Meeting notes from October 27th Meeting

PTA News – Oct. 27, 2022

Members Present: 26

Principal’s Reports: Corey Hafey

• Congratulations to parents & teachers – 94.3% of families were represented at Parent/Teacher Conferences – Great Job!

• Spell-A-Thon – In full-swing right now!

  • This is our BIG fundraiser for the year

  • Years ago, we had 4-5 fundraisers each year. We got about 10-40% of the money. Now, we get 100% of the money from this fundraiser.

  • Kids get a lot of benefit from this!

• Can Food Drive – Coming up soon!!

  • Last year --> Over 10,000 cans collected by Appleton students!

  • Appleton is very generous!

  • This is going right back into our community!

• A neat thing happened today – Wendy McComb, 1st Grade Teacher, had a big surprise from her sister today. *Corey showed a short video!

• Halloween Parade – Monday, Oct. 31st at 10:00 a.m. on the North Playground

  • Parents are welcome to come watch if you would like to

Spell-A-Thon Update: Hilary Soria/April F.

• Prize toys are ordered

• Pencils for students are on their way

• Hilary will be reaching out to teachers this weekend

• There are LOTS of different prizes and recognition for kids during this fundraiser

• Spelling City Website – All of Appleton has access to this site and it is great!

https://www.spellingcity.com/users/appletonspellathon

*Link is also on the PTA website! 😊

Financial Report: Brooke Bray

• Carnival -- $21,844 Biggest Year Yet!! Way To Go Appleton Nation!

• Spell-A-Thon – Expenses are starting to come through for prizes, etc.

• PTA Membership – At $5,400 already this year

• Added a line-Item for the Dinner Nights Out to make it easy to see

Angelo’s Ornament Night: Heather Bennett

• November 15th - 5:00 – 7:00 p.m. in the South Gym

• The flyer is up on Facebook now

• We have stickers for teachers to give out to kiddos

• Heather still has questions about ordering ahead of time, how to pay, etc. She will look into this and get more information back to us.

PTA President Thoughts: Jared Johnson

• Spell-A-Thon is on the PTA Website

  • Spelling City has a link there for kids to use!

• Last month Jared asked for volunteers to help on the PTA Website. You don’t need any experience. Please volunteer to help with this job! Touch base with Jared to help out.

• Did anybody order tee-shirts and not get them??

• Question – Can people still get shirts that didn’t order before??

  • YES – This will come about very soon!

• Thinking about re-doing our parking lot video. We need a few little battery powered cars. Does anybody have one we can borrow? Let Jared know if you have one.

• New PA System for the South Gym: Jill Phillips, Corey Hafey, and Jared Johnson have been working on a new PA System for the South Gym. We are hoping to make events in the gym a more pleasant event for families to hear their children.

  • Working with the district to work on power – It is a 1938 Building after all!

  • Total Price: $8,000 - $9,000

  • Jill Phillips – The music department will give $3,000 - $4,000 for this cause, so the cost would be less for PTA

  • Questions???? None!

  • Corey Hafey – We do A LOT of fun events there! Assemblies, programs, etc. We want to make this a better place for these big events. We have good funds available and this will be well worth it! It would be awesome!

• Jason D. - Motion to approve the above purchase.

• Brooke Bray – Second

• All Approve the purchase of between $5,000 - $9,000 to put a “fixed PA System” in the South Gym. No Opposed!

• ETA to have it done? Hopefully by the Christmas sing-along, but that might not be feasible because parts are on backorder

Restaurant Nights: Krisi G.

• Freddy’s (both locations) - November 10th

• Famous Dave’s “was a flop” -- We only made about $35

• Krisi needs a partner to help with these nights. Please let us know if you are willing to help with this.

Other Ideas &/or Thoughts:

• Roxy Fanning – Could we do a golf tournament fundraiser for Appleton PTA? It’s something the golf courses can make money, but also a fundraiser for us. Is that something that could be a possibility?

  • Corey – It is possible, but it’s a TON of work!

  • Jared – Is that something you could call around and ask some questions? Roxy said she would look into this and see what might be possible/available.

  • Todd W. - There are grants available for this type of thing. He will look into that.

• Jared – Similar idea with a Cornhole Tournament

• Jared – I love diversifying our fundraisers and thinking about other things. We can then look at some bigger things like new playground equipment.

• C. Crone – We are having a Math Night tomorrow – first ever. It is wonderful to have a Math Interventionist (J. Hickman) and PTA helps fund Appleton interventionists – so Thank You for that support!

  • Goal – To reduce frustration at home and help parents to be able to help their children with math.

  • She will report back to PTA next month with how it goes.

Upcoming Dates to Remember:

• Monday, October 31st – Halloween Parade at 10:00 on the north playground

• November 7th – 11th – Spell-A-Thon Tests are given

• Thursday, November 10th – Freddy's Night Out (Both Locations)

• Thursday, November 10th – 3rd Grade Music Program

• Tuesday, November 15th – Angelo’s Ornament Night 5:00 – 7:00 p.m. South Gym

• Tuesday, November 15th – Graded Spell-A-Thon Tests go home for students to collect their pledges

• Thursday, November 17th – Next PTA Meeting – 4:10 in the Appleton Library

• Thursday, December 1st – Deadline to return Spell-A-Thon donations