PTO Minutes- May

Want to know the latest L-E news? Read the minutes from the PTO's May meeting.

Lincoln-Eliot PTO Meeting
Tuesday, May12, 2009, 6:30 p.m. in library

1) Welcome and Introductions:

Agi Sardi – PTO co-chair
Michele Kfouri – PTO co-chair
Vicki Ritterband – PTO secretary
Miriam Alandydy – PTO treasurer
Katie Charner-Laird – L-E principal
Barbara Phelan – PTO teacher rep.
Lupe Gueye – PTO teacher rep.
Jean Leventhal,  Newton Corner Neighborhood Association steering committee member
Alison Leary Mooradian
Elaine Smith Purcell
Liz Adler
Stacey Horsik
Melissa Decina
Mairead Devlin
Maria Greenberg
Andrew Hargens
Sherri Meek

2) Re-opening the Newton Corner Library, Jean Leventhal,  Newton Corner Neighborhood Association steering committee. 
Last June the city closed all of its branch libraries. There has been some interest in the community to re-open Newton Corner Library (126 Vernon St, on the other side of the Mass Turnpike near Underwood Elementary School) using volunteers. (Auburndale has reopened its branch, using volunteers. ) If you’d like to get involved in this effort, please contact the Newton Corner Neighborhood Association at ncna@msn.com or 617-244-5759.

3) Principal update, Katie Charner-Laird
• International Night was amazing.  People got to share who they are with the community. A lot of people we don’t often see at school came, which was great. Is there more we can do to celebrate our diversity? Are there more ways we can make people feel they are part of the school community? One idea mentioned was the possibility of doing a community poetry reading, in all of our different languages.

• The book fair was a great event, and kids and parents were very excited by the books. We sold more books than anyone predicted, earning $1,040 for the school.

• We’ve received a $7,000 garden grant from Lowes,  despite the fact that Katie’s grant application only asked for $5,000 (editor’s comment: is there a lesson we can draw from this? Ask and ye shall receive - and sometimes even more than you asked for.) We also received a $750 grant from the Newton Conservators. The plan is to create a L-E school garden, which will not only be a lot of fun for the kids, but will help science come alive. Each grade will have its own  bed. The garden will be located on a strip of land along the sidewalk - between Lori Kremer’s classroom and the Jackson Street entrance. We’ll remove the brush that’s there and fence in the area. The garden will use compost and a drip irrigation system. There will be a meeting of parents and teachers at the school on May 21 at 4 p.m. to brainstorm ideas of how the garden will be used. All are invited.

• Vocabulary parade: June 2, 9 a.m. There will be a costume-making workshop on May 26, 12:30-2 p.m. for kids and their parents. It’s a place to get materials and inspiration. Katie is also planning to have a portrait taken of each child dressed in his/her costume. She needs a few more parent-photographers to help with this starting at around 8:30 on the morning of the parade.  Let Katie know if you can help.

• Staffing updates: Next year 4th grade teacher Angela Goode will job-share with a teacher,  Lauren Ayube, who has taught at Franklin for several year. (Note: since the meeting, Joanne Shapiro has announced her retirement, so there will be an additional new-to-Lincoln Eliot fourth grade teacher) Nancy McDonald will move from 1st to 2nd grade and there will be three second grade classes and three third grade classes.

4) Newton SERVES, Andrew Hargens,
• About 52 people – including 25 kids - painted, cleaned, raked, built things and organized during the April 26th day of community service at the school.  The group accomplished a lot and spent around $250 of the $500 the PTO allotted to the project, mostly on supplies. THANK YOU to everyone who volunteered and to those who donated materials ($300 worth!)  See the bulletin board in the 1st floor hallway for the complete list of those who helped out.

• The compact fluorescent light bulb fundraisers earned about $1,100 for the school. They should arrive fairly soon and Andrew may need some help with distribution.

5) Spring Beautification Days, Elaine Smith Purcell
• The kids will be planting, weeding and raking on Wed., May 27 and Thursday, May 28. The schedule for the day has been revised. Check it out on www.lepto.org.  Parents are welcome. Elaine and her helpers are looking for donations of gardening gloves as well as annuals, including petunias, portulaca, geraniums, English ivy, etc.

6) Teacher Appreciation Lunch: It will take place at the school from 12:30-1:30 p.m. June 4 and the theme is summer. We’ll order lunch for the staff. We’ll need donations of baked goods and salads and 8-10 people to help with serving. 

7) Officer vacancies: The PTO is looking for 1-2 co-presidents for next year, as well as a fundraising chair, and someone who can oversee the PTO website, mostly by making sure it is up-to-date.

8) Fifth grade fundraising, Melissa Decina: The fifth grade is trying to raise $3,400 for its end-of-the year activities. The money goes toward  helping to defray the cost of the class’s camping trip ($180/per child. The fifth grade committee is trying to reduce that price to $150/child), yearbooks, the graduation ceremony itself, and possibly a gift of calculator which is needed in middle school.  The $2,000 the PTO used to allocate to the fifth grade was reduced to $500 a few years ago to increase accountability and to ensure that the fifth grade takes an active role in its own fundraising.

Principal Katie mentioned that although the fifth grade graduation has traditionally been at night, L-E will begin holding daytime graduations after this year.

9) 2009-2010 budget: The budget (see attachment) will be voted on at next meeting.  Andrew Hargens requested that a line item be added for $500 for NewtonSERVES.  If anyone has any comments about the budget, email Agi Sardi at agi.sardi@gmail.com or Michele Kfouri at emile.michele@humanscape.com .

10) The current budget, Miriam Alandydy: Because recent fundraisers brought in more money than we anticipated, we have $1,931 to reallocate to areas we thought we might have to reduce. We have the choice of returning money to the following line items:

• Creative Arts and Sciences
• Replacing lost library books
• Technology maintenance
• Reading and writing enrichment
• Fifth grade graduation

Principal Katie advocated  fully funding Creative Arts and Sciences to the tune of $1,100 so she can bring in singer-songwriter- storyteller Susan Reed for two performances.

Here’s the lowdown on the benefits of funding the other areas: by funding library books, we would be filling in some of the gaps in the curriculum in areas like civil rights. Funding technology maintenance would enable an upgrade of memory in some laptops. (Currently, they are unable to run certain software. ) And finally, funding reading and writing enrichment would enable the school to replace damaged books in the reading room.

14 out of 16 people voted to fully fund Creative Arts and Sciences for $1,100.  By unanimous vote, $540 will go toward replacing library books, and 15 of the 16 attendees voted to allocate $291 toward technology maintenance.

11. Next (and final) PTO meeting is Monday, June 8. We’ll be voting on the 2009-2010 budget.