*Mrs. Anderson (reading specialist) ABC Countdown-Mrs. Anderson presented a program the Reading Team will be doing for the students that will countdown the last 26 days of school with a different activity on each day. The activities will be a different letter of the alphabet. She asked if PAC would provide the items for a few of the days (B-bubble gum, I-ice cream, P-popsicles). PAC voted unanimously to support those days.
*News from Mrs. Lipsey-There will be a concert for the 1st and 2nd grade on May 16th. Field day will be May 26th. Testing is going well. They are using laptops/computers from the high school and they have been very beneficial
There will be a My Rockstar and Me dance for the mothers/sons on May 6th.
She has been working with the staff to get suggestions on how to spend the money collected in the fundraisers this year. Some of the staff committees are meeting at the end of April. She will continue to get more input. There were a few RTI items she presented. There was a brief discussion on what RTI is and how the teachers work with different students, not just their own classrooms. We also began a discussion on Ipads in the classrooms. We will continue these discussions at the May meeting. One of the items listed was an Einstein Kit for $250 that the 2nd grade team was hoping to purchase within the next few weeks. We voted unanimously to approve the purchase.
We approved $500 for the 5th grade teachers to purchase of a science last year. It has not been purchased yet due to some questions regarding shipping. They have found a cart they want to purchase, we re-approved.
*Treasurer’s Report-The account balance is $25,148.69. Part of this amount is money earned from our Paper Recycling ($4,346.49). 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. We have expenses approved that have not been paid yet. Our spendable amount is about $10,000.
*Artist in Residence- April 4-8 – Amy Lahay coordinated this very busy week. Sandy Melroy worked with the kids on their individual projects and the mural. She gave the students cocoons to take home. We had a lot of parent volunteers that helped during the week. The 4K and Kindergarten children made hand stamp squares, 1st grade stamped squares, and 2nd through 5th grade created sun catchers. The students also painted on the mural. There were some staff members that came down to paint on the mural too. Some of the individual projects have gone home, some are still being washed by Sandy. The mural is expected to be back in May. Sandy held 2 silk scarf classes with the leftover materials. She gave $95 from the classes back to PAC. Amy had given Sandy a thank you and gift card, we voted to also get her a Freedom clothing item.
- Artist in Residence Books-Connie Wheeler is creating books with pictures from the Artist in Residence programs. She has done this in the past. She is finishing up the paper mache fish one from 2 years ago and will be creating one for this year. We voted to approve her costs in creating these books. There will be 3 of each year made. One for the library, art room and office.
*Family Fun Night- April 8 – There were less in attendance this year, probably due to the weather. There were approximately 150 kids in attendance. There were 12 minute to win it games in the cafeteria and gymnasium. Everyone seemed to have a good time. We had teacher, parent and student volunteers that helped it run successfully. The cost of the event was $362.88. We collected $61 for the Freedom Food Pantry. We have a lot of leftover candy (that will not keep for next year) Mrs. Lipsey suggested they may be able to sell it at the My Rockstar and Me night.
*Plastic Bag Recycling– Sandy Lezotte was not able to make the meeting but prior to it let Erin know that we collected 1340.4 pounds of plastic and we were the 3rd place school. We will receive a planter made from recycled plastic. Good job!
*Paper Recycling– We have received one check, update will be given at the meeting in May
*Staff Appreciation Week – May 2-6-Michelle Wagner was not at the meeting but had previously agreed to coordinate. She sends a sign up for a few days that week to provide treats for the staff.
*Spring Student Appreciation– Loralee Olson-Arcand is setting this up. She is tentatively planning on getting freeze pops for the kids to enjoy after the walk on May 20th.
*Fifth Grade Celebration – Connie Wheeler is the chairperson for this event which will take place on May 31st. In the past PAC provided the cake, however this year the 5th grade team is working with Greg to take care of it. They asked PAC to supply water and/or coffee. Connie will work to get clarification on what they need. In the past we have given the 5th grade teachers gift cards. This year it was suggested we do something different to include all teachers. She will be working on this and giving an update at the May meeting.
*Fundraiser Discussion- There have been comments made to members regarding the number of fundraisers and fundraisers overlapping. We began our discussion with reviewing how our current fundraisers have been performing. Brain Bowl and Paper Recycling have been consistent, Cookie Dough has been significantly increasing, and Avon has been declining. There was a suggestion of moving the timing of the fundraisers so that the fall ones don’t overlap, but that may make them more unsuccessful. We decided to not run the Avon fundraiser for 2016/2017. We will be using a new company for the Cookie Dough fundraiser. They have other products that can be introduced. We also have opportunities from other fundraiser companies if needed. For next year we are currently planning on Paper recycling, Cookie Dough and Brain Bowl for our fundraisers. We decided to change our focus from fundraising and determining how the money is used at the end of the year to trying to assign a goal for fundraisers as they are implemented. We will continue discussion of upcoming needs by staff at the May meeting.
*Teacher Requests-There were no new teacher requests
*New Business/Update-The student council would like to sell drawstring bags next year and wanted to make sure we didn’t have plans to give them out next year. We do not have plans to do this.
Babysitting was provided by Freedom High School National Honor Society students during the meeting. If you have questions or comments, please contact Erin Lenhardt, at 851-3266 or aelenhardt@gmail.com.
Final PAC meeting for this school year: Tuesday May 10th 2016, 6:00 pm in the Art Room (Room 22, lower level).
*Meeting date changed due to music concert May 16th and District survey results meeting May 2nd
Freedom Elementary Parent Activity Committee 