PTO meeting minutes - October 14, 2008

Lincoln-Eliot PTO Minutes
October 14, 2008

The complete minutes follow:

I. Introductions: PTO Co-Presidents Michele Kfouri and Agi Sardi
Lincoln-Eliot Principal, Katie Charner-Laird
Faculty Representatives to the PTO
Barbara Phelan, 2nd Grade Teacher
Lupe Gueye, 3rd Grade Teacher
PTO Secretary/Communications, Vicki Ritterband

23 other parents attended the meeting and introduced themselves

1. Melissa Decina
2. Alison Leary Mooradian
3. Andrew Hargens
4. Natallia Astapuk
5. Megara Bell
6. Emile Kfouri
7. Elinor Beatrice
8. Jan Gilpin
9. Beth Porter
10. Maria Vachon
11. Mary Mooradian
12. Kathy Hart
13. Russ Vanderpool
14. Stacey Horsik
15. Michele Kfouri
16. Michael Rothstein
17. Elaine Smith Purcell
18. Liz Adler
19. Shari Meek
20. Melissa Fang
21. Anne Chang
22. Renata Renner
23. Stacey Harris

2. Elaine Smith Purcell, head of the Green Team, gave a presentation on simple things families can do to save the earth. She displayed examples of things that the town recycles, including Dunkin’ Donuts iced coffee cups and black takeout containers with clear plastic tops,

Elaine and Alison Mooradian recently went “dumpster diving” at Lincoln-Eliot and they displayed the enormous amount of recyclable things they found in the dumpster. Here are some other tips from the Green Team:

• Observe the “3 R’s”: Recycle, Reduce, Reuse
• Use stainless steel water bottles instead of plastic ones and bottled water
• Conserve paper, for example, use half sheets of paper with information on both sides when sending home notices
• There are some great eco-friendly products for packing kids lunches, including a reuseable sandwich wrapper that doubles as a place mat (www.wrap-n-mat.com) and Japanese bento-box style (those black, multi-compartmented boxes) lunch boxes (www.laptoplunches.com)
• The bags that frozen veggies and fruit come in can be washed and recycled with plastic bags at the grocery store

The Green Team’s focus will be the following:
Fall: recycling
Winter: conservation
Spring: composting, with the possibility of planting class gardens

Several people have donated things to the Oct. 15-16 clean up days, including the Rothsteins (two big planters), Harts Landscaping and Swartz Hardware.

3. Andrew Hargens spoke about the playground and grounds improvements:

• The playground improvements should be installed in about a month. The new equipment includes a high slide, a climbing wall and “stepping pads.” The fire truck climbing structure, which has been stored under the overhang, will also be installed. The playground cleanup/painting will have to take place in the spring because the weather will be too cold to do it immediately after the installation.

• Andrew met with the city arborist who was very receptive to his planting plan, which involves pruning existing trees and replacing some of the older ones. Finances will obviously dictate how much gets done.

• Andrew would like to start creating a facility improvement plan with the help of staff. This would involve creating a prioritized wish list for different parts of the school building.

• Andrew would like Lincoln-Eliot to be one of the work sites for Newton Serves on Sunday, April 26, This is a day-long community service project. The mayor kicks off the day at city hall, then volunteers go to different worksites to pitch in with whatever needs doing. It would be a great day to get things done to the L-E building, including painting and light carpentry projects.

• Andrew and others have begun talking about the idea of creating an outdoor classroom at L-E. The courtyard at the Jackson Street entrance has been floated as one possible location

4. Megara Bell reported that International Walk-to-School Day on October 8 was a success, with an estimated 200 kids walking. Her committee of one (her!) is looking for people to help with other projects, including figuring out how to make the L-E neighborhoods more walkable. Some Newton schools are making Walking Wednesdays a permanent fixture.

Megara is also working on the school directory. She will be distributing it soon to teachers and parents for proofing.

5. Stacey Horsik reported on the Sally Foster fundraiser, which is off to a slow start, as usual. So far, no one has turned in their packets. They are due this Friday.

6. Melissa Fang is working on the Halloween Dance on Saturday, Nov. 1 from 4-7 p.m. She needs volunteers.

7. Maria Vachon, co-chair of the Spring Silent Auction (with Kathy Hart) said she’s concerned about getting enough volunteers to pull off the auction. The silent auction was started five years ago as a way to minimize the number of smaller fundraisers. We still need a major sponsor (Ben Franklin has been the major sponsor for several years, to the tune of $2,500) and need to begin soliciting donated items and services as soon as possible.

There was some talk of whether the auction should take place at all, if there aren’t enough people interested in helping.

8. Katie’s principal updates

• She’d like parents to host kids book clubs as a way to encourage reading, build community and provide opportunities for open-ended discussions of books. Participating kids would get a free copy of the book and the host family would receive a gift certificate to a book store or online book seller.

• Katie is looking for parents to do activities with the kids who arrive at school at 8. Ideas include reading, sports in the gym, orgami instruction, etc.

• Custodian Frank injured his back and has been out for a couple of weeks.

• Katie and Library Teacher Anne Ritchie have been working on the L-E website. We should see results in a month.

• Katie recently met with the director of Newton Community Schools, which sponsors rather pricey classes for kids and adults. Katie said the tuitions are steep for the L-E community and the fact that no classes take place at L-E is another disincentive for our families. The director said if Katie could determine a class L-E folks would be interested in attending, she would offer it at a discount. Katie wants to hear what types of classes people would be interested in.

9. A motion was made and accepted to change the name on the 5th grade graduation account from Bonnie Silvia to Melissa Decina. PTO co-president Michele Kfouri also agreed to release the $500 budgeted to the fifth grade graduation committee so they can set up the school store, which will take place Wednesday mornings from 8-8:20.

10. The fifth grade graduation committee met after the PTO meeting.

NEXT MEETING IS MONDAY, NOVEMBER 10 @ 6:30 PM.