PTO EXECUTIVE BOARD MEETING 01/22/18 In Attendance: Eric Chisausky - Principal Maggie Lynch- Co-President Kim Lowe- Co-President Lindsey Patel- Vice President Susan Tobolski- Treasurer Courtney Sigmund- Co-Treasurer Nancy Koschik- Communications Courtney Stach- Secretary Call to Order 9:15am II. Approve the Minutes for the November 27th, 2017 Board Meeting - Minutes Approved. Although there were some adjustments to the numbers. The Potbelly and Portillos Potbelly: $319.25 and Portillo s $123.00 III. Principal s Report Mid Year Update Thank you so much for the year, and January is a new year and kick off. Enjoy the healthy treats! (Mr. Chisausky offered us yogurt, fruit and treats in the meeting). THANK YOU! Updates on the School Year Thursday s Academic Success Meetings Once a month, Thursday morning s Academic Success meetings are held district wide. In these meetings we are discussing the supported classroom situation, and a status on how it is going, and some students may be good candidates for this program and come to Walker to have your specific individual needs met. The Walker parents were very pleased. The experience is different than a regular classroom. A student may be doing some math activities and these kids learn words, like GO - STOP etc., and some have language tools to use within the classroom. How do we accomplish that same level of growth and remain in your home school? We offer two certified staff and three aides. Dr. Sepial talked about the delivery model and talking about different placement considerations. Three Board Members sat in on the meeting. It s called Program Success at the Middle School. The Middle School is more behavioral focused. They were reviewing placement considerations for next year. Winter Team Meetings will be this Friday, January 26th, 2018. Review Among the Grade Levels Friday each of the grade level teams sit with psychologist, teachers and differentiation specialists. The MAP Data and reading fluency data are being evaluated by these experts. Those students with Mrs. Bonga or RTI Tutor students are being reviewed for more or less support. School improvement data is being reviewed on every level. Each grade level has a
reading on level goal for each of their students. They are given their mid year assessments; classroom assessments. We will be reporting school improvement updates. There may be course load assessments. Your best mid-year, course corrections are in December to January. Some of the best determinations come out of mid-year testing. STEAM, Science and Social Studies Update Social Studies met to look at a resource with newly aligned standards. Teachers are designing lessons without a textbook. Science has new hard copy books and workbooks. The question is, are we at a place that we may venture into some STEAM opportunities? Can we work on a Steam Lab for Walker School? Science Fair and Spelling Bee We are excited for Science Fair. Spelling Bee progresses into the Regional competition. We will be preparing for the PARCC tests, and working to get that to go smoothly in the Spring. PARCC and Spring Testing PARCC will begin after April 1 and there is a 3-week window to take the testing. They are learning the PARCC window is much longer than two-weeks, and the impact on staff that are testing small groups of kids requires certain accommodations. The MRC can get shut down for a period of time and we have to plan accordingly. Staff is planning the best schedule possible with overall impact on the building. Strategic Planning Eric and Melissa Marshall would like to update some of our P.E. equipment. It was positioned to the Board but not specified on what equipment is requested specifically. New Check-In System You may have noticed when we buzz in a parent. There is a delay. The button must be used for the camera to work to be let into the building. The Next All-District President s Meeting We host the PTO President s meeting in April 2018. IV. Treasurer s Report Budget Updates Scripts made $367. Amazon Smile - Updates Later. Holiday Bazaar - We are still waiting on receipts and the profit will be $500.00, maybe still awaiting final numbers/receipts. b. How Much Should We Reserve Update Courtney Sigmund researched with Clarendon Hills bank and found these ideas and Tiffany at the bank suggested that we watch their Facebook for savings account or investment specials. We want the least amount of fees- so we do not want a money market. CD s a 3-month or a 6-month, we need to understand the penalty. CD s allow us to earn more but have penalties. Savings Account.01% interest rate earnings. it is same for a money market at $10K. There is a threshold on savings.
It s such a small amount of interest that we are earning anyway. As we look at our first 3-6 months of the year; we have a steady outflow. The biggest part of Courtney s job is going to the bank and doing research/making deposits; and this should be conveyed to the next Assistant Treasurer. The district PTOs have usually 6-12 month reserves in their operating account and many have discussed setting aside monies for future STEAM labs. V. President Report Updates from D181 PTO Presidents Meeting b. Staff Grants/Classroom Educational Grant Program - The staff grant program is for $1000. If it s over $1000, they have a committee to review the bigger purchases. It takes a lot of advertising to the staff; parents can sign up to be on this committee. This is a very simple project for the teachers. The PTO member can fill out the form `for the teacher. The request goes to the committee members- and everything has to go through this Rubrick The big items that are over $1000 and then they discuss them at a general PTO meeting The kids can use them right away. It s a way to enrich the classrooms. $3000-$4000 budgeted for the Staff Grants First approval goes through the principal, and the committee then reviews it. We can easily replicate what the Monroe School does with this grant system and how they use this grant system. It s similar to the wish list system. It s a new way to develop the wish list. We have a summary of the Monroe School meeting presentations. The outgoing Presidents chair the Staff Grant committee. If the STEAM lab becomes a district thing, then should we be saving for this? The district wants uniformity among all of the schools. The Principals are coming together; some may not have the physical space for the Science Lab. Comparisons between the schools are being made; and data collected. President's meeting- we discussed our General Meetings and a second meeting with a luncheon with the teachers. c. Dinner Bell Update- Total Earnings to date: $924.66 - The next Dinner Bell is this week at BRAMA, 1/25/18. d. March 5th, 2018, 9am - is our next GENERAL MEETING: featuring: Allison Voss Social Worker e. Communications Update Nancy Koschik is working on messaging consolidation and text messaging program. She said you have to set it up, @walker120 then you are in the text system. If you want to receive email, you have to set it up through the system. Texts regarding PTO messaging will be sent at 6pm the night before. Eric would do his announcements and that is under Eric s umbrella. Nancy will send out guidelines on PTO text messaging. Yearbook requires more pictures. We are low, based on what she can see in the system.
f. Box Tops The 5th grade class does not have a coordinator. The 5th grade parents are not volunteering to help with the box tops. CHMS contacted Nancy, and she has the extra box tops to share. g. Spirit Lunches Discussion to add one, once a month. Jessica is investigating variety and healthy ideas for next year. VI. Other Officer Reports Kindergarten Registration February 14th and 15th, 2018 Option to pay PTO fees in person for K registration $25 per student and a slight increase from last year For each student, it s an increment of $25 per child. Directories are with enrollment and $6 per book Waker School Tee-Shirts and they are $7.00 per tee-shirt There are some rumblings about having one color. Tee-Shirt Update - Since Our Last Executive Board Meeting January 22nd, 2018 Nancy revised the logo. Lindsey located a new vendor to help as they serve the Cardinals baseball team locally. Eric is going to work with the teachers to come up with a tag line for next year. Tee shirts are important but tabled until everything is fine-tuned with tag-line logo/etc. The new pricing will be included in the fees. School Pay for Registration and New Links Lindsey is promoting School Pay because it goes into our account in 2-days rather than handling checks. We will direct them in the School Pay website, MySchoolAnywhere There is a new registration page on walkerpto.com that can be viewed here at: http:// www.walkerpto.com/registration.html We now have a form to gather directory submissions electronically storing responses in excel spreadsheet on google Drive in addition to a paper copy. Any returning families will be asked to update their information in myschoolanywhere.com Just got our merchant account secured to set up items in school pay - here are the 3 items I have created... Membership- https://www.schoolpay.com/pay/for/-pto-fees/idf1x?p=yes Shirt: https://www.schoolpay.com/pay/for/-walker-school-shirt/idfjg?p=yes For the directory: https://www.schoolpay.com/pay/for/-school-directory-hard-copy/idfjf?p=yes Images of those screens are below if you have any trouble accessing the links. This is all new this year, so let me know if you see anything that needs to be clarified or explained better, or typos ;) K registration will begin Feb14-15 but will not be directed to pay fees until returning families begin registration. Returning family registration will not begin until after spring break.
The buddy family form is combined with the PTO registration form/information. There is a place to check off if they want a buddy or not. Upcoming Dates All School Parent s Night Out - Apres Ski Night at Ruth Lake; February 4th, 2018 7-11pm SCHOOL UPCOMING CALENDAR Science Week February 5-9th, 2018 4th/5th Grades have Officer Bean Cyber Citizens Saturday February 10th - Jump Rope for Heart February 12th, D181 Board of Education Meeting February 13th, Tinkerworks, 2nd/3rd and 4th/5th District Spelling Bee February 14th, 2018 - Kindergarten Registration March 7th, GENERAL Board Meeting 9am at Walker School Meeting Adjourned 11:35am