Washington-Caldwell School PTO Meeting Notes
Sept 12, 2022
Meeting start: 6:03pm
Attending: Toby T, Lisa H. Dan H., Kelli, Kevin, Joane, Teri T., Ashley W., Taffy M., Val
accounts:
$193.24 checking
$1,316.58 savings
+~130 from open house
overview of what PTO does (for new parents) – Upcoming big events: Fall Fest, coming up. The kids wear costumes and middle schoolers run games. Crafts, music, concessions, raffles. In December we do Penguin Patch (fundraiser for the Giving Tree), when the kids shop for family gifts during the day at school. Basket Raffle at Christmas is a big event where we put the baskets out at the concert for raffle ticket buyers. The end of the year carnival is also huge. It is what we need to do most of our fundraising for so we can get the inflatables.
Also throughout the year we sponsor Student of the Month lunch and snack cart prizes, and the quarterly middle school honor roll sundae bar, and teacher appreciation luncheons as well as food for the conferences. New student t-shirts are also provided from PTO.
All meetings are virtual for convenience sake.
Open house recap – Thanks to school for the donation of can coozies and water bottles. Earned $130 selling those and cookbooks, bracelets. We got good feedback from parents wanting to be more involved. Lisa made a fantastic visual board to show people what PTO is about as well.
fundraisers for this year: Boon Supply (Formerly Mixed Bag)—They give us a template letter for personalized email/link, all sales can be shipped online and direct to buyer. Also has a QR code. There is a prize system for high sales; we will get an email out for students to share with family. Ends 9/30.
Spaghetti Dinner: Joane is going to have a conversation about it with Renee who ran it last time. The date will be Saturday, April 8th. We will have tables in the gym, last time dads served the food. There was also a drive-through option where people could pick up the orders. Middle schoolers can be waiters, need a maitre’d at the door. We could also have a gluten-free option. In the past we pre-made noodles and put them in cookers to keep them warm. We need to get donations for containers, noodles, sauce, settings, etc. We'll do a preorder form so we can plan on attendance. Possibly make reservations with a signup genius. Can get students’ art, local business donations, for a silent auction. Could present student performances for entertainment during the meal.
Thermometer (goal rewards) – Our goal is $5000. Every $500 we will have a fun event to involve the kids. Items subject to change:
1-Mr. McCormick dyes his beard red/pink (500)
2-Extra recess (1000)
3-Crazy hair / hat day (1500)
4-Superhero teacher dress-up day (2000)
5-Extra gym time (2500)
6-Minimovie day (3000)
7-Ice cream treat day (3500)
8-Pajama day (4000)
9-?(4500)
10-?(5000)
We can ask the kids to give us their ideas for rewards they want. We can fill in on the bottom for Open House money (in $100 increments). We will put it in the foyer entrance for everyone to see it.
Upcoming events in next two months – Fall Fest date: Thursday 10/26. 5:30-7pm. We will put out an email in the parent update for candy donations starting in October. Twenty-five cents a ticket. We have posters from last year.
Sept – Student of the Month lunches (treats for snack cart is $80 for whole year, we sponsor this).
October 12-13, parent/teacher conferences. We do a Teacher Meal on 10/12. We will provide Chinese takeout.
PTO reps at school board meetings in library or lab, Third Monday at 6:30 each month. Joane will try to check it out.
Color Run – not on the table since we haven’t heard from other schools plus the fall is already busy.
November movie night, honor roll, start classroom basket organizing for concert.
Anniversary party – October 1, 1-4 pm. First time it’s been done. How will PTO be involved? Lemonade stand? School will have BBQ, hotdogs, hamburgers, caramel apples, 'where are they now' board, Voss will play in a jazz quartet. Signs are going up in the library, grocery store, etc. inviting alumni and will show some documents from the district’s history. We can help during the event (Kelli will send us a Signup Genius). WC craft? Balloons?
Student/family directory – Was added as part of registration packet. It went over well. Kelli sent it to us as an Excel. We can do a format job on it and share as a Google Sheet. There are 120 families on the list!
New student shirts – 17 4K-ers and 13 new students – 30 new shirts. Kelli will order them and we will get her a check.
Open floor –
From Toby: The 8th grade is hoping to install a gaga ball pit for the class gift. PTO could chip in with some $ because it is a big goal. Also could share idea with the alums at the anniversary celebration as an option to give donations to their alma mater.
Idea from Teri: Bulldog Hall where we can have people donate money and put their name on the hall (such as on a bulldog paw). We will need to make sure that people know we can take direct donations.
Meeting end time: 7:20 pm
