– Any news from Mrs. Lipsey?-The Princess and Me Dance was held on March 18th. It was very successful with 110 girls pre-registering. There were a lot of great comments regarding how much fun the girls and fathers had. They are still looking to do something in May for the boys/mothers.
Testing will be occurring in April. It will be online. This year 4th grade will have social studies added to the test.
PBS committee purchased books for the 4K, K, and 1st grade and prizes for use this year.
There are 2 assemblies left this year. One will be about “Spread the Word to End the Word” and Student Council is sponsoring an Olympian Walker May 24th.
–Treasurer’s Report– Our current balance is $30,240.36. Part of this amount is money earned from our Paper Recycling ($4,226.99). We hope to spend this on something for the Nature Center or an outdoor/environmental project. We also keep $3,500 in our account as a cushion for next year to cover immediate expenses that occur. The spendable amount is $22,513.37. This does not include monies already dedicated to items approved for this year including Artist in Residence, Family Fun Night, etc.
–Artist in Residence– PAC is sponsoring an Artist in Residence this year for Mrs. Rudolph’s Art Room. Sandy Melroy is a Silk Artist and will be working with students on an individual project as well as a large mural that will be displayed in the front stairwell. Mrs. Rudolph does not work with the PreK students, but PAC has found parent volunteers to help bring the silk art into those classrooms as well. The PreK students were also able to meet Mrs. Melroy and learn how silk is made. Mrs. Melroy will be here through April 8.
–Family Fun Night– Friday, April 8, 6:00 to 7:30- Connie Wheeler and Erin Lenhardt are now Co-Chairs for this. Cindy Taft organized a Minute-To-Win-It night with great ideas for fun challenging games for the students. It should be a fun night! Face painting and snacks will also be available. This is a completely FREE NIGHT for elementary students and their families. Parents must accompany their children. We are still looking for volunteers to help run the games. Please contact Erin Lenhardt (email is below) if you can help. We are also asking High School students who may need volunteer hours and teachers to help with this event.
–Brain Bowl– We raised $5,743.30. Three classrooms won pizza parties for highest participation. Congratulations to Mrs. DeGroot’s T/Th class, Mrs. Thiel and Mrs. Margo Fox’s classes!
–Staff Book Fair– Sue Mannenbach organized a new/gently used book drive. The teachers then get to use these free books for their classroom libraries. Any books that are left over are donated to St. Vincent or Goodwill. We noticed this year that the teachers did not take as many books. We will look into the reasons why and decide if this is something we want to continue.
–Secretary/Administrative Professionals Day– Wednesday, April 27. We voted to include Diane along with the two Judys this year. We voted to give $50 and flowers to each. Connie Wheeler will take care of a card/money. Amy Lahay will get the flowers.
–Paper Recycling– The next one is March 21 – April 4. Paper products only please!
–Plastic Bag Recycling– ongoing thru April 14- We have collected 806 pounds so far!
New Business–
-Playground equipment-Ms. Fox approached Erin Lenhardt on behalf of the Climate Committee. The group has created a list of desired playground equipment/toys to use during recess because there are many items lacking or in poor condition. After discussion PAC voted to approve $2500 for the start-up purchase of these items. We will also get feedback from the Climate Committee later in the year to determine how much of the wish list was able to be purchased. Some of the items will probably need to be replaced annually.
-Some teachers commented that the electronic pencil sharpeners that we helped them purchase no longer work and the warranty was only 60 days. This prompted a longer discussion that we wanted to look into before the end of the year regarding our guidelines for the teachers to spend their $100 gift from PAC. The guidelines were originally put in place because we felt if the students/parents worked so hard to help us raise money, we wanted the money to go to something educational that stayed in the classroom for other students to benefit from year after year. We voted to remove the current guidelines this 2016-2017 school year and simply state that the teachers use their $100 gift on educational items in the classroom. We will not approve/pay for any snack items for classrooms. We love being able to offer the $100 gift to teachers every year ($200 to any new teacher or a teacher that switched grade levels) and we hope the teachers love spending it! Thank you to all the parents/students who help us raise that money!
-Cookie Dough fundraiser- Michelle Gloudemans has been the chairperson for this fundraiser since it has started. Our current cookie dough vendor is now located out of state and she noted it did not run as smoothly this year. She presented info from another vendor that also offered other items to sell along with cookie dough. We noted that the middle school does a very similar fundraiser almost the same time of year. We discussed options and thought about still switching vendors but just selling cookie dough or switching the time of year that we do our sale. Michelle will talk to vendors for options and we will continue this discussion at a later meeting. We may be reevaluating all of our fundraisers to determine if they are still effective or if we need to try something new.
Next PAC meeting: Monday, April 18, 2016 at 6:00 pm in the Art Room. Babysitting will be provided by the Freedom High School National Honor Society.
Any questions or comments, please contact Erin Lenhardt at aelenhardt@gmail.com or 851-3266.
Freedom Elementary Parent Activity Committee 