Ren Stych, Vice President Melanie Lorber, Secretary Shera Barbour, Room Parent Coordinator Stacy Olson, Principal

• Treasurer’s Report:  Treasurer was not present, but Ren shared a printout of the current check register showing recent deposits and withdrawals.  Checking balance is just under $15,000.  Savings is just over $10,000.
• Principal’s Report:
  • Looking for fun ideas to reward the students for an outstanding fund run.  Suggested having a winter fun day for the students on February 15th.  It’s the Thursday of the next Parent Teacher Conferences week and in an early out.  Would be a fun way to end the week and take some stress away from the teachers.  Stacy emailed a copy of the Fall Fun Day activities/rotation schedule to use.  There will be no specials that day, so gym, art, and music classrooms will be available for activities.  Activities would be scheduled 8:30am-11:00am.  ACTION: Brainstorm ideas for Winter Fun Day.
  • Class Christmas Tree Decorating Contest:  PTO approved to purchase 4-foot Christmas trees for each classroom to decorate (in place of a door decorating contest).  ACTION:  Follow up with Mackenzie Tetmeyer on tree purchase.
  • Field trip requests will start coming in.  Stacy covers as much as she can with building budget before requesting PTO funds.  The 3rd grade field trip to Circa ’21 is one that historically PTO would cover due to its higher cost.  PTO agrees to fund this field trip for spring 2024.
  • Guadalajara teacher dinner during conferences went well.  The reduced quantity of food worked well.
• President’s Report:  President was not present.
• School Scholarship Panel:  Stacy would like PTO to take over the scholarship review panel going forward.  Three to four people needed, starting in the February/March timeline.  ACTION: Ren will request a copy of the standard rubric.  We can modify the rubric if needed.  We can also determine how many scholarships to reward and how much.
• Mulberry Night at Pizza Ranch:  We’ll plan to hold a school night at Pizza Ranch in January.  ACTION: Ren will contact Pizza Ranch to see what dates are open in January and to confirm how many volunteers would be needed.
• Other winter fundraisers:  Due to the success of the Mulberry Miles Fund Run, we’ll only plan on the Pizza Ranch night and no other fundraisers for winter.
• Spring Family Fun Day:  Looked at calendar and thought Friday, May 3rd or May 17th would be best for weather.  Tried to determine when Prom is.  ACTION: Ren – Contact Grant PTO to find out when they scheduled their Family Fun Day so we don’t overlap.
• iXL:  PTO’s subscription to iXL expires November 22, 2023, and we’ve been directed to not renew it.  Stacy will look into communicating this to families via ParentSquare and provide a link to iXL in case families are interested in getting their own subscription.  We’ll continue to work with the school district to find ways to fund it as an additional resource for the entire district.
• Teacher Amazon Wish Lists/My Favorite Things:  With upcoming holidays, we should probably re-share links to teacher Amazon wish lists and share their Favorite Things forms.  ACTION: Ren – Scan remaining Favorite Things forms and send to Stacy.  ACTION: Stacy – Share the Amazon WIsh Lists and Favorite Things with respective families via ParentSquare.
• Coffee Belt Service for Staff:  PTO plans to bring in Coffee Belt again during the short week right before winter break.  Stacy thought December 18th (Monday) or 19th (Tuesday) would be good.  ACTION: Sara Huston/Mackenize Tetmeyer – Contact Coffee Belt to see if they’re available for the morning of December 18th or 19th.
• Movie Day:  Last year PTO provided popcorn, M&Ms, and juice pouches for a school-wide movie day right before winter break.  Stacy would not like to do a movie day this year.  A teacher committee is planning a Holiday Extravaganza instead.  It was also determined that PTO will not renew the Swank movie license.
• February PTO meeting currently falls on the Monday of Parent Teacher Conferences.  Instead of canceling, Stacy recommended moving it to that Tuesday night (February 13th) in hopes that parents and available teachers there for conferences will stop in to the meeting.
• March PTO meeting falls during Spring Break.  We will either cancel or move to March 4th or 18th, depending on timing/work needed for Spring Family Fun Day.
• December PTO meeting is canceled.  Next meeting will be Monday, January 8th at 5:15pm.