February 13, 2019 General Meeting Minutes

In Attendance

Rachel Bourell - President (by phone)

Laura Adams - Vice President

Emily Hoopes

Breann Wright

Kaycee & Warren Christensen

Kenna
Catherine

Agenda

Called to order 9:10 a.m.

Parent Teacher Conferences

February 20-21

Wed Feb 20: Del Taco has offered to donate dinner, Emily has been coordinating. Will call today. We need an answer today.

Thur Feb 21: Ingredient list compiled to be distributed by signupgenius. We will collect ingredients Tuesday so that they can be cooked and delivered Thursday.

Sign ups for soup

Kenna - Chili

Catherine - Chicken Noodle

Warren - Taco Soup

Breeann - Creamy Soup

We need clear communication about which campus dinner is for. We need to put cleanup in the sign up genius and to plan for cleanup. (Crock pot liners)

Playground

List of potential donors exists.

Approval exists from the school board.
Not a lot of success talking to Amy in fundraising. Kenna will continue.

Find out who NOT to contact.

School board may potentially chip into the cost of this project.

Talk to Deanna, do we have the option to sell advertising space.

Spirit nights

Still pursuing for both Del Taco and Papa Murphy's. We need to make sure we can do this outside of Jan, Feb.

Paint Nite

Kenna has been researching a paint night. This is: A single night painting lesson. Usually $35 entrance fee. $15 of every ticket comes back to us. $100 deposit comes back after 25 tickets sold.

At the school or at their location. Week night preferred for donation. One down south and one up north. On separate nights.

We discussed trying to do one location and then a second if successful. Created a survey and went it to Wendy to measure interest before setting a date and paying a deposit.

If we did a paint night,would you be interested? How many people would you bring? Which location would you support?

Advertise via e-mail. Signs. Flyers. Focus advertising on carpool line.

Kenna will reach out to Amy to make sure that this event would be approved.

Meeting was adjourned at 10:30

Minutes prepared by Emily Hoopes

January 10, 2019, General Meeting Minutes

In Attendance

Rachel Bourell - President

Laura Adams - Vice President

Chris - Treasurer

Emily Hoopes

Breann Wright

Kaycee & Warren Christensen

Agenda

Called to order 9:10 a.m.

Began with introductions.

Scouts

After discussion and research, we are going to say no for the present to becoming the chartered
organization for scouts. Primarily, this decision is because we want to focus more on establishing
the PTO in this first year. Other reasons include:

• We have not been able to get enough attendance at PTO meetings to hold a vote. We don’t feel like we would have enough participation in an absentee type vote, either.
• Although our costs are minimal, so are our assets. We have raised only $260 to date. $50 is a large percentage of that budget.
• We have questions about ongoing leadership and support, especially for a commuter school.

We do till think Scouting would be an asset to the school and are willing to consider becoming a chartering organization in the upcoming school year. We would consider the following to be prerequisites:

• We need to identify a succession plan for the PTO leadership. (A plan for elections and passing on of assets.
• We need to find a way for the PTO membership to vote on this measure.
• We need to identify a Chartered Organization Representative (COR) who is willing to take on management of the scout troops/dens and also will represent the interests of the PTO/attend meetings.

Action Items:

Communicate with Yaroch: Rachel

Blog

The blog is complete, but Emily was sick over Christmas and didn’t submit it for approval

Action items:

Submit blog to principal: Emily

Mission
Spectrum Academy is not like other schools. It has its own fundraising department and many programs already in place at the school level that are traditionally operated by Parent Teacher Organizations. We are still trying to identify our purpose and place in the school.

Playground

To that end, it has been proposed that one possible mission of the PTO would be to help the committee that is attempting to get a better playground built for the middle school.

Kenna Sine, who chairs that committee presented their efforts so far.

A concept design with illustrations has been created and was shared with those in attendance. We discussed the sensory friendly features included and other considerations of the plan.

The estimate for the construction is $95,000 without installation. The intention is to do this project as a community build, meaning that we’d try to find builders willing to donate time and labor to construct the playground. Wood chips have been chosen as a playground surface because they are the most affordable and can cost less if installers also spread the wood chips. The project can be built in phases an a minimum of $65,000 is needed for the first phase.

The design has tentative approval from both Deanna Billings and Spectrum Academy. However, limitations on fundraising imposed by the school have presented an obstacle that has halted progress on this project. A GoFundMe exists for this project.

The PTO would like to explore how we can help to reach out for donations from businesses, individuals and others to help with construction of the playground.

We discussed obstacles to this project including: our own tax status;  whether or not our own bank account can be used to store raised funds or if Spectrum needs to collect these funds; how to offer 501(c)3 benefits to people donating.

Plan of action

Continue to talk to Spectrum about financial considerations

Draft a donation request letter for area businesses

Identify potential donors then canvass area businesses

Set up a Square donation page using our Square account. (Emily & Chris)

Determine status of GoFundMe

Fundraising brainstorming

PTO fundraising not used for other events

Paint night

Community events such as farmer’s markets/ fairs, etc. in the summer

Solicit donations of labor, etc. from businesses.

Charitable organizations that fundraise (Eagles, for example.)

Bake sales

Action items

Action items

Kenna: find letter, collect list already brainstormed, send Emily images, research paint night

Kaycee: Reach out to eagles

Emily & Chris: Set up square donation link

Emily: Get blog approved, publish pictures

Laura & Rachel: Go to del taco, Papa Murphy’s, Diesel Brothers

Soft Fundraisers

We are still trying to set up a fundraiser for January: potentially at Del Taco closest to school

For February, we want to have several Papa Murphy’s locations. Identified Centerville and Murray locations as top 2. Seek others once we have a matching date for both of these.


Meeting was adjourned at 10:30

Minutes prepared by Emily Hoopes

December 6, 2018, General Meeting Minutes

In Attendance

Laura Adams - Vice President

Chris Norlem - Treasurer
Brittnee Norlem - Treasurer

Emily Hoopes

Evelyn Cox

Breann Wright

Deanna Billings - Principal

Agenda

Called to order 9:10 a.m.

PTO Dinner

Thank you to all those who helped to provide dinner for the parent teacher conferences. Discussed successes and struggles.

Christmas

Discussed the possibility of a Christmas social for PTO families. Dismissed thinking there wasn’t enough interest.

Scouts

Emily presented the information in the Scout chartering organization packet. We discussed concerns about our long term financial/physical ability to function as a chartering organization. Also discussed the requirement that we take legal responsibility for the Duty to God aspect of the program. Discussed financial and legal implications.

Deanna Billings talked with us about the school’s ability to function as charter and also discussed these concerns. If PTO doesn’t charter scouts, the school can’t and they don’t know who will.

Overall, we are concerned that we are not an established enough organization to support scouts. We need to become more established.

Funding for volunteer hours

Breeann mentioned a program that gives grants for recorded volunteer hours. www.trackitforward.com

Brainstormed how to raise volunteer interest

• Monthly newsletter
• Better e-mail distribution, include all parents not just members
• Advertise objective of meetings in advance
• Plan specific events
• Use signupgenius

Playground structure

• Brief update of this project by its organizers

Soft fundraisers in January and February.

• Chick-fil-a, Del Taco, Papa Murphy’s
• We need to choose and contact. Emily has a Papa Murphy’s contact.

Teacher favorites

• Discussed sending a survey of teacher favorites to help with teacher appreciation and dinners.

Blog

• Rachel has approved blog. Emily needs to send to Deanna for approval.
• Advertise with an e-mail once approved.

Next meeting

• January 10, 9 a.m.
• Decided to hold meetings only in the mornings as volunteers are needed most during the daytime. It’s getting confusing to have 2 different groups of people attend meetings. Evening meetings may be used to distribute info to a larger school group.

Meeting was adjourned at 10:30

Minutes prepared by Emily Hoopes

Scouts BSA at Spectrum Academy: NOTICE OF MEETING

The Boys Scouts of America has approached our PTO about becoming a chartered organization, thereby allowing scouting units to be organized at our school. The school has offered the use of its facilities, but in order to move forward, someone needs to step forward as a chartering organization.  A representative of the Great Salt Lake Council, Yaroch Rocque, attended our last PTO meeting to give us more information. He compared becoming a chartered organization to being a franchise owner. We need to determine if this is something we are willing and able to do.

An information meeting and vote has been scheduled during our next meeting on:

Thursday, December 6, 2018 at 9:00 a.m

In order to vote on this measure, you will need to be a member of the PTO. If you have not already joined, please visit our PTO table at Parent Teacher Conferences on November 28th & 29th. We will also be able to accept dues and enroll members at our meeting on December 6. Yaroch has been invited to our meeting on December 6th. He will also be available at Parent Teacher Conferences to answer your questions.

Please note that the measure being discussed at this meeting is whether or not our PTO can and should act as a chartering organization for a BSA unit at Spectrum Academy. We will NOT be planning said unit. All planning, organization, registration, etc. would be organized through a scout committee after the process of chartering has taken place.


We asked Yaroch if he would write a brief introduction to be shared on our blog. Here is what he wrote:

Greetings to all Parent Teacher Organization members!

To those of you I haven’t met, please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Yaroch Rocque. I’m a district executive at the Great Salt Lake Council of the Boy Scouts of America. Some of you may have ran into me at the Parent Teacher Conference this past Wednesday and Thursday. I had a booth set up in the Intermediate School. The purpose was to see what kind of interest there was in doing Scouting at Spectrum.

I am happy to say that the level of interest was extremely high. I found a lot of interested parents and kids alike. I had several parents approach me to say they are committed to being leaders in Spectrum Scout units.

As many of you may already know, I had the pleasure a few Fridays ago to sit down with Krisanne Lewis and Deanna Billings, along with a couple of parents, to discuss the possibility of having Packs, Troops, Posts and/or Crews for boys and girls at Spectrum Academy. The discussion was positive. We were able to answer a lot of each other’s questions and talk about how that might look at Spectrum.  The general structure that was proposed is that the Chartered Organization for these Scout units be the Spectrum Academy Parent Teacher Organization and that we use the Spectrum Academy facilities for the meetings. The time for meeting is yet to be determined but we would want to organize it in such a way as to accommodate the students, parents and teachers.

I am writing you all to see if there is a time I can come meet with one, some or all of you to discuss this. I’d be happy to answer any of your questions by email as well. If there is a time that is convenient for you, I’d love to come meet you and talk about this.

I hope to hear back soon,

Thank you for all you do for our youth!

Yaroch Rocque | Unit Serving District Executive 

BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA
Great Salt Lake Council - 590
525 Foothill Blvd | Salt Lake City, Utah 84113
yrocque@scouting.org
801.582.3663 ext. 227 

Scouting builds character through unparalleled, life-enhancing experiences you can’t get anywhere else!

This is a big decision for our new little PTO. We really need your input. Please join us for the meeting on December 6. And if you can't attend, please reach out to one of our board members in order to help to make your opinion heard.

November 11, 2018 General Meeting Minutes

Agenda

Called to order 9:07 a.m.

Several new parents in attendance. We began with introductions

Parent Teacher Conference Dinners
Principal has asked if PTO can organize dinners for Conferences on November 28th and 28th.
Feeding approximately 30-40 staff members. Dinner is typically served at 5 but could be set up earlier.
Breann will set up a signupgenius where people can sign up to bring food. This should include a request for phone numbers so it is possible to follow up. Request for donations will be sent first to PTO members and then to the entire school as needed to fill remaining spots. An e-mail will be sent the Monday before Thanksgiving and the Monday after.

Cold items can be dropped off the day before the meal. Warm food is due during carpool (about 12:30-12:45) on the day of the meal. All food requests should serve 20 people and we will request 2 per item.

Food purchases can be logged in Compass and count toward your volunteer hours. If you prefer reimbursement, keep you receipts and submit them with the food when delivered. Purchases made with food stamps cannot be reimbursed. However, please keep in mind that PTO budget is currently small.

Rachel and Lauren will set up food and decorate. (Fall theme)

1st night: Baked Potato Bar

Rachel to base potatoes and bring in a cooler to keep warm.
Need donations of the following:

• Sour Cream
• Cheese (grated and nacho?)
• Chili
• Green onions
• Bacon (precooked)
• Ham (diced)
• Broccoli
• Butter
• Olives
• Rolls?

2nd Night Menu:

• Spaghetti (cooked in a crock pot)
• Spaghetti sauce (cooked in a crock pot)
• Meatballs (cooked in a crock pot)
• Gluten free pasta and/or meatballs (Evelyn)
• Garlic Bread
• Salad
• Salad dressings

Needed for both nights

• Drinks in drink dispensers. Water &  crystal light. Ice
• Paper plates
• Napkins
• Plastic forks
• Plastic knives
• Cups
• Extension cords (Emily has several if needed.)
  

Action Items:

Create signupgenius - Breann & Laura

Publish signupgenius - Laura

Reminder calls to people who have signed up for food - Laura

Purchase baked potatoes - Jennifer says please reach out to her about this

Cook baked potatoes - Rachel with help from Ashley

Organize gluten free menu options for pasta night - Evelyn

Soft fundraisers

Are currently being planned for January and February. These are typically restaurant nights. We have not yet chosen a restaurant and are looking for something that is accessible to the greatest number of families. These have been approved with Spectrum's fundraising committee.

Activities
There was very, very brief discussion about a December or January PTO social activity along the lines of a cookie exchange or dessert pot luck.

Also we very briefly discussed teacher appreciation week in the spring and possibly doing some smaller scale teacher appreciation activities before then, such as a popcorn bar.

PTO does not have any Christmas activities planned. The school will have a music performance December 6 at 6:00 p.m for grades 3-5. No PTO assignments.

We very briefly discussed that the school does not currently have a Christmas tree but one could be placed near the office if it were donated.

Boy Scouts of America

Last parent teacher conference, a representative from the Boy Scouts of America name Yaroch Rocque (nicknamed by this group "Super Y") set up a table and talked to parents. He came today to present the results and ask our help. He said that there was "overwhelming" interest in creating a unit as Spectrum Academy.

It has been proposed that the Intermediate PTO become the chartering organization for this scout unit. This basically means that our organization would be the "owner" or the "franchisee" of the unit. PTO would pay an annual chartering fee of $44. This fee includes insurance.

The PTO would operate as an institutional head and designate someone (probably the president) as a signer. We could then turn all operational control over to a Chartered Organization Representative and Scout Committee to be in charge of all other details of running the unit. The unit would operate mostly independently of the PTO as their own entity with their own fundraising, bank accounts, committee, etc. However, any funds raised or property purchased for the unit would belong to the unit (and it's chartering organization), not to BSA. Spectrum Academy has offered use of their facilities for scout meetings and these facilities will be covered by the BSA insurance included in registration fees.

In addition to our fees, each scout and scout leader will pay a registration fee of $33 which also includes insurance.  There would be additional operating expenses that the unit could decide the best way to cover (fundraising, troop fees, etc.) The committee includes a treasurer responsible for this bookkeeping. These decisions and expenses would fall under the responsibilities of the scout unit itself and not the PTO.

We had a lengthy question and answer period with Yaroch, which for brevity's sake, will not be included in these minutes.  However, he will write up an introduction that we will publish on the PTO's blog. Logistical questions such as number of scouts, number of leaders, unit-level fees or fundraising, types and sizes of units, involvement of units designed for girls, meeting times and frequency, etc. are all decisions to be made by the scout key leaders and/or committee after the unit is chartered, not by the PTO. Each unit is different and varies based on the people involved.

However, it is worth noting that the BSA and Great Salt Lake Council have offered a great deal of support and training through the organization process. They are offering support to recruit, train, and organize a strong unit. Scouting as an organization has leader training and background checks, ongoing training and a self-contained support structure that they would provide independent of our organization.

At this point, the PTO needs to vote to determine if we want to become the chartered organization for a Spectrum Academy scout unit. This is accomplished by a vote of the registered membership of the PTO. (Those members who have paid dues and filled out registration paperwork.) To this end, a vote will be held at our next meeting. The PTO will post notice of these meeting on our blog and via an e-mail to the PTO membership. Anyone wishing to vote but not already registered may register at our next meeting or at parent teacher conferences.

The next PTO meeting will be held on December 6 and 9:00 a.m. The location will be announced based on room availability.  All meetings are held the first Thursday of the month. This meeting will be held during daytime hours so that it does not conflict with evening holiday events. However, in January, we will resume a schedule that alternates morning and evening meetings. To make the vote available to members not able to attend the meeting, a Google Poll vote will be created by Emily and published via e-mail the same day.

Yaroch left a new organization packet that is available for review by anyone interested and he is also available for questions.

Yaroch Rocque - Unit Serving Executive, Boy Scouts of America, Great Salt Lake Council
Yaroch.rocque@scouting.org, 805-637-1300

Girl Scouts

Rachel expressed a strong interest in inviting the Girl Scouts of America to become equally invested in creating a unit at Spectrum Academy. BSA does currently allow girls as scouters as well. However, to pursue this, we would want to find someone in the Girl Scouts organization offering the same sort of support that BSA is currently offering.

Website

Emily has started to create a blog and is working to get it online ASAP. These minutes can be published there. As can information about the proposed relationship with the Boys Scouts of America and upcoming meetings and activities.

Meeting was adjourned at 11:30

Minutes prepared by Emily Hoopes