West Fork Public Schools

West Fork Elementary PTO
Meeting Minutes 09/04/07

The first meeting of the 2007 – 2008 school year took place in the school library on 09/04/07.  President Tracy Roebke started the meeting by introducing the current officers.  She then brought up the idea of having a ‘wish box’ in the teachers lounge so we could get some feedback from the teachers on what items they would like to have. A list of ‘Wants & Needs’ was also suggested to allow teachers to make requests and have them ranked as what items would benefit the most.  Both seemed like a good ideas, but were set aside for the time being when it was determined that the item that would benefit the school the most was a new laminator.  The current one is needing more repairs to keep it functional.  Ann Schott volunteered to check into pricing and will present this at a later meeting for review.  Mr. Thaler mentioned that we may need to provide some assistance to the teachers on uncollected supply fees.  PTO has done that in previous years and we will look into that as we get a little further along in the school year.   We will be contributing clothing items to the benevolent fund again this year and Brandy Irvin volunteered to assist in the shopping.

Treasurer Pam Peterson reported that the current balance for PTO funds is $4,436.79.  She highlighted some of last years’ activities and fund raisers to give the new members an idea of what PTO did for the school during the 2006 – 2007 school year.  The expenditures included: purchased clothing, socks, shoes etc. for the benevolent fund which provided basic items to children in need; provided funds to assist in the purchase of the security door buzzer; contributed food items for the literacy night, kindergarten graduation, bus driver and teacher appreciation; provided funds to assist in the cost of inflatables for the annual fun day;  purchased dictionaries for all 4th grade students; provided the Reindeer Lane store prior to the holidays so children could purchase small gift items. Our fund raisers have previously included the pancake breakfast that takes place during WestFest, booths at the Halloween carnival, providing a Christmas store and participation in the Math-a-thon.

The first fund raiser of the year will be the pancake breakfast that will take place on Saturday, September 22 from 7 – 9 am.  Volunteers are needed and we will review the membership forms and contact those that have offered to help out.  Bonnie Gerlick has offered to be our vendor contact to collect contributions for this event.  She will work with Tracy Roebke to make sure all items are picked up or delivered prior to the event.

Debbie Rich would like to see more low level non-fiction books added to the school library.  It is estimated that this would cost between $1000 - $2000.  This will be reviewed at a later date when more funds are available.  She also mentioned the Harvest night that will take place on Tuesday, Sept. 25 with information being sent out to the families.  The book fair will also take place during that week.

It was determined that we will incorporate some guest speakers this year into our meetings in an attempt to provide some useful tools and information to the parents.  Mr. Thaler will try to secure Brett Stone for the October meeting to present a program on physical fitness and healthy choices.  Other presentations suggested were concerning internet safety, The Askable Parent and Dr. Marr on behavior issues.  Jenniffer Johnson and Debbie Rich will be the coordinators.

Another new idea for this year is to put together a monthly school calendar of  events that would contain information regarding upcoming school events, meeting dates for different organizations and any other pertinent information that will help all of us in scheduling our days and activities.  Jess Goodwin will be spearheading this one.

One of our members, Joann Rakotz and her husband are opticians and have volunteered some assistance for those in need.  They will work with Mr. Thaler to determine how they can best contribute.  

Since there are many that frequently access the school website it was recommended that we have a link made available to access PTO information.  Sarah Brock will be our liaison  for this project and will work closely with the webmaster to provide information on the organization and meeting updates.  We will also send out email reminders on upcoming meetings to those members that provide us their address.

Several fund raisers were discussed such as hat day and possibly having a movie night.  Due to licensing issues, the movie night idea will have to be investigated a bit more. We also discussed the possibility of a family health fair.  Members are encouraged to bring more ideas to the October meeting for discussion.

The next meeting is scheduled for Monday, October 1.