Attendees: Diana Spurgin, Margot O’Connor, Mark Prince, Baer Tierkel, Joy Howard, Elaine Shumway, Sarah Auerbach, Meg Vickery, Jane Thurber, Ann Marshall, and Mary Kiely. Minutes will be given to attendees and to all other members of the PTO Steering Committee. These notes will also be made available to the Wildwood public via a Wildwood Wire link.
Agreed-upon jobs are in boldface.
I. Review of Minutes from Last Meeting
Thanks again to Susan Waite for doing such a nice job on the minutes of our March meeting. Two small amendments to the minutes were suggested, as follows:
-Molly Whalen should be added to the list of attendees; and
-the passage describing the Wildwood Day of Chess should read, “Over 60 kids have signed on to participate in the tournament this Sunday; others will play for fun or staff the ‘parent teaching table’.”
II. Presentation by Target
Two representatives from the Target stores came to the meeting to present Wildwood with a check in the amount of $276.99. This represents the money earned by our school during the most recent six-month period (Sept. 2006-March 2007) through our participation in Target’s Take Charge of Education program.
The use of these funds will be determined by Mark Prince.
The Target money is easy to earn. Parents, guardians, or other school supporters simply have to sign up for a Target Visa or a Target Red Card, and designate a particular school to receive a % cut on all purchases made using that card. Currently, Target is giving away $3 million per week to schools, libraries, and community centers across the country, and has given over $200 million to schools since 1997. Target also awards arts grants and field trip grants, and gives out Target gift cards to non-profit organizations that are raising funds in the community. Anyone who is interested in obtaining further information on Target’s community efforts can contact Andrea and Mike (the community involvement coordinators) at the Hadley store, or visit target.com.
III. Family Dance
Jane Gamache filled us in on details of the Family Dance, which will take place on Friday, May 4 from
Since the 6th grade is no longer interested in holding a bake sale at the dance, the 5th grade (led by Jane Thurber) will step in and hopefully earn some money that can be applied towards the cost of their 6th grade activities next year.
Jane Gamache said that Town Hall needs proof of our organizational status before they can grant us permission to run a 50/50 raffle at the dance, so Diana will get a letter from Jennifer Ryan in the main office to give to Jane Gamache.
Joy Howard will prepare a flyer about the dance, and Diana Spurgin will copy it and get it into teacher boxes. Mark will talk to Amy Jackendoff about the possibility of having the Savuka after-school program at the Middle School hang up some balloons and streamers (to be supplied by the PTO) in the cafeteria on Friday afternoon.
IV. Update on Soocer Nets
Margot reported that Belchertown Sports is prepared to sell us two new soccer frames at cost (i.e., $1500 including shipping). $220 has already been earned for this purpose from the sale of Big Y gift cards, and the PTO has also approved the use of up to $1,000 from our reserve account to purchase new frames. Margot said that we may or may not need to take the full $1000 from reserves; it will depend on how much the PTO earns from the Electronics Recycling fundraiser on April 29.
On top of the $1500 for frames, new nets will cost about $150. Margot will order the nets either through the main office (possible school discount) or through Belchertown Sports.
V. Update on Scrips
Diana said that we have approximately $1,000 left in Stop & Shop gift cards, and that she will buy $4,000 in Big Y gift cards later this week. Joy Howard will sell Big Y cards at the Family Dance on May 4.
VI. Electronics Recycling Day
Bill Miller was unable to attend the meeting due to illness, but it was reported that all systems were go for the first Wildwood Electronics Recycling Day on Sat., April 28 from
VII. Teacher/Staff Grants
Margot reported that third grade teacher Judy Beyer had once again donated the proceeds ($175) from a bus trip fundraiser at
VIII. TV Turnoff Week
TV Turnoff Week was in progress at the time of our meeting, so participation totals and full reports on the featured events were not yet available. Parent organizers Naomi Elliott and Janet Brown had planned a number of fun events, including an all-school assembly featuring a performance by the Villa Jidiots, an Ultimate Frisbee clinic, a Family Skating session at the
IX. Next PTO Parent/Guardian Education Forum
Next up in our parent education series will be a film and discussion on May 1 from
X. Class Parents Party
The party for class parents will take place on the evening of Sunday, May 20 at the home of Diana Spurgin (57 Tanglewood). Jane Thurber has already sent out a “save the date” email to all class parents. Assignments for that event are as follows:
-Mark Prince will bring the wine;
-Jane Thurber and Mary Kiely will solicit donations of appetizers, desserts, and non-alcoholic beverages from Steering Committee members; and
-Diana will send out an official invitation to all class parents (Steering Committee members are automatically invited).
XI. Safe Routes to School Project
Mark said that the state is sponsoring a Safe Routes to School program, which seeks to educate parents and students on the value of walking and bicycling to and from school. The goal of the program is to reduce congestion, air pollution, and traffic conflicts near schools, while increasing the health and mobility of school-aged children. Participating schools receive free student give-away items to initiate and promote the Safe Routes to School program, plus no-cost educational materials targeted to students, parents, and community leaders. Participating schools also MAY become eligible for state monies for infrastructure projects (e.g., sidewalks) specifically targeted to enhancing safe access to schools.
A PTO subcommittee will be formed to look into this program more closely and to determine whether/how Wildwood should participate. At this point, the volunteers for the subcommittee include Mark Prince, Sarah Auerbach, Meg Vikery, Jane Thurber, and Mary Kiely. Mark Prince will invite Nils laCour to participate. Other volunteers from the Wildwood (or greater town) communities are most welcome.
The first meeting of the subcommittee will be on May 29 at
XII. The
After some discussion, the PTO Steering Committee voted unanimously to come out publicly in support of the 3-year Amherst Plan, which includes a tax override. Baer will run a special edition of the Wire, announcing this, and he will also print up a flier independently (i.e., not using school funds) and give it to Jennifer Ryan for inclusion with the next edition of the Wildwood Window.
XIII. Summer Reading Program
Liz Rosenberrry, who has done such a fabulous job in recent years of running the summer reading program (and through it, raising much-needed funds for the school library), requested that the Steering Committee look afresh at the goals and methods of the summer reading program. Liz was unable to make it to the meeting, so Mary Kiely led the discussion in her place.
With respect to the question of whether the summer reading program should continue to be a fundraiser or should, instead, just be a reading incentive program, everyone agreed that (given current budget realities), it would be very helpful if the summer reading program could continue to earn money for the library. There was also agreement that ideally, for the sake of coherence in our school fundraising efforts, the summer reading program should remain under the umbrella of the PTO. It was understood by all that the monies earned through summer reading were “earmarked” for the library and were not be used in any other way. Having those funds be designated for a specific purpose is not a problem, since the PTO is trying to move anyway in the direction of having monies from all fundraisers designated for specific purposes in advance. In that way Wildwood community members can have a better sense of what their contributions are helping to fund, and they can also pick and choose among a range of worthwhile programs.
Everyone agreed that we should continue to award prizes to summer reading program participants, and that the expenses associated with those prizes should come from the proceeds earned, and not from Liz Rosenberry’s pocket!
An interesting suggestion made was that we hold an all-school assembly early on in the school year and give the awards then. Awards could go not just to individual kids but also, perhaps, to the GRADES that accumulated the highest number of books (or pages) read. If kids knew that they cold accumulate points for their grade by reading during the summer, and that the books read would cont even if they didn’t get monetary pledges to back them up, then maybe we could address the goal of wanting to encourage reading as well as earning, and also broaden the base of participation. This discussion is to be continued at our next meeting.
XIV. PTO Leadership for Next Year
For the 2007-2008 school year, the following PTO leadership positions have been filled: Co-coordinator (Ann Marshall), Treasurer (Margot O’Connor), Class Parent Coordinator (Jane Thurber), and Childcare Coordinator (Sarah Auerbach). Quite a number of other positions still need to be filled. In order to help expedite the filling of these positions, Ann Marshall will prepare brief descriptions of the jobs that are available, along with a recap of recent PTO events, and run that text in the Wildwood Window and the Wildwood Wire.
XV. Other Items from the Treasurer
In other news from our treasurer, Margot reports that the Amherst Cultural Council (ACC) sent a check for $1254 to Wildwood for arts-related programming. This money gets added to the $4700/year that the PTO has agreed to contribute towards arts programs and events. When added to the $1,000 grant that was obtained by Elizabeth Fernandez O’Brien from Target this year for the arts, the total available for arts programming at Wildwood this year is $6954.
The PTO will buy flowers to be given to retiring 5th grade teachers Kieser and Penniman at the 5th grade concert on May 31.
XVI. Open House Babysitting
Sarah Auerbach and Mary Kiely, who have been working with Mark and the rest of the Open House babysitting subcommittee to come up with recommendations about childcare at next fall’s Open House, will prepare a draft letter for Mark’s signature, letting the community know in advance the conditions under which (a very limited amount of) childcare will be provided for that event. The childcare will be off-site, will only be for a limited number of children, and will require advance registration with the office.
That’s it for now. Thanks to everyone for all you do on behalf of our Wildwood school community.
-minutes submitted by Mary Kiely
