HUNTERS WOODS PTA MINUTES

Hunters Woods Elementary School for the Arts and Sciences

Nov. 1, 2006

The regular meeting of the Hunters Woods PTA was held on November 1, 2006 at Hunters Woods Elementary School.  PTA President Maureen Becker called the meeting to order at 7:30pm. and the October 4, 2006 PTA meeting minutes were approved.

Correspondence:

Marina Matthes read an e-mail from the Art Department thanking everyone for the yarn and asking for more donations of earth tone colored yarn and shoe boxes.  The Art Department will be doing a knitting service project to make scarves for American Troops in Iraqi and Afghanistan.

President’s Report:

Maureen began by telling the meeting participants about the audit we received for the last two years of PTA records.  The only comment by the Auditing Committee was the need to follow accounting procedures regarding deposit forms, pre-counting money and rechecking of deposit amounts by the treasurer.  Maureen took a vote and the audit was accepted into the record.

Maureen noted that the Fall Harvest Festival is fully staffed with Andrew Chopivsky and Micki Moravitz organizing games, Blakely Meyers dealing with communications, Mary Ellen and Cathy Uhrig in charge of food and Kelly Kroll and Marissa Besselievre coordinating the classroom volunteers.

Book Fair was a success and the organizers, Shreeti Kapoor, Eleonor Weis and Andy Chopivsky thanked all the volunteers who worked so hard to make things run smoothly.

Baja Fresh Night was discussed with Tracy Melusky volunteering to head it up.  Baja Fresh Night is being organized to coincide with Skate Night on January 6, 2007.

The Morning Show and the PTA Website are available to be used as an advertising medium for all upcoming events.  Maureen and Susan Brownsword asked that all committee chairs use these as additional form of communication.

Maureen thanked all the Gift Wrap Committee members and the group asked for help with sorting on Nov. 6-7^th.

Treasurer’s Report:

Deborah Lannen gave out copies of this year’s fiscal budget as of Oct. 31^st.  Because of the short fall in Gift Wrap sales, there was a discussion initiated to talk about line item changes needed to balance the budget.  A reduction of $5,000 distributed across numerous line-items was introduced as the most viable solution.  Deborah suggested that we meet any future line item needs through the mini-grant line item.  She also reported that the PTA is using its fiscal reserves and that it would be necessary to seriously reassess our budget for the following school year.

Maureen stated that there were three line-items under consideration for reductions:

1. Odyssey of the Mind, 2. Distance Learning and 3. Cultural Arts. 

Julia Sullivan, chair of Odyssey of the Mind, sent a letter for the PTA’s consideration.  The main objective of her letter was to stress the importance of Odyssey of the Mind as a student driven activity.  She stated that we are funding the bare necessities as it is, such as registration fees, t-shirts and practice materials.  Julia stated that she understood the need to cut expenses but asked that the following minimum expenses be covered:

School Membership fees - $335

Team Registration fees- $780

Materials currently ordered - $47

TOTAL = $1,162

Therefore, Julia is requesting $1250 which does not cover participating students t-shirts or the $20 per coach training fee.

Maureen also recounted a discussion she had with Patrick Ware regarding the Cultural Arts line-item.  He was concerned that if the PTA removes his line-item that he will not be able to get it back in subsequent years.  Mr. Ware proposed that we cut the mini-grants line-item by $3000 instead of cutting his line-item because this would be the approximate amount that he would need this year.  He also stressed that he did not want to compete with the rest of the school for the mini grant line-item.

A general budgetary discussion followed Maureen’s explanations of the position of Odyssey of the Mind and Cultural Arts.  Blakely Meyers suggested that the students could be asked to contribute financially to the Odyssey of the Mind. Maureen explained the costs involved, as described above.  A suggestion was made to cut the mini-grants line-item instead of individual program line-items.

Deborah explained that the VA PTA has a limit on how many fundraisers we can have compared to free activities at the school.  Mini-grants were focused on as the most flexible way to deduct the necessary funds from the budget.  It was decided that all line-items under consideration would be cut and the chairs of those committees would be encouraged to apply for mini-grants to cover any short falls in financing their activities.

After much discussion by all attending the PTA meeting, a vote was taken to change the budget as follows with a 15 – YES, 1 – NO, and 5 – Abstaining vote.  The following graph states which line-items were reduced and by how much. 

Budget Line-Item	Original Amount	Reduction	Revised Amount
Cultural Arts	$3,000	$1,500	$1,500
Distance Learning	$1,500	$500	$1,000
Mini Grants	$15,000	$2,750	$12,250
Odyssey of the Mind	$2,000	$750	$1,250
Total Reductions		$5,000

Committee Reports:

Carrabba’s Dinner – Angela Irwin asked for a decision to be made about selling sodas during the dinner and for the price to be set at $6 per person, with a maximum family price of $30.  She asked for help with obtaining community service volunteers from the middle schools.  Angela also discussed the need for paper products, confirmation of free meals for the teachers and of dessert being provided by the teachers.

Fall Harvest Festival – Andy Chopivsky reported that the expenditures for the games would be $500.

Book Fair – Shreeti Kapoor asked for volunteers to handle the finances for the book fair. A sign-up sheet was passed for volunteers for the Fair from Dec. 4-8^th.  She asked approval for a 25% discount for the teachers and office/custodial staff, for Headstart children receiving one free book each and for $10 scholarships for all children participating the free lunch/breakfast program.  A general vote was taken and a unanimous vote of YES followed.

Gift Wrap – Nancy Mamros asked for volunteers to help sort orders in the Kiss and Ride area of the school on Friday, Nov. 3.

Oldest and Only – Marina Matthes asked for all volunteer to try to shorten flyers and use two sided sheets to lessen the amount of paper used.  She reported that paper costs have risen and there are more problems with the copier.  Marina asked that everyone try to use the O and O labels when preparing their flyers.

PTA Office – Marina Matthes and Blakely Meyers spent many hours cleaning the PTA office and request that everyone make an attempt to put away PTA items after use, to clean up the office after use and to refrain from leaving dirty food containers in the office.  The meeting participants thanked Marina and Blakely for all their hard work.

Apparel – Raba Letteri reported that HWES Apparel will be distributed on November 10 to students in their classes.

Principal’s Report:

Mrs. Toatly did not have much to report at this time.  She reminded the PTA that parent/teacher conferences were coming up on Nov. 7^th.  She stated that she appreciated all the parents and the children.  She had a fundraising suggestion which was to find ways to incorporate international parents who may otherwise be underutilized due to language differences or other issues.  She mentioned that many of these parents like to volunteer for International Night and that that may be a good time to organize other ways to involve these parents.

Maureen stated that the January PTA meeting would be a brainstorming meeting and would include ways to involve more types of volunteers and new fundraising options/ideas.

New Business:

Ms. Leahy’s mini-grant proposal for Distance Learning was passed by a YES vote after it was explained that it was to cover the short fall in her reduced line-item. 

Diane Beers reported that Cruise Industry Charitable Foundation partnered with Black Women United for Action and Operation Warm to donate coats to needy children at HWES.  We received 150 new coats to give to our students.  100 coats have already been distributed.

Mrs. Toatly asked the committee to start thinking about planning Ms. Johnson’s retirement party.

The next PTA meeting will be held on Jan. 3, 2007.

The PTA Meeting was adjourned at 8:58pm.