1.       Call to Order
Start time:  7:10 p.m.

Attendees: 
Lizabeth MacDonald, Principal
Kevin Phelan, President
Michele Carrier, Vice President
Tammy Webb, Treasurer
Wendy Hudson, Corresponding Secretary
Anne DeSaulniers, Volunteer Coordinator
Amy Merrow, Recording Secretary
Jennifer Steele
Jessyka Hawkom
Cleopatra
Lisa Chrabalowski

2.       Approval of Tuesday, May 4, 2010 meeting minutes
Approved by Jennifer Steele
2nd by Anne DeSaulniers

3.       Reports

                                                               i.      President’s Report - Kevin Phelan
Kevin welcomed Denise Sherwood, Customer Manager back from Market America.  Denise confirmed that our Weston PTO portal fundraising initiative was ready to be rolled out and the portal could now be accessed by all in the Weston community by going to www.MarketAmerica.com/WestonPTO.  The more we spend online by making purchases through this portal site, the more money our PTO will earn.

As a non-profit, Denise confirmed that our PTO will raise funds by:

1.  Earning monthly royalty checks from Market America when portal (www.MarketAmerica.com/WestonPTO) site visitors purchase Market America brand products.  Royalties for each Market America product purchased will accrue in a virtual bank and Market America will send the PTO a check on the last Friday of each month to cover these royalties.

2.  Earning weekly royalty checks from Market America when portal (www.MarketAmerica.com/WestonPTO) site visitors purchase any product(s) – Market America brand products or any other products from companies, such as Target, PetSmart, ToysRUs, Best Buy, Macy’s, and Barnes and Noble to name a few that have partnered with Market America through the portal.  Note that our portal has to be the starting point for the purchase or our PTO will not earn the credit/royalty points. 

Royalty points accumulate for each purchase made and when certain pay points are met, royalty checks will be sent to our PTO.  When 1200 points are accumulated, that Friday Market America will send our PTO a $300 royalty check.   Points then continue to accumulate.  When 2400 points have accumulated, that Friday Market America will send our PTO an additional $300 royalty check.  When 3600 points have accumulated, that Friday Market America will send our PTO an additional $300 royalty check.  When 5000 points have accumulated, that Friday Market America will send our PTO an additional $600 royalty check.  At this point, the counter will then be reset and when 1200 are accumulated again, the process of cutting royalty checks to our PTO will begin again, starting back at $300.

Weston is the first non-profit to come on board with Market America, which means that we will earn royalties on all other non-profits that decide to do similar fundraiser initiatives, as all subsequent non-profits to join will be added beneath us and we will earn 100% of their commission points and will be flipped a percentage of their royalties.

Click here to view the Market America flyer and follow the instructions on how to get started.  Jennifer Steele to print and deliver flyer to office on Wednesday, so flyer can be distributed to all who purchase items at the Weston Book Fair to be held on Wednesday, June 2^nd.    The flyer will also go home in the home/school folder.

Denise will make herself available to do a portal tour for the entire Weston community if the opportunity to do so arises.

                                                             ii.      Correspondence - Wendy Hudson
Wendy shared the numerous thank you notes received from teachers and staff expressing gratitude for all that was done by the PTO during Teacher Appreciation Week and also for Teacher Grants.  Email was sent to Mayor Gatsas upon the conclusion of Teacher Appreciation Week highlighting all that was done for the teachers.

                                                            iii.      Principal’s Report - Liz MacDonald
Liz noted that everything is going well at the school and that there were only 13 days left.  Meet Your New Teacher Day will be the last day of school (6/18).  Students will meet the teachers that they will have for the 2010-2011 school year and will see which friends will be in their class.  Class supply lists will be sent home with students on the last day of school. 

Award Night for 3^rd, 4^th and 5^th graders who have achieved excellence in their NECAP scores, showing at least a 10% growth in previous scores or have put forth a notable effort for improving academically throughout the year will be held Wednesday, June 9^th at 6:30 p.m.  Approximately 580 students will be presented awards.  This number is up from last year, which coincides with increase in Weston’s overall testing scores.

New Family Day will be held on September 1^st from 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.  Incoming 5^th graders will be asked to be tour guides.  Liz to convene everyone in the gym for welcoming and then all will be sent off to tour the school.  Refreshments will be served in the gym at 2 o’clock.

Kindergarten Open House will be held throughout the entire day on September 1^st. 

The first day of school for K-5 will be September 2^nd.  There will be 5 full day kindergarten classes and they plan to experiment with 2 kindergarten classes being dismissed at the back of the building and the remaining 3 to continue to be dismissed at the front of the building.  Open House date to be confirmed, but being tentatively planned for September 16^th.

                                                            iv.      Treasurer’s Report, Tammy Webb
Tammy noted that all checks had been written and distributed to teachers to cover Teacher Grants.  Teachers are purchasing their own items and will be handing invoices over to Tammy when received and amounts will be verified.  With the increase in budget for Teacher Grants to a total of $4000 being approved in the May meeting, we came in $5.80 under budget with a total of $3,994.00 being spent.

Yankee Candle money was paid out to Yankee Candle for the Spring fundraiser ($2,556.92).  There was one bounced check in the amount of $49.50 resulting in a $10 bank fee, totaling $59.50 to be covered by the PTO.

Currently, bank account balance is just shy of $7,000 with a couple big ticket items to be paid out.  Mrs. Mac needs to be paid the balance of field trip funds (remaining $1500 of $3000 total).  Projected to end this school year with approximately $3,800 in the bank, which is roughly $1300 less than last year.

                                                              v.      Campbell’s LFE , Dee Kinney
Dee was not in attendance, but sent communication via email.  Mrs. Bachand’s 3^rd grade class collected the most Box Tops for Education.  Mrs. Phelan’s 5^th grade class collected the 2^nd most.  Please continue to send Box Tops into your child’s classroom.  Box Tops do expire and we want to make sure that all are submitted prior to their expiration dates.

4.       Old Business

a.       Teacher Grants
Covered in Treasurer’s report.  All went well and checks were cut for all teachers to make their purchases.

b.       Teacher Appreciation
All went well.  Thank you notes were shared by Wendy Hudson and passed around.  Budget of $500 was exceeded by approximately $25.

5.       New Business

a.       Market America Portal
Covered in President’s report

b.       Book Fair and Ice Cream Social
Anne DeSaulniers, Committee Chair noted that donation requests were distributed and most ice cream vendors were not willing to donate, but were willing to sell the ice cream to us at cost.  Jenn Steele was able to get 6 gallons donated by her company.  Sixteen gallons will be purchased, along with sprinkles, napkins, containers and spoons.  Receipts for items purchased are to be given to Mrs. Mac, as the cost of the ice cream and supplies is not funded by the PTO.  Parent and teacher volunteers were lined up to work the ice cream social.

c.       Awards Ceremony
Covered in Principal’s report

d.       Playground Clean-up Day (Pick Date?)
Playground clean-up set for August 28 from 9:00 a.m. to Noon.  All willing to help should meet on the playground at 9:00 a.m.

e.       August PTO Meeting (Pick Date?)
Next PTO meeting scheduled for Tuesday, August 24 at 7:00 p.m.

f.         Discuss Backpack Initiative – Plan for August/September?
Wendy Hudson will chair the Backpack Initiative committee.  Due to the current economic conditions and financial need being at its height, Kevin motioned to add a new line item of $250 to the budget to be spent on a backpack initiative pilot program for Fall 2010.  Motion was 2^nd by Jenn Steele.  During the pilot, we will aim to provide 10 students with backpacks and needed school supplies.  Backpacks recipients will be determined by Weston administration based on need.

g.       Gather volunteers for Fall Event
Anne DeSaulniers will chair the Fall Event to be held in September.  Actual date TBD.  Sign-up sheet was circulated for volunteers to join the committee.  Contact Anne DeSaulniers at basicallybroke@comcast.net if you are interested in helping out with the event.

h.       Gather volunteers for Folders/Beginning of School Paperwork
Volunteer sign-up sheet was circulated. Targeting Wednesday, August 25^th to stuff folders.  Mrs. Mac and Kevin to write letters to be put in folders prior to this date.  Incoming 5^th graders will be asked to help stuff folders.  Contact Anne DeSaulniers at basicallybroke@comcast.net if you are interested in helping out.

i.         Establish volunteers for Birthday Books for next school year (Jen Lenox leaving)
Contact Anne DeSaulniers at basicallybroke@comcast.net if you are interested in volunteering to distribute birthday books.

j.         Line-up Babysitters for next year’s PTO meetings
Jessyka Hawkom to ask her daughter if she is interested. 

k.       Discuss 5th Grade Festivities

                                                                           i.      Tee-Shirts
Michele Carrier scrambled to get t-shirts designed and all students’ signatures.  135 t-shirts were ordered for a total of $675.  Note that this is funded by the PTO.

                                                                         ii.      Hoe-Down
There will not be a 5^th grade Hoe-Down this year, as Mrs. Mac noted that the Hoe-Down has seen its day.  This event is typically funded by the PTO and is special for the 5^th graders.  Replacement festivities were discussed and an ice cream social for only 5^th graders during or following field day was proposed.

                                                                        iii.      Graduation Ceremony
Mrs. Mac noted that this event should be referred to as the 5^th grade celebration and not a graduation.  PTO budgeted funds to be used to purchase donuts and juice for the celebration. 

Yearbooks will be distributed the last week of school.  Each 5^th grader will also receive a photo montage on DVD.  This DVD will be played during lunches throughout the last week of school and prior to the start of the 5^th grade celebration for all event attendees to see.  Entire school to participate in Clap Out following the celebration.

l.         Discuss submission of event wrap-ups
It was noted that a lot of valuable information is being lost when PTO members leave.  A form that will be accessible via the PTO website to capture all pertinent information re event planning, event budget and post event wrap-up will need to be submitted within a predetermined set number of days following an event.  This event wrap-up also to be made available for reference via the PTO website.  Melissa Carver, Historian to police wrap-up submission policy.

m.     Nomination for Recording Secretary
Becky Burke noted at the May PTO meeting that she would be stepping down from the position of Recording Secretary.  Amy Merrow was nominated and the vote was unanimous.