RUCKEL PTO MEETING 9/8/2014 In attendance: Marion Taylor, Jill Barrett, Kathy Walerio, April Shackelford, Joan Martin, Meloney Howell, Kim Riley Mansfield, Jackie Adams, Renita White, Holly Ramby, Lou Anne Coville and Stephanie Wheat. Old Business: Marion Taylor RMS Administration: Ms. Wheat discussed with us the school s needs. Marion said that we have about $12,000.00 in the PTO General Fund left over from last year. We need to put it back into the school. The school needs a new COW. The computer lab in the library is now a full time classroom, so the computer lab is no longer available for teachers to use. We only have one computer lab available, but during fourth period it is used as a classroom. So the fourth period classes have no computer lab available. They only have COWs. One COW is the one PTO purchased last year. The second COW is aging and needs new batteries etc. The COW cost us around $30,000.00 last year. We need to check on that. They try to have 24 computers on the COW. If you just buy laptops and something happens, that comes out of the school s pocket when it breaks. If we buy a COW from the county, we get a three year contract for maintenance. At the end of the three years the computers are replaced, and we continue to pay the maintenance fee each year. We decide to use Ram Jam for another COW purchase. We will check into this, and fund another COW. Finance: Renita Felicia asked that Renita emphasize that she needs 7-14 days for check requests and that she only cuts checks on Wednesdays. Joan and Marion have to sign purchase orders for supplies. For dances, we do pizza, drinks, and candy. Felicia recommended that we find out the exact amount, get a purchase order filled out, then she will cut a check. Felicia will be happy to educate us on the process. We just need to schedule a meeting with her.
Felicia has requested 3 drums/print cartridges and toner for the small copier in the workroom from PTO in the amount of $831.70. Jill made a motion to fund request out monies carried over from last year. Kathy seconded motion. Everyone voted to pass the motion. Discussed that Felicia had no audit findings this year. Kathy asked how much Hospitality has in their budget. Meloney needs to know for dances as well. Renita will let everyone know. Membership: Angela Angela couldn t be here today. Kim passed our membership forms to the chairperson for the different activities people signed up for to each chair in attendance. We discussed about a disconnect for seventh and eighth grade parents signing up for PTO. Talked about putting announcement in weekly e-mail Ms. Nall sends out. Also discussed giving PTO sign up sheets to seventh and eighth grade teachers to send home with students. Going to try and copy PTO membership forms and give to teachers for Open House to hand out to parents. Book Fair: Holly Holly has all the help she needs for book fair. May need a little more help on Tuesday night. She will check with parents who kids have gone into high school. There will be a second book fair in February near Valentine s Day. We also discussed having another book fair towards the end of the year. Ruckel Dance: Meloney Meloney needs help with finances and decoration processes. She has heard many requests for an eighth grade dance. Marion said that it is too difficult to set up at the end of the year, etc. It is not going to happen. Meloney has also had many complaints about the music (not being able to hear it). We need to pick a dj. September 26 is the next dance. The rest of the schedule is December 12, 2014, February 13, 2015 and April 10, 2015. We make around $2000 per dance. We can highlight the eighth grade at the last dance in April. We could have them decorate a wall or have them vote on the theme.
Still needs help from parents. We also discussed that we have a closet in the gym area with decorations in it. Additionally, we have decorations in the cafeteria. Hospitality: Kathy PTO is going to have a teacher smoothie bar on September 25. The first luncheon will be scheduled around Ram Jam. She and Jill approached Tropical Smoothie for assistance with the smoothie bar, and they struck out. We are going to offer the smoothies during lunch period. They will need ingredients, blenders, etc. We also talked about contacting Publix, Winn Dixie and Wal-Mart. We can possibly get $250 gift card from Publix. Ram Jam: Kim Ram Jam is a fundraiser where the kids walk around a track while music is played. It will be held the last Friday in October, so this year it will be held on Halloween. The kids can wear costumes. We will follow the same school class schedule as last year. We will offer prizes for a costume contest. This year we are going with a different vendor for the prizes. Kim brought some of them with her for us to inspect. She showed us the new bag, water bottle, and bracelet. Marion asked if we are going to definitely give away a bag. She also showed us the t-shirt design. We discussed the prize set-up for giveaways. She needs help day of the walk counting money, putting prizes together, etc. She really needs all the help she can get that day. She will also need help putting student labels on envelopes. She is having the envelopes printed this year. Prizes starting at $10-$15 donation. Kids can give $5 and get out of class. We need to figure out what we are raising money. Adopt a Classroom: Jill The Adopt a Classroom program has started off nicely. We have 12 classes that are adopted. We have 11 that we have commitments to adopt. We have 52 teachers that need to be adopted. Jill has been following up with different businesses. She plans to have every class adopted. We changed the set up this year with different levels of adoption. A business/person can donate $100 to go to a general fund to go to the classes that don t get officially adopted. The $500 level has went over very well this year (adopts 2 classrooms). The middle level is $250 to adopt one classroom.
We are ending the process in November to accept money. To recognize people this year we are going to have a breakfast for the sponsors and put an ad in the Bay Beacon. Also, we discussed putting them on the RMS website. We are trying to move away from putting plaques outside the door. We are going to do one large plaque with removable tags that we can put the business names on. We need to see if there is a place in the office to display the plaque. Ray has already taken down the plaques from last year. Do we still want to have a banner if we do the plaque in the office? We are going to table that issue until later. She is going to check with Accent Signs to see if they will trade services for a banner. We need to get the all sports pass for $500 sponsors. Jill with speak with Mr. Smith about getting the cards. Marion asked her to bring forms to the meeting. Jill is trying to get the teachers who have never been adopted to be adopted. There are 13 teachers. She is pushing to get these adopted. Renita asked Jill to contact Brent Hinley at Bluewater Marina. Jackie will talk to Bluewater Dental. Teachers need to know that they can only spend what they have in their account. Jill will check on this and let us know. Cube: Cindy Marion stated that Cindy is doing a phenomenal job. Cindy ordered all new stuff (bags, car stickers, bows, cups, shirts, etc.). She still needs help on several days to staff the Cube. She changed the volunteer schedule, so that someone can volunteer one day a month. She also needs help at the football games. Chartcook@cox.net. Box Tops/Campbells: Cece Cece is not here today. Jill needs to contact her and pass off the Box Tops to her. We talked about the reward program for students. Last year we were able to buy two large coolers with the Campbell s labels. New Business: Marion Discussed the new family/military life counselor, Mr. Seigel. Lou Anne discussed her daughter s positive experience with him. Mrs. Wheat described his job in more detail. He wants to speak with PTO at a board meeting.
October 6, 2014 at 7:35 a.m. is the next meeting. Meetings are going to be on the first Monday of each month. Other Business: We discussed having a PTO post office box and box in the office. Jill has a key to each box.