Minutes

Soule School PTA Minutes

January 15, 2008

The meeting was called to order by Board President Christine Cochran at 6:30 p.m.

In attendance

Christine Cochran, Tara Hailey, Jen Gulezian, Jen Metcalf, Anna Parrill, Susan Stanganelli, Alicia LaDuke, Becky Edgington, Stephen DeVito, Noreen Fantasia and several other parents and staff members.

Board

The board met to discuss the budget, current fundraisers, the cultural festival, grant opportunities, the Welcome Committee, and other miscellaneous items. The November Meeting minutes were approved.

Budget

The 2008 – 2009 Budget: We are still in need of generating additional funds to cover the remaining programs for the year.

New Business

Reflections Program – Only five of the 28 children that were participating actually submitted entries. There will be a luncheon on Jan 21^st at 1:20 for those five children. The five entrants will move on the state level for the competition and those entries will be on display March 16^th at the Hood Middle School in Derry, NH. The upcoming theme is “Beautiful is” and we will be sending out information towards the end of this school year so children can have more time to prepare.

Cultural Festival – Cultural Festival is on Jan 22^nd and there will be a dancing segment performed by Karate International. Still looking for a donation of chop sticks and will contact Grand China and the Tokyo. The children will be able to decorate a doll and place it on one of the continents.

New Paper Submission – Team 1 and 2 submitted a picture to have featured for Classroom happenings. Still having difficulty getting a point of contact with the Salem Observer.

Fundraisers – We had a committee meeting about a month ago and decided to offer Fun Passes and we received a poor response. We speculate that the timing was bad around the holidays and may try again in the spring. We will be selling T-shirts, Shorts and sweat pants. These will be displayed at the Cultural Festival for parents to view and order forms have already gone out. Team Soule and Soule School bracelets have been purchased and will be sold at the Cultural Festival and Movie night. We plan on ordering umbrellas and magnetic bumper stickers for the spring. March 2^nd we will be offering the Artworks fundraiser and the designs will be completed in Art Class. Calendar Raffle status – we sent out 60 donations requests and received 10 offerings.

PTA Accomplishments and Awards – We received 2^nd place in the school category for the Holiday Parade float. Also, our PTA Unit received honorable mention for Unit of the Year.

Principals Report – Anna wanted to thank all the volunteers that watched the children so the staff could have breakfast together. There will be two important meetings coming up. There will be a presentation by Mike Delehaunty on 1/21 that addresses the school budget and budget concerns. This presentation will be replayed on the local cable channel. Then on February 5^th there will be a deliberative session at which time we can vote to make changes to the budget. Anna sent out a thank you for the Christmas Play the PTA sponsored. The author Robert Pottles is coming in March. He writes kids poetry and offers various workshops. We are still waiting on a new date for the Book Chat. May 26^th and 27 is first grade orientation. There will be a meeting with Geskus to start planning for the 8^th grade yearbook.

Open Topics – The PTA will pursue a grant from Best Buy to obtain new PC’s for Writer Workshop pods and work on getting a grant from Lowes.

Committee Reports

Welcome Committee – Noreen Fantasia is handling the Welcome Packets for new students entering Soule School. The town provides a book and packet to help the new family familiarize them with Salem. A group of parents schedules a time with the family to deliver the information welcome them to our school. We have made one welcome contact since this program was put into place.

Announcements

The Cultural Festival – Thursday Jan 22^nd, Family Movie Night - February 13^th , Book Chat - TBA

Next Meeting

February 16^th, 2008 at 6:30 PM in the Library