PTA Meeting Notes for March 2023 meeting

      March 30, 2023

Members Present: 23 members

Introductions

Principal’s Update (Corey)

• Corey started by talking about the Volunteer Luncheon and a BIG Thank You to all of the parent volunteers that help Appleton run so well.

• School closures, boundaries, and the implications for Appleton.

• They (D51) have a committee that will be formed soon that will help decide about what to do about our district’s financial crisis.

• One big change for Appleton will be the location of the Challenge Program for middle school. If you have questions about this program, please contact Corey Hafey OR Sue Jerome.

• There will probably be some boundary changes for Appleton and Wingate. These changes could affect where students go to middle/high school. Appleton may be pushed towards GJ and any from Fruita. We don’t have any information at this time.

• Appleton – Corey's guess is that we will have very little impact in terms of staffing changes, etc. Nothing to worry about at this time.

• Potential new yearly budget item - $500 for intervention consumables (this would include math and reading and be under Julie Hickman and Katie Pollert to spend)

• We have both a Reading and a Math Interventionist. There are numerous resources that these departments need.

• Julie Hickman spoke about what she and Katie need to teach their 60 – 70 students per day.

• Jared – On our Expenses we have the allotments for each grade level. Are they included in that? NO!

• Should there be a Line Item for these two programs?

• This money would be used for student incentives, consumable items, etc.

• This would be $500 for the “Interventionist Programs!”

• Motion to add a line item

• Jared – Motion made

• Brooke Bray – 2nd

• All in favor! Zero opposed!

• Beginning 2023 – 24 school year, this change will be in place!

Financial Report (Brooke)

• Art Night – Made about $5,100 after expenses.

• Great Silent Auction

• About $57,000 in the bank right now

• C. Crone – Can we (grade level teams) use our $800 PTA Money for the bus fee for field trips? How about student admission for a field trip?

• Corey – Yes!

• Use the $800 Grade-Level Allotment for the bus fees!

• Use the SBA Account first to pay for entrance fees, but then can use the PTA account.

Committee Updates (Art Heritage/Restaurant Nights/Community or Business Sponsors)

• Art Heritage -

• Restaurant Nights – K. Gustad -- $150 for Red Robin

• Hillbilly Grill - $75

• Coming Up – Get Air

• Corey – These are just easy, fun events. Do them if you want to and if they are easy for you!

• Krissy G. - If somebody would like to help with setting up these events it would be great! Please reach out! 😊

New Agenda Items

• Business Sponsorships (April) - The last page of today's agenda has a little chart that an Appleton PTA committee worked on.

• Looking at Diamond Level - $750; Platinum Level - $500; Gold Level - $250

• See the chart below for business benefits.

• The team would like ideas for how to support the businesses that support Appleton

• Joe – Thinks that $300 was not enough for what businesses were getting. With higher prices, we may get fewer businesses, but may still make more money.

• Maybe just have one page of all of these businesses in Corey’s newsletter so that all businesses are represented well.

• Brooke – Is there room on the marquee for a “Sponsor of the month?”

• Corey – There really isn’t room.

• We could have sponsors who could “sponsor” our big events – carnival, art night, etc.

• Brian Bray – How many sponsorships do we have? How much money do you raise currently?

• Brooke – About $5,800

• There is a lot of value to these PTA sponsorships. These businesses get quite a bit of exposure for their money!

• C. Crone – Businesses are willing to sponsor an event if they get some exposure for their business.

• There are numerous opportunities in this realm.

• PTA Sponsorship VS. “Sponsoring An Event” needs to be thought out – How can these be different and still benefit the Appleton PTA?

• How about sponsors being printed on the back of our red tee-shirts.

• Jared – The cost for this isn’t huge, so it would be easy to do.

• Corey – This is a good idea.

• McComb – How about different tee-shirts each year? With the year on them? Then families would be more apt to purchase new tee shirts each year.

• Amanda - Do we make a profit on tee-shirts? Not really! PTA buys extra to give to students who need them. We make a little money, but not much!

• We would need to put a deadline on business sponsors so that banners, tee shirts, etc. could be printed/made.  

• Corey – We keep shirts year to year and give them away to students. So, they can’t really have the year on them.

• April – Cool to have a kid contest for designing the shirts. Can this be a part of Art Night?

• There was LOTS of discussion about sponsorships today!

• This Business Sponsorships Committee needs to meet again, look at today’s input, and build upon that.

• Please report-out again next month.

• Tree Planting and Rotary (Brian Bray) - Member of the Rotary Club and they plant trees around the valley (Canyon View Park, Los Colonias, etc.) The Rotary Club is donating 40 trees to the district. Brian got 3 for Appleton! YAY!! 😊  Thank You to Brian & The GJ Rotary Club!

• May 1st (week of) is the week for this.

• They would like to involve some students if we want to.

• The trees are $300 - $500 each.

• We can help decide where we want them to be planted.

• Corey – We have plenty of spots for some.

• Brian Bray will come to help with this.

• Summer Learning Program Prizes (Jared) - No update for this!

• Jared – Parent Pick-up & Drop-off

• Parking lot issue with the curve in the driveway

• Last Fall Corey made paper signs and that has helped.

• Jared would like have some nice, big signs made – Something more permanent!

• $365 + shipping

• Probably $450 to get these ordered

• Motion to get these signs ordered ASAP

• Motion: Jared

• 2nd: C. Crone

• All in favor!

• No opposed!

• ** Passed and signs can be ordered!

• Bryn Boyd & Kim Gerlach – Fruita Middle PTO

* They are working to build the FMS PTO

• Middle School is a challenging time, so please work to support the Middle School PTA/PTO

• Appleton has parents working at West Middle School, Fruita Middle School, Redlands Middle School - working to make their PTA/PTO’s bigger and better

• Corey – We will send a message out to all 5th grade parents with contact info and how to get involved

• We can put this out on our Facebook Page also!

• This is Appleton influence! Way to Go Bookworms!

Open Items

• We are ready to order seven more Aquos boards for summer installation. They will be fixed to the wall and not movable cart models. (Corey)

• Corey – We are looking at what to do with the two big screens in the library and computer lab. What to do with these? Maybe move them into the cafeteria? One in the lobby? We could show kids doing things, upcoming events, etc.

• Jared – I Love the idea on one in the lobby! We could include sponsors on it too!

• Further discussion or follow-up on golf tournament fundraiser brought up last meeting. (Is this something we feel won’t work and should remove from future agendas?  Roxy was looking into this)

• Corey – I don’t think Roxy had a plan for moving forward with it, it was just an idea.

• This is A LOT of work! Do we want to extend ourselves that far? It’s a commitment!!

• Nobody jumped at this idea! Tabled for now!

• Summer Learning Program Prizes (Jared)

• Sarah was going to follow-up on getting Rowdy to come for a visit/Brooke was following up on a snow cone truck and Kelli mentioned talking to someone at FCA about a connection with a pro athlete.

• Jared will talk to Sarah about this idea!

• Julie Hickman – In years past, PTA has included prizes for Summer School kiddos. This system has changed, and there won’t be a need for prizes for this!

• Updating playground equipment

• Still doing the groundwork!

• If you have ideas on how to get some new playground equipment or funds for this project, please reach out!

• Now that we have all of our Aquos Boards purchased and installed, we can start building toward this BIG goal!

• Decodable books  We need more time before deciding on ordering more books. We won’t come back to this item until we have more information from the curriculum department.

• These will have to be replaced when they get worn out.

• Addressing future volunteer needs  Board in discussions on this. (No updates for this meeting)

• Pre-packaged school supplies (April looking into – no updates for this meeting)

Other Ideas or Thoughts

• April – We have BINGO Night coming up, the lead volunteer cannot do it. We need someone to help with this night.

• Corey talked about what this night is all about

• We need to get the room set up, prizes set up, make lemonade

• No-cost for this night --> Family Fun Event!

• This is not a demanding job!

• Please contact Corey Hafey if you can help out with BINGO Night on Wednesday, April 26th!

Upcoming Dates to Remember

• Tuesday, April 4th – Thursday, April 20th: State Testing

• Friday, April 7th: Get Air Fundraiser

• Monday, April 10th – Friday, April 28th: Book Fair

• Wednesday, April 26th: BINGO Night – 6:00 – 8:00 p.m.

• Thursday, April 20th: Next PTA Meeting