Meeting Minutes

Date: April 18, 2023

Time: 6:30 pm

Location: Hoosic Valley Elementary School library

In Attendance

President: Liz Ruepp

Vice President: Lissa Kalbfliesh

Secretary: Lisa Meehan

Treasurer: not present

In Person attendees:  Denile Paro, Tiffany Hurley, Stacy Maxon, Jacqui Paglialonga, Kim Macica, Stacey Kyea

Virtual attendees: none

Call to Order:

The meeting was called to order at 6:35pm

Approval of Minutes

The minutes from the March meeting were approved.

Committee Reports

• Yearbook – Deadline to purchase has been set at April 30 in order to receive and distribute in a timely fashion. Currently,the  number ordered is down from previous years – flyers just went home so hopefully orders will increase in the upcoming weeks. Please help spread the word by sharing on social media.

Unfinished (Old) Business:

• Plants for staff room:  delivered soon.
• Senior gifts: 80 pairs of socks were ordered, similar to last year for a cost of approximately $400. These will be distributed at the senior picnic.
• Senior Scholarships: The committee will begin reviewing these in the next week. Deadline is 5/1. See Carolyn Gifford with any questions.
• Teacher Appreciation: Survey sent out, handful of responses are mixed. Will allow more time, but currently the results, with logistics and finances point to a boxed lunch. Liz will look into options and reach out for assistance in the coming weeks.
• Meet the Board Candidates Night: Currently appears to be only 1 petition turned in. In that case, this event will not be held. Deadline is 4/17 so will assess after that date.
• Learning Fair: To be held the day of the BOE elections in the gym (May 16). Flyers went home with kids recently. Open to 4th-6th grade students. Format and subject can be anything the student would like to focus on, worked on outside of school. See Amanda Akin for details or to assist with setup on that day.
• Stewart’s Holiday Match:  received an award of $1000 for classroom libraries. This falls short of the amount needed for giving a meaningful amount to each teacher. Still looking for ideas to raise those additional $2000 to meet this need. First avenue will be just to ask for donations for this and see where that ends up.
• School Supply Kits: Currently being coordinated with same vendor as last year: Bright School Kitz. Awaiting updated lists from 2 grades. Sale will be live in mid-May until mid-June.

New Business

• Book Fair Week Activity: Book fair is first week of May. Discussion regarding activity to be held in conjunction with it. Possibilities were discussed and consensus was Book Fair Bingo night on 5/5 at 6:30. See Liz or Denile if you would like to help out – with Bingo night or with book fair.
• Vendor Refund: Discussed and approved refunding $60 to a vendor who got ill and could not attend the vendor fair. Agreed to put a clause regarding this situation in to the contract for future years: that refunds will be granted on a case-by-case basis.
• Volunteer Recognition: Discussed acknowledging the small number of members who provide extensive volunteer hours for the PTO sponsored activities and programs. This was done in the past with mugs and pens. See Liz or Lissa with any ideas.
• Google phone number: Agreed to activate the google phone number to be associated with PTO to have a single access point that can remain consistent as officers change over time.
• Website Updates:  Liz and Lissa will be moving the website out of WordPress format into Google hosted site to create a more user friendly experience as well as being easier to keep contents up to date, accessible and relevant. Reach out if you would like to assist with this project.
• Calendar Magnets: Agreed to move forward with creating a magnetic school calendar for 2023-2024 to offer to dues paying members as a perk of membership. Liz will work on getting that set up through an online vendor in the coming months.

Funding Requests

• HV Community Partners requested a donation to support After Prom activities. Unanimous agreement to match last year’s donation of $400 for this event.
• Unanimously agreed to reimburse Liz $162 for cost of the banner in support of the Odyssey of the Minds Teams. Banner was purchased at Vital Signs in Cohoes and is undated so can be used for future years.

Future Discussion 

• Kim Macica would like to create a library tour similar to the one being done by UHLS. Discussed creating a similar activity possibly with prizes and/or with linking to PARP.

Next Meeting

Date: May 15, 2023, 6:30 pm Elementary School library

Motion to adjourn was at 7:40pm

submitted: LJM 4/24/23