Bryant PTSA General Meeting Minutes – October 2017

October 10th, 2017, 7pm
Bryant Lunchroom

Welcome and Introductions, Julie Ohrazda & Kim Love   

Approve June General Meeting Minutes (approved)

Officer/Standing Committee Reports

  1. Treasurer’s report (Nelly Goodnoe & Brita Willis)
    • Brita reviewed projected budget.
    • $161k collected from Annual Campaign last year to be used this year.
    • See attached report. Copies distributed at meeting as well as posted on-line.
  2. Volunteer Coordinator’s Report  (Tammy Shorr & Janie Booth)
    • 160 Volunteer packets filled out, they have been distributed so that parents can reach out to interested volunteers.
    • Two volunteers to run the Reflections Committee,
    • Still looking for Artist in Residence as well as Bryant Blast volunteers.
    • Still a gap in playground/recess that needs to be addressed.
    • Leadership encouraged to ask parents about volunteering at Bryant.
  3. Fundraising Chair Report – (Leann Huntington & Sara Fenzl)
    • Annual campaign launched on the 9th, we are currently slightly below other years.
    • Some glitches in cards that were distributed which is causing a delay. Hoping the lower numbers can be attributed to this glitch.
    • Leann emailed committee heads to remind them this is a blackout period for reaching out for anything other than Annual Campaign in order to funnel all communications towards encouraging to give to Annual Campaign.
    • Campaign started a little earlier in order to cause less disruption in Halloween Party planning for room parents, which may also be contributing to the lower numbers.
    • Annual Campaign is the only direct ask to parents, the rest of fundraising is directed towards community building. 80% of funds are garnered in Annual Campaign.
    • Past campaigns have been focused on grade level participation with a grade level pizza party for grade that has the most cards turned in. Last year was a 94% turn in rate, this year trying for 95%, and reward will be a school-wide popsicle party. This is meant to motivate older grades that typically have lower rates.
    • Also considering a Bryant Café happy hour for parents post- Annual Campaign.
  4. Bryant Building Leadership Team  (Kim Love)
    • During the BLT meeting, Team went over building’s professional development calendar, overview of school year, and discovered points of focus and goals are for the year.
    • Goals are leaning towards engagement, much like PTSA goals.

New Business

  1. Approving Standing Rules- (Kim Love)
    • Only change is standards of affiliation checklist and requirements.
    • Change read aloud by Kim.  Standing Rules approved.
  2. Approve General Budget (Nelly Goodnoe and Brita Willis).
    • Brita read items changed from spring budget approval including leftover funds allocation: 22k in reserve.
    • Playground supervisor position is moving from 2 to 3 hours per week.
    • Access to Britannica On-line funding approved.
    • 3k grants allocated to divide money per grade level to hold grade level events.
    • Budget is available for viewing on-line.
    • Budget approved.
  3. Playground Supervision:
    • As a board we discussed over email we decided to fund an additional playground supervisor for safety of children and difficulty in gaining parent volunteers.
    • Approved to increase playground supervision budget by 2k for this coming year as a one-time budget increase.
    • Playground supervision is funded in entirety by PTSA.
    • Volunteer Coordinators are working to explore different ways to fund playground supervision, and are in process of looking at how other school buildings are handling this issue as well as how to tweak the volunteer role within the school.  In consideration are increased numbers of school students and increased number of working parents in the school cohort as well as bell changes.
    • There are currently significant daily gaps in the lunchroom and recess.
    • Discussed potential disciplinary differences happening in the lunchroom in an attempt to control lunchtime chaos.
    • Discussed Best Practices for Lunch, with the idea that lunch should occur after lunch. Barrier to this recommendation is hand-washing requirements.
  4. Home Street Bank : Nelly Goodnoe.
    • Motion :We agree that Leeann Huntington, Lauren Abraham, Jennifer Mahlum are coming off accounts at HomeStreet Bank.  We agree that Kim Love, Nelly Goodnoe, Brita Willis will be new signers for Bryant Elementary PTSA accounts at HomeStreet Bank.”
    • Motion approved.
  5. School of Excellence (Julie Ohrazda)
    • We will move forward with program. Survey of 20 questions will be sent out to parents and staff after Annual Campaign. From survey a baseline will be established to come up with an Action Plan.
    • End of year we will take another survey to add to national database.
    • We will be offering Kids and Race program at Eckstein auditorium in coming months. Same program offered at View Ridge on the 17th.
  6. Building Security Concerns (Kelli Hessler)
    • Concern that main doors are left open all day and is requesting a locked entry with an intercom to gain entry. Has explored other schools and some area schools are doing this.
    • Suggestion to reach out to Thornton Creek that has adapted this system and how it has impacted staff since it is new to them.
    • Others feel that front door buzzer is not a deterrent. May be useful to look at statistics about effectiveness of buzzer system. This may also have an impact on volume of parents dropping off late kids, etc.
    • Kim Love suggested education about what to do when there is an emergency and how to make things safer and easier for reunification with families in event of emergency.
    • There is not a known policy by SPS for security at schools.
    • Possibility to have security director at Children’s to conduct a survey of school and make recommendations for increasing security.
    • Payment for security would have to be covered by Bryant/PTSA.
    • Discussion led to looking into an audit, discussing what are best practices for security, and engaging school as a culture in the idea of maintaining security.