decide on whether the position will become a paid position or if we will begin training a new volunteer. Allison will get with the gifted teachers to see if there would be an interest in taking this project on.
OPEN FORUM
New check register obtained today by Allison Jones on-line.
Discussion was held as to how our volunteer sign up was going for upcoming events. Parent volunteers are thin at this point. Please check PTO white binder and sign up if able.
Upcoming Events
Remaining Dates in October
7th/8th Grade Harvest Dance Ticket Sales - Monday, October 13th - Friday, October 17th, during 7th and 8th Grade Lunches (We need 2 volunteers each day)
7th/8th Grade Harvest Dance - Friday, October 17th, 7:00 - 9:00 PM in GEMS MPR (We need volunteers)
End of 1st Quarter - Friday, October 24th
Fall Fund-Raiser Orders Due - Wednesday, October 29th - Friday, October 31st.
Coming in November 2008
Teacher In-service Day - Tuesday, November 4th - No School.
PTO Meeting - Wednesday, November 5th at 6:30 PM, GEMS Library *NOTE change of date due to conferences
Fall Conferences - Thursday, November 6th (Dessert donations needed)
Fall Picture Re - takes - Friday, November 7th
8th Grade Washington DC Trip - Saturday, November 8th - Tuesday, November 11th.
Fall Conferences - Monday, November 10th (Dessert donations needed)
Veterans Day - Tuesday, November 11th - No School
Thanksgiving Break - Wednesday, November 26th - Friday, November 28th.
Meeting Adjourned
Motion to adjourn: Roger Blackburn, 2nd:Kim Zitt
Meeting Adjourned at 7:48 PM.