Friends of SW Charter March 2014 Meeting Minutes

Friends of SW Charter School

Monthly Meeting Minutes

March 5, 2014

Community update:

3/31 Movie and Book Drive for Children’s Book Bank

The first Harry Potter movie will be shown at Clinton St. Theater. Families should bring a book for the Children’s Book Bank, new or used as admission. Friends and family are welcome. Liz is coordinating the book drive starting on 3/17. Maybe bring a class to the Children’s Book Bank to volunteer, would Liz consider coordinating this?

Restaurant Nights:

3/12 Laurelwood in Sellwood, 10% of the entire day’s sales for everyone, no need to bring flyer.

4/22 Pizzicato in Hillsdale on Capitol Hwy – can pre-order

Nothing set up for May yet. Would new Cha-Cha-Cha do a restaurant night for SWCS? What about the Lovejoy Bakery next door, same owners as Pizzicato.

Community Coffee:

No school on Thursday – community coffee the following Thursday, Aileah will get pastries and bring to the teachers for conferences.

Staff Appreciation:

Teacher Appreciation Week:

Last year’s appreciation events:

Deli sandwiches
Chocolate
Coffee cart
Pot luck lunch
Flowers

New ideas:

Fixer up project art supply closet
Can we have volunteers watch kids for lunch so teachers can have lunch together?

Financial Update:

Money beyond Pizzicato?? Did we get money from Cucina Verde yet? Nicki will double-check.

$560 for from Pizzicato.

Staff birthday gifts $150 left of $400 birthday budget, but birthdays seem to be front loaded. Melissa and Christine Bravo get gift cards for teacher’s favorite store based on surveys.

$1000 from restaurant nights going to lower cost of field trips.

Scholarship fund donations at auction, different $-amounts options. This could be on the supplies fee invoices.

1st and 2nd grader overnight trip not happening, because parents felt the kids were too young.

Camp Wilkerson 2014:

Sep 5 – 6, 2014, however kitchen is closed for maintenance for the whole month, October is too cold, 3 cabins, Adirondacks, big fire pit where everyone can gather. There are also camp sites.

Promote the camping trip with pictures, Jen will create posters, she has pictures. Figure out how to promote to incoming kindergarten families, maybe a flyer that Amanda can give out and also for kindergarten play dates.

Last year it was not filled up – 5 late cancellations, this year put ‘no refund’ clause on the signup. There were at least 200 people there.

Crafternoon Committee Update:

March 16, Mike and Marlene will be there, getting another parent for knitting. All vendors are able to make (sounds like we have about 5 kids). Melissa’s girl scouts are selling play dough, will donate 50%, tell Karen where the money needs to go.

Parent Surveys:

About 40 responders but not all are completed, a lot just include the name and then people stopped. Teachers are looking for parents who have connections or special skills or own a business that the community may be able to support. Two directories need to be created, it may be PDFs that can be continuously updated. Did Marlene put the family directory together? Can we combine the family and the ‘resource directory’? Carpooling document by Christina may need to be updated. Can there be a school-wide Shutterfly site for carpooling information etc.? Jeff will follow up on this with Dennis and Josh to see what’s up. Nicki and Naomi will help with the directories after the auction.

Pennies for Patients:

Dates 4/1 – 4/10, is the overlap a problem? This can be a ‘passive fundraiser’, maybe put this into the email newsletter: March 17 and April 1. If we raise $500 the classroom that raises the most will get $50 back for a party. Have a day where students can donate $1 or $.25 for some sort of raffle ticket to have a special song played if their raffle ticket is picked, or you can pledge for someone and put a note up on the wall or the door to the classroom. This will be ‘one day only’ Jeff can come in and do this one time. Jeff will work out the logistics around playing the songs.

Auction:

Signup sheet for auction day jobs, running the slideshow is an important slot to fill, the person needs to have a laptop with Powerpoint – or is the MAC already taking care of this?? Aileah will consider running the Powerpoint, Marlene will be the backup.

Donate one item per family, looking for restaurant gift cards, jewelry and other items that can be displayed.

Entertainment is getting locked down – School of Rock band – size of band can be a problem, the music will be rock, will perform during silent auction, they will need 10×15 floor space. During dinner there will be piano music.

3 meal choices, fish, vegan and meat. You will order with your ticket, there will be assigned seating. Incentive to get tickets early request to sit by teacher or other people in your class, or you can buy a table. This should streamline the check-in process. Kindergarteners will hold up board with numbers – those will be the table number cards.

Marlene can make art cards for the auction – Nicki to ask Juli if needed as an auction item.

Some decoration items still needed: