Supporting the academic, social, and cultural development of every student at Eberwhite Elementary School
02/08/23 PTO Meeting Minutes
Attendees: Mollie Douglas, Judith Eveler, Krista Dunger, Kristen Baker, Jill Shiffert, Miranda Budine, Helen Look, Corey Ryder, Armen Hratchian, Alison Eter
Meeting called to order at 6:36 p.m.
Principal Teacher Update
February is a busy month with Valentine's day (2/14), NAPPID (2/13), kindergarten round up (2/23)
Thank you for the staff pullovers provided by PTO
Teacher update concern about how PTO is supporting our school wide events. Does PTO have set aside funds for these types of needs (ex. Productions, assemblies)? Teachers prefer not to use their classroom stipends for these types of requests.
Discussion from PTO included better communication with teachers on upcoming productions and assemblies so we can budget for these events. Advance notice is appreciated so we can better support teachers and school wide events.
PTO President Updates
PTO council meet and greet. An invitation from the Ann Arbor Open Neighboring Council to have a get together with Eberwhite PTO to learn from each other and see what is going on at other schools in the community. Corey Dukes plans to attend this meeting and will report back to PTO.
UM Student request (workshop). A graduate student at U of M senior design student who is working on an app to help make healthy food choices. The student is looking for a group of parents and students to test out the app. Ms. Hubbard will look into if the district can give approval to support this request.
Staff Spirit Wear - Update
Staff gear has been ordered! Krista has been connected to the vendor to process payment
Staff gear will be ready for pickup on 2/20 and will be dropped off at school on the 21st by Corey D and/or Alison
PTOC Equity
An analysis of PTO budgets across the district was conducted. The average PTO spending per student is $40-$238. PTOC is looking at the disparity between the different schools. Schools with lower PTO incomes have less funds per student. The PTOC is trying to bring some transparency of the inequities across the district, for example the inquiry of field trips across schools in the district.
PTOC will be launching a fundraiser (goal is $20,000) to help boost PTO funds for schools in need of funds.
Eberwhite will help promote this PTOC fundraising effort and future efforts.
Eberwhite PTO Equity team will further discuss ways that Eberwhite can make changes to make PTO funds more equitable and will report back to PTO.
The next PTOC meeting will be on Monday, Feb. 13th from 7:00-8:30 pm (zoom). There will be dedicated time to listen to PTO feedback, perspectives, and ideas. Questions or concerns about the meeting or upcoming equity fundraiser can also be shared directly with the ptocchairs@gmail.com
If we wish, we can update our PTO budget information or money in reserves information in the PTOC database at any time.
Link to previous recordings
Treasury Update
Motion to approve a grant request from Sarah George for $500 art room fabric supplies and $700 for area rug. Approved. A request to Eberwhite parents will be made for tennis balls and clipboards.
New budget line item was added. “Even Exchange” where we are an intermediates to help pay for things. Exact money comes in and out. This will involve going back to reviewing previous purchases.
Fundraising
New Fundraising Approach: Draft overview by Armen.
Beginning this Spring 2023, Eberwhite will focus on no-hassle fundraising efforts and less on fundraising via events (ex. ice cream social). The first fundraising campaign is slated for March 2023.
Flower Sale: Kristin is hoping for some ideas on promoting the Spring PTO flower sale and incentive to sell. The sale involved online ordering and pickup of flowers in May at Eberwhite school. Sales will take place the first week of March.
Events Update
Literacy Night
An upcoming planning meeting is happening soon for The Literacy Team to bring back mystery readers. Parents will lead classroom door decorating with paper books. Students will be invited to wear PJ days every Friday. The Literacy Team is also looking into bringing “Readers Theater” to the school for a performance. The team is planning a Literacy Night “read s'more books” with campfire theme and an outdoor storybook walk.
Book Fair Spring ‘23
Try another book vendor with either Usborne / Literati. Spring Book fair date TBA.
Resume Scholastic in the Fall 2023
Decade Dance
Confirmed for Friday, April 28, all-school assembly at 2:30 p.m. and evening community dance from 6-8 p.m. Mollie, Emily Fanelli and Kristin Baker are taking the lead on the dance planning, but will need many volunteers!
Ice Cream Social
Friday, June 2nd. Robin is still looking for a co-lead to help plan the event and take over next year as the lead.
Sustainability
Sustainability Idea
Reduce use of bottled water/paper cups at Eberwhite Events. Implement some sort of point system for bringing a reusable water bottle to school events. Not sure what the incentives could be - classroom competition, free treat at events, whatever we can dream up - but an effort to reduce the number of bottled waters and/or paper cups we provide at events like Fun Run/Decade Dance/Ice Cream Social etc.
Other business
Posting meeting minutes to the PTO website
PTO will post backlogged PTO meeting minutes to the PTO website.
New procedure to approve meeting minutes. At the next PTO meeting, a motion will be made to approve meeting minutes from the last meeting. Those approved minutes will then be uploaded to the PTO website in a timely manner.
*NEW* Finance tab can be found here: https://www.eberwhitepto.com/finances
Can’t find check request link go to ⤴️
Can’t find the grant reques link? ⤴️
Want to see the budget? ⤴️
Want to see if your question has already been asked? ⤴️
Updates on Google Drive!
Updates have happened!
NEXT year we will move the 2022-2023 into the Shared Folder and moving forward, 2024+, we will have the PTO email be the “owner” of all the documents we create
Meeting adjourned at 8:24 p.m.
Next PTO meeting is March 15, 2023 6 p.m. in-person and via Zoom