PTO Meeting Minutes - 9/12/24

9/22/2024 1:13 pm

DCES PTO BOARD MEETING MINUTES 

September 12, 2024

 

Present:

April Beauboeuf,  President

Paige Miller, Secretary

Kristen Easton, Treasurer

Nicole Carey, VP of Fundraising

Stephanie Sedlak, VP Communications

Samantha Oliver, VP Campus Improvements

Blair Geczi, VP of Hospitality

Kimberly Lyons, VP of Hospitality

Whitney Graving, VP of Events

Melissa Caramucci, Teacher representative

Erin Scagnelli, Vice Principal

Amie Hegeman, Mandarin representative 

 

Absent:

Casey Magargle

Craig Doss

Jamie McCrensky

Kortney Hohle, site council representative



Principal Update 

Mrs. Mills & Mrs. Scagnelli

  • Coffee with the principal: September 25th, plus special guests from the district (incl Josh Friedman, Officer Ron (school security) and Officer Pera (our SRO). RSVPs open until Wednesday. 
  • High Heat Guidelines - have now transitioned away from high heat guidelines but there are accommodations for any children who need them. Guidelines are based on heat index for the day; if planned to be above 104, then the kids come/stay inside. 
  • Be Kind - awaiting an invoice for payment from PTO. Negotiated with the vendor to reduce costs for the program this year. 
  • Book Vending Machine: not been promoted yet to students. Teachers will do drawings at end of quarter using Cub Coupon jar, to draw student names and give tokens to kids. 



President Update

April Beauboeuf 

  1. Calendar of events for next 2 months
    1. Follow up on Veterans Day and Holiday Table. Also, what do we need for First Responder Day (volunteers, snacks) w/Hospitality team and admin. 
  2. Phoenix Suns Family Fun Night update: section 211, 212 (40+(9), 50 dollars each for game on April 11 vs the Spurs (last home game) w/option (no cost) to see pre-game player warm up (not an autograph or picture session). Jan 11 game vs the Jazz, matinee at 3pm, 58 dollar seats section 221. We have option to add an uplift as a fundraiser….or sell the tickets at flat rate. Decided we should add the small ticket uplift (5-10 dollars). 
  3. Run Club Update. Mrs Ricciuto wants to sponsor with another teacher; kickoff in mid/late October. More details to follow. 
  4. Holiday shop: dates and location, use early release day to shop with parents - advice is to push to 2nd week of December (Dec 9). Hanukkah starts December 26th.
  5. Art Masterpieces: grades 3-5, thoughts? Upper classes typically not supporting given instructional needs. At the discretion of the teacher and dependent on any volunteers but not a priority. 
  6. Additional car lane signs - decided against offering.
  7. PTO Happy Hour happening on the 19th of September. Had a great time, will do one each quarter.
  8. 5th grade party - return of the bricks discussed. No conclusive decision on their return. Parent one-off donation requested to be allocated to 5th grade party budget; email vote shared with the board who voted by a majority vote to allocate the donated funds to the 5th grade party budget. 
  9. Book Fair and Pastries with Parents. Requested guidelines from Mrs Mills for the pastries shopping event and confirmation of MPR for use during the Book Fair. 

 

Site Council Update

UpdatesTBC (Kortney) - note, site council will hold its first meeting on the 26th of September.



Mandarin Rep update

Amie Hegeman

  • T-shirt contest; submissions coming from students by end of September through the Mandarin classes (will vote in early October). Parent volunteer will turn it into a design for the shirt.
  • Moon Festival - new event this year. Pictures will be taken and should be great to use on social media.
  • Robotics. Kick off with the club week of 9/2. Plan to start next year’s season in the spring of 2025, to be further prepared for the competition and requirements. All donations and dues collected need to be voted on for usage/expenses paid by PTO as we are collecting the funds. Request to vote on 600 dollars to support the club with an additional robot (600 fundraising/600 spent). PTO Board passed unanimously. Team is also working on grant funding. Ask is to take pictures of subsequent club meetings. 
  • 6th grade Mandarin teacher resigned (DCMS) on 9/11. Coffee with the DCMS principal may help to answer any questions. 
  • Sister Cities exchange program visit to China. Amie to provide contact information of the organization as needed to advertise. Informational meeting held on 9/11. 

 

Treasurer

Kristen Easton

  • YTD we have raised income of 23,800 (biggest contributions being sponsorship and yearbook and spirit wear). Expenses so far are 18,000 - net income of 5700. Paid invoice for AR and AIT; stipend reimbursements have also kicked off (2k). Expenses incurred which haven’t yet arrived, including Be Kind Invoice. Bank Balance is 88k but expect it to drop. 

 

Secretary 

Paige Miller 

  • Fall Festival Update - November 16th, 4pm-7pm. Wild West theme (country western). How much to charge for families to come in - aligned to a flat family fee, with extra tickets for booths. Pie the Principal (???)  petting zoo, etc. Ideas on panning for gold station. Live music too. Angie Sellman donating haystacks for hay ride. Invites extended to other schools/post at CASY also and La Petite. Get some flyers made to advertise. Getting donated prizes/gift cards for raffle and auction.  Mrs Caramucci has a BBQ and hamburger food truck (Batchelor Pad in Fountain Hills) connection. Desert Mountain IB can help with clean up, and DM NHS volunteers also need hours. Need to source two security from the district, as well as custodial staff. 

 

Teacher Reps

Melissa Caramucci/Jamie McCrensky

  • PTO president will reach out to Mrs McCrensky on the 5th grade party budget. Look into using classroom collections in the 5th grade for next year to fund any budget deficits for party needs (t-shirts) and reinforce fundraising concept.

 

VP of Events

Whitney Graving

  1. Amazing Race 2025 - Nicole, Emily, Amanda and Whitney 
    1. Theme: Sports
    2. Need Approval on Dates: Timeline “Kickoff” on 2/7/25. Last donations collected on: 3/7/25
    3. Amazing Race to be held on: Thursday, March 6th, 2025  (Please verify NO field trips happening on this day). 
    4. Website: Craig- Please update teacher name list on website by end of Sept. 2024. I’ll email teacher names and grade levels. Thanks! 

 

VP of Special Projects/ Campus Improvements

Samantha Oliver

  • Basketball purchases! All playground equipment that has been ordered has now been delivered. Field is closed for three weeks due to seeding. Trying hard to teach responsibility to students. Maybe color coding or a check out system to further enforce responsibility. The little children are better at taking care of the equipment than the older children. Can we do a gently used equipment fundraiser? No parents have submitted suggestions to Campus Improvements per our ask…. Perhaps do an Amazon Wish List as part of back to school July wishlist. 
  • High heat rooms are discontinued; one is now an ELL classroom and the other one sits in the middle school and is too time consuming to access given the walk required to get there. 
  • Consider ordering equipment that’s slightly more robust. Ask Coach R for guidance on where/how she orders equipment. 
  • Broken sign near North Gate - tabled until next meeting. Samantha to look at removing entirely or re-doing it. Could a vinyl banner be installed over it instead? 
  • School year calendar magnets. Samantha investigating options with Brandables. 

 

VP of Hospitality

Blair, Kimberly

  • 25 families have signed up for teacher treats. Creating more community awareness of who is donating. Need to coordinate with admin for First Responder Day Needs.

 

VP of Communications

Stephanie, Casey

  • Parent Survey Results
  • FB posts - managing posting and approvals
  • Updated website (membership toolkit). Super easy to update the front page with flyers/useful information. If committee VPs want to use that space to “advertise” please reach out to Stephanie.
  • Request for open PTO meetings (will get on the calendar). Room to improve on alerting parents to key events and spacing out those events. Opportunity to work more closely with Gretchen and room parents to further communicate. Ask teachers to put in family newsletters. 
  • Using SUSD print shop. Quarterly invoicing, comes out of printing budget. FYI, Staples does printing donations (between 9-11, with manager onsite).
  • Reason why families haven’t attended events has been scheduling conflicts or were not aware. 
  • Request for parent night/auction night again. Fundraisers: most popular are book fair, AR, holiday shop. Families feel like the number of fundraisers is about right. Opportunity to spread the events throughout the year. 

 

VP of Fundraising

Nicole Carey 

  • 16 sponsors for the year! Following up now on maintaining sponsor advertising and banners. Re-doing PTO banner also. 

 

Year/Level

20-21

21-22

22-23

23-24

24-25

Total

Bronze

3

2

3

6

7

14

Silver

2

5

3

2

2

12

Gold

4

4

3

4

6

15

Platinum

0

1

0

1

1

2

Diamond

1

0

0

0

0

1

Total

10

12

9

13

16

  
             

Year/Level

20-21

21-22

22-23

23-24

24-25

Total

Bronze

$900

$600

$1,050

$1,750

$2,680

$4,300

Silver

$500

$2,000

$1,650

$1,100

$1,188

$5,250

Gold

$2,800

$3,000

$2,400

$2,950

$4,793

$11,150

Platinum

$0

$1,250

$0

$1,500

$1,553

$2,750

Diamond

$2,000

$0

$0

$0

$0

$2,000

Total

$6,200

$6,850

$5,100

$7,300

$10,213

  

 

Personalized Banner for Rebecca Blank (already installed)

Size: 72X36

Cost: $141 (for 2 banners)

Potential “Thank You” Banner Design for all sponsors

Size: 96X48

Cost: $216 (for 2 banners)

 

Budgeted: $600

Spent: $357

Remaining: $243

 

Family Fun Nights: September 18, Lou Malnati’s! Tell your friends! 

  • Invoice for flyers for Family Fun night, when do we get the invoice from the district? I’ve done two runs so far and I’m curious how much it’s taking out of our $700 printing budget. Invoice is made quarterly. Usually not very expensive but we should verify estimates with Oliver at SUSD if there is a concern. 

 

VP of Technology

Craig Doss - absent