Executive PTA Meeting 12/10
Our last executive board meeting of 2009 was held and in attendance were: Dr. Cuthbert, Diane Terrell, Mimi Laver, Mary McLaughlin, Anastasia Miller, Kathy Strauss, Katy Youel Page, Erik Warga, Mitch Wander, Molly Evans, Kevin Youel Page, Jennifer McLennan and Ginger Jacobs.
Dr. Cuthbert had a few updates—The school has been practicing fire drills, developing an emergency plan and will practice an evacuation soon. Enrollment has increased, budget meetings will begin next week to plan for next year, and accurately recorded attendance is very important so parents should always remember to send in a note when a child returns to school after an absence.
Budget report—more PTA dues have been coming in and anyone who hasn’t already is encouraged to contribute whatever amount they can at any time. The PTA will be distributing holiday bonuses to full time Stoddert staff members next week.
Fundraising—January will bring the kickoff for our “Building Community Brick by Brick” campaign. 100% participation from students families is anticipated. We will also reach out to community members, businesses and embassies to help with our campaign. The bricks will be engraved and placed together in a common area leading up to the new front entrance of our new school. This project has several committees and everyone interested in helping is welcome! We discussed various ways to get parents and students involved.
There will be a winter fundraiser as well. We discussed having the 5th graders be involved and applying some of the proceeds to their Echo Hill trip. Also discussed was the idea of a “little chili” being a more casual family event vs. adults only and/or holding it at school vs. another venue (possibly the Russian Embassy?). The family event garnered more support and it will most likely be in February or March. We will still plan to auction some big ticket items, teacher outings, and the class projects but more details have yet to be decided. Stay tuned!
Communication report—It may be possible to have order forms for our brick campaign on our website. The team will add a Twitter feature to the website to make available quick school status updates for our Twitter users. More info to come! The information for the student directory is still incomplete. It was proposed that class rosters or phone lists would be easier to pull together. [Ed. The directories have now been released.]
January 21 is our next PTA meeting. We will arrange a speaker to give a talk (possibly about math) and will have child care available.
One final note—there has been lots of discussion about the traffic problem near the front of the school. Thankfully, we now have Sharon, our new crossing guard at the corner but parents pulling up to let kids out in front of and between buses is dangerous, not to mention the double parking. Please try to park safely within a block and/or drop off on Calvert Street to make the front entrance, school bus, and Metro bus stop less congested.
