June 2013 H&S Meeting Minutes

Home & School Notes

June 13, 2013

Due to the threat of severe weather, the Home and School meeting was cancelled in June. The following are notes about what we had on the agenda to discuss.

Upcoming dates:

June 18th - Recognition Assembly at 9:30am; 6th grade lip synch at 1:30pm

June 19th - Last day of School; early dismissal at 12:30pm

August 22nd - Home & School meeting at 7:00 pm at Nash

August 29th - New Family Orientation at 7:00pm in the Nash gym

September 3rd - First day of school

New Business:

  1. Coordinators are needed for only a few events next year:
  2. Halloween Parade Coordinator: Due to district restriction we will no longer be able to have the Halloween parade during school hours. We are hoping to hold this event BEFORE school starts and need someone to coordinate, possibly with a teacher liason.
  3. We still need a coordinator for the family/welcome picnic, which is supposed to be held on October 4th. There is already a coordinator for the activity fair which takes place in conjunction with the picnic. We need one or two people to plan out the food!
  4. We also need a coordinator for communication envelopes which will go home once a month next year. (Forms asking for volunteers or funds, Walk-a-thon forms or Year Book forms for example, will be sent home in these envelopes.)

If you are interested in coordinating any of these events, please contact Karen Casey at [email protected] . (Karen is the volunteer coordinator.)

  1. Clothing Shed: Instead of having our clothing drive twice a year, we have looked into getting a clothing shed placed on Nash property. The company which owns the shed will collect the clothes deposited periodically and Nash will get paid by the pound. Though the amount per pound is less than the amount for the traditional clothing drive, we feel that having it open year long will compensate for this. You can donate your clothes throughout the year; the shed will be open year long! It will be located next to the recycling bin in the side lot where the teacher's park.
  2. Market Day Update: The Market Day coordinators had a meeting with our reps. We are looking to increase our profit from this monthly fundraiser by promoting their "special events", such as pie month in November. We will also try to promote this with new families and incoming Kindergarten families.
  3. Triathlon: Great job to all our awesome Nash students who participated in this year's triathlons and many thanks to Miss Johnson for all she did for this event. We also received the following e-mail from Mr. Theodore at Montgomery Elementary: "I apologize for forgetting in my first email, however I need to send a HUGE THANK YOU out to all of the Home and School Associations for the 13 elementary schools. In 2012 the P.E. teachers applied for and won the Montgomery County Health Grant giving us $4500 to use for the triathlon. That grant has since dissipated leaving us to find a way to make up that money. Our Home and School Associations graciously stepped up and contributed to allow us to continue to provide the triathlon to our families at a reasonable cost. Without their financial support, we would have been stuck to find a way to cover the expenses necessary to put on such an event."
  4. MJS Software: We are part of a free trial year for a new software system starting in July. This software can produce a directory, manage volunteers, and send out communications very similar to Constant Contact. A few of the board members sat in on an on-line demonstration set up by Bridle Path's Home & School and felt it would be worth checking out. We will use it as a trial for a year and then will need to vote next year whether we feel it is worth the yearly fee. Currently it does not have a financial package for the treasurer, but will be adding it to the 2014-15 update. We can have coordinators use it to set up their events; add volunteers; ask for payment; and keep track of what works for their event and what does not. We will be using Constant Contact for communication until our year with them runs out in August and then we will use MJS.
  5. Sign: Good news! We are looking into replacing General Nash sign in front of the building. We would like to use the money market funds we have available to gift a sign to the school. We will need to vote on this for approval. Karen Lindsay will research what options we may have available and will ask for guidance from the district on any restrictions there may be (also from the Towamencin Township).
  6. Activity Coordinator Report: Book Fair - The scholastic dollars we earned from Scholastic at the book fair went to great use! Mrs. Moseley used the money to build the leveled classroom libraries for Kindergarten through third grade. The funds were also used for interactive white board activities to help with phonics instruction in the primary grades.

Our first Home and School meeting of the 2013 - 2014 school year will be held on August 22, 2013 at 7:00pm at Nash! Hope to see you all there!!

Thanks to all of our wonderful volunteers for helping to make our Home & School events great this year!! Have a wonderful summer!!