Mt. Erie Elementary PTA

Dear Mt Erie Families -

March roars in with Missoula Children’s Theatre “Princess and the Pea”!   It’s a great experience and we hope to see many children at the try outs on March 8 after school.

Book BINGO has been in full swing and will be winding up the end of the first week of March.   I am so pleased to see the enthusiasm of all the participants.    By my estimation, we’ve logged thousands of reading hours during the program – keep it going at home!

At this month’s General Membership meeting, we will elect our 2010-2011 PTA Executive Officers.   Nominees are:
President   Catherine Houck
Vice-President   Silja Shjarback
Co Treasurer  Joan Ockerman
Secretary  Leslie Tysseling

Come and vote on March 16 at 7pm.   Childcare is provided.

As always, if you have any comments or questions about PTA activities, please feel free to email me at suzygilbert@gmail.com.

To each and every one of you, I hope you enjoy the upcoming Spring break!

Suzy Gilbert

CALL TO ORDER: The Mt. Erie PTA Board meeting was called to order in the PTA room at 2:30pm by Vice President Catherine Houck. Also present were Lara Young, Silja Shjarback, Ashley King, Joan Ockerman, Julie White, Leslie Tyssling, Rhonda McLaughlin, Bob Knorr.

MINUTES: Minutes from 01/12/10 Board Meeting were approved as submitted.

TREASURERS REPORT: Joan reported January was relatively quiet. $112.96 was paid for memberships (4) for the last quarter. The treasurer’s software was just paid this past month. This will need to be paid again in July; the check for $300 for RIF last year was written but not cashed. In order to write a new $300 for last year, it will need to be approved at the next General Membership Meeting.

PRINCIPALS REPORT: Some funding is received from the state of Washington “LAP” money which is for children performing below level. In the past, this money had been used for summer school. So this money will go directly to the schools to target children that do not meet the standards. K, 1,and 2: Money will go into reorganizing the instructional day and provide for uninterrupted instructional time. There will be 4 adults for about 13 kids in the low group to target reading skills. This will be for 2 hours a day for the remainder of the year.3, 4: and will do before and after school program. Just the kids at risk will be targeted. These children will get math and some reading. 5, 6 are only in math and will be just before school.

Lunch: Three lunches will be created instead of two.

COMMITTEE REPORTS:
• Membership: Julie gave an overview of what Membership Chair does.
• Upcoming chair openings: It was suggested that a list of open committee positions be created with a brief overview of what each committee entails. Could a package be distributed at Kindergarten Round-up or at Kindergarten Tea. A letter could also be possibly sent home in letter. Will also have information in the upcoming PTA newsletter.
• Fundraising: Leslie reported that there were 4 to 5 people who did not receive their items until after Christmas. It was discussed what fundraiser the PTA would want to do for 2010-2011. Is it possible that individuals might present proposals as to what to do?
• Family Nights: The next family night is Thursday February 11 and will be Predators of the Heart.
• Yearbook: Reminded everyone to take pictures occasionally as you are at the school or any school function and send to Jennifer McGill.
• Legislative: Rhonda reported that there have been a record number of ballots received to date.
• RIF: Will be Thursday, February 11.
• Missoula Children’s Theatre: The Thomas’ will be hosting the directors.
• Hospitality: Lara will be soliciting volunteers to provide cookies for the Art Show at the Depot on March 5. Teacher conferences are the third week of March and will be looking for donations for the teacher’s lounge.
• Vale-Gram: The PTA will send a Vale-Gram to Mt. Erie teachers.

NEW BUSINESS:
Haiti Fundraiser: Joan Petrick and Sheila have asked if Mt. Erie PTA would help the students organize a fundraiser, possibly origami, for money to go to Haiti. This will be presented to the 6th grade service club as a possible project. Rhonda McLaughlin will talk with Melinda Moore about this.

OLD BUSINESS:
Silja asked if the PTA would be interested in donating to the Tommy Thompson Trestle. There is a fund run planned for April 24. Silja moved to donate $200 to the rebuilding of the Trestle. The motion was seconded and approved.

The meeting was adjourned by Catherin Houck at 3:30.

CALL TO ORDER: The Mt. Erie PTA Board meeting was called to order in the PTA room at 7 pm by Suzy Gilbert. Those present are listed on the attached sheet. A quorum was met.

MINUTES: The minutes of the November 2009 Board meeting were approved with changes noted.

TREASURERS REPORT: Joan reported that for November and December $385 was made during the escrip drive, $46 was received for Membership, and $6966.50 was made in Sally Foster with a $300 bonus and $600 in internet sales.

PRINCIPALS REPORT: Bob thanked the PTA for a good job on Reflections, particularly thanks to Jennifer Bowman. The teachers really appreciate all that is done for them through Teacher Appreciation (Lara Young).

Update on the Skagit County Sex offender program called Offender Watch. You can pull up your address and see any Level 2 or 3 offenders. Website is www. skagitcounty.net/sheriff. You can do county and state wide searches and maps. You can sign up for email notifications and any time someone moves within a two mile radius of your home, you will receive an alert. Encourage parents to be vigilant.

Wanted to draw attention to the Levy election. This is very crucial to the schools. There has been a steady decline in students which in turn means less money to the District to operate. 26% of the Anacortes School District day to day operating budget comes from local Levy dollars. The Levy is not for building but will go directly to the classrooms.

Upcoming Levy Rallies: The following Levy rallies will be held:
• Friday, January 29 one half hour before and one half hour after school and will take place across from Mt. Erie Elementary.
• Friday, February 5 one half hour before and one half hour after school and will take place across from Mt. Erie Elementary.
• Sunday, January 31 at noon at the corner of 12th and Commercial.

Phone banks will take place Thursday, 1/22 and February 3 at Windermere.

There will be people going door-to-door on January 23 (Saturday) and January 30. You can meet at 11 a.m. at Village Pizza will meet here to then go out to do doorbelling.

Wednesday morning PLC time (during late start on Wednesdays) for the teachers is focusing on the 5 Dimensions of Teaching and Learning from the University of Washington. The teachers are currently focusing on Purpose and Student Engagement. This will be a four to five year project to go through this entire program.

COMMITTEE REPORTS
Communications: 270 out of 320 families at Mt. Erie can be contacted by email. During the remainder of the year, newsletter will be sent via paper and email.

Family Nights: This Thursday, January 21 will be magician Bruce Meyer.
Other upcoming family nights will be DJ Dance and the Variety Show.

Yearbook: Jennifer McGill is heading up the Yearbook. She is looking for someone who can assist her in taking in the yearbook orders and money. If you are interested, please contact Silja Shjarback or Jennifer McGill.

MCT: Silja announced that Princess and the Pea will be the next show and will take place in March.

Hospitality: Lara will not be able to do Hospitality for 2010/2011. If anyone is interested in this position, please let the PTA know.

NEW BUSINESS
2010/2011 Executive Board Nominations:
President: Catherine Houck
Vice President: Silja
Secretary: Leslie
Treasurer: Meg Frost and Joan Ockerman

Kristen Murphy moved that we confirm the nominating committees recommendations. The motion was passed and approved.

The nominee names will be posted outside the PTA office.

Mt Erie Winter Reading Program: John Dumas and Meg Atterbury presented the Winter Reading Program. The program will run for 8 weeks starting on January 25 and ending on Friday, March 19. Want to focus on increasing 4-6th graders participation. The Grand Prize for K & 1st grade will be a bicycle, the Grand Prize for 2nd & 3rd grades which will be a bicycle, and a Grand Prize for 4th, 5th, and 6th grades will be a Sony Digital E-Book. Other levels of prizes will include a class pizza party and $25 Gift Cards for the Top Reader.

Discussion was held on how to ensure that all children are included in the book bingo. Ideas included allowing Bigger Buddies to sign off on the Bingo Slip and also having a volunteer read during Friday lunch.

Suzy adjourned the meeting at 8:10 p.m.

Mt. Erie Board Meeting
November 2009

CALL TO ORDER: The Mt. Erie PTA Board meeting was called to order in the PTA room at 8 pm by Suzy Gilbert. Those present are listed on the attached sheet. A quorum was met.

MINUTES: The minutes of the September 2009 Board meeting were approved as submitted.

Marie Christenson is co-chairing the upcoming school levy. February 9 – Chris Borgen said the school Board will be asking for a replacement levy. 20-25% of school funds come from school levy. There will be a School Board meeting with Chris Borgen on December 7 in which he will present more information about the upcoming replacement Levy. Marie is going to provide voter registration forms to be available at the school during conferences and family craft night. The PTA will be voting on what stance to take on the upcoming school levy at the January 19 General PTA Membership meeting.

Catherine made motion to support the 2010 School Levy whatever it may ential. The motion was seconded. The motion passed.

TREASURERS REPORT: Joan reported that we did not meet the goal for Sally Foster.

The following changes have been made to the 2009-2010 Budget Lines:
Read-a thon – moved to $600
Science Enrichment – removed from budget.
Assembilies – Moved from $500 to $250.
Removed science animal care.
Family fun night: Reduced by $200 down to $1800.
Staff appreication – Is now $1100
Reflections – down 50
Removed the lice kit line item amount of 100.

Escrip is up – more people have signed up. General donations are up from what was planned in budget. Discussion on how to get more people enrolled in e-script.

PRINCIPALS REPORT: Bob shared a couple of things parents can do at home to help their children with homework especially those in households that tend to be a little more hectic.

COMMITTEE REPORTS
Family Nights – Dec 3 Craft night. Suzy is still looking for volunteers for craft night.

Hospitality – Lara will provide snacks for conferences.

OLD BUSINESS
Walking path: City engineers are helping with the design phase of the walking path.

NEW BUSINESS
Val asked for help in the area of the gym where the mile times are listed. Is looking for a new way to display this. Any ideas are welcome.

The Anacortes School district calendar has been made by donations from Premier Printing and How it works and an anonymous donation.

Suzy adjourned the meeting at 8:05.

Mt. Erie Board Meeting
December 8, 2009

CALL TO ORDER: The Mt. Erie PTA Board meeting was called to order in the PTA room at 2:30pm by President Suzy Gilbert. Those present were Catherine Houck, Ashley King, Silja Shjarback, Suzy Gilbert, and Lara Young.

MINUTES: The minutes of the November 2009 Board meeting were approved as submitted.

TREASURERS REPORT: Suzy presented the financial report. The books are audited every month; all previous audits have been fine.

PRINCIPALS REPORT: No report given.

COMMITTEE REPORTS
• Silja reported that Mustang point prizes will be given out for primary grades and intermediate grades separately.
• Membership – The directories have been taken to Bayshores for printing and will be available for distribution in the next week.
• Communication – Deadline for January newsletter is the week of December 18.
• Book Bingo – Megan Attebery and John Dumas will be heading up Book Bingo.
• Family Night – Craft night was a big success. Bruce Meyers, the magician, will be in January. Predators of the Heart will be at Mt. Erie in February. A link to Predators of the Heart will be added to the Mt Erie PTA website for parents to find out more information.
• RIF – RIF was a great success. The kids loved their books.
• Reflections – Jennifer Bowman will be presenting to the classrooms beginning on December 9.
• Hospitality – Some of the teachers are participating in the Secret Mustang. The teachers can “secretly” give each other little gifts with a $10 maximum.
o Spirit – In December, ice cream was given to kids who dressed with the most spirit.
• Box Tops – Lara reported that the kids have been handing in a lot of box tops and the committee is preparing them to send in.

NEW BUSINESS
Nominating Committee – Election of officers must be done prior to April 30th. Discussion was held as to who will serve on the nominating committee, only two people are needed for the committee. The nominees will be presented at the January 19 General Membership Meeting and will be voted on at the March 16 General Membership meeting.

The meeting was adjourned by Suzy Gilbert at 3:30.

Mt. Erie Board Meeting
November 10, 2009

CALL TO ORDER: The Mt. Erie PTA Board meeting was called to order in the PTA room at 2:30pm by Vice-President Catherine Houck. Those present were Catherine Houck, Leslie Tyssling, Ashley King, Silja Shjarback, Lara Young, Bob Knorr

MINUTES: The minutes of the October 2009 Board meeting were approved as submitted.

TREASURERS REPORT: No report given.

PRINCIPALS REPORT: Bob reported that How it Works, Premier Printing, and an anonymous donation have been made that has allowed the Anacortes School District to be printed and distributed.

COMMITTEE REPORTS
Volunteer Coordinator: Silja reported that the WOW cards are being turned in. She will visit with the Para Eds to ensure that the WOW cards are given out evenly throughout the school.

Silja will send out a communication to the PTA liaisons regarding communications with the teachers.

Fundraising: Leslie said it is almost wrapped up. Only 3 reorders. Internet orders are about the same as last year. Volunteers did a great job and are very appreciated for all they did.

T-Shirts: Cathy Hoy said they will be in at the end of this week.

Family Nights: December 3 is Craft Night. Volunteers are still needed for craft night and each volunteer will be asked to assist at a specific table/craft. Ideas for crafts are welcome.

RIF: First RIF will be December 3. February 11 and April 29 will be the remaining dates and Gina Thomas will head this up.

Reflections: Forms are available outside the PTA room.

Missoula Children’s Theatre: Sign up is open for Fall 2010. Do we want to continue having two per year? This is reaching the same kids both times. Do we want to scale back to one per year and use the money saved to reach another group of kids?

Hospitality: Spirit Day is this Friday. It was suggested that a set number of kids be selected who show the most Spirit. These children could be awarded a coupon for ice cream. This would encourage school spirit.

NEW BUSINESS
Upcoming Levy: A PTA meeting is coming up regarding the upcoming school levy. On December 7 there will be a district meeting at 7 pm in the Middle School Commons. Chris Borgen will be speaking about the School Board Resolution regarding the school levy and strategies and how to get parents involved. The levy is for operations only and is for four years.

Young Authors: This program had been offered through the schools in the past, but this program has been cut from the school budget. A similar program is available through the ESD (no longer in the schools). Margo Cunningham is looking at having authors and illustrators come to the school. More information will be coming about this.

The meeting was adjourned by Catherine Houck at 3:30.

Mt. Erie Board Meeting
October 13, 2009

CALL TO ORDER: The Mt. Erie PTA Board meeting was called to order in the PTA room at 2:30pm by President Suzy Gilbert. Present were Suzy Gilbert, Ashley King, Joan Ockerman, Leslie Tysseling, Jennifer McGill, Katherine Houck, Meredith Laws, Silja Shjarback, Lara Young, Rhonda McLaughlin, Cathy Hoy, Bob Knorr.

MINUTES: The minutes of the September 2009 Board meeting were approved as submitted.

TREASURERS REPORT: We are about $4000 short of target on Sally Foster without internet sales. Budgeted $10,000 but we are approximately 3-4,000 short of where we needed to be.
Field trips, project/teacher grants: we do not want to reduce budgeted amounts so we do not want to cut funds here.

Are there some places that we can cut in the budget?
• Take out $600 in read-a-thon
• Take out $100 in science enrichment
• $250 out for science animal care
• Assemblies $250 cut
• Family nights $200 out
• $100 out of staff appreciation
• $50 out of reflections
• $100 lice kits/lice combs
• This totals $1600 out of the budget without much impact.
Also need to increase awareness of box tops and increase emphasis on eScrip.

Can the money be put into a money market account or a CD account? Want to make sure that the money can be accessed if needed. Research will be done and best options will be presented.

Silja moved that the budget be approved as stated. Seconded and motion passed.

PRINCIPALS REPORT: Bob said it would be a great time for the PTA to look at new ways to help students and supporting parents. Reminded that parent resources are available in the Library and the GET program through the state is great way to begin college planning.

COMMITTEE REPORTS
Membership: Membership is at 170 right now. We are down about 40 from last year but we should be getting sign-ups through October. Suzy would like to have a table at the Harvest Fest for Membership. Bob suggested that PTA forms be put in teacher boxes again.

Communications: Meredith – Encouraged everyone to update on the PTA website. She can show you how.

Silja – Raffle box – be sure to put your name in the volunteer raffle box. There will a raffle at the General Membership Meetings.

PTA liaisons – Silja is looking for volunteers to be liaisons. Would like to ask that each Board member take a grade as a liaison. Silja will send out a list of areas in which a liaison is still needed.

When you sign in at the front of school, be sure to list your child’s teacher so you get credit for Mustang points.

Fundraising – Leslie – One of the prizes for Sally Foster is that anyone involved gets to go to a movie. November 7 will be the movie day at Anacortes Cinemas. Please send Leslie list of any movies that might be good for the movie.

Need to get more parents, families, friends sign up for escrip. Will have a laptop available for signup at Harvest Night.

Family Night – Eleven 6th grade service club kids will be helping with games on Harvest Night.

November movie night has been cancelled. Craft night will be in December – will need many volunteers for this.

Yearbook – Jennifer McGill will be heading up yearbook. Would like to have a parent/child team with each classroom and these photos can all be uploaded to a particular website. Jennifer signed up for Google calendar so people can look at the calendar to see where we are regarding the yearbook. Jennifer is looking at vendors for the yearbook and will get quotes. Sheila is looking into getting software on about four computers in the lab so that a Yearbook club can work out of the lab.

Competition for the yearbook cover – would be open to 6th graders. Would have a panel of judges to select the winner for the cover. It was suggested that this be done at the beginning of the new year.

Jennifer will set us a Picassa site for all photos to be downloaded to.

T-Shirts: Cathy How reminded everyone that orders due on October 20.

Legislative – WA state PTA is opposing I-1033.

Suzy adjourned the meeting at 3:30.

Norton Cyber Safety Challenge – Mt Erie can win up to $20,000!!!

 Imagine the great things Mt Erie PTA could do with $20,000!

 There are still three weeks left to work towards winning $20,000, $10,000 or $5,000 for our school by signing up for a FREE subscription to OnlineFamily.Norton.  Mt. Erie has registered to participate in the challenge but there hasn’t been too much activity from our families yet!   The contest is still WIDE open – the leading schools have about 40 families registered, so we definitely have plenty of time to surpass that number.   And, you have up until November 15^th to sign up for the service!

 To participate in the contest and get your free copy of OnlineFamily.Norton, follow these easy steps:

• Go to https://onlinefamily.norton.com/familysafety/
• Set up an account for your family and be sure to enter our school’s promotional code when you register so we get credit toward the school prize:

School Name:   Mt Erie Elementary

Promotion code:  PR-WA-24-3032

• Follow the easy instructions to install the service on the computers your kids use
• Login to check up on kids’ online activities, view reports showing search items and websites kids are using, set limits on kids’ computer time and monitor Facebook and MySpace activity, etc…

We are doing great work to help protect families and create better online experiences for all.  At its core, that is what this contest is all about – making the Internet a safer and more rewarding experience for the entire family. 

 At the Harvest night family night on October 29, we’ll have a computer set up to sign you up and get you going!

 Finally, here are a few links that may be of interest to you:

 Internet Safety Tips for Parents

What Kids Do Online

Talk With Your Child About the Internet

School and the Internet: What You Should Know

What is Your School’s Internet Policy?

Prevent Online Bullying

8 Steps to Peace of Mind Online

MySpace and Facebook: What You Should Know

 Thanks for making the Internet a safer place for our kids and for helping our school!

 Suzy Gilbert

360.588.8380

360.202.9098 (cell)