Wanaque School
PTA Meeting
Technology Room
September 8, 2015
Meeting called to order at 7:02pm.
Leane: Welcome everyone. Glad everyone could come tonight. This will be a fun meeting as we kick off the year. There are refreshments and we will have door prizes as well. Before we get started, I wanted to make sure and thank Angela for 2 terrific years, so glad to have her support tonight as well.
Ms. Cardiello: Best of luck to all new officers, you have some big shoes to fill but I am sure you will do just fine, and welcome back to those who have been with us before! Please remember that we are here for you. If you need anything, my door is always open and I would love to hear from you, good or bad. Mr. Beattie wanted to be here tonight but had a last minute conflict. We are trying to make things greener too so all paperwork is online, so far there haven’t been any reported issues so let us know if you run into any.
Q: Noticed there was no bike registration form this year? Can kids ride bikes to school?
A: Yes, they can ride, we just decided to leave it to the student handbook, and if you follow those directions you will be fine.
We had a small issue with the buses; Ringwood can no longer provide bus services for us as they had 5 drivers retire and could not replace them in time. We have a new bus company and therefore new bus drivers who are not familiar with our routes. The first day there were challenges with both the morning and evening routes. We were proactive and followed the bus, realized the driver was not up to par, got a new bus driver and followed again This one seems better but we will keep following to make sure there are no problems. As we all know our number one concern is our children so please let us know if there is anything we can help with – have a great year!
Leane: Mr. Frick
Mr. Frick: Good Evening: Great to see everyone here. Mr. Sarullo could not be here tonight but he sends his regards. We are off to a great start, the roof over the kindergarten-grade 2 has been replaced and the classrooms have been painted. There is fresh blacktop in front of the kindergarten exit doors. The basketball courts were fixed up and the nets replaced. We have put up new signs as well as designated the parking spot for the Tricky Tray winner. The town picnic will be September 19; I will be in the dunk tank at 2pm! Back to School night is the 15th. As Ms. Cardiello said, please feel free to call or email me with any concerns you may have – again welcome and thank you!
Leane: Thank you to all the teachers who came out tonight as well, if any of you would like to speak just let us know!
BOE: Rob Barnhardt: Looking forward to working together with the PTA again this year. We are going to review the roles of the board members so that we all have a good understanding of all responsibilities. We are here to help the schools, not run them. More to come
Leane: Would like to introduce the new officers:
1st VP: Elise Gamariello
2nd VP: Jennifer Spear
Treasurer: Sharon Berkenbush
Corresponding Secretary: Tracy Purcella
Recording Secretary: Yvette Stoker
Officer Reports:
President: Leane Excited for this first year, will need lots of support so thank you in advance
1st VP – Elise: Nothing to report
2nd VP - Jen: Nothing to report
Treasurer - Sharon: The budget is next to the sign in sheet in the front, we will be voting on it at the next meeting so please review at your leisure.
Corresponding Secretary - Tracy: Read some thank you notes for the Scholastic gift cards to start the year, they are on the table to look at
Recording Secretary - Yvette: Nothing to report
Standing Committee Reports
Drama – 4th – 8th: Lisa S.- This year we will only have 1 drama program and we will extend it from 4-8th grades. I have been in touch with the director, we will choose a play and work on dates so more to come.
Class Mom Coordinator: Victoria – we will be choosing class moms at the October meeting. Forms have gone home, if you are interested, please fill out the form and get it back in as soon as possible.
Kid Stuff: Lori S – This is my last year running this committee so if anyone is interested in taking it over, please talk to me! Forms will go home starting Monday. The hardest part about this fundraiser is hunting down the books after the sale. This year I have all of them so you will get them when you pay for them.
Cultural Arts – Open committee: More information to come
Fundraising Committee: Gertrude Hawke forms going home soon. We will do this once in the fall and once in the spring, it was pretty successful last year. We will have a dine to donate with Pizza One on 9/29 and are looking to do a pocketbook bingo in either October or November. This year we are asking that each committee with a budget of $2000 or more conduct 2 fundraisers. One can be a dine to donate, that is so easy, Wendy’s, Pizza One, Prime 15, Ice Cream Station and many other local merchants love these and it is a very simple way to make some money. Please try and be creative, we will have fundraisers each month this way and hopefully not all requiring selling something.
Encore: Karen L.: Nothing to report yet
Holiday Shop: Date set for December 4 for the kids and there will also be an opportunity for them to shop at the bazaar
Holiday Bazaar: Kristin K. Date is set for December 5 from 10-3. 23 tables are already sold, tables go for $35 per table and we can fit many more so spread the word!
Box Tops: Turn in all those you collected over the summer! Be sure the student and teacher’s names are both on the envelope so that we give proper credit
Tricky Tray: We need help with this committee, as you know this is our single biggest fund raiser and we need to make sure it is terrific. There are many ways to get involved, please look in the book and sign up to help!
8th grade committee Chris, Lori, Michelle: Lots of information coming home soon. There will be a pre-meeting with Haskell in the next week or so and the committee is preparing for back to school
Reading Program: Another open committee, Mrs. Remington is terrific and does most of the work, just needs someone to work with.
School Pictures: not present: Tiffany is our new chair for this activity. 1st Fall pictures will be 10/19, we could use some help that day for crowd control and helping the photographer. 8th grade pictures will be taken 11/23 and that will be the date for retakes as well. Spring pictures will be May 17 and will include siblings
Website: Karin Delsignore will continue with the amazing job she does
Town Picnic: Scheduled for 9/19 from 2:00 – dark
We will have the dunk tank and there are many folks signed up to be in it already! We will also host a chocolate booth and school apparel will be for sale. We need volunteers for all of these activities.
Q – Can we do a 50/50 at the picnic?
A – That requires a gambling license but we can look into that
Membership: Lisa and Jackie are taking over that committee; please make sure you are a member so you can vote!
Bingo: Juanita will continue to chair this committee, 1st Bingo is 11/13 7-8:30 then there will be one in February and another in April.
School Apparel: Gina– doing a great job with new items and styles. There is a huge variety to choose from. We will have a table at the picnic, bazaar and back to school night, order forms will also go home in backpacks next week. If orders are in by 10/5 they will arrive before Thanksgiving
Trunk or Treat: We will be working with Haskell again on this event. It is scheduled for 10/24 from 6-8. We have the haunted maze, hayride, DJ and fortune teller already secured. We will need volunteers to help direct kids and cars. Forms for cars are coming soon and we will be staggering the grades and times for participating.
Spring Egg Hunt: We are trying to schedule it in but Easter is very early this year and it was very cold last year so we are going to need to see if we can make it happen. We cannot do anything without volunteers so please think about signing up to work on one of the committees and tell your friends too!
Clothing Drive: Scheduled for 10/10. You can drop bags of clothes here from 10-3, all proceeds will go to Big Brothers – flyers are coming. This is a great opportunity for the 6-8th graders and anyone who has high school aged kids to collect some community service hours. Ms. Weaver moderates that requirement for our school; you can speak to her about opportunities as well.
Stop & Shop: Stop and Shop is once again offering the A+ rewards program so be sure and register your card for Wanaque School, we will have information out at back to school and the picnic too
Old Business: If you have anything you would like to circulate through the membership please make sure you send it to Tracy and include your contact information in case members have questions about your information.
New Business: The committee fund raisers will be on a first come first served basis, if you are planning a fundraiser, please speak to Elise first to make sure the date is available. The PTA is a great place to get involved with your school, you can be as involved as your schedule permits and we need every one at every level so please don’t think if you don’t have a lot of time to give that we cannot make the best of it, we can!
Motion to adjourn until October 5, 2015
Motion: Tracy G.
2nd: Ann P.
Meeting adjourned until October 5, 2015, 7pm
# # #
Respectfully submitted September 17, 2015
