Walt Whitman PTA Meeting Minutes 2/6/18 Meeting called to order and minutes approved. Treasurer s Report: Nothing new to report Correspondence Report: Nothing new to report President s Report:. We want to thank Mr Snyder, Ms Bovard and Dr Rogers for answering our questions concerning the phase 2 weight room. We hope some of you had a chance to attend the Community Information Meetings. There is another one tomorrow, on Wednesday, February 7th at 7:30 pm at South Woods Middle School. We hope some of you got to go tour the high school to view the areas in need of renovation, Voting will take place on Tuesday, February 13th from 6-9 pm at Syosset high School for Whitman families. We will be adding a password to the website. To access the forms and the Board info, you will now need to log in with a password. The password is will be emailed to all families. Please only share with other current Walt Whitman families. In order to serve lunch to our kids each day, we need volunteers! We are now serving from 2 tables again & need extra sets of hands! This will give kids more time to eat! We can t do it without help from lots of great volunteers. Grab a friend or two to help out! We simply can t operate this program without you! Volunteers are always greatly appreciated. Woodbury Greens Fire Gift Card Drive Our hearts go out to the families who lost their homes due to a fire over the weekend. The Walt Whitman PTA will be working with the student council by collecting & distributing gift cards to the Woodbury Greens fire victims. We would like to ask for your help. If you would like to donate a gift card to help these families, please place them in an envelope to be placed in the PTA mailbox marked: Attention: PTA-Woodbury Greens Thank you in advance. Lastly, committees really need to stay within their budgets. Please reach out to Sonya if you need to know your budget or have any questions. Old Business Art in Ed - Lucille Polidoro (Life in Space) was a great program. Many thanks to Lucille for making it happen. It was an assembly that was enjoyed by all.
International Day - Victoria Skidan & Stacey Young Many thanks to Victoria and Stacey for running this amazing event. We also want to thank all the tour guides and presenters. The day was a huge success and the children had so much fun learning about all the different countries. Mahjong Fundraiser - Lauren Cremer Many thanks to Lauren for chairing this committee. It was great to work with the Baylis PTA and fun was had by all. Thanks to everyone who participated in this amazing evening. It was great to see so many of our members there! Special thanks to the Baylis PTA for letting us join in on the fun. New Business -We took a vote and our unit is in favor of the phase 2. -We also took a vote on increasing the Family Fun NIght budget. Budget increase was approved! Mr. Snyder s Report: Some teachers have taken it upon themselves to start an initiative teaching the kids to be kind to each other and inclusive of students that are new to the school. Mrs. Castaldi and Mrs. Gustufason have been emphasizing the meaning of the character traits from the character wall. Ms. Knupp and Mrs. Haxton are involved in the Kindness Club Working with student ambassadors to recognize kindness throughout the school. Dr. Rogers: slide presentation Dr. Rogers attended the mtg along with the architects involved. He presented slides and answered questions. All this information is available on the syosset central school district website. Proposition vote on Feb 13th. Committee Reports: Book Fair: The purpose of this committee is to raise funds for the PTA through the sale of books. The spring book fair will be held on Thursday March 15 and Friday March 16th. Friday is for those students who were absent or who forgot money on Thursday. The theme for the spring book fair is Paws For Books. During the book fair, many parents are needed to help the students choose age and subject appropriate books, as well as to make sure that the students have enough money to purchase the items they want. There will be an online sign up sheet for volunteers. Fun Fair: The Fun Fair this year will be on Tuesday, March 20th from 6-8 pm. If you would like to be involved in the planning of this event, please attend the meeting on January 19th at 12pm at Robin s House. Her address is 34 Orchard Dr. If you can t attend the meeting there will be plenty of opportunities to volunteer at the Fun Fair. The kids love this event and it s only made possible with our amazing parent volunteers. Questions? Contact: Robin Greenstein greensteinrobin@gmail.com
Lunch: There are no more lunch changes. The 2nd cycle ends March 9th, the 3rd cycle begins March 12th. I will be starting the ordering for the 3rd cycle probably right after the break. We are back to 2 tables. One on each side, the lines are split up. It was a big success the past 2 weeks, we are going on week 3 of it. The lines are shorter, the kids are getting feed faster, and they are all happier. We will be needing more servers this way though, we please ask if you are scheduled to serve lunch and can't, please try to find a replacement if possible. Thank you so much! Someone Special Dance: **This event has been rescheduled since the mtg** Theme is music awards -Dress code is dress to impress. There will be a red carpet and step and repeat for photos - Date : TBD - time 6-8 - snack list will be put up soon - volunteer list will be put up soon - stress that this is an event ONLY for students who attend Walt whitman no sibling. One someone special per child that attends school. -Will have a craft of some sort as an extra activity Fifth Grade Committee: BOOSTERS : The 5 th grade Booster messages are now open to purchase. These congratulatory messages will appear in the yearbook. A link was sent out to the 5 th grade parents where they can write their message and submit it online. There is a maximum of 40 words. The deadline to purchase is Feb 10 th. SURVEY : We will be sending out a Favorites survey to the 5 th grade students. It will ask them questions such as their fav WW activity, book, etc. Their responses will be published in the yearbook for all to see. Legislation: Saturday, February 10th, 2018, a Legislative Breakfast will be held in cooperation with Jericho and Plainview/Old Bethpage @ JFK high School in Plainview. More information to follow but please save the date for anyone that wants to attend. Nominating Committee: The nominating committee is in the process of forming the slate for the 2018/2019 board. The slate will be voted on at the next PTA meeting. Thank you to everyone who has submitted interest in a position. School Board Reporter:
Budget: Voting will take place on Tuesday February 13. Absentee Ballots may be obtained by contacting the District Clerk at 364-5605. Board Vacancy It was agreed to not fill the open seat until the general election in May. School Calendar On the Thursday before Memorial Day, School will now be OPEN due to snow day use. Presentation on Coding: KIDOYO Adele Bovard worked on this with staff Children can learn HTML, JAVA, C++ and Python Presentation is on the SCSD website if you would like more details School Start Times: The school board is discussing the options of changing school start times for the secondary and primary schools. More to come. They will be investigating other districts and figuring out if it is doable for ours. Syosset Park: Mr. Rogers presented on this subject. The potential amount of children in attendance for Syosset based on the consultant s assessments would require a new school to be constructed. Walt Whitman: Resignation of Ms. Maltz, Gym Teacher. Anti-Semitic Graffiti: After the arrests of the Syosset High School children involved in the crimes, the district is now taking bids for a new enhanced Security & Surveillance system. The crimes occurred when a security worker was MIA. Syosset Central School District Communication: SCSD will now be on Twitter! Bus situation: Audience to public: Karen Ostrick brought up the issues again with bus route 76. Issues were children were on the Bus for an hour. In some cases not getting home until 4:20p Ways and Means:
-We need 4 volunteer parents to work the event. Volunteers can work one game only. Their admittance is free, but their kids must pay and stay with another adult. -First Game is at 2:30 and second game at 7:00 -No teachers from WW have signed up yet. We welcome their participation. We need to send out another email to the teachers from Snyder. -On 2/26 the Wizards will be visiting all our schools for a 20 minute assembly. Our time is at 1:40. The Wizards will try to promote the event. -At 10 pm on 2/26 tickets will go on sale online only. Tickets will cost $18.00 each. -Refreshments will be sold at the games. Sold by patent volunteers. -This is not a drop off event. Thank you! Upcoming Dates: School Store Dates: February 15th, March 8th and 22nd, April 12th and 26th, May 3rd & 17th, & June 7th Spirit Dates: Thursday, February 15th, Friday, March 2nd, Friday, March 16th Wednesday, March 28th, Friday, April 13th, Thursday, April 26th, Friday, May 11th, Friday, May 25th, Friday, June 8th, & Friday, June 22nd PTA Meetings: Tuesday, March 6th at 7:00 pm Tuesday, April 10th at 7:00 pm Tuesday, May 1st at 7:30 pm Thursday, June 7th at 7:00 pm Upcoming Dates/ Subject to Change Wednesday, February 7th - Community Info Mtg at 7:30 pm at SW Middle School
February 12th - BOE Mtg February 13th - Voting on Phase 2 from 6 am-9pm (Robbins Lane, Thomson & syosset HS) February 15th - School Store February 15th - Spirit Day February 16th - Friday, February 23rd- No School Friday, March 2nd - Spirit Day March 6th - PTA Mtg at 7:00 pm March 8th - School Store March 9th - Last Day for Lunch Cycle 2 March 15th & March 16th - Book Fair Monday March 19th - BOE Mtg March 20th - Fun Fair from 6-8 pm March 28th - Spirit Day March 29th - April 6th - No School April 10th - PTA Mtg 7:00 pm April 12th - School Store April 12th- Someone Special Dance 6-8 April 13th - Spirit Day April 17th - BOE Mtg April 23rd - Talent Show 6-8pm April 26th - Spirit Day May 1st - PTA Mtg at 7:30 pm
Upcoming Dates/ Subject to Change Wednesday, February 7th - Community Info Mtg at 7:30 pm at SW Middle School February 12th - BOE Mtg February 13th - Voting on Phase 2 from 6 am-9pm (Robbins Lane, Thomson & syosset HS) February 15th - School Store February 15th - Spirit Day February 16th - Friday, February 23rd- No School Friday, March 2nd - Spirit Day March 6th - PTA Mtg at 7:00 pm March 8th - School Store March 9th - Last Day for Lunch Cycle 2 March 15th & March 16th - Book Fair Monday March 19th - BOE Mtg March 20th - Fun Fair from 6-8 pm March 28th - Spirit Day March 29th - April 6th - No School April 10th - PTA Mtg 7:00 pm April 12th - School Store April 13th - Spirit Day April 17th - BOE Mtg April 23rd - Talent Show from 6-8 pm April 26th - Spirit Day May 1st - PTA Mtg at 7:30 pm