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SJF Parent Teacher Club
PTC General
Meeting
October 20, 2009
Final Minutes PTC Board Members Present: Merrit Holub, Rich and Kirsten Meneghello, John and Molly Herrmann, Kirsten Larsen, Tammy Kneefel, Lori Sofko Rich Meneghello called the meeting to order at 6:30 PM Merritt Holub opened in prayer. Pledge of Allegiance was led by Rich. PRINCIPAL’S REPORT:
Merrit reminded us that all school and parish volunteers must be up to date on the safety training requirements. All volunteers must have 1) background check (expires in 3 years, for forms, see website). 2) Attend the “Called to Protect” video series. All parents who have been here longer than a year, need a “booster shot” which is the “Meet Sam” on-line video that takes about 20 minutes to view. School Improvement Plan – SJF was awarded a $5,000 Grant from the Robert D. and Marcia H. Randall Charitable Trust. We will purchase 10 laptop computers with the money. Spanish program research to be conducted for the next school year. If any interest in helping, please contact Merrit. Mrs. Sue Ramus, our Academic Support Coordinator will support our teaching staff to help students and to help teachers better identify those students with any disabilities. The first step for parents would be to talk with their child’s teacher first. Teacher In-service opportunities: Working on a new curriculum for Language Arts. Partnered with Holy Trinity on Differentiated Instruction – before starting a lesson kids will be “pre-assessed”, so they can start at appropriate level. AUCTION UPDATE: Diane Voeller reported that October 23rd is the deadline to purchase Auction tickets. Catalogs will be out one week before the November 7th Auction. We need more volunteers. The Silent Auction is from 5 – 7PM and the Zoo has plenty of parking. There will be appetizers and a no-host bar. Look for a great selection of Easel parties with great social events throughout the year. 55 family bags have been filled. Thank you! Dinner and Auction starts at 7PM. Every family needs to sell 6 raffle tickets. The Golden ticket raffle will be $100 a ticket. If your name is drawn (1 in 50 chance), you can pick from any of the oral Auction items. Look at our website – the catalog is coming out. Stephanie Miller reported on the Easel Parties and shared some of the exciting parties: Pottery Barn Home Decorating, World Series of Poker, Caribbean dinner, Viva La Independence Day, Martini Mamas, 80’s Night, Amazing Race and more! The teachers and staff will host a 7/11 party for middle schoolers…flash light tag, games, and fun! PACE UPDATE: Kirsten Meneghello reported for Molly O’Neill that almost 70 families have signed up and people can still sign up for this SJF fundraiser. MEN’S CLUB: David Taylor reported for Men's Club and outlined some of the functions of the club. The Mens Club organizes fundraising events and a big part of their budget and time goes to help with the maintenance of our school. Their next project is to get a flat screen monitor for our front hall. Please check the website for more information. Also – certain skills are recognized for some projects: plumbing, electrical, carpentry, etc. Saturday, October 24th is our Annual Halloween Carnival. Friday is set-up and volunteers are needed to help, starting at 6PM . PTC BUDGET: Rich Meneghello and John Herrmann reported on the state of the PTC budget. Copies of the PowerPoint presentation and 2009/2010 PTC budget were handed out to families. Rich opened with wanting to put parents’ minds at ease that our field trips are not going away and financially we’re healthy now - however we recognize a need to adjust. This is a normal process. The PTC budget is one of the sources of income for our school and most of the money comes from fundraising. We want to spend that money the best we can. We need to increase revenue (hopefully with the Auction off-site) and reduce expenses. John Herrmann spoke that no decisions will be made without everyone’s input. A presentation will be emailed to all for suggestions on reducing spending. Two categories we are considering reducing expenses in are Field Trips and dinners at PTC General Meetings. Field Trips will not be eliminated, but changing the way they are funded needs to be addressed. Options for “pay as you go” or possibly raise the PTC registration money will be on the survey. Families will receive 1 volunteer hour for doing the survey. John wants all to know that the PTC and budget is very transparent! Rich reported that the 3 main fundraisers for our PTC budget is are Spaghetti dinner, Jog-a-thon, and the Auction. Our Auction potentially generates $100 - $150,000. This is very important concerning income vs. profit. Expenses were bigger the last couple of years as profit has dwindled down. It is proactive to take this event off-site. The Parish subsidy to our school is a lot lower than previous years. John reiterated the need to increase revenue and cut costs. Increase revenue:
Expense Reduction Proposals:
An important reminder is that the fundraising we do this year is designated for next years’ budget – in a money market account. Rich asked families to please answer the 7-question online survey and we will report results back to families. The meeting ended at 8:15 PM.
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