DCES PTO BOARD MEETING MINUTES December 5th, 2023

12/5/2023 12:07 pm

DCES PTO BOARD MEETING MINUTES  December 5th, 2023

 

Present:

Tara McConnell, Co President 

April Beauboeuf, Co President

Adam Cusimano, Secretary

Lisa Lee, Treasurer

Nicole Carey, VP of Fundraising

Courtney Schramm, VP Communications

Sophie Badgett, VP Campus Improvements

Melanie Frisone, VP of Hospitality

Casey Magargle, VP of Hospitality

Craig Doss, VP Technology

Mary Olley, VP of Technology

Whitney Graving, VP of Events

Melissa Caramucci, Teacher representative

Jamie McCrensky, Teacher Representative 

Kimberly Mills, Principal

Erin Scagnelli, Vice Principal

Paige Miller-Blum, site council representative

Amie Hegeman, Mandarin representative 

 

Absent:



Principal Update 

Mrs. Mills & Mrs. Scagnelli

Enrollment Update: moving along nicely. Kinder at 24 for enrollment; 18 interested/enrolled in Mandarin in addition to the regular kinder enrolled. Lots of discussion from middle school with the open Mandarin position. Ms Zhu will go to support the DCMS program during her win block, two days a week starting Dec 5th, to support the 6th grade students. Hoping for a winter recruitment from teacher pool. 



President Update

Tara McConnell

April Beauboeuf

Celebrations:

Pies for staff!

Holiday Shop! - 1.7k raised for the school. 

Movie Night! - vending truck location, have them facing differently if we do it next year so they can leave before the movie ends if necessary. 

Sponsorship banner looks great!

 

Question about north gate bulletin board - campus improvement? 

 

I have stools but need time/help assembling. Aprillbe - will text Tara to provide some help potentially. 

 

Recess equipment? High heat room re-orders? Put high heat equipment on back burner until weather gets warmer. 

 

Sandwich boards for front office. 

From Shelley: I placed an order with Amazon weeks ago for 3 sandwich board signs so that we can post important items outside of school.  Unfortunately, purchasing rejected my order and did not let me know why.

Would it be possible for the PTO to purchase those boards for us?  They cost approximately $50 each and would be most helpful for our announcements.

Vote for $200 to add to campus improvements bucket for sandwich board signs for Shelley. Vote passed unanimously to fund the signs. 

Book vending machine has arrived! Received 8,221 dollars from Scholastic book fair. Can we use a portion of the funds for the machine and a portion of the funds for the teachers? Mrs Mcrensky’s feedback was that teachers have had other opportunities to get books this year but would be supportive of allocating to the book vending machine. 

 

Website updates - mostly needed from events/

 

We have received the book vending machine. We have also gotten $8221 in scholastic funds. Normally, we give this to teachers and have some left over at the end of the year. Are we open to using some of them to put books in the book vending machine? If so, we will work with Mrs Merritt and teachers on what books can be from scholastic and how much that will cost

 

Site Council Update

Paige Miller-Blum. Next meeting is in January. Basketball court if approved by the school board in December will see work completed by end of the school year. Attendance contracts in each grade, Spreading positive social media messaging for the school via Niche, Great Schools, etc. Follow up on comms principle with Courtney. 

 

Mandarin Rep update

Amie Hegeman. Kinder round up in January will have Mandarin focus. Other schools use student ambassadors for tours, etc. Looking at more resources for prospective students. CNY shirts are going to be posted on the website very shortly. Ask from platinum sponsor about CNY (Amie will follow up). 



Treasurer

Lisa Lee

 

Chase Account Balance: $111,830.08

 

Successful Holiday Shop:

 

Total Sales: $9,623.00 (we keep  20% of this total)

 

After reimbursement for decorations and 80% back to the company, we had a net profit of $1,734.62.

 

Scholastic Book Fair Totals:

 

Total Sales: $2981.00

 

Total Paid to Scholastic: $2,998.77

 

PTO reported a loss of $17.77

 

Vote Passed:

 

-Create a new bucket for cash needed for cash boxes at events for bookkeeping purposes. The proposed amount of $1,000 was passed.

 

-$700 addition to the campus improvements bucket passed. This was for the swivel chairs for teachers.



Teacher Reps

Melissa Caramucci/Jamie McCrensky

 

the school spelling bee is on Thursday 12/7 at 2 pm, not 12/1. 3rd through 5th grades. Mrs Mendelsohn will take on doing the spelling bee in CY2024. 

 

Also, a few teachers have said they don’t want another CNY t-shirt because they have the one from last year. I tried to explain that it’s a different year. I hate to have you spend the money if they won’t be worn. Mrs Mills will address at teacher staff meeting on 12/6. 



VP of Events

Whitney Graving

**After Admin., Teacher Reps, and PTO President updates……Paige and Whitney would like to jump in and share their Amazing Race Presentation, which focuses on using an outside company, Moolah Fundraising to host the Amazing Race in 2024 (only). 

 

Fundraiser lasts two weeks, possible options of color run and/or fun run. Moolah fundraising would waive one time fee associated with color/glow run for first-time customer. Teacher feedback: there is burn out from kids and teachers from AR. Could be useful to generate something new, to drive up higher value? Worth trying once to see? The games and the format are repetitive. 

Tara: we have a huge volunteer community, Parents want to see money going directly to the school, not necessarily to a paid company. Branding would need a reboot if we decide to go this route. 

Mrs Mills: is the purpose to provide an experience for the students or to fund raise? Or both? Need to be careful of volunteer burn out also. Is it worth taking a break to revamp the concept? What is the purpose of the event? Do we need to secure additional feedback from teachers, parents, volunteers? 

We would need to vote as a board on this concept by Monday Dec 11. 

Amie: not possible to make tax deductible donations. Parents need to request however the tax deductible donation from the membership toolkit. 

 

VP of Special Projects/ Campus Improvements

Sophie Badgett

 

*Could we please discuss fixing or replacing the bulletin board near the North Gate? Sarah Crawford covered it with a 25-year logo for the movie night, which looked great but was short-lived because the cork is so degraded that it wouldn’t hold the pushpins. The plexiglass on the boards by the front office needs to be replaced as well, as it is so yellowed that it’s almost opaque. Is there another one near the South Gate that also needs to be looked at? I think we should look at using some of our excess funds to fix or replace these boards. - Nicole

 

Mike French at Signs of Life, could do a mural in Janiuary 2024.. Timeline/cost is TBD. Need to connect with Mrs Sparks on design, placement. 

 

Library signage - Image360 coming on 12/6. Can they also look at the Teacher Workroom to see for signage and logo needs? Sophie to email to find out timelines for putting up signage etc. 

New Melvin! Base price is 4300 USD. Can add on cooling nests, extra hands and feet, carry bag. 5’7 to 6’1 height. May need to adjust sizing for height (5’5 to 6’1). 9-11 week lead time; if necessary we could also order from Amazon as a back up (just under 400 USD). 

 

5th grade cove sign will be picked up 12/6. Needs to be re-hung. Sophie needs Pedro’s email address. Rock Garden sign sitting in the PTO closet? Need to find out where it is and get it rehung. Is Mrs Sparks going to remove and re-paint the rocks? 

 

VP of Hospitality

 

Thanksgiving Pies was a success! 

Holiday Raffle Basket for Staff/Teachers will be given out the week before break



Vote for Funds for the A Plus Committee $4,200

 

Breakout the funding ask. 1,000k for initial visit. If A+ is secured, then make subsequent funding request. 

 

Tour Acceptance Teacher/Staff Treats - Bundt Cake

$150

Swag School Items, personalized parking spot covers, decorations, tumblers, coffee mugs,etc

$300

Site Visit - January 23rd (5 People)

  

Coffee & Light Breakfast ($12 per person) 

$60

Drinks & Snacks

$100

Lunch & Dessert  $20 per person

$80

Site Visit - January 24th  (5 people)

  

Coffee & Light Breakfast

$60

Drinks & Snacks

$100

After Committee Approves School

  

Teacher/Staff Celebration Lunch/Drinks (65 people)

$500

Teacher/Staff Swag Bag (65 people) -T-shirts, etc

$650

School wide  TBD

$2000

Decorations

$200

TOTAL

$4200



Melanie Frisone & Casey Magargle

 

VP of Communications

Courtney Schramm

 

 

VP of Fundraising

Nicole Carey

 

To investigate banner on pick up lane as it seems to be hanging a little oddly. 



Year/Level

20-21

21-22

22-23

23-24

Total

Bronze

3

2

3

6

14

Silver

2

5

3

3

13

Gold

4

4

3

4

15

Platinum

0

1

0

1

2

Diamond

1

0

0

0

1

Total

10

12

9

14

  
           

Year/Level

20-21

21-22

22-23

23-24

Total

Bronze

$900

$600

$1,050

$1,750

$4,300

Silver

$500

$2,000

$1,650

$1,650

$5,800

Gold

$2,800

$3,000

$2,400

$2,400

$10,600

Platinum

$0

$1,250

$0

$1,500

$2,750

Diamond

$2,000

$0

$0

$0

$2,000

Total

$6,200

$6,850

$5,100

$7,300

  




VP of Technology

Mary Olley

Craig Doss