Asbury Elementary School
PTA Meeting Minutes September 9, 2008

Meetings usually held the 2nd Tuesday of the month at 6:00 p.m. in the faculty lounge. We encourage and welcome any parents to join and participate.

Principals’ Report:

• Anita is looking for volunteers to campaign for the bond issue. People to get yard signs, maybe hold a banner on the corner of Evans and Lafayette… See her if interested.
• As a result of our higher than projected numbers, through the student based budget, there will be a reading assistant/para at each grade level, some money will go to gifted and talented and $8000 will be placed in a general administration fund which can then be transferred to other funds as needed.

Presidents Report:

PTA has set a goal of 100% membership. Kim Magoffin will give staff a letter encouraging 100% membership from them as well.

Vice Presidents Report:

A box top challenge will start next week RIF: There will be three distributions this year. The first will be in the afternoon of October 23 and 24th. One day will be for primary classrooms and the other for intermediate. Lori is working on a Halloween/mask theme.

Treasurer Report:

The decision was made to not put any of the PTA funds into a CD or other interest gaining account because the amount of money would not be that significant compared to what it is already earning.

Carnival:

We are still looking for volunteers for face painting. Several parents at the meeting volunteered. Brenda Cripe is doing the hair painting and her son is going to be a wandering magician. The fee for both is $150. There is a big list for volunteers to help and to send in snacks. The food served will be hot dogs, pizza, tamales and Nosh gelato. The contact for tamales is back. We will get the same amount as last year in 2 flavors: 1 vegetarian and 1 meat. Brooke and Kim will check the carnival supplies to see what is still needed and what signs need to be made. Many prizes have been donated, but we could still use more.

Safeway:

We earned $1000 from the gift cards last year and it was decided to continue it this year. We can purchase $5000 at a time, so we will start by purchasing $5000. A letter will be sent out every other Thursday to purchase the cards and they will be distributed Thursday afternoon and Friday morning. We are looking for volunteers to help with this. Anita will provide a contact from the Southmoor PTA who can offer suggestions for how to do this most efficiently. We still need to decide what to do if parents are not able to pick them up at the distribution time.

Computers:

It was voted and approved to purchase 5 laptops for $4520. The price has decreased a bit.

Mini-grants for teachers:

Kim made designed a gift certificate to give to the teachers along with an explanation of how the money can be spent. It was voted on and approved to give all 27 teachers (full and part-time) $125 to be spent by May 1.

New Business:

Jenny Werner requested $200 to pay for sketch books for the first graders. Last year PTA bought sketch books for all students grade 1-5. The request was approved. It was also approved to pay teachers $30/hour if they would like to offer after school classes.

Fundraisers:

Liz Howard, the librarian is working with Bookies to set up an Asbury shopping night in November. More details will be coming.

Flu shot clinic: Information was shared about hosting a flu shot clinic. Parents need to sign up in advance. $4/shot will be given to the school, $2 to the national PTA and $1 to the state PTA. If the school nurses are able to volunteer to give shots, they will be paid $25. Kim will try to set this up during conferences on October 27th and 28th. There is no cost to us to set up/ host. All necessary materials will be provided.

5280 article:

There was a discussion about the article that appeared in the September issue of 5280. Anita has decided not to send a rebuttle she had written, but instead invited the editor and author to attend a PTA meeting.

Safety of people crossing Evans:

A parent brought up a concern about the safety of people crossing Evans near Lafayette. Although there is a light, it is not at the intersection and it is a very long wait and many cars run that light. Anita mentioned that DPS provided funds for crossing guards in the past so she is looking into this.

Meeting adjourned at 7:30 p.m.