Wednesday, October 27, 2021 at 7pm, Zoom Meeting
Present: Shira Hotvedt, Tiffany Hyatt, Tara Clark, Emilee and Rick Wolters, and Mrs. Emily Avila.
- Principal’s Report
- Nothing to report
- School Board Report
- They sent us an email asking for our involvement and participation in the playground improvement plans. They are putting in a new basketball court, but haven’t purchased hoops or tetherballs yet. They asked if we would be willing to help with that. See discussion below.
- President’s Report (Tara Clark)
- Nothing to report
- Officer’s Reports
- Vice President (Shira Hotvedt) nothing to report
- Secretary (Leanne Fratti) nothing to report
- Treasurer (Tiffany Hyatt)
- Current checking balance is $3,910 with $1,338 of that being teacher funds. The remaining $2,570 is available. There is also a $1,831 balance in savings.
- Fundraising:
- Believe Kids Fundraiser
- There is a bonus if you sign up now, but they require a certain level of success or you owe them money. We opted not to sign up now.
- Dine for Dollars
- Tara is having trouble getting local businesses to respond. We figure they’ve been hit hard by the pandemic and will wait to contact them again until later in the year or the fall.
- Additional Ideas to consider
- Krispy Kreme–sounds delicious but when we did the math we worried there wouldn’t be enough draw to get people to participate in fundraiser vs. just buying from Krispy Kreme themselves.
- Butter Braids–again, sounds delicious. However, they don’t have great solutions for limiting touch points and potential spread of germs.
- Opt-out fundraiser–we decided we have asked for enough recently and will reconsider this later in the year or for next fall. (We are always big fans of this idea and hope to incorporate it soon)
- Box Tops
- Shira to send more reminders and instructions for how to use the box tops app. Maybe monthly reminders to scan receipts or printed flyers to send home to remind parents about the app option.
- Amazon Smiles
- We need to encourage Amazon purchases to the “Falcon Ridge Public Charter School Parent-Teacher Organization” Smiles account. There are HUGE dollars available with this option and we all know how much Amazon is utilized these days.
- Believe Kids Fundraiser
- Events:
- No live events have been approved for the near future.
- Playground improvement Conversation
- See school board report above.
- Blake Wolters has approached the PTO about getting funding to install basketball hoops for Falcon Ridge as part of his Eagle Scout Project. His parents Emily and Rick were in the meeting to help shed some light on estimated costs and what had been discussed during previous conversations with the school board.
- With the school board’s email invitation and Blake’s offer in mind, the PTO voted unanimously to approve the use of $2,500 toward this playground improvement project (specifically basketball hoops and tetherball setups). We will coordinate with the school board to get them that money, but we will let them move forward with making the decisions. This will reduce the number of middle men and help get the school the best overall rates. We will ask that we are kept informed of decisions so that we can communicate to PTO supporters where their money is being spent. This $2,500 is almost exactly the amount of earnings raised in the Fall fundraiser with the goal of “playground improvements” in mind.
- We also discussed the option of purchasing swingsets, but we learned that during previous ventures to invest in swingsets the PTO was warned about the high liability for injuries and the high cost of upkeep (bark) required. We opted to skip investing in this option at this time.
- Teacher Report–Mrs. Avila
- With Mrs. Avila in attendance, we put her on the spot and asked if there was anything she knew of that teachers are in need of or if there are any problems we can help solve. She said that thanks to the COVID funds that were distributed before the end of 2020, the classroom needs are pretty well taken care of right now. She promised to ask around and let us know if she hears of anything we might be able to help with.
- Adjourn: 7:45
