Friends of SW Charter School

Meeting Minutes

May 5, 2015

Misc. Items:

Hot lunch/all school lunch 5/15, looking for volunteers to help

Online auction did well, $4,200 in sales + $800 donation, $1,200 more than last year, but short of $6,000 goal. The donation was from a cab company.

Pennies for Patients. Melissa will take this on, Christina to send the information to Melissa.

Suggestion from Melissa:

TLC committee for families that are going through life changing events (sickness, babies etc.), Melissa would consider heading that up.

Sarah:

• College of Natural Medicine, graduation, want community partners present, would sell lemonade, it is on June 27, noon to 6 PM, they would like to partner
• Safe Routes to School, places to drop kids off so they can walk or bike to school
• Bike or walk from Willamette Park, Fulton Park, Caruthers Park
• In the future with the new bridge drop off could be at OMSI
• Safe Routes can make a large poster of a map where you can drop kids off to bike or walk to school and reduce traffic in the neighborhood
• Start planning block party, plan with the South Waterfront Business Association.
• Harvest Party vs. Block Party? Bring people in by having entertainment, maybe school performance, team effort, do this in conjunction with the farmers market. Sarah will try to set up meeting. Elise will be working on this. Aaron Nigel Smith as partner since kids already know and like him? Mon, Tue, Fri are options for Sarah to meet. Christina will join the meeting.

The friends board needs new members:

Friends Board – needs new president, Christina to describe the role more, benefits for the school and what kind of support she has.

New approach for recruiting: Instead of looking for specific roles simply find board members. Christina will try to work with Lorien on messaging. Are people involved in the auction willing to be on the friends board?

Move board election but push it now. Everyone tries to get one person to come to the Friends Meeting.

Can Sarah Mutal help recruit for the Friends board? Nicki will ask her.

Ask if teachers know parents that may be good for the position.

Focus on getting people to come to the June meeting including new kindergarten families.

Can Rachel Stedman help recruit since she welcomes new families?

Sarah Gilmore:

Alice Waters edible school garden project. Barbara, Mirabella resident wants to initiate this  at SWCS and she approached Amanda. Potential partnerships include Gray’s Landing, Zidell and more. Longer term commitment from a group of parents that will make connections and vision to make this happen. Need a group that are sort of cheerleaders for this project, do we have people who are passionate about gardening and food?

Consider email blast to parents that explains the idea to get the word out. Sarah will take charge of getting the email blast out.

Field day – June 12, 2015:

• Mural – Erin will most likely do the sketch, not getting enough bottle caps
• Corn hole
• Kickball, dodgeball etc.
• Playground will be closed
• Shelter is closed
• Brittany will bring pop up tents
• Do we need a big tent in case it rains? Christina will ask Anna to price out what it will cost to rent.
• Older kids want kickball, dodgeball, tug of war, capture the flag
• Food for staff and volunteers? $200 budget for food?
• Kids to wear tie-dye shirts for field day – Melissa is willing to organize
• Need to get more volunteers – one for each class, some have already been recruited
• Are Courtney and Lisa interested? What about 7th and 8th interested?

Financial Update:

• Restaurant nights seem to have tapered off. Christina will check in. Can we do one more big restaurant night?
• Fred Meyer – brought in $1000 so far this year.
• Friends put $1000 aside for grants for curriculum related stuff, $312 has been paid out so far. Not all teachers applied for the grant. Friends Board will need to vote on whether to have this grant again.
• Including online auction the auction brought in a total of $81,400.
• No unexpected expenses.

Google Docs version of May 2015 Minutes