Meeting Minutes

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PTA Meeting held on November 21, 2024 

# of Attendees –  19

• Review Minutes from October PTA Meeting: 
• o Approved by – Rachel Denehy 
• o Seconded by – Samantha Libal

•  Pledge of Allegiance – 
• ○ Said by James Pellicone

•  Treasurer’s Report – Theresa Cavinee

• Starting Balance as of October 17th – $26,297.10

• New money in October (post 17th)

• • • • • Paypal transfer- $50.00
        • Swag – $100 ($60 from Latin Night) 
        • 5k- $588
        • Election Day Income – $230
        • Latin Night – $66 ($60 in 50/50)
        • Total Income = $1034.00

• Expenses – 

• • • • • Latin Night – $93.64
        • Walmart Plus Membership – $12.95
        • Joy and Sorrow – 87.73
        • Hot Dog Grill – $152.41
        • Election Day – $927.52
        • Total Expenses=  $1,274.25

• Ending Balance $26,129.80

• Starting Balance November 1 –  $26,129.80

• Income

• • • School Tool Box  – $363.54
    • BJs Tax Reimbursement- $6.00
    • Webstaurant Reimbursement – 12.42
    • Election Day – $7461
    • 5K – $415 
    • Swag – $195
    • Worlds Finest – $2100
    • Membership – $25
    • Donation – $60
    • Total Income = $10,637.96

• Expenses – 

• • Election Day Prizes – $287.26
  • BJs –  $165.26
  • Reimbursement PTA- $241.88
  • Election Day ( walmart ) – $12.95 
  • Total Expense = $707.35

• Ending Balance as of November 22nd – $35,640.66

 

• Principals Report – Kathleen Wiehler
• Ms. Wiehler attended the SLT Meeting and stated there was 95% attendance. We are one of the highest ranked in terms of attendance in the district. Faculty motivates families to get their children to school everyday through a lot of communication with parents and spirit days around high risk days for low attendance. The Staff has their own events to help with this. Today was “dress like a student” day. Next week is Spirit Week for kids. Monday is “Gratitude Day”, Tuesday is “Disguise the Turkey Day” and Wednesday is the parade.
• The school had two walk-throughs from the district where they look into classrooms and see the progress the school is making with the different partnerships like NYC Leads and NYC Solves. They like everything they are seeing. 
• Hollyrock is coming up on December 18th. 
• Ms. Wiehler encouraged families to fill out the Title 1 (Lunch Forms). If we reach 60% we get a lot of funding.
• Ballroom Dancing is going well and  we have a competition coming up in February.
•  President’s Report – Melissa Rosado

• Card Party Announcements
• Denise McGarry displayed the potential Card Party Flyer. We are going for the 70’s theme because school opened in the 70’s. We are still open to a catchphrase or headline. The top runner is “Glam, Glitter, and Groove” for now but we are open to ideas. Some others are “Peace, Love, & Disco” and “Get in the Groove”. The date for the card party is March 14th and time will either be 6pm or 7pm. Soon we will be sending out the flyer and taking reservations. We need volunteers to put together the class baskets. Denise McGarry displayed the list of the PTA representatives and which baskets each class is responsible for. We need volunteers to wrap gifts, to help decorate, and to set up starting from a couple of weeks before.  Samantha Libal stated in the chat that she can help set up.
• Ms. Wiehler suggested setting a criteria for 8th grade students to help with community service hours such as carrying things or helping out the night of the card party. Melissa explained to the attendees what a card party is and what it entails. She explained that it is the biggest raffle extravaganza of the year with lots of prizes. We get to put in for various prizes from $1 raffles up to larger prizes like trips. There are usually about 200 types of prizes, the birthday raffle, and Jesse and Jason keep it very entertaining. It is a sit down three course meal. It requires lots of planning, getting gift cards, tvs, ipad, and last year one of the prizes was a pool. We can always use monetary donations to get gifts.
• Denise McGarry explained how each class donates a themed basket. She explained how the class parent (or other volunteer parents) ask families to donate $5 or to contribute items to put it together. Melissa encouraged people to donate even if it’s something small because we bundle things together. 
• Old Business:   

• • Online Pop-Up Shop: We made $132 in profit and will open the shop up again in a few months. The online pop up shop is all of the different items that we don’t sell in house like zip up hoodies, leggings, and caps.   
  • School Picture Day – Jan 22nd retakes and graduation pictures
  • Costume 5K Fun Run– Jackie Ciarletta did a quick overview of the day. About 80 adults/children were in attendance. Positive vibes all around with music, great weather, and fun costumes. 
  • Latin Night–  Successful event with performances and great food donated by Seabreeze Deli, Augies, Little Frieda’s,  Ray’s Cafe and Vistamar. People ate, danced, and had a fun time.
  • Election Day –  We made over a thousand dollars more than last year. Our Election Day raffles is a much smaller scale card party.

 

Election Day 2024
Donations	$311.00
Raffles	$5,759.00
Swag	$125.00
Food	$861.00
50/50	$655.00
Class Donations	$597.00
Total	$8,308.00
Expenses	$1,639.01
Net	$6,668.99

• New Business 

• • World’s Finest Chocolate Sale– We have 49/75 boxes sold so far. They get sent home the same or next day. You can order online or send your child in with a labeled envelope with payment. 
  • Regal Cinema Movie Fundraiser- We teamed up with Regal Cinema for a package of 2 tickets for $30. They send a voucher and you redeem it online, on the app, or in person. There is no expiration date. There might be a $1 fee for redeeming the ticket but still saves you money. Gladiator, Wicked, Mufasa, Sonic, and a lot of other big movies are coming out soon. It has to be a Regal Cinema that participates. They make great gifts. The location at New Rochelle accepts it. Joan Schwartz, a former music teacher’s son, is the voice of Sonic.
  • Holiday Shop – Volunteers are needed: The dates are December 3rd-5th from 8am-12pm. The kids can shop for gifts for their families starting from .50 cents. They can write down on the envelope who they want to shop for. This helps them work on budgeting and feeling like they are contributing by buying gifts. Each class is assigned a day. You can always purchase a gift certificate online and send your child in with it if you don’t want to send your child in with money. The day before we start setting up after school. Thursday everything has to get packed up so if anyone has a block of time to volunteer that would be great.

• Question from Jesica SInclair: How do we go about retakes for school pictures? Answered by Melissa:  A form will go out regarding retakes for pictures. She will keep up posted.
• The City Island Community Center will host a Breakfast with Santa on December 15th. Cheryl is the President of the Community Center and Melissa encouraged parents to support the event.  There will be pictures with Santa from 12-2pm. It is $20 and includes coffee, tea, and hot cocoa with breakfast. The flyer was screen shared.

 

Adjournment: 

Melissa thanked attendees for showing up, supporting, and helping in any way. The Board wished everyone a wonderful Thanksgiving.

• The meeting was adjourned at: 7:49pm

check out below the PTA meeting topics and minutes which posts after each PTA meeting.

PTA Meeting held on October 17, 2024 (approved by the membership on 11/21/24?

# of Attendees –  20

• Pledge of Allegiance – 

○ Said by Winnie Wirtz, Aria Kramer, Michael & Ava Cautillo

• Review Minutes from September PTA Meeting: 
• o Approved by – Jason Wirtz 
• o Seconded by – Rachel Denehy 

Principals Report – Julie Porras

• Attendance was up and the school is continuing to encourage kids to come in everyday. The school hosted an attendance ceremony for the first time in a long time. 
• An email went home last week about emergency drills. This way we can talk about drills with our kids before it happens. The school will be sending home letters in advance.
• Trying to get Lexia up and running. There is a 10-15 minute placement test. That will let us know how much time children should be using this program at home. There are different programs for K-5, 6-8, and for the ENL program. 
• Lunch forms – Encouraged parents to send in if they haven’t done that yet. It’s very helpful for additional funding. We have until the beginning of December.
• School Yard Update – Construction stopped and Principal Porras had a meeting and it will commence soon. 
• NY Edge for All – We are hoping next year K-5 NY Edge will be our year for a free program. Renewal of contract takes place every 3 years.
• Changes in staffing – 2nd Grade teacher was not able to continue. Ms. McDermott will teach 2nd grade. Ms. Zenata will teach in 3rd grade. We are pleased with the transition and how hard everyone is working. 
• Excited for Latin Night, Pizza Making for Italian Heritage
• Jay Wirtz –  Question Clarification: The Title 1 Report is 1 per family.
• We discussed the possibility of the blue emergency Cards being virtual.
• Kristy Marmorato provided funding for ballroom dancing for 3rd and 4th graders to the first 30 students who sign up. Also, a digital chess program is just waiting approval.
• Theresa is connecting us with a company who will provide possible STEAM opportunities after school but cost is to be determined. 
• Treasurer’s Report – Theresa Cavinee 

• Ending Balance as of September 19th – $42,480.05

• • • New money in September (post 19th)
      • Transferred money from Paypal – $186.23
      • Membership – $75.00
      • Total Income = $261.23

• Expenses – 

• • • • Don’t Stop the Music – $850.00 (magician and face painting for Fall Fest) 
      • Career Day Reimbursement – $74.23
      • Diamondback Sportswear (swag restock) – $6,193.00
      • Lexia Learning Systems LLC – $7,412.00
      • Total Expenses=  $14,529.23

• Ending Balance $28,312.05

• Starting Balance October 1 –  $28,312.05

• • Income
    • Membership – $125.00 * some of this is still in paypal and not reflected in balance
    • Swag – $45.00
    • Election Day – $404.00 * some of this is still in zeffy and not reflected in balance
    • 5K – $415.00
    • Total Income = $989.00

• Expenses – 

• • Website renewal  – $99.00
  • School Start up Fund – $1,800.00
  • Diamondback Sportswear (Water Bottles) – $950.00
  • Election Day ( walmart ) – $12.95 
  • Total Expense = $2,861.45
• Ending Balance as of October 17th – $26,297.10

 President’s Report – Melissa Rosado / Jo-Ann Cautillo 

• Online Pop Up Shop is only available online. It’s to save on shipping for everyone so we have to send it to school so that everyone can get their items in a timely manner. Tomorrow is the last day. There is an option to personalize the hoodies. These are items that you can not get at the school. There is a two week turnaround and will be distributed as soon as they come in.
• Upcoming Movie Fundraiser –  pack of 2 tickets for 30 dollars to be used at any Regal Cinemas in mid-to-late November Moana Wicked Gladiator 2. The school will send out information soon.
• Picture Day: We used a different photography company called Lasting Impressions which is a company from the Bronx. They have most of the contracts with the schools in the Bronx. The kids got a kick out of them and they were very very friendly and personable. Retakes and Graduation Pictures will be on January 22nd. 
• Fun Run 5K – Jackie C. gave a review of what is to be expected at the costume walk/run, explaining that Wendy Clark, owner of The Pearl, will be doing a warm-up, encouraging people to walk or run or whatever they feel comfortable doing. Prizes will be given out as well as candy for both the adults and the kids.
• World Finest Chocolate Sale – They are to be delivered before Election Day and will sell on Election Day. The school will send home information soon. You purchase a case for $60 and once you sell your case of chocolate, you keep your $60 dollars. The PTA usually hosts a pizza party for the boxes most sold. The Island business owners often buy a box and we should thank them for supporting us.
• Election Day Raffles – There will be a lot of foot traffic going on in the school. We do a smaller scale raffle and also larger prizes. You put your raffle tickets in and the PTA board does a live video at the end as we pull the prizes and call people the same night and we either bring the prize to the winner or they come to us. Melissa encouraged parents to put together a theme basket or an appliance that has never been used. Monetary donations have been taken by the classes but the less we purchase the more we will profit. Melissa encouraged parents to volunteer for election day. We got slightly side tracked into Class Parents and Jo-Ann mentioned we can also have more than one class representative so Jo-Ann encouraged parents to volunteer. 

 

Question from Berni – How do you go about getting numbers of parents in the classrooms? Answer:  Some of the representatives sent out letters. Theresa also has a spreadsheet going and shares the information with the class representative. There are Concerns about 8th grade parent class collaborations for these events due to the lack of response/communication. Melissa will touch base with Noreen tomorrow of whether a letter went out for parents. 

 

• Latin NIght: We are doing it a little differently this year because it’s in the school as opposed to the Community Center. Five restaurants donated to us:  Seabreeze Deli- Tacos,  Ray’s  Cafe – Empanadas (meat, cheese, and pork quesadillas), Vistamar- Fried Shrimp, Augie’s-Rice and Pernil, and Little Frieda’s -assorted Tacos, Melissa’s mom is making Plantains and Empanadas. There will be kids’ group performances and presentations. We have 5 different types of performances. There will be a salsa mini lesson. We have to be out by 7pm.  

• By Law-Committee: It’s time to update the by-laws.  When we did it last time, there were a lot of changes in the DOE. It’s only been 3 years so we only have to change a few things. If anyone is interested we just need a few people and will need to meet once or twice. Thank god for Beverly and Theresa for doing this last time with a fine tooth comb. Next month we will see pictures and videos of the different things we have done over the past few months for fundraisers in a montage. 

Adjournment: 

Theresa encouraged parents to come to us with fun fundraiser ideas. 

• The meeting was adjourned at : 7:55pm

 

• PTA Meeting held on September 19, 2024 ( approved  by the membership on 10/17/2024)
  # of Attendees – 29● Pledge of Allegiance –
  ○ Said by Leila Ishaq
  ● Review Minutes from June PTA Meeting:
  ➢ o Approved by – Rachel Denehy
  ➢ o Seconded by – Kurstin Laue
  Principals Report – Julie Porras
  ➢ September PTA Meeting slides were shared by Principal Porras with the
  attendees. ELA and Math scores were a success. Principal Porras explained how
  our students performed on the state exams. Students are consistently making
  progress in both Math and ELA from 2019, 2022/2023, and 2023/2024 school
  year. The Superintendent said we were one of the few schools who had made
  progress in both Math and ELA. Our goal is to go up 10% per school year.
  ➢ Principal Porras thanked the PTA and all involved in making “Meet the Teacher
  Night/Fall Festival” a success. Everyone was happy with the magician, the face
  painting, and the ice cream truck. 146 parents participated. About half of our
  students were represented at “Meet the Teacher Night/Fall Festival”.
  ➢ Introduction of some of the new staff members – We have a new secretary Gina
  (new to our school but not to the DOE), Ms. Ricci, Mr. Preiss, Christine Laurato
  (not new), and the new addition of our Pre-K4 class.
  ➢ Principal Porras explained how the school is updating their video camera system
  and the cameras are up and running.
  ➢ Discussed the playground construction in the school guard which started in July.
  The use of the park has been successful.
  ➢ MMCC and NY Edge began this week- See Jason Tamari or Jesse Cowan with
  questions.
  Introductions – The Board
  ➢ Each of the Board Members introduced themselves and provided some details
  about themselves and their respective roles on the PTA Board. The board
  explained what the PTA is and encouraged parents to send in their membership
  dues (and the various ways of sending membership dues) and what types of
  fundraisers we hold for enrichment programs and extracurricular activities. We
  talked about the success of the “Meet the Teacher/Fall Festival” event. Theresa
  noted the success of the swag sale at this event. Parents were encouraged to
  buy swag. The PTA Board explained that everyone will see where each and every
  dime goes and how it goes back to the children. The Board will continue what we
  have been doing – making the school better and better every year.● Treasurer’s Report – Theresa Cavinee
  ○ Ending Balance as of June 20 – $46,028.87
  ● New money in June (post 20th)
  ○ Transferred money from Paypal – $101.73
  ○ Total Income = 101.73
  ● Expenses –
  ○ Lucretia Fusco Award – $100.00
  ○ Alice Persteins Award – $100.00
  ○ 8th grade trip offset, cap and gown, K and 8th graduation supplies –
  $2,975.00
  ○ Total Expenses= $3,175.00
  ○■ Ending Balance $42,955.60
  ○ Starting Balance July 1- $42,955.60● Income
  ○ N/A
  ○ Total Income = $0
  ● Expenses –
  ○ Election Day/Card Party Expenses (Target) – $246.34
  ○ Mary Fitzpatrick Award – $100.00
  ○ Total Expense = $346.34
  ○ Ending Balance as of July 31st – $42,609.26
  ○ Starting Balance Aug 1 — $42,609.26● Income
  ○ N/A
  ○ Total Income = $0
  ● Expenses –
  ○ Teacher Reimbursement Check (Intl Day) – $32.50
  ○ Election Day/Card Party Expense (Walmart) – $275.53
  ○ Election Day/Card Party Expense (Amazon) – $986.35
  ○ Total Expenses – $1294.38
  ○ Ending Balance as of August 31st – $41,314.88
  ○ Starting Balance September 1st — $41,314.88

  ● Income
  ○ Swag Sales – $2110.00
  ■ Further breakdown, Back to School = 1290.00, Meet the
  Teacher = $820.00
  ○ Membership – $300.00
  ○ Total – $2410.00
  ● Expenses
  ○ Teacher Reimbursement Check (Intl Day) – $32.18
  ○ Oriental Trading – $80.24
  ○ Mr. Softee – $825.00
  ○ Tips for Face Painter and Magician – $100.00
  ○ Snacks for Meet the Teacher – $52.41
  ○ Total Expenses – $1089.83
  ○ Ending Balance as of September 19th – $42,480.05
  ■ Paypal balance being transferred over

  President’s Report – Melissa Rosado / Jo-Ann Cautillo
  ➢ Fundraiser Calendar– The fundraiser calendar was shared. Melissa went
  through the calendar and explained the upcoming fundraisers. Election Day is the
  next fundraiser – looking for donations and volunteers.
  ➢ Card Party – Melissa and Joanne explained our Card Party Fundraiser and
  encouraged parents to send in donations of new unopened gifts. They asked that
  parents use their connections to gather more donations. For example: If you
  know someone who can help us with donation gym memberships etc.
  ➢ Denise encouraged parents to give the PTA new ideas for fundraisers.

  Budget Review – The budget review was explained to the attendees byTheresa
  Cavinee. Theresa explained each of the lines and any changes that were made from
  last year. She also let attendees know what Lexia Learning is as well as the Hollyrock
  Game Show, and what The Shark Store is. She encouraged parents to ask questions
  about anything they don’t know regarding budget. Rachel D., Kurstin L., Michele N, and
  Kelly N. amongst many others approved the budget.

  REGION 2

  PA/PTA Projected Budget Statement
  Community School District 11

  P.S. 175

  EXPENSES
  Buses for School Trips $8,825.00
  Card Party Ad in Island Current $150.00

  Card Party Start up fund (includes decorations and such) $6,000.00
  Election Day Sale $1,500.00
  Hollyrock Game Show $1,650.00
  Joy & Sorrow $300.00
  Pre-K Moving Up Celebration $300.00
  Kindergarten Moving Up Ceremony $300.00
  Student Enrichment Program $10,000.00
  PTA Office Supplies $1,000.00
  PTA Scholarship for Good Citizenship (3 Students $100ea.) $300.00
  School Start Up Fund $1,800.00
  8th Grade Cap & Gown $725.00
  8th Grade Graduation $300.00
  8th Grade DC Trip Offset $2,200.00
  School Events $3,000.00
  Retirement Gifts To Staff $100.00
  Misc Pop Up (any expenses overage/new expenses) $5,000.00
  Merchandise Replenishment (SWAG) $7,000.00
  Teacher and Staff Appreciation Events/Gifts $2,250.00
  Taxes $300.00
  Character Education (treats/crafts/school store) $2,000.00
  Estimated Expenses for 2024-25 School Year $55,000.00
  PTA Checking Acct Balance as of 6.2024 $46,078.87
  Funds to raise for 2024-2025 School Year $8,921.13
  Adjournment:
  ➢ As the meeting was coming to an end, Melissa encouraged attendees to check
  the folder every single time to look for changes in the meeting start time. We used
  to have our meetings at 6:30pm and we will let people know if that will be