WPSA Meeting

                                                February 11,  2008

 

The Wayside Parent Support Association (WPSA) Meeting was held on Monday, February 11 2008 at noon at the Wayside Elementary School Library.  There were 18 in attendance as evidenced by the signup sheet.  The meeting was called to order by PJ Polk, President.

 

Correspondence:  (given to secretary by President)

·        Gail Stone – thanked WPSA for money given to the teachers.  

 

Secretary’s Report

Minutes from the January 14, 2008 meeting were available for review at the meeting.  A motion to accept the minutes as written was made by Casper Naegle and a second was made by Richard Dennis.  There was no discussion.  The motion passed unanimously. 

 

Treasurer’s Report

There was no formal Treasurer’s report.  Melanie Refvik, treasurer commented there was minimal activity since the last meeting.  She indicated that checks were issued same day for all the items approved at the last meeting and that with the spring fund raiser and carnival, there will be lots of financial activity between now and the next meeting.

 

PRINCIPAL’S REPORT - Richard Dennis: 

·        Equipment funded at the last WPSA meeting has been ordered.

·        Money for Replacement Bulbs:  The BPS district IT director has put the cost for replacement bulbs for the projectors in the district IT budget. We won’t know for a while if the board will approve the total budget request.  If it is approved, Wayside will have the option to reallocate the money earmarked for projector bulbs. 

·        Spring Fund Raiser:  Kickoff held last Monday.  Collection time has been extended from the 15th to the 18th since there was a delay (due to snow day) in the fund raiser kickoff. 

·        Blood and Guts:  scheduled for Friday the 15th.   PJ circulated a signup sheet for volunteers. 

·        Remodel Committee:  Met with Ambler Architects who shared ideas for remodeling hallways and entrance, including flooring.  Have also discussed classrooms and bathrooms.  A lot of neat ideas – it will boil down to what the district can afford.  Want to try to start immediately after school ends, so it is ready when school resumes in August.

·        Attendance:  Attendance last semester was 95.7%.  For January attendance has dropped to 93% and that does not include the day before the snow day.  In January alone there were 170 ½ unexcused absences (out of 394 total students).  This does not include excused absences.  To the state, an absence is an absence – excused or unexcused – bottom line the student is not in the classroom learning. Students must be in attendance at least 2 hours in morning and again in the afternoon.

·        Lots of neat activities are coming up for the students.

·        Writing Test – scheduled next Wed for 5th graders; they have been practicing test monitors needed – Mrs. Kesselhuth to coordinate with Andrea Satterfield

·        Workshop held last Thurs.  Good day – had vertical teams which teachers really enjoyed.

·         

TEACHER REPRESENTATIVE - Rhonda has the following requests: 

·        Classified Reception – Wayside received an mail from Linda Jones noting the annual classified reception will be March 11 and requested donation of door prizes from all parent support groups within the school district.  WPSA has already allocated $50.00 in the budget for this.  In the past WPSA has contributed two Chamber Bucks certificates in the amount of $25.00 each.  Patti Mason volunteered to handle this by the March 4 deadline.

·        Request from Missy Brewer and Katie Vanzant for a set of two web cams and two MP3 players for an approximate purchase price of $103 (based on estimate from Wal-Mart).  Their request came about after hearing a speaker at the OK ACTS conference talk about ways to use technology in the classroom. A copy of the request is incorporated in the secretary’s records.  Casper Nagle raised issue about band width - Richard to check with Gerry Desormeau. Initially a voting quorum was not available so voting on the issue was tabled.  Later in the meeting a voting quorum was available so the request was brought back up.  Lisa Henthorne made a motion to approve the purchase of two  web cams and two MPC players not to exceed $125 with the stipulation that the teachers verify the impact of the use of the technology on the district’s network and use of any preferred vendors with the District’s IT director.  Bernadette Galvez seconded the motion.  After discussion, the motion passed unanimously. 

·        Request from Debbie Wise for subscription to NEWS_2_YOU which is developed especially for the special education population.  Cost is approx $140.00 plus shipping.  A copy of the request is incorporated in the secretary’s records. .  Initially a voting quorum was not available so voting on the issue was tabled.  Later in the meeting a voting quorum was available so the request was brought back up.   Jessica Butler made a motion to approve the request for the purchase of the NEW_2_You subscription.  Carmen Casner seconded.  The motion passed unanimously. 

 Mrs. Kesselhuth confirmed the Books for Guided Reading have arrived.  Shipping was not included in the purchase price.  Mr. Dennis is to check into this. 

Update      

 

·        Update on IWB for Mrs. Hartsock – Leslie chose not to accept the offer WPSA made at the last meeting of purchasing a projector for her in lieu of an entire Promethean Board as funding for the entire set is not available at this time.

 

COMMITTEE REPORTS (in order of report)

 

Carnival:  Jessica Butler reported prize world is being handled by Lynn Potts and Dawn Williams and that purchases have been made locally or thru an order.  Lisa Henthorne is handling the pizza and popcorn in the cafeteria again; Papa John’s is our pizza provider. The committee needs volunteers to set up on Friday. Wrist bands will be pre-sold.  Class donation lists will be sent home soon. There is a good turnout of volunteers from National Honor Society.  PJ encouraged homeroom moms to solicit volunteers early.  Parents from Mrs. Jones class will be floaters and help out where needed. One 3rd grade class does not have a homeroom mom.

Test Monitor:  Monitors will be needed for 5th grade writing test next week.  Mrs. Kesselhuth is to check with Andrea Satterfield.  PJ also offered the services of Sara Meszaros, volunteer coordinator. 

 

Spring Fund Raiser: Deadline extended to Monday February 18th; announcements have been made; note to go home in backpack

 

Hospitality: Monya Brown and Becky Goetz; Picked up cheesecakes from Tulsa today in order to save on shipping;  Event will be ‘Come and Go’ and will be held in the teacher’s lounge, Tea will be from McAlister’s , They plan to collect everything on Tuesday to ensure all is in place for Wednesday.  A list was sent around as a reminder for what people had agreed to bring and also to solicit additional items in order to fill in the gaps.

 

GM Box Tops:  PJ reported for Kendra that the campaign is closed and that Kendra and her volunteers are counting and clipping.  The winners have not yet been announced.  Melanie reported there has been a snafu with the last check.  Although General Mills issued a check to Wayside, no one has seen it and GM has confirmed it has not been processed.  GM will cancel and reissue although it will take several weeks to do so.

 

Junior Achievement:   PJ reported for Lynn Potts that volunteers for Junior Achievement are still needed for the spring program.  PJ circulated a signup sheet for classes still needing volunteers.

 

Year Book – Lisa Henthorne reported for the yearbook committee.  Theme for the yearbook is Route 66.  They had a 3 way tie for cover art, so they are going to incorporate all three of the students’ artwork on the cover.  They may be able to utilize some of the other art submissions as well.  She showed the yearbook cover.  Pictures are always needed and can be submitted to Jessica@southfamily.com.  Forms to order yearbook will go out after the spring fundraiser has ended.  Lisa needs a ‘finance person’ to handle the sales and collections of the yearbooks.  Due to a new job, Jana Russell will not be able to perform that duty this year.  If interested, contact Lisa.

 

Pickles and Popcorn:   No formal report.  Melanie indicated that 4th grade parents hosted Pickles and Popcorn on Friday.  It appeared to her there were lower receipts, possibly due to lower attendance due to sickness.

 

OTHER BUSINESS:

Teacher of the Year:  PJ encouraged parents to thank the 2007 Wayside Teacher of the Year (TOY), Gail Stone.  She also encouraged parents to congratulate the 2008 Wayside TOY, Nancy Farmer who will be honored at the district’s TOY banquet on Feb 26 to be held in the Fine Arts Facility at the High School.

 

Spelling Bee Mr. Dennis announced there will no spelling bee at Wayside this year.  Due to sponsorship fees (Tulsa World is the sponsor for this region), the district’s principals decided not to participate in the spelling bee. Some of the schools held one, but the winner will not advance.  They may try to rejuvenate it for next year.

 

 

OLD BUSINESS –

·        IWB  for Mrs. Hartsock – covered under Mrs. Kesselhuth’s report

·        Blood and Guts Program – scheduled for February 15 rather than 14th as indicated on agenda.  Discussed under Mr. Dennis’ report.  PO has been handled for the program.

 

NEW BUSINESS –

·        Tutors for 4th grade – Mrs. Key needs 1 on 1 math tutors for students already involved with group after school tutoring.  3:00 time frame.

·        Mileage Club Resurrection – Ms. Byars has expressed an interest in resurrecting the mileage club with OWU volunteers.  Last year the program had about a 60% participation from students. 

·        WAVE  - Wayside Academic Volunteers for Excellence ; Teachers and Parents working together to investigate seamless volunteers within the classroom.

·        Technology Update –Casper Naegle reported that COP and BPS are forming a Cooperative Partnership.  COP has assigned a full time Project Manager to the Project for the next 8 weeks – Andrew Genna; Marty Scholenthaler and Gary Quinn are sponsors; other COP employees and Wayside parents are on the committee.  The intent is to build a frame work to ensure all schools are heading in the same direction.  No funding is available, but plan will be used as money becomes available from the sales tax which was voted on last spring. 

·         

The next WPSA meeting will be at 9:30 on Monday, March 10 at Wayside. 

 

 Respectively submitted:       Patricia K. Mason, secretary