April Meeting Notes

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.