Dixie Sun Elementary PTA Board Meeting Minutes
Thursday, May 18th, 2011, 7:00 pm
Members Present: Shannon Woolf, Jerry Olson, Shirleen Heaton, Sonia Larsen, Michelle Joines, Dale Porter, Ryanne Day, Shannon Virgin, Stephanie Sappington, Ann Esplin-Wong, Rebecca Navas, Desiree Mortenson, Laura Najera, Casey Brown, Kara Wheeler, Laura Bautista
Pledge: Ethan Woolf
Treat: Shannon Woolf
The meeting was called to order by PTA President Shannon Woolf at 7:07 p.m.
The minutes of the April 28th board meeting were accepted.
Michelle Joines was recognized and thanked for her tireless efforts as PTA President over the past two years.
Treasurer’s Report: Report given by Shirleen Heaton. Financial information on Income/Expense was available for review. The primary expense since the previous meeting was PTA conference.
Event Feedback on Open House: Report by Jerry Olson.
The Open House was a great success. The quality of the day program was excellent, despite somewhat low attendance. Fortunately, three school board members were among those present. The 1st grade program was recognized as outstanding. It was suggested that in the future, it might be good to incorporate a similar program as a focal point for the Open House.
The evening program featured dinner, displays, and a guest speaker, Greg Roberts fromSaltLake. There were 75-80 people in attendance including four board members, two mayors, city council members, as well as elementary and secondary school principals. The Open House made great strides in accomplishing two-fold purpose: to provide positive information to the school board before Dixie Sun’s dual immersion program approval vote of school board, as well as garnering public support for a second school focusing on dual immersion.
Co-Chair Challenge: Issued by PTA President, Shannon Woolf.
Shannon encouraged the board to find a co-chair who predominantly speaks a different language. The motivation is to help build bridges between the language communities, as well as to draw people into the PTA who are not currently involved.
Board Positions Needing to be Filled:
Carnival Co-Chair, Parent Communications VP, Phone Tree Co-Chair, Newsletter Co-Chair, Health and Safety VP, Bike Safety Co-Chair, Reading Co-Chair.
Desiree Mortenson volunteered to help with the Phone Tree. Chantel Markel’s name was suggested as the Reading Chair.
2011-2012 Dixie Sun PTA Goals:
- Increase number of parent volunteers
- Ensure PTA programs are affordable for all families
- Continue communication with parents
Jerry Olson also suggested that we continue to work on our image with the public and the board by continuing newspaper articles and possibly doing another Open House.
Other board member suggestions:
- advertise at a booth in Vernon Worthen park over the summer
- establish a network with the other Spanish strand elementary schools in the State.
- partner up with a school from another country.
- participate in BYU’s Language fair
Mr. Porter mentioned that Dixie Sun is already connected with a consortium of dual immersion schools. It might be possible to add a PTA element to this organization.
The board brainstormed ways to ensure the future of a Spanish program onceDixieSun students graduate to middle school. It was suggested that a letter be sent home that parents can sign to express their interest in having Spanish continue in the upper levels.
PTA Membership Theme and Drive: Report by Shannon Woolf
Membership Theme: Building Bridges.
Membership Drive: The PTA will cover the membership dues for 1 parent in each family so that the PTA can be open and free for everyone. In return, the PTA requests that parents commit “Three for Me”—Three hours of service at the school over the entire school year.
Additionally, Shannon suggested giving parents legos for helping to “build” the PTA. These legos will be used as part of a school-wide endeavor to build a bridge together. Also, there will be grade level competitions to build famous 2D bridges the fastest by having parents join the PTA .
It was noted that the concept of PTA is poorly understood by many. It would be helpful to provide very basic instructions about what the PTA is and what membership entails.
Laura Najera mentioned how important it is that we respect parents and make them feel like their voices are really being heard.
Calendar Items:
Saturday, August 13th was tentatively scheduled as a date to approve the PTA budget and get together for a PTA social.
The ending date of the Reflections Contest was moved to Tuesday, October 4th.
Food for the International Dance Festival will begin at 5:00, not 6:30.
The uniform store summer hours will be Tuesday and Wednesday from 11:30-12:30 during the month of June. It will then be closed until August.
Plans for the 2011-2012 School Year
Treasurer, Shirleen Heaton: Please use a separate receipt for PTA purchases. Reimbursement requests can be found in the Treasurer Folder in the PTA box.
Dale Porter, Admistrative VP: Explained how there are multiple parent groups within Dixie Sun, PTA, Community Council, and Community Action Council. All of these groups work together to improve the Dixie Sun community.
Laura Bautista, Teacher Rep: Mentioned that Spanish scores are looking really good.
Jerry Olson, Legislative VP: Reminded us that we have power to speak up as parents in a way that teachers and administrators often cannot.
Casey Brown, Membership VP: Wants to target men in membership campaign in order to get more fathers involved. He suggested gearing some volunteer opportunities specifically for Dad.
Sonia Larsen, Dance Festival : Sonia will need lots of volunteer help to organize the food.
Ann Esplin-Wong, Spell-a-Thon. This fundraiser has been extremely successful in other schools, so we hope it will work well at Dixie Sun as well. Spelling words will go out February 6th. Donations will be collected through February 17th
Fundraising: Keep your box tops, Lin’s receipts, and tabs to soda pop cans. You can support Dixie Sun as well when you use your Target Red Card or shop at Smiths by going online to select our school.
Shannon Virgin, Teacher Staff/Appreciation: shared creative ideas to recognize staff efforts through monthly drawings, a catered luncheon, and recognizing birthdays
Laura Najera, Parent involvement: Laura suggested helping parents become more involved by arranging a cultural event or performance for parents to attend. We also talked about having parents come into the classroom and share some of their cultural heritage.
Christin Olson, Celebrate Children Chair: Christin will continue to recognize student birthdays and oversee the Reflections contest and talent show.
Desiree Mortenson, Reflections Contest: This year’s theme is “Diversity Means.” Students can begin preparing projects now. Desiree will need lots of help as the contest gets closer.
Rebecca Navas: Rebecca will be responsible for the PTA bulletin board and is open to ideas.
Stephanie Sappington, Book Fair: The book fair was very successful this year. Next year Stephanie hopes to solicit even more help in running it.
Ryanne Day, Red Ribbon Week: Ryanne had many good ideas about how to help steer students away from drug and alcohol during Red Ribbon week., such as having MissUtahspeak and showing diseased lungs.
Michelle Joines, School Uniform Chair: A few new items have been added to the available inventory, such as girls’ pants, a navy boys’ vest, and a longer skirt. Also, Michelle requested that the teachers discuss their willingness to implement a monthly $1 dress-down day. Without funds, the volunteer voucher program cannot continue.
Other Items:
Summer Movie sign up. Volunteers are needed to help with Summer movies on Wednesday mornings at 8:30 am at Sunset Movies 8 beginning June 15th and ending August 10th. A sign-up sheet was passed around.
Discussion about any remaining agenda items was tabled due to the late hour. Information regarding sponsors will be e-mailed.
Meeting adjourned at 9:25 pm.
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