November 12,
2003
The
meeting was called to order at 7:01 p.m.
President’s
Report: Ellen Skoly first thanked Rie Sakai, Intern
from Japan, for sharing with us before the PTO meeting the Japanese traditional
Tea Ceremony. Ellen then made a motion
to move to accept the minutes from the September and October PTO meetings.
Book
Fair Update: The book fair was a success. The school made a profit of $1,412.79 from
this event. A motion was made, voted on
and passed to have the cash profit from the book fair go to the playscape.
Thanksgiving
Baskets: Ellen Skoly reported that 12 baskets are
being put together. One basket is being
put together by the school office and 11 baskets are being put together by the
classrooms. The second grade classes
are doing one basket together. A
reminder notice will be sent home asking for help on the Monday before
Thanksgiving in coordinating and getting the Thanksgiving baskets to Hockanum
Valley.
Schoolpop: Darlene Murray reported that this fundraiser did not do
well. A dozen forms were returned. We can still order on-line until the end of
the school year and whatever is purchased LSS will receive 30% in profits.
Buckland
Hills Mall: A Cash Back for Schools update was
presented. LSS is currently in third
place. The school competition is a
little different this year. We are
grouped together by teams. The LSS team
consists of East Hartford High School and St. Gabriel’s School in Windsor. Remember that every time you shop at the
mall you should hand in your receipts to the service desk (which is located
outside Barnes & Noble) and LSS will receive bonus points.
Treasurer’s
Report: The budget report was presented.
Teacher’s
Report: Mrs. Merrow reported on the reading rocket
logs. The kick-off for this event is on
Friday, November 14th.
Remember that you can log all family reading time.
Joey
and Maria’s Comedy Italian Wedding Fundraiser:
Kristine Lajeunesse reported that our profit to date is $1,918. 124 tickets have been sold. It started off well but the ticket sales
have slowed down tremendously. Please
do whatever you can to get this event out to others. Our goal is to sell 250 tickets and we are half way there.
Playscape: Julie Marcotte presented diagrams of the existing playscape and
showed us the areas that have deteriorated and have been removed. The playscape is safe just aging. LSS is still in the process of gathering
information on renovating the playscape.
Information will be going home shortly to the parents for their
input. Once information gathered is
complete, it will be presented to the two vendors LSS has chosen and the
vendors will create their playscape designs.
The estimated cost of completing the
playscape is $100,000. There are three ways
we are raising the money: (1) grants;
(2) fundraisers; and (3) town funds.
LSS has received two grants to date:
(1) SBM in the amount of $250; and (2) Wal-Mart in the amount of
$1,000. To date, we have raised $12,000
(10% is from donations and the rest from school fundraising).
We are in the process of putting
together a form letter to go out to local businesses asking for small
donations. We will be sending home a
letter to the parents asking the parents to see if their places of employment will
donate to the playscape.
We want to place a goal sign like a
rising thermometer in front of the school showing the playscape progress with a
little sign “want to help - make a donation” and “see the thermometer go up.”
The playscape will be done in three
phases: (1) Phase I in the fall of
2004; (2) Phase II in the fall of 2005; and (3) Phase III in the fall of
2006.
If anyone has any other ideas in
raising money for the playscape, please notify Julie.
Website: Paul Rouleau distributed a hand-out, introduced and displayed on
a big screen what the LSS website looks like.
The website is www.lss-pto.com. We
would like everyone to view it and if you have any comments or suggestions
please let him know.
Escape
School Video: We ran out of time so the Escape School
video will be shown at the next PTO meeting.
The
meeting was adjourned at 8:25 p.m.