Wanaque School
PTA Meeting
Technology Room
May 4, 2015
Meeting called to order at 7:05pm.
AngD: Welcome everyone. Glad everyone could come tonight. Cannot believe this is the last business meeting of the year! We will have our fun meeting in June but this is the last official one. Please take a
moment to review the minutes and then if someone can make a motion to approve:
Motion: Tracy P.
2nd: Lisa.
Without opposition the minutes are voted in as approved.
Ms. Cardiello: I too cannot believe this is the last meeting, I just wanted to take a minute to thank you all for a fabulous year and for all the amazing things this PTA does for the school every year. You all work so hard and that work pays off. I want to thank you all from the bottom of my heart.
AngD: Ms. Morales
Ms. Morales: Good Evening: I also want to thank you for everything you do for us and for your support and time, there is always someone here from the PTA helping out and we are very grateful. Thank you for remembering Principal’s Day. The BMX assembly was just fantastic and I wanted to thank you for that as well. PARCC testing is still going on this week. Kindergarten orientation is this Thursday at 7 in the library if anyone knows a new parent who has an incoming kindergartener. May 14 will be the awards assemble for the 2nd and 3rd marking periods. 5th-8th grades in the morning and K-4 starting around 10:15.
Mr. Sarullo: Also wanted to thank you for the Principal’s Day gifts and I have to say this is the best PTA I have ever worked with so thank you for everything you do.
Rob Barnhardt: We passed the budget last month which means the instrumental music program for 7th and 8th grades is trying to be implemented similar to the Latin program at Lakeland; this is an important step in getting this program back into the schools. Our next meeting is May 12 in the Wanaque library.
Dan Sinclair: Wanted to give you an update on the county and state items going on but first wanted to say what a great tricky tray you guys put on! Where do you get all those prizes! It was a great time even if I didn’t win anything. The NJ Board in Trenton has a legislative committee that we talked about last month. We want to be sure we are represented from all areas so we need parents, teachers, PTA members, everyone to come to these meetings and support our legislators. Bring your issues to the table and let’s talk about them. We have Jill Nitkinas representing Wanaque and Rob Adams representing Lakeland locally. There is a lot of activity on the county and state level and it is good stuff so come to the meetings.
Mrs. Reppa: On behalf of the staff, we want to thank our PTA for all the wonderful things you do all the time for these children and for us. We love the gifts for Teacher Appreciation Week, the tote bags and capes are wonderful and mean so much to us. Thank you to the administration for lunch today, want you to know we know you care.
Officer Reports:
President - Angela: I hope to see all of you at our fun meeting in June, and I want to thank our wonderful PTA volunteers for all the hours and love they put into all our programs, without you we truly could not do any of the things we do. I also wanted to address any rumors that are going around about me running for the BOE. I am accepting the nomination for another term as PTA President, however should I be elected onto the Board, Leanne Tully who is going to be our next 1st VP will step in, I will be working very closely with her so she will be ready if that should happen. I will always be involved and will not abandon the PTA!
1st VP – Joy: Nothing to report
2nd VP - Yvette: Nothing to report
Treasurer - Sharon: Nothing to report
Corresponding Secretary - Chris: I had some thank you notes, but everyone said them personally!
Recording Secretary - Kelly: Nothing to report
Elections: Without any opposition, the following people are elected into respected offices:
Angela Demetriou – President
Leanne Tully: 1st VP
Tracy Purcella: Corresponding Secretary
New officers will be installed at the June meeting
Standing Committee Reports
Bingo: Trying to get one more in, stay tuned for dates, does not look promising as we are very busy but we are trying
Drama - 2nd - 5th not present- for some reason this production is very tight with its budget so we are asking parents to help by donating costumes and possibly some props/sets. If you have anything and your child is not in the show but you would still like to donate, we will post the list of things we need on the website.
Cultural Arts – Monica Q.: BMX stunt show with anti-bully theme assembly for gr 5-8 was the last assembly for the year and was received so well. It was a simple message and was delivered perfectly.
Chordination: Karen L.: Not in attendance. Show planned for May 15 7pm in the Wanaque Gym
Field Day Tracy G.: We will be purchasing our giveaway for the staff as well as the students. The bags will go home the Sunday before so they can be packed for Monday’s events
Dances: not present. Kids said the dance was fun!
Book Fair - Joanne: planned for May 28-29. It will be a BOGO fair. There will be a form for signing up to help set up and break down. We also have accumulated $2427 in credits for the catalog.
AngD: We need to get the approval from facilities first, so keep the dates tentative until we work out those details, you can still sign up either way. Teachers, would a gift card from Scholastic be something you might like for the first of the year instead of the Staples card?
Teachers: all in agreement they would appreciate that just as much
Box Tops for Education Wendy Received a check for $505
Decals: Lori S. will be putting together a decal fundraiser where you can purchase decals for the car with your kids’ activities and names on them. Coming next month
Tricky Tray Sue M. & Sharon B: We cannot thank Sharon and Sue enough for all the incredible work they do to make this a success. This is our major fundraiser and pays for most of our activities throughout the year and like Dan said, this year our prizes were incredible. Our profit was $24,537. We had 367 prizes and 289 attendees. Next year we will shoot for earlier in the month again as we did not count on Communions and there were many that weekend. We were down 60 guests from last year.
8th grade committee – Joy G.: June 17 is the awards ceremony, brunch is June 23rd, the dance is June 13th and the 8th grade trip is scheduled for June 3-5. Everything is going well, lots of things coming up, busy June!
Reading Program: Mrs. Remington: author visit was a great success, had about 50 kids there. It was a seamless integration into the anti-bullying theme as well.
School Pictures: not present: Everything went well, the siblings photos had a little miscommunication issue with 2 students but the wonderful people from Lifetouch came back and took care of it for them, we thank them and the parent sales representative.
Membership: not present: Lisa is taking over with Jackie for next year, thank you for taking that on.
School Apparel – no update
Teacher Appreciation – AngD & Joy G.: This week all the activities are going on, fun things planned all week, hero lunches, breakfast and a super salad day as well as a dangerous dessert bar.
Old Business: Spring concert dates coming
New Business: Some new things planned for next year include a Pocketbook Bingo and a “Me and My Guy” / “Me and My Gal” dance – we are excited to be doing this for grades K-5, dates forthcoming.
Announcements: Need fundraising ideas, we would love to do more but we need funds!
Comment: What about sending a letter to parents who cannot or don’t want to volunteer asking for a one time donation in lieu of time? I would provide a copy of the letter I get from my children’s school – they find this very successful.
Comment: Maybe we could do the same thing for the class moms at the start of the year ask for one check so we don’t have to collect 3 times a year?
Comment: What about raising the PTA dues?
AngD: we passed the By Laws last month with an increase of $1 so we cannot change them again for 3 years.
We will also send the membership letter out with the back to school paperwork again, we did not do that this year and I think that hurt us as well.
Motion to adjourn until June 8, 2015
Motion: Tracy G.
2nd: Jackie
Meeting adjourned until June 8, 2015 at Prime 15
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Respectfully submitted May 11, 2015
