February 2016 Meeting Minutes

General Nash Elementary Home and School Meeting - Minutes

Thursday January 14th, 2016 7pm

The meeting was opened by President Laura Boquist. 9 people were in attendance.

The November 2015 minutes were approved. Shannon Snyder made a motion to approve the minutes

and Linda Puia seconded.

Upcoming Dates:

January

16 Applebee's Breakfast (to benefit the 6th grade class) from 8-10am

18 No School - Martin Luther King Jr. Day

19 Wendy's Night from 5-8pm

26 Math Night 7:00 pm

February

5 Spirit Day - Sports Day

6 Winter Carnival, 10:00 am - 2:00 pm

11 H&S Meeting, Nash Library 7:00 pm

15 No School - Presidents Day

16 General Nash Basketball Blast - Tournament Fundraiser 5:30 - 9:00 pm

19 Father/Daughter Dance

26 Comedy Cabaret at Poco's - Dining Night Out

Comments about the upcoming dates:

- Applebee's fundraiser -

o $5 for under 5, $7 for everyone else

o There will be silent auction baskets as well

- Wendy's Dining Night out - need to provide flyers so Nash gets credit. Flyers are available in e-

communication, next week's envelopes, and on the website

- Winter Carnival -

o One of the biggest, most fun events at Nash!

o Cake contest will be held Friday, Feb 5th

o Flyers will come home in next week's envelopes to pre-purchase carnival tickets.

- don't forget to sign up to make a cake!

- Basketball Blast - for 4th, 5th and 6th graders. Fundraiser for the Nash Alumni Scholarship fund

- Father/Daughter Dance - flyers coming home in next week's envelopes. There will be dancing,

crafts, photo booth.

- Comedy Cabaret at Poco's - this is a parent event. Comedy show at 9pm - seating is at 8:15pm.

Tickets can be bought online. Nash will make $10 a ticket sold if we sell more than 40 seats. Only 4

tickets had been purchased so far.

Treasurer's Report - Susan Zima

We have had some fantastic fall fundraisers - baskets, box tops, etc

We will be doing Yankee Candle fundraiser in March

We will not doing an Asher's fundraiser this year - we are open to doing a different chocolate

fundraiser if anyone would like to coordinate

Principal's Report - Mr. Winkle

o Please encourage your children to wear appropriate winter clothing

o Safety in school parking lot / crosswalk

Please slow down

- Tom Schneider from facilities looked at different options for the flow in our parking lot -

there will be no changes in the flow.

The parking lot will be restriped over the summer and the signage will be updated.

Question regarding why there wasn't an adult at the crosswalk (there is currently a

safety). Mr. Winkle has been trying to get a feel for the entire dismissal flow, so he has

not been solely at the crosswalk. He is trying to get an adult up there and would like to

take the safeties out of the parking lot. This will be looked at for next year. Parents

indicated that they would like to see a staff member assigned to the crosswalk spot to

the potential for accidents. It was emphasized that there is strong parent support for

this to take place now or in the very near future, and not wait until next year.

Teacher Representative - Mr. Brehm

o Message from Ms. Caiola - 6th grade career day has been changed to May 6th. She is looking for people to sign up to share information about their careers.

o Presentation on Think Central and Go Math resources - Mr. Brehm

There is a great set of math resources on the district's website. There is a link from the

main page (the father and daughter picture working on homework) or it can be found in

the For Families section then the Elementary Math Info link.

Think Central

There is a page that lists the standards in easier to understand language.

There are Go Math On The Spot videos - videos by grade / lesson. These can be

a bridge for parents to understand what their children are learning.

In the grade links on the left, there are lists of skills children in each grade should

learn throughout the year and parent letters for each lesson. It also has a page

that lists the math models that correspond to each Go Math Lesson (this is not

intuitive in Think Central)

To log on, students use their school id (as the ID and password)

Think Central contains animated math models that can help explain each lesson

(see above how to correspond the math models to the lessons)

It also contains practice books (which can be very helpful if kids forget

homework)

Suggestion for Mr. Brehm to give a similar presentation at Math Night (as there will be

more people in attendance). Mr. Brehm to think about.

Suggestion for Mr. Brehm to use games from Think Central at Math Night

New Business

o Approval of BrainPop Purchase - march-a-thon exceeded our expectations for fundraising this year. Decided to support the purchase of BrainPop. It is $2295 for a year subscription and can be used 24x7. This was voted on and approved.

o Drama Club update - Using Theatre Horizons. There will be 2 groups - 1-3 grades and 4-6

grades. The 1-3 grade group has enough kids to hold the session on Tuesdays. There are 10

kids signed up for the 4-6 group and they would love to have a few more for the Thursday

sessions. The younger grades have performances on May 24th (night) and May 26th (during the

day). The older grades have performances on June 2nd (night) and June 3rd (day). It's $205 for

the club and payment plans can be worked out.

o Volunteer Needs:

Carnival Games and prize room - Kristen Mallitz is one of the people that coordinates the Carnival and she is looking for a few coordinators for the Carnival, especially in the games and prize rooms.

Clothing Drive - looking for a person to coordinate a clothing drive. Could run this thru Impact for a few hours on a Saturday morning. Bridle Path just ran one and brought in over $700. (Following the meeting, Colleen Peterson volunteered to coordinate)

Indoor Recess - looking for a coordinator to organize the indoor recess stuff - especially

important since its getting colder and the kids are having more indoor recess. There are

closets full of games and craft supplies. They need to be organized and there should be

a person to keep in contact with teachers, to understand their needs. This is not a huge

commitment and could be easily done with a younger child.

o Donation Tracker list - please send Amanda Laubach any donations you have requested from

local companies to make sure we aren't requesting too much.

Coordinator Reports

o Painting with a Twist - will be holding another one on Sunday March 13th

o Labels for Education - we will are still collecting

o Shoparoo - there is an app a handful of us have been using to earn money for Nash, one that is

as easy as scanning receipts from purchases. We have earned close to $50 for Nash and there

are a handful of people using it. If you are interested, please reach out to Amanda Laubach or

Tanya MacGregor to find out more info.

o Million tabs initiative - thank you for all your help reaching a million tabs. We celebrated

during the holiday sing along and the tabs were displayed the first week of January for the

students to see. The tabs will be donated to Shriner's Hospital for Children and Ronald

McDonald house. We will still be collecting tabs for these great organizations.

Next Nash Home & School Meeting will be held Thursday, February 11th at 7pm.