In attendance: Vanessa Tran, Brooke Bolinske, Ted Pinkowitz, Amy Homburger, Dana Williams, Tami Patzer, Kathleen Flanagan , Cathy Kidder, Rainey Wikstrom, Judy Pottle, Christie Elsner

PTA NOTES:

Placing Hand Sanitizer in the lunchroom was voted on and approved. One of the UPark parents volunteered to make a stand on which to place it. It is estimated that the cost for the sanitizer will be around $200.

Multicultural Night will be on October 22nd. The Book fair will occur at the same time. The Flu Clinic will be on the 16th. People will need to preregister online prior to this date. The classroom cleaning will take place on October 19th, 20th, and 21st. The t-shirts for the Fun Run have been ordered. A volunteer coordinator is needed for this event.

PRINCIPAL-CSC UPDATE:

Dana Williams was thrilled to announce that U Park was one of only nine DPS schools to receive the “distinguished” rating. There are some areas where improvements can be made and she and the staff will be looking at these areas.

Our school has 22 students over the projected number from last year. Therefore we have received $73,000 more. This money will be used in several ways including adding more paraprofessionals to the staff, some will go towards the technology teacher position, an extra day for the social worker, supplies, etc. These are all areas that were highlighted in the school improvement plan.

Additionally, the CSC is looking to work on enhancing the community and parental involvement in the school. They are looking into ideas and suggestions as to how to best do that. A PTA survey will be sent out in mid-November in order to get feedback from the community. If there are any questions that the committees would like to place on the survey, please get them to Ted Pinkowitz by November 1st.

Financials: Donations and the fundraising numbers are down a bit from where we were last year. Therefore the PTA will scrutinize and closely watch over our spending this year. However, the sale of grocery cards is doing well and the Farmers Markets that were held twice this year were very successful. The idea of utilizing a program like Quicken or something similar would be beneficial for keeping the books for the PTA. This way when the job of treasurer is passed from one person to another, the exchange of information will be very consistent. This will be looked into further.

COMMITTEE REPORTS:

• Marketing – Ted Pinkowitz reported that the Marketing Committee wants to place a “Wall of Honor” near the front office. They will also redo the classroom information booklet and the “Did You Know” flier.
• Garden – The Farmers Markets were very successful and raised $300. They will look into the possiblitity of doing this again in the spring. The garden clean up will start in the next few weeks.
• Wellness – Rainey Wikstrom reported that the backpack food program will be starting on 10-09-09. Backpacks with wheels are still needed if anyone has them to donate. Erin Coyne will be organizing the running activities prior to the Fun Run this year. Wellness will be facilitating the food and water for the Fun Run as well.
• Band – The Band program is doing well. They have recently bought some much needed new songs.

Need to contact us? Our email address is: uparkpta@gmail.com.

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