PAC Meeting Notes for Monday, February 15th 2016, 6:00 p.m. ~ Art Room

• Any news from Mrs. Lipsey?- Lifetouch will be our new school photographer.  Ms. Musset sent out a flyer for a father/daughter dance that will be occurring in March. There will be an option for corsage/photograph sign up on the flyer.  They will try to plan a mother/son event in May.  We will have an Olympian visiting the school in March.  We may review the need for items that can be used during recess since we have the new playground storage sheds.

• PBS request- Mr. Quinlan (2^nd grade teacher) came to our meeting and gave an overview of how we are implementing the PBS program at our school.  Staff give students Irish Best tickets when they are doing a positive behavior.  The tickets can be used for in-classroom or school wide raffles. Some of the prizes are free (lunch with mystery teacher, best seat in the house, etc) and there are prizes that have cost (t-shirts, gift cards, etc). The school holds monthly PBS assemblies with games and fun activities. After brainstorming how to fund this program, it was discovered other schools have partnered with their PTA.  Mr. Quinlan requested support from PAC and $500 annually was suggested.  We discussed as a group and decided to vote annually at our May meetings for the upcoming year.  We voted to support PBS this year for an amount not to exceed $500, and will work with the PBS group on what the financial need is for the remaining school year.

• Artist in Residence- Sandy Melroy came to give an overview for members not at the last meeting.  She is a silk painting artist from De Pere.  She will be our Artist in Residence at our school April 4-8.  The children will be creating individual take home projects.  Grades 2-5 will be creating a silk sun catcher. K-1^st grade will be creating a foam core with silk cover item.  We discussed including the 4K by having them create the foam core design and using their hand print. It was suggested we use parent volunteers in the classroom due to timing issues with 4K not having art classes. Sandy will provide a breakdown of costs including adding the 4K projects. We will also need volunteers ahead of time to prep the items the kids will create.  The art classes will also be creating a mural.  The mural will have 3 panels that are joined together when mounted. Mural placement will need to be approved. After completion of the program, Sandy will provide a book detailing the Artist in Residence week.

• Treasurer’s Report- The current balance is- $25,769.30. We always keep the Paper Recycling set aside for environmental projects.  This is $4,346.49. We also set aside $3,500 to carry for the following year.  Our current spendable amount is $17,922.81. We are still anticipating costs from pre-approved items and events occurring this year that were not included in the spendable amount.

• Paper Recycling Update from December- We collected $694.00 in the December collection.  We will be having another paper recycling drive March 21^st– April 4^th 2016

• Plastic Recycling-So far in Feb. we have collected 111.7 pounds making our total collection 476.2 pounds to date.  The bins will be removed on April 14^th so that Sandy Lezotte can get the total recorded before the April 15^th deadline.

• Brain Bowl – Connie Wheeler organized the fundraiser this year.  We are still waiting on final totals, but it is expected to be about $5800. Once we get the official results, we will announce and plan the pizza parties for the classrooms and t-shirt prizes for top earners.

• Sock Hop – Cindy Taft organized and reported the free event was very successful.  She estimated about 350 kids were in attendance.  The glow sticks, prizes, and snacks were a hit. The gym, lobby, and multipurpose rooms were full. Families seemed to have a great time. Even though over 100 bags of cotton candy were made ahead of time, they still went fast. We will consider making signs to help with any concerns (keep food out of gym, how to put tickets in box, parents need to supervise children etc) next year as needed. $671.00 was spent on the event.  $131 was collected for the Freedom Food Pantry.

• February Parent/Teacher Conference meal-Michelle Wagner will be sending out emails requesting volunteers to bring in dishes for the meal provided to the teachers during conferences Feb. 24^th. The theme will be salads. We have leftover water from the sock hop that will be provided.

• Staff Book Fair –Sue Mannebach will coordinate with the office to send a half sheet home with kids. Students and parents can bring in gently used books next week and place them in a bin in front of the office.  After collection, the books will be available for staff to select for their classrooms.  Any remaining books will be donated to charity.

• Family Fun Night – Cindy Taft will be coordinating the event on April 8.  She is considering “Minute to Win It” games.  There was some discussion regarding prizes.  We will try to get staff/teachers involved as volunteers as they have previously, the kids really enjoy it.  It is still in the planning phase with more information to come.

• Teacher Requests- There were no teacher requests this meeting.

• New Business- There were two staff members that were recently hired in the elementary school.  It was suggested PAC provide the teacher reimbursement gifts to them.  We voted and approved Ms. Hauser (new guidance counselor) to receive $200 and Ms. Re (early childhood teacher) to receive $100.

Babysitting is provided by Freedom High School National Honor Society students during the meeting.  If you have any questions or comments, please contact Erin Lenhardt at 851-3266 or aelenhardt@gmail.com.

Next PAC meeting:  Monday, March 21, 2016 at 6:00 in Art Room.