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Alder Creek Middle School PTO Meeting Minutes
March 3, 2026 ACMS School, Truckee, Ca, 7:45am Present: Brandy Christensen, Kathleen Gauthier, Erica Garcia, Paul Turner, Allie Reeves, Kristin Cooksey Quorum Present?: Yes Welcome/Intro, Brandy Christensen -Meeting called to order on time at the scheduled 7:45am -Adopt/Minutes/: No Minutes from the February 2026 Meeting to Adopt/The February 2026 PTO Monthly Meeting was held on Tuesday, February 3rd, 2026 at the scheduled time of 6:00pm - 7:00pm at the Raley’s One Market Upstairs Reserved Meeting Long Table. The meeting went well and followed the 8th Grade Celebrations Planning Team Meeting. -MOTION to approve meeting minutes/Not Required at this March 2026 PTO Team Meeting/Made by: N/A, /Seconded By: N/A, / Passed Withour Dissent - N/A. Treasurer’s Report, (Normally Reported By Kate L.)/To Be Reviewed at the next ACMS PTO Team Meeting scheduled for Tuesday, April 7th, 2026/@ Location TBA To Be Announced @ either of the normal two options (6pm at Raley’s One Market /Or 7:45am @ ACMS School Teachers Lounge) : -Overall General Discussion on PTO Financial Position: Positive. There is enough funding to support the programs for the remainder of this academic school year, as well as for a PTO for the next upcoming academic school year fall 2026 - Spring 2027. No new funding projects were suggested or introduced at this March 2026 PTO Meeting. -There was a discussion around the June end of school year ‘Beach Day’ at West End Beach, Donner Lake, and the increase in cost that the Donner Lake Management has introduced for this coming June, including an estimated cost increase from $300 up to approximately $1,000 for this event. The costs for the Donner Lake West Beach event covers lifeguard support, reserved beach area, and miscellaneous staffing and cleanup costs around booking the beach for events such as the school event. We are guessing that the Beach Day cost also includes the entry fees for the students, staff and any adult supervision support. It would be nice if they threw in some hot dogs for the kids!! The event will continue as planned. Principal Hien Larson indicated that there is a budget allocated to cover this cost. This will be revisited for coming years and has been a great traditional event for the kids in Elementary and Middle School. A discussion around investigating the Alpine Meadows Lake Area as an alternative is in play, and President Brandy Christensen is following up on some phone calls and investigation into this alternative option for ‘Beach Day! -Fundraising continues to be an important initiative for the PTO intended to drive interest in sponsorship and supporting programs for students and initiatives for teachers events such as lunches during parent - teacher - student meeting weeks. The use of a ‘push, utilizing texting to remind parents of these needs was discussed during this March 2026 PTO meeting, as well as at the prior February 2026 PTO meeting. To Note: The SuperBowlMexicanFood Raffle fundraiser was discussed at the prior February PTO meeting and cancellation was considered as an option, however it was reported that this fundraising drive had raised between $200-$300 by February 3rd, 2026, and with the additional ‘texting and email reminder push to parents, there was additional interested and action taken by parents supporting this fundraiser. A full account of the total amount raised for the SuperBowlMexicanFoodTamales fundraiser will be reported and reviewed at a future PTO meeting, April 2026 or before the end of the academic school year. -Kate to bring a check for $1,500 to Principal Hien Larson today, March 3rd, 2026 for PTO sponsorship of an initiative/event -April 30th, 2026 Open House Event -Note: For the Hermes / Fundraiser/Initiative: PTO sells tickets and last year received a counterfeit $100 dollar bill. Most likely an accident. This year we will request “small bills only”, to avoid any embarrassment. An ‘honest mistake is assumed, and not money laundering activity. Principal’s Report, Hien L.: -Principal Hien Larson continues to manage many projects with success and the school continues to get top marks on the surveys and from the district. -Discussion around the 8th Grade Celebrations and planning are ongoing. -Carnival / Ohana / Aloha /Staff Appreciation Event Planning is ongoing. -Week long event planning for Teacher Breakfast/Lunch/Beverage Cart planning continues and a basic initial outline was discussed including: Monday Breakfast, Tuesday Beverage Cart, Wednesday Lunch, Thursday OpenForDiscussion, Friday Food Leftovers from the Week. -Beach Day Donner Lake Students Traditional Event: Principal Hien has funding for transportation and for the cost of the beach day which (as described above in finance) is an incrementally increasing cost this year in June 2026 by 2X or possibly 3X. -”Peer Helper / Open Mike Night: Was discussed and Principal Hien L asked if the PTO would be able to support this event/initiative with approximately $500. -March 19th, 2026 is the next ELAC Meeting. Erica Garcia will be leading, and PTO President Brandy Christensen will be attending. Additional ACMS School Administration/Management will be attending including Principal Hien Larson, and possibly others. -April 30th, 2026 / Hermes Event Discussion/Ongoing and will be reviewed at the next PTO meeting scheduled for April 7, 2026 (*Location of the PTO Meeting TBA) -Principal Hien Larson discussed the need for more parent / community support of events and specifically the need for more Chaperones to make the ACMS School Dance a reality. A discussion of even cancelling the event if there was not enough support was raised. Some additional PTO parents volunteered to be Chaperones at this coming Friday, March 6th, 2026 event, and agreed to ‘spread the word, to other parents in the ACMS community to get more interest in involvement generated. Participation and support of the PTO, and all school groups and student activities is Essential to the success of our students, teachers, administration and community! New Business, (N/A).: -A discussion around the PTO working with the ACMS School Admin to co-promote PTO fundraising utilizing a text and email push, from time to time, as needed. The PTO agrees that we saw success with this ‘additional marketing and promotion push, with the SuperBowlFoodFundraiser and additional parents took action supporting the event when they received a reminder and text promotion. Reminders of a need for parent participation and support for events such as the School Dance and Chaperone Opportunities would also be good examples of a use of text and email reminders to encourage parents to become increasingly involved. Reminder Note: Studies are showing that parent support of school related participation has dropped dramatically since the 2020 era times, dropping by an estimated and significant 40-70%. -As discussed at the previous month February 2026 PTO meeting, President Brandy Christensen will be retiring from the PTO President Position following successful years of driving the group and initiatives forward. There will be a need for a new PTO President and additional consistent support and participation in both the general PTO Organization, and also the events (ie: Planned events require organizing, phone calls to sponsors, picking up food, dropping off information, collecting fundraising donations, managing financial components of the PTO, showing up, managing the SignUpMonkey, generating interest among parents in becoming increasingly involved in their children's student academic school community, and more. Things don’t just happen without involvement, commitment and responsible sacrificial giving. Time, Talent, Treasure. -Preparing ‘Baskets’ for fundraising was discussed along with options for potentially a different option, not including baskets, OR: Have students on the leaders teams prepare the baskets and delegate the workload out. A good idea. -The previously discussed ‘Silent Auction & Open/Live Auction’ organization that had been previously discussed will not be moving forward at this time based on today’s update. There had been interest in leading this initiative at a previous meeting held in January 2026, along with support to volunteer to be a 2nd in command of this fundraising drive, however things seem to have ‘fizzled out due to time constraints and ‘bandwidth to make this event happen this year. For now the event is on ‘Standby-Cancel’ We will call back into the ATC control once we’ve done some troubleshooting. -Shirts for the School Event are being arranged (Kate), and a request for sizes is being sent out by Principal Hien Larson. Collaboration and ordering shirts will follow shortly over the next few weeks. -For the Teachers Appreciation Week, a discussion around planning, organizing the sign up wizard, ordering catering, funding the project, Costco supplies (*Estimated Costco Supply budget of $200-300), Monday - to - Friday planning outlined (as above), and more. -Ally indicated that she may be able to get involved in making the ‘baskets project happen. Ally will follow up moving forward on this project. -Paul will speak with school administration about ‘sparingly using a text and email ‘push to students parents for projects, parent involvement, and fundraising reminders and sign ups on an ‘as-needed-basis. -A discussion arond the ‘Set Up, and timing for food and supplies drop offs around the events, specifically the Herme’s Event and the Teacher Appreciation Event were reviewed by the PTO Team with planning and outcomes to be clear on this in promotion and sign up wizard opportunities. Sticking to the outlined times for participation in events, (*ie 7am start/2pm close) will be adhered to moving forward to ensure that parents who participate and show up every day on times indicated can contribute as per their commitments. -Specific food needs for all events was discussed: Gluten Free, Sugar Free, Fun Free, Vegetarien, Vegan, Lean Proteins, ‘Warm Food Options,” and other preferences will be met as much as possible. -Reminder: Jill Cox contributes time and effort to managing the FaceBook page and the Instagram page. Thank You Jill! Please collaborate and coordinate with Jill as needed with information that the PTO group would like to promote out on these Social Media Resources. -The Cougar News Survey was discussed. The slight - to - moderate - challenge of opening up all of the pages on some technologies/devices was discussed. Options for future improvement and increased engagement were discussed at the PTO March Meeting and will be ongoing as we endeavor to do our best!! Kiezen! Continual Improvement. Good Change. Meeting adjourned at 8:51am. Next Meeting: Tuesday, April 7th, 2026 (*Location TBC/Either Raleys or ACMS) Minutes submitted by PTO Secretary: /Paul Turner
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Called to order 7:45
Paul motion to approve minutes Treasurer update 40953.77, meg lally checks cleared and 755 to Student Council Principal Report: Many accolades for ACMS. Amazing growth amongst students and parents in regards to performance and engagement. 20% increase, national avg is closer to 5%. Spirit week is next week. The next school dance is being considered. It had tentatively been set as feb 13th. Considering the 20th instead. Minimum days 22nd and 23rd for January. First volleyball game is Thursday. Mr. Larson headed to Costco to purchase snacks. Thank you to him! Spirit week in February We need to encourage families that if they are doing independent study the students MUST turn in the work. Social emotional focus each month started in December. Teachers are nominating. This month’s focus is self care. Nordics first meet is this Friday. Boys and girls club is up and running. Working to get homework club and considering get truckee high students to come for volunteer hours. WE NEED a picture for year book on Feb 3rd No Grant requests need to be discussed. PTO admin date for 8th grade planning prior to Feb 3rd at 5 pm. Touchdown Tamales Kermes dinner? Talk to Elvia December 2025 PTO Meeting
Notes: Principal’s Update: California Dashboard came out and the school did really well in terms of academic improvement and growth. Student led conferences went well. Three more weeks until break. Ideas for outreach: Truckee Thursdays—have a booth. During a dance—pre-Covid, the parents used to get together during dances. Color Run—kids and parents wear white t-shirts and run around a track. Coffee Meeting: when the kids have the visits. Cougar Days: hand out flyers for PTO to parents at Cougar Days. Zoom Meeting: Stick to regular meeting for January 6th. Per Meredith, Zoom has been a great option for her. So we agreed that we will try to Zoom the meeting in January. Touchdown Tamales: Kate will speak to Elvia and touch base with Rosa.-= November Meeting Notes
November 4, 2025 7:45 am Meeting, ACMS Staff Lounge Attendees: Brandy Christensen, Jill Cox, Hien Larson, Paul Turner, Vonnie Davidson, Kim Heseltine Approval of October Minutes: Jill made a motion to approve October minutes, Vonnie seconded. All in favor - minutes approved.Spring Auction Planning
Attendees: Brandy Christensen, Kate Lord, Jill Cox, Kristin Cooksey, Paul Turner, Hien Larson, Olga Keeley, Sara Fitzpatrick, Ivana Cobos
Introductions Approval of September Meeting minutes Kate set a motion to approve September meeting minutes. Jill seconded minutes were approved. Principal Updates
Meeting: 9/2/2025
Location: Raley’s One Attendees: Principal Hien Larson, Brandy Christensen (President), JIll Cox (Social Media Chair), Sarah Maile, Kristin Cooksey (Teacher Appreciation Chair), Nicole Sasche Andi Forker, Paul Turner, Olga Keeley, Wendy Lautner and Pam Madigan Motion to approve minutes-Kristin made a motion to approve, Jill -seconded and all were in favor so the motion passed. Budget-Kate Lord, Treasurer, was unable to attend the meeting and will report in the next meeting. We have a strong budget. We anticipate fundraising a little less due to the economy. We have historically had 2 main fundraisers-Sponsorship and auction. Sponsorship drive- This is PTO’s main fundraiser and we’ll need 15-20 businesses to agree to sponsorships in order to meet our goal. We hope to wrap up towards the end of the month. It is not clear yet whether we will be able to hold a spring auction because we don’t have a chairperson for this event yet. Principal report- Enrollment is up. Great group of students. The difficulties and expense of sports transportation was discussed. PTO does not have the budget to pay for sports transportation, which can be 10k or more per season per sport. The district gives 28k total to ACMS for sports transportation. Next Meeting-Focus on conference week luncheon for teachers Minutes PTO Meeting June 3, 2025
Kate Parkhill, Kate Lord, Hilda Vazquez, Laurie Kuntz, Jill Cox Budget: Auction made about $7,300 for PTO. 8 th Grade Dance has raised $3,956 for their event. They have spent $2,782. Dr. West donated the photo booth. Tahoe Forest made a donation. Other notable donations to general fund: Grandparents of one student donated $1,000. Kermes was incredibly successful (approximately $3,000). Grant Requests: Request from Track for approximately $300 for some items related to the long jump. Discussion about how PTO does not typically fund sports activities. However, ACMS Track is a “no cut” sport and supports 180 kids with four volunteer coaches. A motion was made to approve the grant request. Discussion about the possibility of an Amazon Wishlist for PTO. We had a discussion of creating a standardized process for how to decide which student groups to give money to. Sponsorships: that process needs to begin in August. PTO Insurance-PTO Insurance called PTO today or AIM. Brandy will follow up with Glenshire and Kate L. will follow up with Truckee Elementary. Flyer-Brandy will work on getting it translated to Spanish. Post-meeting business: Kate Lord motioned to appoint Brandy Christensen PTO president for the 2025/26 school year. Laurie Kuntz seconded. A vote was conducted via email, and the motion passed unopposed. Meeting Date: April 8, 2025 @ 7:45 am
Attendees: Hien Larson, Laurie Kuntz, Kate Lord, Erica Garcia, Hilda Vazquez, Nicole Sachse, Kirby Faulk, Kristin Cooksey, Ivana Cobos Welcome & Intro: Kate Lord motioned to approve the minutes from March 2025. Hien seconded. The motion passed without dissent. Treasurer’s Report & Budget Review: No big changes this month. PTO paid for SWEP programming and transportation. PTO worked with Mrs. Hamilton’s GATE classes to get their fundraising money to the Red Cross for fire relief. Working with Mrs. Lally on sweatshirts for the million word club. Deposited roughly $500 from Touchdown Tamales. Some checks came in from Grocery Outlet and will be deposited. Principal’s Update: Great Spirit Week and rally, progress reports went out for second trimester. Band hosted a terrific spring concert. Track just started and there are more kids than ever signed up. Middle school orientation night for incoming 6th grade parents was a success. Last day of school has been set for Monday, June 16th so promotion will be Friday, June 13th. Latinas Unidas: Students Sofia and Elena attended the meeting, along with Community Liaison Ivana Cobos, to represent Latinas Unidas. Like last year, they’d like to raise money for their group by selling desserts at Open House/Kermes. The PTO expressed support and asked if they needed anything from us. 8th-grade Promotion: None of the committee chairs were present because they had a meeting this week. Hien reports things are moving along well. She will get out the initial email to all 8th grade parents regarding end-of-year activities and the donation requested for the dinner/dance. Open House/Silent Auction/Kermes Dinner: The Silent Auction will go live on Thursday, April 24th and run through Friday, May 2nd. We have a ton of great items but there’s always room for more. Jill Cox is making up some new gift certificates for us, Sarah Maile and Kim Heseltine will help Laurie build the website. Goal is $10k net. Open House/Kermes is Thursday, May 1. Kermes will run 5-6:30 and classrooms will be open 6:30-7:30. Track kids/families will be coming back from a meet. Teachers will get their meal tickets and food early. Ivana will have everything set up at 4pm. There is an ELAC meeting tonight at 5:30 to finalize the menu, but there will be tamales, tacos, pozole, aguas frescas, etc, similar to last year. PTO will buy plates, cutlery, napkins, etc for roughly 600. PTO will set up a table in the Donner Lake area and sell food tickets. We’ll also have a display table for auction items. Staff Appreciation: First week of May; Kirstin Cooksey is in charge and has a week of adventure planned, travel/world themed. She is out of the country for a few weeks in April but can work on this from afar. She has the week of Staff Appreciation blocked off. PTO will pay for luncheon Wednesday. There will be a SignUp Genius for parent contributions. Hien confirmed 75 staff. Kirby Faulk from the Wellness Center attended the meeting to see how she might contribute to the week. She has contacts and made some inquiries about providing mini-massage and sound baths as part of the week. Kristin and Kirby will discuss. PTO loves the idea of a wellness week for staff, but perhaps it’s too much to run in conjunction with Staff Appreciation this year. Meeting Date: March 4, 2025 @ 7:45 am
Attendees: Hien Larson, Laurie Kuntz, Kate Lord, Jill Cox, Hilda Vazquez, Kate Parkhill, Kim Heseltine, Sarah Maile, Brandy Christensen. Welcome & Intro: Hien Larson motioned to approve the minutes from February 2025. Kate Parkhill seconded. The motion passed without dissent. Treasurer’s Report & Budget Review: No big changes this month. Principal’s Update: We had a fun February dance. Thank you to our chaperones. The first Work Habits celebration was a big success. Thank you to PTO for supplying the coffee and breakfast treats. We need to get a date on the calendar for the next 8th 8th-grade promotion meeting. Hien is working with Kristin Baird and Kate Parkhill on this. There have been four snow days so far, so the last day of school is currently scheduled for Friday, June 13. The district usually announces the final day sometime at the end of March. New Volunteer System: There is a new system for volunteering at the school. PTO members provided feedback that the new system is a bit cumbersome. 8th-grade Promotion Discussions: Kate Parkhill says they are working towards getting a meeting together shortly. STUCO (Student Council and Leadership): They have $1,000.00 to spend. PTO voted to give them this $1,000, and how they spend the money is up to them and their advisor. They do not need to come back to PTO for approval. Sixth-Grade Outreach: Nicole and Megan finalized the text and layout with input from Brandy. Brandy will organize getting the flyer translated and the Spanish text flowed into the layout. Open House/Silent Auction/Kermes Dinner: We moved the auction forward a week and will run it Friday, April 25 to Friday, May 2nd. The target in this year’s budget is $5,000; we did $9,400 last year on 87 items. Laurie updated the letter and has been asking for parent help in Cougar News with very little response so far. Will keep pushing. This year’s donation list is on our Google Drive. We’re off to a good start. Laurie has contacted most of last year’s donors. Sarah Maile and Kim Heseltine will be in charge of building the Bidding Owl site. Hilda will keep us posted on how we can help with the ELAC Kermes, and someone from PTO will attend that April meeting. Staff Appreciation: First week of May; Kirstin Cooksey is in charge. We will discuss more in April. Meeting Date: February 4, 2025 @ 6:15pm
Attendees: Hien Larson, Julia Worster, Laurie Kuntz, Brandy Christensen, Kate Lord, Jill Cox, Hilda Vazquez, Kate Parkhill, Kristin Cooksey, Nicole Sachse, Dyan Johnson. Welcome & Intro: Brandy Christensen motioned to approve the minutes from January 2025. Nicole Sachse seconded. The motion passed without dissent. Treasurer’s Report & Budget Review: There have not been many changes in the last month. The check for the sponsorship banners was cashed. Meg Lally cashed her grant check. The Touchdown Tamales fundraiser total is currently sitting at $225. Principal’s Update: The February 7th dance has been postponed to February 21st due to possible inclement weather. The staff is busy planning for an upcoming Work Habits celebration on the morning of February 21st. Replaces the pre-Covid honors breakfasts, acknowledging the roughly 150 students with all 3s in work habits for Trimester 1. In the future, the goal is to have one at the end of each trimester. The administration is looking for PTO/parent support in providing breakfast (coffee, OJ, fruit, and baked goods) for the event. They suggested a SignUp Genius for parents to bring an item, as it’s done at the high school. Laurie and Kate suggested that PTO cater the event with Costco items instead. We will add a line item to the budget for these going forward. Hien said that StuCo would like PTO support in ordering sweatshirts for their members. She will provide Laurie and Brandy with an invoice, and the money will come out of the StuCo grant line in the budget. Hien asked for more Cougar Pride gift cards. Laurie will buy them and deliver them to school this week. Sixth-Grade Outreach: Nicole presented her revised draft. Megan is a graphic designer and will help make the flyer pretty. Off to a very good start! We discussed a few tweaks. Brandy and Nicole will keep it moving forward. Touchdown Tamales: Donations have been very slow this year. Hien sent out a reminder email on Tuesday. Laurie hopes we’ll get to at least $400 to break even. Discussed plans for tamale pickup/delivery if there is a snow day on Friday. Laurie offered to pick them up from Rosa and either deliver them to winners or have winners pick them up in one or two central locations in town. TBD, depending on the weather. Open House/Silent Auction/Kermes Dinner: We’ll move the auction forward a week and end it the day after Open House. So the new (tentative) dates are Friday, April 25 to Friday, May 2nd. Kate will pull together an exported list of last year’s items to see which were most popular. The target in this year’s budget is $5,000; we did $9,400 last year on 87 items. Laurie will update the letter to parents and ensure that the Google Drive is accessible so we can start dividing up the contact list. We should be able to dupe last year’s BiddingOwl site, but Sarah Maile offered to help with this as well. We need to start collecting items ASAP. Hilda will keep us posted on how we can support ELAC and let us know when their April meeting will occur. 8th Grade Promotion: Initial info meeting went well with 10 in attendance and two more who sent their names in but couldn’t attend. Kate Parkhill and Kristin Baird offered to head up the committee. Laurie will share the Google Drive with them. Erica Daniel offered to start researching food options. Cheryl Luther offered to try to find sponsors/donors. Hien Larson explained why she’d prefer we skip the LED dance floor this year. Kate and Kristin will take the planning from here. Meeting adjourned. |
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