January 2025 Meeting Minutes

Hoosic Valley Parent Teacher Organization

Regular Meeting Minutes:  January 9, 2025

Location:  Hoosic Valley Elementary School Library

Attendance:

President: Liz Ruepp

Vice President:  Melissa Kalbfliesh

Secretary:  Shannon Hansen

Treasurer: Carolyn Gifford

Members (in-person):

Stacey Kyea

Tegan Kondak

Called to Order: 6:37 PM

Review of Minutes:  

Please read the November meeting minutes to determine if changes need to be made.  Provide recommended changes during February meeting.

Treasurer Report:

All the final receipts have been collected for the fall fundraisers.  The organization has an approximate operating fund of $30,000 but a fall report will be discussed at the next meeting in more detail.  Additionally, the funds from the color run will be discussed in the next meeting.

Unfinished (old) Business:

Yearbook – Shannon was able to get the school pictures link and will start to compile on TreeRing.  Will confirm the price, but plan to have it be similar to last year.  TreeRing has an autoload capability so compilation is easy.  Gathering all the photos is the challenge.  Liz/Shannon plans to go to the school one day to get everyday photos, students getting off the bus/etc..  

Writing Olympics – So far only 3 students have presented stories, while all stories are due on the 20th.  PTO discussed how they did not recognize how many new teachers are in the school and might not understand what are the Writing Olympics.  Unclear how we communicated with the teachers so they understood what this entails.  Different options were discussed to get more involvement.  One option was to get parents/teachers to understand kids could use stories which were developed during school (especially during computer class since it is already in a media format).  The group also decided we could give out free ice cream to all the students who sign up.  Another flyer will be going out to announce this and also the three students will be provided their ice cream slips.

Bus Driver/Custodian Breakfast – Three different areas need to be covered to make sure we get the day and night shift custodians.  Unclear what date everyone will be able to support but a google doc sign up will go out once a date is decided.

Ornament Night/Festival of Wreaths – Both events went well.  The timing for the wreaths was crunched due to the fact Thanksgiving was so late this year.  Many wreaths still had to be picked up because the ice storm impacted people picking them up at the school.  Next year will have similar timing so we will need to discuss and think about the various options for this fundraiser next year.

STEAM Night – A meeting with the STEAM teacher will be held next Wednesday (Jan 15 at 230pm at the school.  The idea is to split up STEAM night to two nights to help spread out the different activities.  March 4th and March 11th were chosen for the STEAM nights.  Flyers will go out the week of January 20th to get a count so supplies can be ordered.  Shannon will reach out to NJHS members in advance so they can make sure they understand the theory they are supposed to be helping the kids with.

Guptills Night – Reminder March 21st from 6:30 to 9pm is the date.  It will be open to both high school and elementary students.  The flyer from last year can be reused.

New Business:

Learning Fair – Need to discuss this next time, only one kid signed up last year so it did not happen.

Funding Requests:  

Indoor Recess Items – Kerri Greco, $600.  This is a one time buy, since the plan will be to put in the budget next year.  Looking for playing cards, stacking cups, connect 4 sets, etc.  Motion to agree by Melissa with a 2nd from Caroline.  All in favor. 

Future Discussions:  

Scholarships

Meeting Adjourned: 7:26 PM

Next Meeting Scheduled for Thursday February 13 at 6:30PM in the Hoosic Valley Elementary School Library

Reminder – any questions regarding the minutes can be directed to Liz or Shannon.  Their PTO emails can be found on the website under contact us.