Sacandaga PTA Meeting

January 19, 2005

Minutes of Meeting

 

Attendees

 

Cathie Sweeney

Brenda Rice

MaryPat Burke

Rob Hileman

Christine Polsinelli

Suzanne Tonsberg

Lynne Connelly

Robert Tonsberg

Maureen Ciotoli

Herman Calderon

Vanessa M. Kaufman

Jeanne Derwin Butler

John Tobiassen

Beth Fritzeen

Elise Rosenberry

 

Call to Order

 

* The meeting was called to order at 7:04 pm.

 

Approval of Minutes

 

* The minutes were approved as posted.

 

President's Report-MaryPat Burke and Cathie Sweeney

 

* A welcome was extended to attending faculty members Elise Rosenberry and Rob Hileman.

* Dinner with Santa went well and there was a good turn out.  Everyone that attended the event really seemed to have a nice time.

* The Founder's Day Dinner has been moved to February 10th.  Tickets are $23 and can be purchased in the office until February 4th.

* The next PTA Council meeting is at Sacandaga on Wednesday January 26th at 7pm.  We will provide the refreshments.

* The by-laws are due to be renewed.  Some changes have been made to the existing by-laws and they have been submitted for approval.  We will vote on the new by-laws at the next PTA meeting.

* The 5th grade Luncheon Committee has been formed and they held the first meeting tonight.  Maureen Ciotoli and Lynne Connelly are the co-chairs for this event.

* PARP will run from January 26th to February 15h.  The program will kick off on January 24th with an assembly featuring magician Steve Charney. The program will finish up with a visit from local author Karen Beil on February 15th.  The Library bulletin board will be used to keep track of the minute tallies.  The theme for this program is..."Uncle Sam wants you to Read!".  There will also be a coin drive during this program as a community project.  The money collected during this time will be divided, half will go to buy phone cards for soldiers overseas and the other half will go toward Tsunami relief.

* March 7-11 is Circus week.  This year there will be a western theme.  The final show will be on March 11th at 6:30 at the High School.

* The donation items for the Adopt-a-Soldier program for February are: baby wipes, lip balm and dry soup mix.

 

Treasurer's Report-Christine Polsinelli

 

* A copy of the report was passed out for all in attendance to review.

* The checking account balance is $8259.38.  

* The savings account balance is $3380.15.

* The General fund has $11639.53 

* Money will be transferred into the savings account and also into the scholarship fund.

 

Principal's Report-John Tobiassen

 

* The full day kindergarten program started on Monday January 24th.

* ELA testing will be the first week of February for 4th grade students.

* The testing program is undergoing some changes and  will be set up differently for next year.  One change that will be made is that all students is grades 3-8 will be assessed and the Terra Nova's may be eliminated.  More information on the changes that are being made will be available in the spring.

* The Glenville Rotary gave dictionaries to all 3rd grade students in the Scotia-Glenville and Burnt Hills school districts.

* Community forums are coming up for school program planning.  More information will be available soon.

 

Standing Committee Reports

 

* Teachers (Elise Rosenberry for Kim Lavery)  811 items have been collected for the Adopt-a-Soldier program to date.  The faculty is going to have a ticket town and raffle off faculty donations at the Dad's Ziti Dinner..  The tickets will be sold the week before and there will be a need for some parents to help out with this. The funds from this raffle will go towards the Bob Kortas Memorial Scholarship Fund (this is a scholarship that is given to a student that is pursuing education as a career).  The faculty will also be having a bake sale at the Spring Walk About and the proceeds from that event will also go to the Bob Kortas Memorial Scholarship Fund..  Mr. Hileman reminded us that the music concerts will be at Sacandaga this year with grade levels performing on separate nights.  Each program will be about 20-30 minutes with refreshments after.  The concert dates are as follows:  March 15th will be the 2nd grade concert, March 22nd 1st grade concert,  March 29th kindergarten concert. Grades 3,4 and 5 will perform at the High School on February 16th.  Mrs. Zarnophsky will display each grade levels art work on the night of their concert.  The powerpoint project for the 5th graders is underway.  There is still a need for pictures of the students in order to move forward on this project...a note has been sent home to take care of this.  There will be a bulletin board lisiting the faculties favorite books and trivia about these particular books to go along with the PARP program.  The faculty has requested that the PTA purchase a die cut machine for the building.  The cost of this machine is about $400 plus some accessories.

 

* Council Representative (Maureen Ciotoli) We are hosting the next PTA Council meeting on January 26th.  Reservations have been coming in for the Founder's Day Dinner.  The Council members said that they have been impressed with all the programs that Sacandaga offers its students. Dragon Press has been started, but there is a need for parent volunteers to bind the books with the schools binding machine.

 

* Homeroom Parents (Brenda Rice) Thank you to all of the homeroom parents for all of their help during all of the Holiday events.

 

* Ways and Means (Lisa Dangerfield) No Report.  There is a Spring fundraiser coming up.  More information will be coming later.

 

* Programs (Linda Plemenik) No Report.

 

* Chess Club (Herman Calderon) There are 39 students who have signed up.  The students will be broken up by skill level and possibly meet every other week.  Herman said he would like to get started in February.  The tournament style boards cost $159 for a set of 12.  Suzanne Tonsberg made the first motion to approve the purchase of the chess boards.  Mr. Tobiassen made the second motion.  A vote was taken and there were no objections. Robert Tonsberg said that he would check on the possibility of purchasing them through an AAFEES catalog in order to save money and shipping.

 

* Box Tops (Suzanne Tonsberg) A Box Tops report was passed out for all in attendance to review. The school currently has over 54,000 points in soup labels.  There are a lot of great products to choose from we just need to get some input, decide and order.  There is currently $496.12 in Box Tops for December and almost another $400 ready to go out.  Suzanne said that she is trying to get more Box Tops to come in through different places in the community like retirement centers and stores.

 

* Membership (Suzanne Tonsberg) There are currently 160 members.  The Dad's Ziti Dinner is underway.  A date for this event needs to be picked and catering options need to be checked into.  The first Family Fun Night will be February 11th.  It will be a casual evening with games and snacks.

 

* 5th Grade Luncheon (Lynne Connelly) This year there will be a safari theme.  The next planning meeting will be February 15th at 6:15 in the Library.

 

* Banking (Anne Cardany) No Report.

 

* Cub Scouts (Jen King) No Report.  Brenda Rice mentioned that the scouts are making posters for the Adopt-a-Soldier program as part of thier citizenship program.

 

Open Floor-New Business

 

* Suzanne suggested that if we could provide child care during our meetings we may be able to boost our participation.

* Suzanne also wondered if there is any interest in a school yearbook.  It could be in place for the fall and we could possibly work on a contract with the company that does our school pictures.  It would be a soft cover book with class pictures, photos of school events, concerts etc and a few pages in the back for autographs.

* Brenda Rice suggested the possibility of placing a second order of the chess boards for the children to have one for home. 

* The next PTA meeting is Tuesday February 15th at 7:00pm.

 

Adjournment

 

* The meeting was adjourned at 8:02pm.

 

Respectfully Submitted,

Beth Fritzeen

PTA Secretary

 

Attachments:  for file copy only

                          Agenda

                          Treasurer's Report

                          Box Tops Report