Canfield Avenue Elementary School| FOC Board Meeting Minutes |
Friends of CanfieldBoard MeetingApril 12, 2012Members present: Christine Torre, Jessica Pashkow, Beth Raanan, Penny Wright, Carl Levinger,Laurie Aston, Elizabeth Owens, Jody Miller, Stacey Bronson, Ira Unterman, Michael Robertson Members not present: Loren Philip, Jessi Bauer Fenigstein Others attending: Chris Wong Meeting called to order at 6:40 p.m. Elizabeth moved to approve Feb, March & special meeting minutes. Jody seconds. Christine will post the minutes on the website. Announcements and Procedural Matters: March 28th parent meeting – Poor attendance. Patty Fitzgerald gave an excellent presentation about preventing child sexual abuse. She would be a good choice to speak on other topics such as internet safety. Open House Thursday, April 19: 5:30-7:00. Christine will talk to Ms. Gullatt about selling Spiritwear. Prospective Parent Reception, Thursday, May 3rd, 7 to 9 p.m. at Sabrina Tieger’s. The Hilton can provide glassware, plates and silverware. Dale Greenblatt will prepare food platters. Ms. Gullatt has requested that the Book Fair revenues and Jog-a-thon funds be transferred to the Canfield Student Body account. May 8th is Teacher Appreciation Day. Ms. Gullatt is interested in having every student bring one flower for his or her teacher. Suggestion that the Room Parents could organize their families. Field Day is scheduled for Friday, May 25th. Christine will confirm with Jamison Reeves who has agreed to coordinate the volunteers and work with Mr. Kinsley and Coach Reo. Tentative date for Spelling Bee during the week of May 21 or May 29. Katherine Weinstock will chair. Last day of school will be Tuesday, June 19th. LAUSD Principals are encouraged to keep kids at school for Monday & Tuesday. Ms. Gullatt would like to hold Canfest on the 19th and has asked FOC to cover cost of ice cream and provide sound equipment and parent volunteer DJs. Stacey Bronson will contact a local ice cream vendor. Treasurer’s Report: See attached Profit & Loss statement. Fundraising and budget subcommittee will meet on Monday April 28th and provide Board members with a proposed schedule of fundraising events for 2012-2013 and a 2012-2013 budget proposal. Funding Allocations 2012-2013:FOC allocations for 2012-2013 to date total $67,774 to pay for coach, 2 Instructional Aides, and part of the salary for the Categorical Program Advisor position held by Elise Ungerleider. The Board needs to address how we will proceed with budgeting requests from Canfield. Parents have donated dollars that may be available to enrich and enhance the school over beyond the amount that Ms. Gullatt might request. Last year, Beth created a proposed budget based on categories that the board has previously funded. The question was raised as to whether the Board will be able to draft and vote on the 2012-2013 budget during the scheduled board meetings or whether we need to schedule a separate budget meeting. Elizabeth Owens suggests that we schedule a separate meeting. A large part of the budget is determined by allocations for staff positions. Anticipated 2012-13 Funding Requests: Based on discussions with Ms. Gullatt, the Board should expect the following requests for staff position funding: 6 TAs-cost will be the same cost as last year ($8250 per aide). Total of $49,500. TA #7 will be Kathy Lewis. LAUSD does not allow Canfield to “buy” a librarian. Kathy will stay on the LAUSD payroll as a TA and $8250 of her compensation will come from the board. Ms. Gullatt will request an additional $8450 to be paid to Kathy in consulting fees as we did for 2011-2012. If there are particular questions regarding the school budget we need to communicate that specifically to Ms. Gullatt. One challenge is that the Board is making decisions to allocate funds in April, when the LAUSD board has not even made decisions about class size and other issues for the 2012-13 school year. The School Board will not vote on a final budget until June. Ms. Gullatt has submitted a “letter of intent” to LAUSD to buy 1 arts specialist. Teachers have not yet decided which type of art specialist they would like (instrumental music, dance, theater etc.) Ms. Gullatt has not yet talked to Matthew Fairchild about continuing as the vocal music instructor next year. Board Elections & Committee Chair Recruiting: Election packet materials have been distributed. Christine encourages current Board members to approach potential candidates personally to encourage people to participate on the Board next year. Current members present indicated their intentions to seek re-election with Christine, Beth Raanan, Michael Robertson and Penny Wright stating that they will not return to the Board for 2012-2013. Christine will contact this year’s Committee Chairs to ask whether they plan to volunteer for 2012-2013. Discussion of Board officer positions for 2012-2013. In addition to the three required positions of President,Treasurer and Secretary, we will recruit for a VP of Community Development and a VP of Fundraising. So the Board would have 8 to 10 members at lart depending on whether the VP positions are filled. Oscar Marquez & Wendy Reeves have stepped forward and expressed interest. ASAP application: Laurie Aston briefly described theTufts University program to prevent childhood obesity in elementary students and the grant opportunities to fund physical education programs at schools. Specifically funding innovative programs to prevent childhood obesity. A panel of judges will select regional winners. Tufts will send staff to use the winning programs as pilot programs and implement them to at other schools. Coach Reo and Laurie put together the information about Coach’s Morning Mile program. Jamison Reeves recorded a video to submit with the application. Winners will be announced May 14. Upcoming programs: Earth Week scheduled for April 22 through April 27. Taste of Canfield event on Friday from 1 to 4 p.m. Beautification Day was scheduled for Sunday, April 29th. Committee members will find a new date to avoid another volunteer intensive weekend program just one week after the Musical performances. Next Board Meeting: May 10, 6:30 pm Election Meeting May 24th Meeting adjourned at 8:26pm Special Board Meeting March 26, 2012 8:15 a.m. Members Present: Christine Torre, Jessica Pashkow, Carl Levinger, Jessi Bauer Fenigstein, Elizabeth Owens, Stacey Bronson, Jody Miller, Penny Wright, Loren Philip, Beth Raanan Members Not Present: Laurie Aston, Ira Unterman Others Present: Principal Gullatt Called to order 8:19 AM Christine Torre suggests that the Board address each allocation request separately in the order presented in her memorandum to the Board. (See attached memorandum.) Allocation request for CPA-Categorical Program Advisor: This staff position has been and is currently held by Elise Ungerleider. It has previously been funded by categorical program funds from state and federal government that support the English Learner’s program. In 2011-12, Ms. Gullatt supplemented those funds using Non Title 1 Stimulus Funds which have been cut from Canfield’s budget for 2012-2013. Ms. Gullatt has been given a a very short time frame to spend the categorical funds. Ms. Gullatt is asking for $10,601 to supplement the available categorical funding for the position. To buy this half-time position from LAUSD costs about $40,000. The available categorical funding is about $29,000 Ms. Gullatt has requested an allocation of $10,601 from FOC to supplement this amount. In previous years, FOC has not asked been asked tofund this position because Ms. Gullatt has had other available funding. In addition to the CPA responsibilities, Elise Ungerleider writes school plans, does data crunching year after year;it is imperative to keep her on staff. Has a great sense of campus and various needs. Categorical Funds will cover about one-third of her salary. If FOC does not provide funds, -we are not sure if Ms. Gullatt can find the $10,000 needed. Ms. Gullatt is making room in her budget requests so that Friends might not be asked for large funds next year. If FOC does not approve the request, we will we not lose the allocation-but Ms. Gullatt will need to come up with the $10,000+. Jessi Bauer Fenigstein moves to allocate $10,601 to supplement the CPA position; Loren Philip seconds. Motion passed. 2. DUPLO Printer Purchase:$8,803 requested. Ms. Gullatt prefers to use LAUSD vendor rather than an FOC outside purchase then donated to the school. LAUSD has recently entered a UnifiedServices agreement with Toshiba. Under this agreement, schools would schedule a site visit to assess needs of each school. LAUSD would provide copying, printing and duplicating equipment to meet the school’s needs. Canfield would not make a capital investment to purchase the machine. Canfield would pay a charge 1 penny per copy. It is not clear, but likely that Canfield would cover the costs of ink/toner and paper supplies. The school needs a machine now because the current Duplo machine is unreliable.. Complete Business Systems is the LAUSD approved vendor. Ms. Gullatt has placed a call with LAUSD to schedule the needs assessment. Assessment is supposed to happen by June. Funding allocation request is TEMPORARILY RESCINDED. Preliminary GALA revenue numbers:TOTAL Auction INCOME $36,325 gross. After costs about $28,439.16 (plus or minus$1,000) Drawing revenue about $13,850.00. 3.Library Aide- $11,580 [sic] requested. For the 2011-2012 school year, FOC provided $8,450 supplemental funds to add two hours per day for an additional 10 hours a week to the part-time position. For 2012-2013, due to the loss of Non-Title 1 funds, Ms Gullatt is asking FOC to cover the whole salary for the library aid position for a total of15 hours per week/3 hours perday. How much librarian stuff is Kathy doing? Seems that she is doing more garden-related tasks. Seems that the library is not as well-maintained as it could be. Library volunteers have not shown up-she needs more management. Maybe we can enlist more parent volunteers for the 2012-2013 school year.
Meeting adjourned 9:32 AM Friends of Canfield Board Meeting March 8, 2012, 6:30 p.m. Members present: Christine Torre, Jessi Bauer Fenigstein, Jessica Pashkow, Beth Raanan,Penny Wright, Carl Levinger, Laurie Aston, Elizabeth Owens, Jody Miller, Stacey Bronson, Ira Unterman, Loren Philip Members not present: Michael Robertson Others attending: Chris Wong, Wendy Clifford Reeves and Oscar Martinez Welcome/Introductions Meeting called to order 6:34 pm.
Funding Allocation – Matthew Fairchild reports that 4 microphone heads and magnets have been removed and stolen from the 5 hanging microphones. Matthew requests that he Board allocate funds to purchase wireless headset microphones. Aset of seven headsetswould cost about $1500). Prior to submitting a proposal, Matthew will look into borrowing headsetsfrom Hamilton High School, STAR or options to rent the equipment. The stolen microphone heads can be replaced for about $50 each. See the attached information provided by James Feld. FOC has a budget line for the musical expenses and Matthew should purchase the replacement parts using that budgeted funds In previous years, Musical ticket price has been $10. Laurie Aston moves that musical ticket price increase to $20. Carl seconds. Each family has the option to purchase tickets ; typically people bring relatives. Elizabeth Owens would like to see the ticket price stay at $10. Because the increased ticket price might be too much of a burden for some of our families; it could hurt attendance. Beth Raanan agrees. In light of the participation fee being raised this year, maybe it is not the best year to also raise the ticket price. Alternatively, we might want to consider “X” number of tickets for $10 and charge more for additional after 6. The ticket limit is based on the limited capacity in the Multi-Purpose Room. Vote on the motion: 4 Yay-7 nay. Musical ticket price will stay at $10 this year. Fresh Fruit Program: Elizabeth Owens presents two proposals. Program will no longer be free for non-title I school. Cost from La Cienega Farmers Market would be .35 cents per child per week. Kathy Lewis manages the Wellington Square Farmer’s Marke. She could provide fruit for substantially less, and Canfield would be able to decide what type of fruit to order. The cost from LaCienega would be about $157.50 per week; from Wellington it would be about $118. (See attached information sheet provided by Elizabeth Owens.). Ms. Gullatt would like us to provide Fresh Fruit on Tuesday for the California Distinguished School site visit. We can purchase strawberries from the Wellington Square Farmers Market at a cost ofabout $100 for Tuesday. Jessi Bauer Fenigstein moves that FOC allocate $110 fruit for the site visit.How much is site visit lunch? Estimate from Gourmet Fetishes is $146 for 15 people. Ira Unterman amends the motion toallocate up to $300 for site visit expense. Loren Philip seconds. Amendment passes. Motion as amended passed. Elizabeth Owens moves that FOC allocate $1,534 to cover 13 weeks of Fresh Fruit on Monday. Laurie Aston seconds. Despite the Board’s support of the Fresh Fruit on Friday program, it is no longer a free program. The Board just agreed to allocate $8800 for a new printer. Maybe the fruit program is not as much as a priority. Could we can offer fruit every other week. Elizabeth would consider doing it twice a month. Maybe we can approach some families to sponsor the fresh fruit program. Anonymous donor gave $700 to fund the the fresh fruit program through the end of the school year. Elizabeth rescinds the motion. School Office Duplo Printer-used for high volume printing. A new one will cost $8800. Estimate from an LAUSD vendor Complete Business Systems. All equipment must be purchased from an LAUSD-approved vendor at a negotiated cost. The proposed purchase order includes a 5 -year service contract. Board members would like some additional information before deciding on the funding request. –Questions raised: Is this really the only vendor we can use? Ms. Gullatt has stated that the Duplo rinter will be purchased regardless of the Board’s decision. If Ms. Gullatt pays for it out of available Canfield funds, she will have to come to FOC later for funding for other things. Can FOC purchase by another vendor? Elizabeth will research printers.In her experience, the LAUSD prices have always been better. This current bid from CBS expires 3/15. Printer is needed NOW. Beth Raanan moves that FOC allocate up to $8,803.31; with the proviso that the Board members will do some further research, but we commit to purchase a replacement printer. Elizabeth seconds. Motion passes. Stacey will also look into the option of leasing a printer. 5. FOC Board & Committee Chairs 2012-13. Applications will go out after spring break. Christine Torre volunteers to administer that process. She requests that current Board members declare by April 9 their intent for next year. Elections meeting will take place on May 24. Process is as follows: call for nominations, closing date and then sitting Board meets in a closed meeting and votes for all 13 positions. Board members should reach out to individuals who have served on committees and consider candidates for Board positions. We also need to consider candidates for Committee Chairs (including room parent). , Current committee chairs who will not be continuing will be asked to reach out to individuals might be interested in that position. We need to pay special attention to Committee Chairs for the fall events (eg., annual giving, picnic) a lot of these fall programs benefit from early planning during the summer months. Elizabeth Owens states that she and Lee Zamos will chair the Fall Family Dance. Jessie and Elizabeth will chair the Jog-a-thon and the Fresh Fruit program. The Board should start planning now for 2012-13 fundraising events and activities. We have only 10 months in the school year, and we do a lot of fundraising events that-keep bumping into each other. We need to decide what events are old and no longer effective What fundraising activities need to be revamped? Ira Unterman volunteers to chair a fundraising oversight committee. Laurie, Beth & Stacey will participate.. Discussion of the grant money that funds the P.E. Coach position: LAUSD offered to schools the opportunity to apply for State grant moneylump sum given to district exclusively for elementary school P.E. programs. Ms. Brookover applied for funding and received an award. Funds were sufficient for ½ time P.E. coach. Coach was hired for a part-time. Parents wanted him here full time. So FOCallocated funds to supplement the grant and fund a full-time position. Current year’s funding is more than half the position salary. It is FOC’s understanding that the State grant fudning amount decreases each year. We don’t have specific dollar amounts. Ms. Gullatt makes an annual funding request to the Board. Coach Reo has learned of some grants that may be available to fund the P.E. program and contacted Beth Raanan. Laurie Aston explored the websites and found many different grants .that Friends could pursue Based on previous experience submitting grant proposals for technology, we more than likely won’t qualify (perhaps a bit here and there). We should gather all information, and once we have it, it is fairly easy to apply for multiple grants.
Friends of Canfield Board Meeting February 9, 2012, 6:30 p.m. Members present: Christine Torre, Jessi Bauer Fenigstein, Jessica Pashkow, Beth Raanan, Penny Wright, Carl Levinger, Laurie Aston, Elizabeth Owens, Jody Miller, Michael Robertson, Ira Unterman, Loren Philip Members not present: Stacey Bronson Others attending: Chris Wong; Oscar Martinez Welcome/Introductions Meeting called to order 6:37 pm. Announcements & Procedural Matters
LAUSD is proposing elimination of the arts program. There is a school board meeting on 2/14. Ms. Gullatt expects to have more information after principal’s meeting next month. Canfield has been invited to apply for the California Distinguished School program. A site visit will be scheduled for a date between 2/16 and3/26. In the application, Ms. Gullatt focused on two programs that make Canfieldan outstanding school. She chose theP.E. program and community involvement. Distinguished school honorees do not receive any funds, only the CA Department of Education recognition. Canfield will receive a banner to hang. Canfield was on the list of proposed distinguished schools based on the steady rise in API scores.
Friends needs to schedule a date for our prospective parent reception. Christine will send some proposed dates to Board members. There is a lot on the calendar for April, but not as much for May. Let’s think about the purpose of this evening. Treasurer’s Report
Funding Allocation Request for Gardening Program: Two parent volunteers have volunteered to build raised beds in the main garden: Gurumeher Khalsa and Owen Tsabari. Kathy Lewis has spent all of her allocated money for 2011-2012, and she is requesting additional funds to build ten more raised beds. Gurumeher has estimated cost of materials.. Money has been previously allocated for Beautification Day that was not spent in the fall. Michael Robertson moves to allocate the requested $1250 to the garden upgrade. Elizabeth seconds. Beth moves to amend initial motion to reallocate $1,000 from Beautification Day budget for the garden upgrade. Penny seconds. Motions passed. FOC will allocate $1250, with $1,000 redistributed from the Beautification Day budget for the purpose of upgrading the garden beds.
Annual Giving: Beth Raanan reports that we have reached 39.7% family participation.with a total of $91,118.60 donated. Spring Fundraiser: Plans for the Parent Social include two food stations and passed hors d’oevres. Michael Robertson estimates a $45 cost per person-all in includiing two drink tickets and food, free self park, banquet price for valet. Elizabeth moves that we sell Parent Social event tickets for $60. Michael seconds. Motion passed. Discussion of possible childcare arrangements. Friends could hire STAR teachers independently for childcare. STAR cannot provide off-site child care. Friends cannot host an event where we supervise children because we do not have the required insurance coverage. Technically it is not a school event. Can we get coverage for that one particular event? We have a potential donor for the Gala Drawing Grand Prize, but he has not committed totally. publicity for the donation beyond just being on the tickets. He -wants a banner on the fence. Banner ads cost $1250. Not fair to other advertisers to allow a banner ad for less than the required cost. Beth received a $500 from Ann Austin which will be used as a sponsorship to offset the costs of the drawing. Top seller incentive prizes will be the Disneyland Park Hopper tickets donated to the auction fundraiser; - the Torre Mick family will donate an ipod Nano; and Friends will purchase a Wii gaming system. Gala Drawing: We are still recruiting volunteers to chair the Drawing. Christine has a short list and will contact people. Christine will contact Jenny Savitsky and Lee Zamos to ask whether they are interested in donating the $1,000 grand prize. Beth is willing to contact Ben Bellet and a couple other area realtors. Friends of Canfield Parent Meeting March 28: Proposal to invite Pattie Fitzgerald, founder of Safely-Ever After and a child safety expert to give a 90- minute presentation geared to parents to keep kids safe. Her fee for non-profit organizations I $250. Christine moves that we vote to invite PF to come to our March 28th parent meeting. Laurie seconds. Motion passed. Other Committee Reports:
Friends of Canfield Parent Meeting: Monday, March 28 23, 6:00 PM Next Board Meeting: March 8, 6:30 pm Meeting adjourned 8:28 pm
Friends of Canfield Board Meeting January 11, 2012, 6:30 p.m.
Members present: Christine Torre, Jessi Bauer Fenigstein, Jessica Pashkow, Beth Raanan, Penny Wright, Carl Levinger, Laurie Aston, Elizabeth Owens.
Members not present: Jody Miller, Stacey Bronson, Michael Robertson, Ira Unterman, Loren Philip
Others attending: Chris Wong, Oscar Marquez
Meeting called to order 6:30 pm. Christine introduces Oscar Marquez, a parent of a second grade and kindergarten student, who is new to the school this year. Oscar has a proposal regarding parent donations directly to individual classrooms. Board members agree to discuss this agenda item first. Oscar Marquez has proposed that parent donations to their student’s classrooms be processed as donations to the 501(c)(3) for purposes of tax deductibility. Donations to a public school are generally tax deductible. The issue is how to allow parents to get tax deductible receipt for classroom donations. Ira has said that a teacher’s thank you note can be documentation of the donation and the parent would have a receipt from the purchase of any item donated. Need documentation that parent made “public school donation”. Must list what you gave. FOC should make parents aware of the tax deductibility of classroom gifts. Christine will put info into newsletter. Perhaps FOC could create a form letter that would make it easy for the teachers to provide to parents who make classroom donations. Because it is a donation to Canfield Elementary, SBM/SSC council members should decide how/whether to proceed in providing documentation of donations for tax purposes. FOC will offer support as needed.
Treasurer’s Report Ira unable to attend.
Insurance Policy: The FOC policy has been renewed with the extended coverage as required by LAUSD. FOC has added coverage for Directors and Officers errors and omissions liability. Fundraising Reports
Spring Fundraiser Planning Report: Jessica and Carl provide a brief report on the status of online auction donations. Carl reports that he has solicited about $13,000 value in item donations. The Board discusses how to rally the parent community to also bring in item donations. The Board agrees that a cover letter soliciting donations and the donation form should go home on paper in the backpacks with an email announcement to watch for it distributed through the Room Parents. The distribution should happen ASAP. Gala Drawing: We are still recruiting volunteers to chair the Drawing. Christine has a short list and will contact people. Christine will contact Jenny Savitsky and Lee Zamos to ask whether they are interested in donating the $1,000 grand prize. Beth is willing to contact Ben Bellet and a couple other area realtors. Classroom-specific donations: (Discussion noted above.) Other Committee Reports:
FOC Parent Meeting January 23: Topic will focus on the current year attendance improvement campaign. Canfield’s attendance counselor will provide information about the LAUSD program and report on activities to improvement attendance and decrease tardiness at Canfield and progress toward goals this year. Christine suggests that we might want to address.other topics and/or agenda items in order to draw more parents to the meeting. Parking and safety issues could be discussed. Christine requests assistance with set up for the meeting. . Friends of Canfield Parent Meeting: Monday, January 23, 8:30 am Next Board Meeting: February 9, 6:30 pm Meeting adjourned 7:47 pm February 2011 Members present: Carl Levinger, Dede Alva, Christine Torre, Loren Philip, Beth Raanan, Stacey Bronson, Shyreen Martin, Matthew Fairchild, Jessica Pashkow Treasurer’s Report Recap Recent Events Upcoming Events- Discussion- Grant Writer- Community Development Meeting adjourned 8:10 January 2011 Members present: Carl Levinger, Dede Alva, Laurie Aston, Christine Torre, Loren Philip, Beth Ranann, Elizabeth Owen, Stacey Bronson, Hetty Melmed, Katherine Weinstock, Shyreen Martin Treasurer’s Report President’s Report Funding Requests Upcoming Events- Fundraising Community Development Meeting adjourned 8:10 December 2010 Members present: Jessica Pashkow, Beth Raanan, Elizabeth Owens, Loren Philip, Christine Torre, Carl Levinger, Matthew Fairchild, Hetty Melmed, Dede Alva, Stacey Bronson, Shyreen Martin, Katherine Weinstock Treasurer’s Report Income Sources Meeting adjourned 8:01 PM November 2010 Members present: Beth Raanan, Loren Phillip, Elizabeth Owens, Christine Torre, Laurie Aston, Matthew Fairchild, Dede Alva, Katherine Weinstock, Stacey Bronson, Shyreen Martin.Members not present: Hetty Melmed, Carl Levinger, Jessica Pashkow Non-Members present: Bobby from Color Me Mine Beth Raanan called the meeting to order at Approve Minutes Laurie moved to approve September minutes. Katherine seconds. Minutes approved. Color Me Mine Presentation Treasurer’s Report President’s Report Upcoming Events- Community Development Meeting adjourned 8:01 October 2010 Members present: Jessica Pashkow, Beth Raanan, Elizabeth Owens, Loren Philip, Christine Torre, Carl Levinger, Laurie Aston, Matthew Fairchild, Hetty Melmed, Dede Alva, Katherine Weinstock, Stacey Bronson. Treasurer’s Report President’s Report Volunteers are needed for Wednesday morning to assist with stapling and putting together packets that are sent home with vital information. Lets get a message out through the room parents. We need a core group to be available Wed. morning after drop off. In regards to the money that is donated to the school via ticket sales from Waiting for Superman, Beth suggested that Ms. Gullatt meet with teachers to come up with a school based project where we can tell families their money will go once it is donated. Upcoming Events- Fall dance Friday, October 22. Dinner will not be available at the door this year and must be purchased in advance. Spiritwear will be for sale in the multi-purpose room next to bake sale. Grade Level Coffees Christine made flyers to pass out to families letting them know about the coffee. Teachers and Ms. Gullatt will participate for the first half of the event. All coffee dates will be announced in each weekly update. Each week prior a specific flyer will go home to parents. Ms. Gullatt has agreed to allow us to use the barazza. Elizabeth Yaron has offered to do art & music with the kinders while their parents are at the meeting. Book Fair Fundraising Annual Giving. Astrocamp. Advertising Policy. Annual Gala. There were many opinions around the table, but the general consensus is that $10,000 is too much to spend for this company when that money can be used for other more important school items. There is also some concern that with an outside auctioneer we would be moving further away from the community feel of our event. It was decided that the board would wait a week to have a formal vote on whether or not to hire The Gavel Group. This discussion revealed some very interesting and eye-opening details in regards to the scope of our annual event and how much (or how little) money is actually raised. If we decide not to hire The Gavel Group all members of the board must be committed to assisting in the planning and execution of the annual gala. Jessica will reach out to all board members as well as those individuals who have shown interest in working on the gala committee and will begin to plan meetings to discuss options for the event. Community Development Meeting adjourned 8:01 Respectfully submitted by Jessica Pashkow October, 2010 September 2010 Members present: Jessica Pashkow, Beth Raanan, Shyreen Martin, Loren Philip, Christine Torre, Carl Levinger, Laurie Aston, Matthew Fairchild, Hetty Melmed, Dede Alva, Katherine Weinstock, Stacey Bronson. Treasurer’s Report— Paid $4600 for teacher aides. Net income -34 because of checks written. Received $15,000 from Breitburn. Paid for spiritwear in advance-will make money back. Laurie will write thank you to Breitburn. Dede has recommitment letter. See P&L from yesterday. Try to keep $47,000 rainy day fund. Did not close First commerce—e.scrip is paid into that account. President’s Report First day of school went great. Kudos to Christine for welcome coffee program and thanks to Loren and the welcome committee. Energy was so great! This was the first year that Ms. Gullatt posted the class lists prior to the start of school-parents and kids responded well to seeing classroom assignments before start of school. Ms. Gullatt is out on personal business all week. She mentioned to Beth that we are going to get cut back further on our janitorial and that we may not be able to have evening meetings past November. Perhaps we can use the library? We may have to brainstorm other locations; no full details yet but will keep us posted. Upcoming Events- There will be an FOC Parent meeting Tuesday, September 28 at 6:30 pm. What do we want to accomplish at that meeting? Maybe information about test results. We promised we would talk about volunteer opportunities-volunteer fair. Set up each committee at “booths”. Annual giving pitch-with love and requirement. Test scores can be a can of worms right now. Not the headliner but might be good to bring up and have Ms. Gullatt address the crowd. Beth can bring out vision banners and recap for new parents. Show off SmartBoard. Ms. Gullatt should speak about new teachers, she is so excited about them it would be great to have her talk about them and how she hired them etc. Beth will work on the schedule and will meet with Ms. Gullatt. Beth & Christine will set up committee fair and will coordinate with chairs. Fall dance Friday, October 22. Dinner will not be available at the door this year and must be purchased in advance. Beautification Day, Sunday October 17. Susan Black will chair and will be looking for a lot of help. If anyone has any brainstorming thoughts. Are there target areas that need attention? Christine would like to incorporate an e-recycle site. School gets rebate for items brought in. So much stuff in storage container-props, costumes etc from past musicals. If some volunteers can go in and sort what is worth keeping and not, maybe we can hold a Halloween costume sale of some kind. Maybe in concert with BD. Inside of school needs a lot of work. Christine will talk to Ms. Gullatt about cleaning inside. Are we worried that we are overloading families with activities? Back to School Picnic-Sunday, September 19 3:30-6:30. All board members are encouraged to attend and to help set up at 2:30. If anyone has shade structures to loan for the day please bring them to the picnic at 2:30. All board members are encouraged to make their annual giving gift prior to the picnic-those who do will sport stickers proclaiming that they made their gift. We are also all encouraged to purchase & wear Canfield Spiritwear! Encourage families to attend and bring a dessert, but please no cakes or pies-pick up desserts are much easier to manage. Christine is working on the BINGO game and will get small prizes (erasers, lollipops etc) Hetty, her husband and Dede will take care of selling food tickets & drinks. Laurie & Maria will sell spiritwear. Michelle Greenblatt has volunteered to watch the dessert table and Loren and his committee will man the welcome table with some help from all of us throughout the day. Coach will lead games by grade level for kids & parents. STAR will have an arts & crafts project and DJ Maxx will be in the DJ tent. Fundraising Spiritwear has arrived! Laurie not giving out order forms, but is focused on selling what we have. Tank tops will be made to order. Laurie would like to fine-tune our fundraising timeline. Parents can figure out what works best for them. Beth, Carl & Laurie will work on a new advertising campaign. CPK and Islands do fundraiser nights. CPK on S. Beverly Dr. will give us 2 nights and includes take out, dine in etc. We should really consider having Color Me Mine come to the spring beautification day. Will look around the school to see if there is another, more visible place for a new tile wall. Community Development Welcome coffee cost $100-and it made a difference. Adults had a chance to connect. Loren would like to use this model to create grade level community building. Safety First-Thank you to everyone who volunteered to be out on the curb until October, when 1st grade has their month. Without room parents it is difficult to get volunteers to be on the curb. Christine really wants someone to do the administration portion of Safety First. Perhaps we can get 2 room parents to co chair? Room parent letter and sign up sheets will be put in teacher mailboxes. Room parent orientation will take place September 27. Loen has been exploring the idea of purchasing coffee urns to be used for a variety of events throughout the year. There are different options available. Having coffee urns will off set cost by $40 at least for each event. Budget of $400 for all 6 grade level mixers (about $60/event). Dale Greenblatt offered to sell his 2 60 cup makers at $50 a piece. They are used, but refurbished. $100-$120 to purchase urns. Could be easy to get these mixers sponsored. Loren moves to approve the proposal submitted by welcome committee. Christine seconds. Someone should finish research and look into type of urn to buy. We will buy 2 6o cup coffee urns. We will see what type of donations we can receive for coffee and food. We will donate up to $400 for mixers. FOC Logo/Branding Ideas Hot Topics Meeting adjourned 7:57 Respectfully submitted by Jessica Pashkow October, 2010 August 2010 Members present: Jessica Pashkow, Beth Raanan, Shyreen Martin, Loren Philip, Christine Torre, Carl Levinger, Laurie Aston, Matthew Fairchild, Hetty Melmed Members not present: Dede Alva, Katherine Weinstock, Stacey Bronson, Elizabeth Owens Recap of Year End Events— President’s Report—Christine, Laurie and Beth have created a committee matrix (please see attached) and each of them will have various committees reporting to them. Canfield has hired 5 out of the 6 necessary teachers, and the committee is still looking for a 3rd grade teacher. The new 4th grade teacher is a man! Mr. Kinsley who is a returning Canfield teacher. One of the new teachers was hired at a technology seminar that Ms. Gullatt attended this summer. The breakdown is as follows: 1 new 1st grade teacher, 2 new 2nd grade teachers, 2 new 3rd grade teachers and 1 new 4th grade teacher. The Main Office will open on Tuesday, August 17 and they will be open on Wednesday, August 18th for registration. Ms. Gullatt anticipates that she will be able to notify those families waiting to hear about their permits by Friday, August 27th. There will be 3 kinder classes with a maximum of 24 students per class. There are no specific or final numbers on classes just yet, but she does not anticipate going over 24 students per class. New parent orientation (Kinder) will take place Tuesday, September 7th @ 3pm. Ms. Devore & Coach Sorrentino applied for and were awarded $3500 grant. Both attended a PE training camp this summer. Fundraising We will place an empty sparkletts bottle in the lobby of school and will encourage everyone to drop in their loose change in; each classroom will have a chance to guess how much change can fit. Each family that pledges/donates towards our Annual Giving will receive a Canfield Car decal. Laurie will continue to update the fundraising timeline with specifics. Bobby at Color Me Mine on S. Beverly Dr. wants to encourage Canfield to continue our tile wall. Overland Elementary was able to raise $40,000 by selling each tile for $75 each. We can sell tiles to local businesses and perhaps tie this in with beautification day. Any new tiles will be added to our already existing tiles on the outside wall of the multi-purpose room. Annual Giving Plan—Lorri Herman and Dorian Goldstein will be chairing the Annual Giving committee. They will mail a letter home to families at the beginning of September (see attached). Families who Donate $500+ by October 31 will be entered into drawing to win an ipad. All board members are strongly encouraged to make their pledge prior to the start of school. Spiritwear—Ms. Gullatt wants Avenue included in our name on the tee shirts we will be selling as part of our spiritwear campaign. Laurie will have apparel by September 7. All board members should plan on wearing spiritwear to picnic. Community Development Calendar— Upcoming Events/Activites Meeting adjourned 8:57 pm Respectfully submitted by Jessica Pashkow August, 2010 Friends of Canfield Board of Directors Meeting Minutes Wednesday, June 9, 2010 Members present: Jenny Savitsky, Enola Lipaz, Jessica Pashkow, Chris Wong, Dede Alva, Laurie Aston, Beth Raanan, Ira Unterman, Katherine Weinstock, Elizabeth Owens, Matthew Fairchild, Stacy Bronson, Shyreen Martin, Hetty Melamed, Loren Philip, Lee Zamos, Christine Torre, Carl LevingerMembers not present: Ira Unterman Non-Members present: Susan Ruddick Beth Raanan called the meeting to order at 6:07PM Welcome/Introductions –Welcome to new board members. Appreciate everyone’s time on Sunday-generated a lot of great ideas. We will work towards mission throughout the year. Jenny thanked Beth for taking over the presidency. Approve Minutes—Jenny moves to accept may minutes. Jp seconds. Minutes approved Treasurer’s Report—Dede has everything but jog-a-thon. Projecting $2,000 for ice cream sales. We have a negative net income, we spent more than we brought in-due to staff payment; we pay year in advance. Asked for coach’s payment this past April, but we will not pay for teacher aides until August (next fiscal year). Staff expenses listed are for ½ 09-10 and ½ 10-11 plus coach. Each year is never the same based on Ms. Gullatt’s budget. We must be conscious of fundraising timeline. Reserve is not in P & L. The board previously voted to keep at least $40,000 in reserves. We have $5500 of un-cashed checks from years ago that we can add to our savings. Enola found $50 left over from Diary of Wimpy Kid book sales in October. Jenny has contact from Breitburn-they pay us each summer. We have received $15,000 already and expect $15,000 next July and then $10,000/year for next 2 years. Recap of Recent Events— Field Day-thank you Lee Zamos for coordinating. Except for the rain everyone had fun. We came in under budget. Ms. Hyde & Ms. Gullat went ahead and purchased ribbons for the kids. FOC purchased “good sportsmanship” charms that Coach handed out. Carl Levinger approached Whole Foods who in turn provided enough water, and granola bars to meet our needs for both Field Day and the Jog-a-thon. Thank you to Mark Aston for making tee shirts happen. Tee shirts are important for field day. Enola Lipaz moves that FOC cover the cost of tee shirts for kids & teachers--approximately $600. Parents should pay for their own shirt. Laurie Aston seconds. This year the t-shirts were donated and the cost for screen printing is $1 per shirt. Motion passed. Jog-a-thon went well and it was a really smooth, exciting event. To date we are not sure how much was made; the deadline for turning in all pledges is Thursday, June 10, 2010. 4th & 5th grade participation was not as strong as the younger grades. In the future it would be great to host the Jog-a-thon earlier in the year. Ms. Gullatt was thinking March but Jessie & Elizabeth would love to have it in the fall. Doing the Jog-a-thon in March might overlap & conflict with the Gala. Gently Used Book Fair—Was a great success, but there are a lot of books to be packed up. Enola needs help packing the remaining books. She sent e-mail to ask volunteers to take books to various locations for donation. Great idea to have first day just for kids. Last year the book fair brought in at least $1300-the numbers this year are not that far off of that number. Currently Robin Block has agreed to Chair the Book Fair, but it would be great if she could have a co-chair. Beth has drawn up a floor plan and Katherine has made laminated signs so going forward the used book fair will be a “one box” kit. Fundraising—Annual giving finished at $45,963 and the Technology campaign at $10,850. The 2nd grade won the pizza party-they are at 51% participation. The bulk of annual giving comes in during the months of September-December. Barbara Fiedler has given $1250 and has pledged additional $1250 for 2010-11. We will consider offering a parent survey to see where parents work and we will continue to encourage them to seek matching gifts from their employers. One-time funding requests— Spiritwear- Kari Spitz will work with Laurie to produce any shirts sold as part of Canfield SpiritWear. Stacy Bronson will work with Laurie to obtain any sport shorts. We will be offering car decals and maybe tote bags as well. Shirts need to be ordered by the dozen; tote bags are ordered in quantities of 100. We will need to front the cost for items we would like to sell at the Back-to-school-picnic. Laurie moves that FOC pays $3,500 to have apparel to sell at the Back-to-school-picnic. Matthew Fairchild seconds. We don’t want to have too many Canfield logos—we will settle on the one script logo that Katherine created as well as the Canfield Cougar that Pash created (Kari will offer a jeweled version of this) Included in this order are the royal blue field trip shirts that in the past were funded by Canfield. This year FOC will cover the cost of these shirts and they will be given to all NEW students; including Ms. Ferguson’s class. We want to continue to encourage all Canfield students to purchase new Canfield field trip shirts when they grow out of the one they received when they arrived. We don’t want to be in the fulfillment business and do not want to have to store a lot of items or get stuck with inventory. After the picnic we will only buy what people order. All board members are encouraged to wear canfield spiritwear to the back-to-school picnic. Motion Passed Matthew moves that FOC funds 2 banners (max of $200) for the 2001(Canfield Musical) & 2002 (Spring Musical Theatre Review) musicals. Motion passed. Susan Ruddick & Matthew Fairchild will co-direct the 2011 musical Schoolhouse Rock! They are looking for a producer; they have approached Penny Wright. And they plan on having various musical committees. They are planning for a date in May. 2010-11 Budget—Christine Torre moves to approve the 2010-2011 budget. Jessica Pashkow seconds. Motion passed. Recognizing 5th grade parents—There are 10-12 families who have dedicated much time, energy and money to the growth and success of Canfield and their children are graduating and moving on. Beth Raanan moves that FOC offer a public thank you (up to $150) to these families. Laurie Aston seconds. It need not be expensive, just a gesture. In the future FOC might want to consider giving a plaque, it is very important to recognize those parents who were instrumental in the success of Canfield and who took on leadership roles. Beth will send the graduating list to Elizabeth & Enola. Motion amended to $200. Chris Wong seconds. Motion passed. Calendar—Can the jog-a-thon replace gift-wrap? We will wait and see how much money the jog-a-thon raised before making a decision. It was our first time doing the jog-a-thon. Beth has been getting pressure from the Innisbrook representative. We have a tentative agreement, but it is nothing that we cannot get out of. Lee Zamos moves that we skip gift wrap sales. Elizabeth Owens seconds. Motion passed. Library Update—The library committee has been in place 4 months and has made amazing progress on updating the library. The Technology Campaign II is set to improve technology in the library. Updates for the student computer stations was approved in advance as a priority and this was in the stated technology plan and has also been voted on several years in a row with multiple boards (Robyn's presidency and Jenny's). Somewhere along the way the money has bee reallocated. Enola thinks that this year it was borrowed to fund the Smart Board in Ms. Horton's room. Jenny Savitsky has promised to look through board minutes from the last school year. Funds received from Breitburn have been received and dispersed. Fox has committed a sum of money as well. The Scholastic Book profit money was turned into actual dollars ($4,700) and we were able to find amazing deals on a projector and screen thru Steve Torchin. Vince Cimarusti has agreed to do the necessary wiring free of charge and one of Steve Torchin’s contacts has agreed to come in after hours for $75 an hour and install the projector and screen. All of this will be in place by the fall. An effort will be made to have it completed prior to the end of the school year. Need FOC thank you cards Ms. Gullatt had told Enola and the library committee that she would support new computers & new printers for library, however it is not part of her 1st priority. Her top priority is the mobile computer lab and obtaining a service contract for all technology (smart boards). Still under warranty for most tech. SMART has not charged us any maintenance fee. How many units (going into year 3) will need maintenance? Despite the disappointment and frustration felt by the library committee we must keep sight of the fact that FOC is here to support what Ms. Gullatt & her teachers want. We always have to go through ms. Gullatt first; we cannot act on own. Before each project (yearbook, technology etc) we approached Ms. Gullatt. If she says no, we don’t want to waste our time to make it work. Going forward FOC will be more diligent in obtaining in writing the school’s commitment to what FOC is supporting. It is important in moving forward that we have a paper trail of accountability. Although we may not agree, we must understand that priorities change. Jenny put it clearly and very well, we need to understand our role as a board and even though we may not agree with Ms. Gullatt’s philosophy-we need to learn from it and move on. The library committee would like a financial cushion for miscellaneous library supplies. Based on repairs etc…annual collection growth is a goal of 100 books per year. At some point if $$ is tight, we will need to vote on what the collection growth is based on damaged books & number of students (adopt a book program, used book fair). Library services needs to be supported by PC because it is not compatible with MAC operating systems. Kids can use mobile lab in the library (MAC) but they cannot use MAC to access library information. 11. New Business--- Enola moves to amend (additional $172) the emergency vote regarding ANEW (a company that takes corporate furnishings and re-purposes in educational settings)-Katherine & Enola found desks for Gerri & Varner, and needed to pay for the desks and delivery. Jenny Savitsky seconds. Motion passed. We need to encourage someone to take care of replacing the cots in the sick bay-they are old and are a hazard. Meeting adjourned 8:33 pm Respectfully submitted by Jessica Pashkow June, 16 2010
Wednesday, May 5, 2010 Members present: Jenny Savitsky, Enola Lipaz, Jessica Pashkow, Chris Wong, Dede Alva, Laurie Aston, Beth Raanan, Ira Unterman, Katherine Weinstock, Lee Zamos, Elizabeth Owens, Christine TorreMembers not present: Matthew Fairchild Non-Members present: Lecia and Greg Rand, Carl Levinger, Loren Phillip, Tamara GullattShyreen Martin, Cindy Davis Beth Raanan called the meeting to order at 6:10PM Approve Minutes---Christine Torre moves to amend April minutes-information from previous board meeting prior to April need not be included. Lee Zamos seconds. Laurie Aston moves to approve amended April Minutes. Christine Torre seconds. Amended minutes approved. 2. Ms. Gullatt addressed the board: Before Friends votes on any issues that affect Canfield directly (monetary in nature) we need to first communicate with Ms. Gullatt. We need to be aware of her line items and make sure that she hasn’t already allocated funds for what we are voting on. FOC also needs to communicate with SBM/SCC as well. We also need to focus on the school’s priorities-currently the number one priority is staff. What is the role of SBM and SCC? SBM takes care of event calendaring and SCC takes care of the financial responsibility of the events. We need to follow lines of communication and keep them open-teachers need to also follow these lines of communication and they should know not to approach FOC for any needs. Teachers really stretched right now; their paychecks are reflecting 2 furlough days even though only 1 has been taken so far. They are starting state testing this month and they are still doing Open Court testing; they are also teaching as if school ends on June 24th not the 18th 3. Treasurer’s Report—Our checking account is low. We have paid $32,000 for coach for the 2010-2011 school year. We do not need to pay for the librarian, but in August we will need to pay $42,000 for teaching aides. Funds received from the musical are not yet reflected. Funds will be a bit lean in the fall. We do have reserves in our savings account. In June, we will need to vote on and approve a budget for the 2010-2011 school year. If FOC gives the money, LAUSD will find more teaching aides. FOC takes the lead from Ms. Gullatt when it comes to staffing issues. We should find out what her wish list is if money is available. Our budget is a work in progress and will be finalized at our board retreat in June. 4. Recap of Recent Events— The musical was a HUGE success and we are projecting a $2600 profit. The Save the Arts Pledge Drive brought in $1,000 and money is still coming in. The recent wine and cheese was also very successful. We used the gift cards from various grocery stores garnered from the auction to purchase food. It was a beautiful event and it worked well without teachers present. Dariya from STAR was present—members feel that STAR should be giving more back to Canfield. Beth is attending the STAR showcase and will be placed into a lottery to see if Canfield receives a school-wide assembly. The Library needs an intact Library Committee who will be focused on updating the facility. We have not updated the library in 7 years. We switched the Book Fair money from book credits to actual cash ($4500), which will go towards updating the library and its systems. We will install a Hi-Def projection system that will include a drop down screen and a remote control. We will purchase 4-5 pieces of equipment to update the library. It was suggested that the library money be allocated separate from the operating budget of the school. How does this relate to Tech Phase II?- the mobile lab is 35% finished. Ms. Gullatt used some of her money to purchase 4 computers. A library proposal will be mailed to the board-we hope to have all renovations completed by the beginning of the school year. Upcoming Events— Volunteer Appreciation Breakfast. Friday, May 7 @ 7:45 Field Day- Thursday, May 27. Volunteers needed-please sign up in lobby. Lee moves to approve a Field Day budget of $300. Jessica Pashkow seconds. We need to ask families to donate tents (shelter), water and snacks. Adidas is sponsoring the tee-shirts however we need to cover the cost of printing. Mark Aston approached a group of parents who donated enough to cover the cost of printing the tee-shirts. The shirts are a unique aspect of Field Day and Enola would like to discuss FOC covering the cost of the tee-shirts in the future. Ms. Hyde is running the event as a school event; it needs better coordination and communication because it is in fact a joint-event. Board voted on and approved a $400 Field Day budget. June 4. This is a joint event (Canfield and FOC). It is simple and costs very little. Ms. Gotz, Ms. Gullat and Ms. Schwartz are Canfield contacts. Elizabeth Owens is FOC contact. May 10 packets will be sent home. Each student must submit a permission slip to participate. Donations can be made per lap or as a 1 time donation. The event will take place by grade. Kinders must walk-each grade will have 30 minutes to complete their portion of the jog-a-thon; they will get 10 minutes warm up time and 20 minutes on the track. Each student who raises $100-$149 will receive a $5 gift card to Target or Toys R Us (students choice). If they raise $150+ they receive a $10 gift card. Each class that raises $1,000 will receive a class party. Snacks will not be available during the jog-a-thon but runners will be given cups of water. Jessica will e-mail Michael Robertson to see if we can borrow red water jugs (cc Elizabeth Owens). Proceeds, minus the cost will be deposited into the FOC account and transferred to Canfield. These funds will make up for the gift wrap and will hopefully fund some field trips. If the jog-a-thon is successful we will consider hosting it earlier on in the school year. General Friends Meeting June 2. Look for more of these general meetings next year! We want a lot of parents in attendance. Used Book Fair 6/7-9. We need two weeks to collect and price items. Notice will go in next week’s update. We will replace the Musical Table with the Used Book Fair table. We will need to identify new chairs to take over for next year. Kids should shop first before parents. Need sign to advertise “Bring $1 for Used Book Fair”. 6. Annual Giving--$44,363.75. Tech campaign--$8200. Spiritwear: 1 phase=teasers to generate orders. Tee-shirts, water bottles, car decals. Pens and pencils for kids; will add sweatshirts later. Roll out during picnic. Estimate profit-$800. Board Elections---6 applications received--new candidates included! 4-5 open spots, depending on if Dede stays. 8. Board Retreat—Sunday, June 6 1-4pm. 9. Thank Yous—Save the Arts letters (Beth sent out), Send Sabrina flowers for hosting Wine and Cheese. Parent who helped Elizabeth Owens put up wireless (Cimarusti) -tap for library installation. Andrew (Young Storytellers point person)-Shouldn’t Ms. Gullattor someone thank the mentors?? Meeting adjourned 8:20 pm Respectfully submitted by Jessica Pashkow and Katherine Weinstock May, 24 2010
Wednesday, April 7, 2010 Members present: Jenny Savitsky, Enola Lipaz, Jessica Pashkow, Chris Wong, Dede Alva, Laurie Aston, Beth Raanan, Ira Unterman, Katherine Weinstock, Lee Zamos, Matthew Fairchild, Elizabeth Owens Members not present: Christine Torre Non-Members present: Lecia Rand Beth Raanan called the meeting to order at 6:15PM 1. Approve Minutes---Lee Zamos moves to approve February minutes. Enola Lipaz seconds. Minutes approved Treasurer’s Report—Beth, Ira & Dede working on creating an excel spreadsheet that will clarify the categories of funds. In the past the categories were fairly random and not consistent. Dede found $7,000 worth of checks that have not yet been cashed. One of them was the phone bill, but we now believe that LAUSD is paying for the phone. When Dede started this year she switched banks, but kept a reserve amount in our old account so as to cover any checks that came in, there is still a lot of money in the old account. Because the most recent un-cashed check is from 2009 we will restate this on our income tax return. Our income returns need to be as accurate as possible. Dede will e-mail a list of all of the un-cashed checks to Enola, Jenny & Chris. We are estimating $2,000 (more or less) in ice cream sales this year. We received a check from the Grove as part of a rewards program that no one is aware of. Beth will follow up with the Grove to find out guidelines and rules for this money. We need to add an e-scrip link to the FOC website as well as a list of other partner programs (Target, Grove, Westside Pavilion, Box Tops etc) where FOC earns money. Some times the money gets sent to Canfield and other times it is sent to FOC, we need to clarify which partners send money to the school and to FOC. We need a Marketing Chair-perhaps Pam Rotshtein or Katherine Kastan? Does Box Top money go to Canfield or FOC? Need follow up with Kathi Sharpe if money goes to Canfield is there a way to have it sent directly to FOC? Kathi is leaving Canfield so we will need to identify a parent to take her Box Top place. Beth, Dede & Ira are working on crating a budget sheet for next year. We will need to plan a special FOC board meeting just for the budget. Jessica suggested that there be the formation of a budget committee. We are in possession of Castle Height’s expense report-and we will be looking to this for ideas. Maybe we need to create a “restricted fund” for un-used funds. If there is money left over we can allocate it to other areas. Given the current educational climate perhaps we should be scaling back on our extra programs and focus our monetary attention on funding more Teacher Aides. If class size continues to rise will we be able to double the money we (FOC) allocates to TAs and will the school hire them? TAs cost $9,000 each. We need to be more mindful of how many times we are asking our parent body for money; we need to have a holistic approach to fundraising. We may dedicate one Sunday before school starts to a FOC Board retreat. We need to plan our budget before June. 3. President’s Report---Canfield has received $22,000+ for English Language Learners-this money will go towards 2 additional ELL aides. Ms. Gullat is investigating the issues on the schoolyard. Teachers need to take furlough days and school will end 4 days earlier this year (on June 18) to accommodate this. Field Day will take place May 27. Should we go forward with the musical pledge cards? This needs to be clarified with Daniel & Jane because the initial idea was not to have a pledge, but actual funds given the night(s) of the performance. A program will be printed; can’t we also print a perforated page in the program? We can place a donation basket outside of the auditorium. We are concerned that we are asking for too much, too often. There is some confusion about what was decided last month when Daniel approached the board about the idea. Elizabeth and Matthew will follow up with Daniel. Lee moved that we do not spend more than $100 on pledge cards for the musical. Elizabeth Owens seconds. The motion passed. Lee Zamos & Elizabeth Owens will host the Teacher Appreciation Luncheon. Fundraising—The online auction now has 24 active bidders. The timing of the event this year was not ideal—will take spring break and musical dates into consideration when planning for next year’s gala. Some people confused about items available at the on-line auction v. items available at the live & silent auction. Need better communication that these are separate auctions and the items are totally different. 126 people and 26 teachers have submitted an rsvp. We need volunteers for the night of-need people to volunteer to work the registration table in 30 minute shifts-we also need table closers and bid runners. We need to set up a raffle table. Annual giving is up 46% from last year. The 2nd and and 4th grades are at 33% participation and the total raised is $44,000+. The technology campaign has raised $8200 and it was just confirmed that we are receiving a grant from Fox. We should schedule a meeting with the board from Castle Heights & Overland so that we can submit grant applications together to better maximize monies that are available to schools. We will go forward with selling spirit wear-our kick off sale will be at the back to school picnic where families can buy sweatshirts, shorts water bottles and other Canfield-centric items. There will also be a permanent display (off of the Barazza?) so parents can order all year. We need to get approval from SBC/SBM A Canfield parent owns Brooklyn Pizza & Pasta and wants to host a Canfield fundraiser on opening night of the musical. He will give 15% of the nights proceeds to Canfield. PE proposal---Coach is asking for funds for supplies. Enola has information about wholesale stores downtown that she can take coach to, to purchase items necessary for our sports/physical education program. Enola has information for vendor/suppliers: K2 International (213) 621-1699 (sports balls, nets etc) and Max Trad (213) 680-3666 (sporting gifts, hula hoops etc). Enola offered to talk to Coach about exactly what he needs and even go with him to one of these suppliers to purchase equipment at wholesale prices. At the auction we would like to try a “raise the paddle” for physical education. This will be a 10-minute or less endeavor that will hopefully raise money to go towards coach and the physical education program at Canfield. Matthew Fairchild moves to “Raise the Paddle” for sports equipment and physical education. Laurie Aston seconds. Beth Raanan moves that we approve for this year a maximum of $1,000 for coach-as long as he submits a formal, priced out proposal. Enola Lipaz seconds. Motion passed. Elizabeth Owens would like to talk to Ms. Gullatt about what she (Canfield) can contribute and what she can give should be subtracted from what FOC gives. Board Elections---Existing Board members were asked to express their intentions for next year. Beth Raanan is running for president; Katherine Weinstock will be a member at large and will chair the Book Fair; Chris Wong is retiring from the FOC board; Matthew Fairchild will be a member at large; Dede will be leaving Canfield as her son was accepted into a magnet program; Jessica Pashkow will run for secretary; Lee Zamos will be retiring from the FOC board; Laurie Aston will run for VP of Fundraising; Elizabeth Owens will be a member at large; Christine Torre is struggling—she is interested in the VP position but she likes doing the updates. Enola Lipaz and Jenny Savitsky will no longer have children at Canfield so will also not be seeking reelection. The candidate packet will be make public next week. Wine & Cheese—Tuesday, April 13 at the home of Sabrina Teiger. Jenny will bring 4 bottles of wine. It is ok to offer food kosher style and not 100% kosher. There is some budget for this event. Enola will use the agenda from the previous wine & cheese event. Ms. Gullatt and teachers will not be present. All board members are encouraged to attend. Library Committee—There is a meeting on Monday, April 12. Upcoming Events: Annual Gala, Wine & Cheese, Open House/Science Fair, Musical and Field Day. Lee Zamos agrees to be the Field Day Liason. This musical is Jane & Daniel’s last. Elizabeth Owens moves to buy Jane & Daniel a gift ($100 max). Matthew Fairchild seconds. Motion passed. James Feld and Enola Lipaz are working on a 5 minute video to show at the auction. Currently there are no release forms—we need to have release forms on hand in the front office at all times. On behalf of Coach, Chris Wong is requesting $500 annually for athletic equipment. Maybe this discussion should be part of the play-yard discussion? Coach needs to submit a budget and then the board can vote. Astro Camp was a great success-it as as good as Jenny thought it would be! The kids came back sick and exhausted :). It was a great experience that was challenging-the kids received Astro Camp sweatshirts. We need to recruit current 4th grade parents to ensure that their students can also benefit from this program. The teachers did very little as there were parent chaperones, but there need to be more. 50+ people showed up for beautification day and with their help we were able to accomplish all of our goals! Beth recently conducted a mid year room parent check in meeting. Room parent roles need to be better defined; they need to understand that they need to do more than just send e-mails, but to create a face-to-face connection with the parents in their room. Safety First needs to be a room parent priority-we need to be able to rely upon room parents to recruit volunteers for safety first drop off. Room parents will be asked to encourage parents to attend the annual gala and to participate in putting together grade level baskets to be auctioned off at the event. Christine Torre moves to boost Safety First Drop Off. Parent volunteers need to have more structure, they need incentives- maybe they will receive a ticket for their child to buy ice cream on Thursday and their names will be published in the bulletin. We need to improve curbside drop off-more cones, more vests. Drivers need to be made aware of the rules and guidelines of the drop off. Christine wants to kick off a postcard campaign; each driver will be handed a postcard with volunteer rules on one side and driver rules on the other. Ms. Gullatt is working with DOT and we might be able to receive the necessary supplies free of charge. Michael Robertson will also look into getting traffic cones. Laurie Aston seconds. Motion passed. Meeting adjourned 8:15 pm Respectfully submitted by Jessica Pashkow March 18, 2010 |
