NCS PTO Meeting Minutes 3/1/16 Time and Place: 6pm, School Library Next meeting: Tuesday, April 5th, 2016 In Attendance: Katie Fitzgerald, Andrea Shepard, Anna Edwards, Jen Akey, Jenny Crosby, Louise Sira, Keith LaLone, Sue Sedon, Cristen Shepard, Leslie Ford, Kyle McFarland, Tammy Reidell, Trich Forsey I. Adoption of February meeting minutes: Accepted and approved by all II. Administrative Reports A. Dr. Ford: 1. Dr. Ford (and others) have distributed flyers throughout the community with facts about the upcoming Capital Project vote. On 3/7, at 5:30 pm in the school auditorium, there will be a community forum/education forum. Members of the community are encouraged to attend, to get information and to voice ideas, concerns, or ask any questions. Child care and pizza will be provided in the cafeteria. Food will be provided for adults after the forum. The vote is 3/22, from 128, and people have been picking up absentee ballots. 2. The PTO will be holding a bake sale and basket raffle during the vote. The baskets will be Easter themed and desserts will be boxed up and meant to take home for the whole family, not single serving items. Holly has set up an event page on Facebook for anyone interested in being a baker/spreading the word. B. Mr. McFarland: 1. There's an open gym this Friday March 4th from 6:30 to 9. There will be basketball, ping pong etc. Admission is $5 or $4 with a canned good. Jen A will be chaperoning along with several staff members, Sue Sedon, Shannon Fitzgerald, Mike Irie and others. There will be snacks and drinks provided and Louise is donating four $5 gift cards to Klippel’s as raffle prizes for attending the open gym. Mr. McFarland hopes more open gym type nights can be scheduled throughout the year.
2. The Winter Ball this year will be on Friday, March 18th. The kids made snowman favors including hot cocoa and candy canes. Students also have some decorations and are wondering if the PTO can help decorate/supply some more decorations. Anna E. and Jenny C. volunteered to help decorate as did Louise. If anyone is willing to help chaperone please let Mr. McFarland know. 3. The High School has started talking about scheduling for next year. Grade 6 through 12 will have “Advisories’, for example every Friday take 3 minutes off of each class and at the end of the day 78 students will meet with their advisor (who will be with them until graduation.) Advisors will be discussing organization, time management, fun events like pumpkin carving contest and other things like class meetings. Buzz is building among the staff about this, people are curious and excited to be involved. Middle School scheduling will also be discussed, for instance how classes are paired up. Math and science will be paired up as well as English and social studies so sometimes kids will have regular 40 minute classes and other times a double block 80 minutes of that class and switch throughout the week. 4. The next change will be in the required community service hours for seniors to graduate. Right now it is at 10 hours for seniors only. Mr. McFarland is looking to make a change for 40 hours by the time they graduate. So next year's seniors will only have to complete 10 hours, juniors 20 hours, sophomores 30 hours, but freshman 40, and all incoming freshmen after that, 40 hours. So far teachers seem to like the idea. The way this will work is students will have to get a form preapproved/arranged with whoever they will be helping for it to count towards the community service hours. Idea: At the end of 4 years and award will be given for the most community service hours, such as a scholarship etc. The main idea here is to really get students involved and giving back to the community. Along the same lines is the middle school Global Youth Services day. Basically advisors and students will be teamed up and go around the community doing whatever community service activity is planned and then meet back up at the school for a BBQ, etc. C. Mr. LaLone: 1. For the month of March the elementary school is doing a read for the Ronald McDonald House fundraiser. Kids brought home
packets with pledge/donations sheets and they can be handed in at the end of the month. 2. Data meetings have been taking place, which are showing that the kids are really responding to the reading interventions taking place (at home and) in the classroom. 3. On Friday March 11th, there will be an open gym for grades 3 through 5 directly after school, from 2:45 to 4:30. There are several staff members helping. Admission is $2 or bring a canned good. The PTO will sponsor popcorn and juice. 4. The Utica Zoo will be doing an animal presentation on Thursday March 3rd from 12 to 1 in the auditorium for grades prek through 5. D. Treasurer’s Report 1. Cristen prepared and presented, accepted by all. 2. Previous balance: $5885.79 . Payouts include $50 for the Tech Savvy Summit for girls, and the Utica Zoo presentation. February balance $5667.02. Playground allocations $1426.10 (We will discuss allocating more to the PG fund after the outcome of the Capital Project Vote). Balance remaining $4109.69 3. Collection Efforts a) Box Tops Recieved a check in November, will receive next check in the next school year. b) Amerigas Cristen has it set up, anyone who uses Amerigas can submit a portion of their bill/receipt and Amerigas will donate a certain amount to the school. Spread the word! c) Labels for Education after 8/1 they will no longer be printed. Labels will be accepted for submission until 11/1. d) Tops we receive a check each year. III.
PTO Events A. Cabin Fever Events 1. Open Gym nights in March separate events for ES/ MS HS. 2 upcoming (discusses in Admin, reports) hope to plan more.
2. Flight Trampoline Event for MS/HS Louise has it tentatively scheduled for Friday, 4/1. Bus arrives at 8:45, kids jump for 11 1/2 hr, have pizza and be bussed home around 11:30ish. Permission slips will be handed out, kids will have to prepay, about $20 a kid. That will cover the $13/person jump fee, plus offset the cost of the bus ($240 for the bus rental and driver. So far Louise and Jen A. have volunteered to chaperone. 3. Scrabble Night Maybe tie in with one of the future open gym nights. 4. Rollerskating Thinking about a PTO fundraiser, ‘Northville Family Skate Day’. (HIgh Rollers in Amsterdam) This way we can still get the group rate (kids/families prepay?) and not have to worry about paying for a bus or chaperones. Maybe $10/person? (about the same as what you would pay at the place, and this way PTO can raise some money). Cristen is working on it. 5. Discussion on AntiHarassment/Bullying Committee Dr. Ford felt that many of the concerns voiced were already being handled by other groups (shared decision making team) and through school programs (PBISpositive behavior intervention support). PTO still felt that they wanted to bring back more of a consistent message to students and staff alike. Mr. McFarland brought up a presenter (Jared Campbell) who does a great 3session presentation on bullying. Elem/MSHS/FamilyParent. A main idea brought by all administration was to make the school aware right away if something is going on at the school. As for social media harassment/bullying.etc, please report it to Karen Izzo or the main office. IV.
New Business A. Open Mic/ Karaoke Night Jenny C. would like to organize an event geared towards students who may not be into sports/open gym type events. She will update everyone as things get organized,
Meeting adjourned at 7:25 pm by Louise