Buena Vista Montessori Parent Teacher’s Association (PTA)
Minutes of the Meeting
Tuesday, August 31, 2010 2:30 p.m.

Members Present: Michelle Moore, Brenda Wiley, Megan Caruso, Shirley Pace, Chris Alvarez, Amy Edwards, Michelle Vandepas, Noel Black, Miriam Ballard, Diane Bertini, Natisha Walker, Catherine Tantengco, Marta Fioriti, Amy Knight, Deanna Sanders, Cindy Stanley, Gail Mayne, Wendy Palmer, and many others who we are sorry, we didn’t your names. (Let’s send around a sign in sheet next time)

The president, Michelle Moore, called the meeting to order. The agenda was passed out.

Old Business:

• The mission of the Buena Vista PTA is to promote the welfare of our children by supporting teachers and parents while providing enrichment activities for students so they have the best advantages in physical, mental, and social education.
• confirmed and voted in PTA board positions. Michelle Moore- President, Megan Caruso- Vice President, Brenda Wiley and Shirley Pace- co treasurers, we still need a secretary. Any one interested??
• SAC committee meets 2nd Thursdays and needs support. This committee addresses issues such as having a 6th grade, Spanish, nutrition, marketing the school, etc. Their 1st meeting is September 9th at 2:30
• Music garden is half complete. Bongo drums and benches are on order. Thank you Whole Foods

New Business:

• Budget. Budget reviewed. Will be finalized and put on the web site for review. www.buenavistaelementary.org
• fall fundraising. What to do this year?? Ideas were presented and discussed:
• Fall Bulb Sale. Although it has done well in the past, members felt there needed to be a change. Neighbors and friends that had bought bulbs in the past had enough and didn’t need want or any more. The quality of bulbs was also an issue. It was motioned and seconded that fall bulbs would not be sold this year.
• Bike a Thon. This would be fun, but maybe not for this fall
• Trees for the Orchard. Members thought this was a good idea. It was discussed that local varieties of fruit or other types of trees would be planted. Someone with gardening expertise was needed to head up this project. Where to plant the trees, the time of year to plant and any permits that may be needed to plant on school property need to be determined. Were people going to donate money or the trees??
• Electronics Recycle. The Eco-fest has just ended. How can we “green up” the school? Recycling is provided at the school but teaches don’t recycle as much as they could. There is a lot of food waste that could be composted and added to the garden. Recycling needs to be a bigger part of the school. Diane is interested in heading up some projects.
• Cookbooks. Buena Vista is stressing nutrition and healthy eating habits for our children through a “Rainbow of Colors” diet. The cookbook should be family friendly. It was suggested that kids be allowed to “dictate” the recipes, maybe drawing a picture of the “final” dish. Everyone liked the idea. The motion to use cookbooks as one of the fundraisers was brought forth, seconded, and approved. The president, Michelle Moore, will head up this project.
• Reflections National Art Competition. This is a program where students compete in various artistic mediums including music, dancing, writing, photography, multi media. Winners go on to the city, state and national levels. Members like the idea, however no one was willing to head up the project. The city competition is at the end of October so if anyone is interested in making this happen, please let Michelle Moore know.

Upcoming Events/ Volunteer Needs:

• Chil-Fil-A, Sonic, and other National Chains. Most fast food is not a healthy choice and doesn’t send the right message to our children. We want to stress the “Rainbow of Colors” diet Buena Vista has adopted. The president, Michelle Moore will contact Chic-Fil-A to cancel this Sept. 21st event. Noel suggested Mountain Mama, Ranch Foods Direct, Sy’s Drive In, would be more appropriate choices. The motion to use more healthy choices for our sponsors was brought forth and seconded.
• Open House (Sept 21 5:30pm). This had been a great success in the past. The motion to have a BBQ for the open house was brought forth and seconded. The president, Michelle Moore and Noel will head up this project.
• Fall Carnival (Oct 22). The people who loaned us the props for the haunted house are willing to loan them to us again this year. A more extensive range of prizes was discussed and Noel suggested better prizes.
• Garage Sale (Oct 9th 8-12noon). A lot of good clothing was brought in last year, but was unsellable because it wasn’t clean, sorted and on hangers. It’s important to have these items since they make a difference to some of the families at Buena Vista. All items brought in would be dropped off in the gym. It’s better if this event is outside so people passing by can participate, but if the weather is bad, we could hold this event in the gym. Diane Bertini, Gail Mayne, and Deanna Sanders will help coordinate this event
• Box Tops (due October 16). Natasha will be unable to help with the activity this year. The box tops must be trimmed before sending them in and that is very time consuming. Try to have parents trim these before sending them to the school. Gail Maybe offered to be the Box Top coordinator this year.
• Parent’s Night Out. (Sept 24th 5-9pm) PTA will sponsor a time for parents date night. We need a parent chaperone to help with the children in the gym. Events for this night include movie, crafts, games. Coronado students to help cover during this time.
• School Wellness Training (September 14th at 3pm) This is a presentation about nutrition and children’s health. More info to follow in the Friday folders

Other business:

• Student Directory. It will be on line this year in a PDF format. For security reasons, the student directory will be password protected with a separate password from the web site. Looking for advertisers. Michelle Vandepas and Cindy Stanley are heading up this project?
• Coronado Honor Roll Students participate in volunteering. Mariam to make this contact.

There was no further business and the meeting was adjourned.

Minutes submitted by Shirley Pace

Download 20100208PTAMeetingMinutes.pdf (PDF, 59.68KB)

Download 20091214PTAMeetingMinutes.pdf (PDF, 60.4KB)

Download 20091012PTAMeetingMinutes.pdf (PDF, 105.31KB)

Download BV_PTA_2009-2010Budget.pdf (PDF, 10.37KB)

Download 20090914PTAMeetingMinutes.pdf (PDF, 31.27KB)

If you are already shopping at King Soopers, and have a King Soopers card, this is an easy way to help support Buena Vista.

Electronically collect Labels for Education points using your shopper card.

Get 100 Labels for Education Bonus Points with the purchase of any (4) Labels for Education products at a participating Kroger Family of stores retailer. Applies for every 4 products purchased. *Purchase Bonus offer good through 11/07/09.

Register today and GET 100 Labels for Education Bonus Points automatically!*

Go to www.elabelsforeducation.com to find out more information.

* Registration offer valid until 10/31/09.

Buena Vista Elementary is offering ad space in our 2009-2010 student directory. This is an inexpensive way to spread the word about your product/ services and support programs at BV.

If you own a business or work for a business that may be interested in being a BV sponsor, please complete the form below.

You don’t have to upload your ad now if they are not ready. Email ads to maida.scott@gmail.com

Ads must be submitted by September 30th to be included in the directory.

Please submit a high resolution image (PSD, PDF, JPG) or a business card to be scanned.

Questions can be directed to Maida Scott (maida.scott@gmail.com or 667-0199)

You will receive an email invoice within 36 hours – you may pay online via PayPal or in person.

Thank you for your support of our school.

Title: BAAC Meeting
Location: Buena Vista Elementary
Description: BAAC meetings are held on the third Monday of each month at 2:30 PM
Start Time: 2:30 PM
Date: Monday, September 21st

Hi there.

It’s amazing how quickly summer went by. We are getting ready
to host our meet and greet and need some help. If anyone is able to help
package school supplies, Kacey would be happy and feel supported. She will
be at BV at 2pm this Thursday August 6th.

On the day of the event we need:
- 10 dozen cookies, please bring some if you are able
- volunteers to man the PTA info booth including selling school supplies
and tee shirts. Can we get 3 people to commit to the 3-4p shift and 3 for
the 4-5p shift?

Also:
I met with David and have some updates. Our current projected enrollment
is about 150 students. We will have a fairly large storage area for PTA
items including a file cabinet to keep PTA records in. I would like to have
all records stored at BV so they are accessible and don’t get lost. At some
point we will need to unpack our things and find a way to organize PTA
belongings. Anyone interested?

We have a nice glass enclosed bulletin board at the entry way to post
events, thank you notes, volunteer needs, etc. I am considering having a
picture of the PTA board members so new parents can identify who to
contact. If you are willing to have your photo posted, please email to me
this week, otherwise I’ll scrap the idea. We will be recruiting for some
creative person to keep these boards up to date and looking good.

We will have a school wide recycling program. All teachers were provided a
recycling container for their room. This is nice as there is no need to
separate. All items go in the same container.

We have a welcome goody bag for all staff that will be placed in their
boxes by the end of the week. The school is looking good, but they still
have a lot to do in the next week.

We have had some success with getting our garden. Administration is open
to the idea and we had a professional landscaper come to the building
today to provide an estimate for creating 8 raised beds. Dave talked about
his desire to have the front of the building look like the cover of a
Better Schools and Gardens magazine.

That’s the brief summary. Hope everyone is well. See you all soon.

Michelle

Come see your new class room, meet (or reacquaint yourself with) your teacher and get your school supplies from the PTA.