Meeting minutes, october 8th, 2020

Minutes
Alder Creek Middle School
PTO Meeting 

Date:  September 10th, 2020 via Zoom

Welcome: Call to order at 11 am.
Attendees: Susie Overall, Hien Larson, Raughley Koehler, Celli Baker, Carrie Haines, Jenny Berger, Kate Byus, Hanna Malm, Nate Melen, Adrienne Portnoy-Durgin, Heather Nielsen

Principal’s Update - Hien Larson: 
ACMS is excited to get kids back on campus. They are adding desk shields and working on balancing classes for cohorts. Students are doing well as far as joining Google Meet and Google Classroom. She encourages parents to look in Aeries for grades and missing work rather than Classroom. They do need some 6th graders in GATE and B Cohort to switch to A Cohort. Out of 600 students, 80 are remaining in distance learning. Cohort C will remain in their existing classes with their same teachers. The new hybrid learning transition start date has been pushed to October 28th, but this isn’t etched in stone.

How Can the PTO Support Our Students, Staff and Community
Treats for Teachers: Purchase prepackaged treats, whole fruits and supply Keurig coffee and tea pods. Staff Room isn’t really available for distribution, so we could make or order boxes of snacks to put in their boxes and include a gift card for a cup of coffee or tea somewhere. We can contact some local cafes as well as Starbucks. There are 71 staff members. Kate and Jenny B. will take the lead on this. Contact Celli for possible fulfillment through contact with Whole Foods. 
Back to School Gift Idea for Students: Individual hand sanitizers students can clip on their backpacks with a message from the PTO. Susie will look into pricing. 
Decorating the School: Depending on when students go back for the hybrid model, we may miss decorating for Halloweeen. (Hanna said she has lots of decorations if we do this!)
“Welcome Back to School” banners at the front entrance and the 7th grade modulars. These can be generic enough to be used for the future. Carrie H. will work on creating a design. We can look at pricing from Vistaprint and Donner Lake Gift Shop (Heather uses them). Leadership will be creating posters as well, so we will let Mrs. Blaylock know we’re looking into this. Hopefully we can get them in before school starts. Balloons? If we do this, we’ll need them for two different start days for Cohorts A and B. 
Screen Protectors and/or Blue Light Glasses: Susie will check with the TTUSD tech department to see if they have contacts for these. We can purchase for students as well as offer them for sale. 
Spirit Wear: Kate has a company which does custom clothing. Past clients have included schools. Their company will design and source items, and offer them for sale on a website. We will direct people to that site for purchase. We can determine fulfillment - either ship direct or provide a central pickup location. Some ideas include masks, buffs, sweatpants, hoodies, knit caps, leggings and t-shirts. Susie will send Kate our logos, Kate will research possible vintage logos. Carrie and Hanna can help with this.

Fundraising
Treasurer’s Report: We have $6,151 in the bank. Unsure if this will be needed for field trips this year. 
Restaurant Fundraisers: Local restaurants where a portion of sales will be given back to the school. We can easily set these up with chains such as Panda Express and Round Table. We hesitate to ask local restaurants given the economic hardships of these times. 
Tamale Fundraiser: This was a successful raffle in the past. Susie will contact the person who made the tamales last year to see if they’re up for doing this again.
Disneyland Tickets: We have these from last year. Jenny B. will contact Disneyland to see if they will reissue tickets with extended expiration date (current expiration is 9/2021). Then use these for a raffle.
Online Auction: We typically have a silent auction during Open House in the spring. We can look at doing this online in the spring. It would be great to use the same online auction system as Glenshire Elementary so there’s continuity between schools. They are having an online auction for their Holiday Fundraiser and will let us know how it works. 
Box Tops: Clipped Box Tops that haven’t expired are still being accepted. Parents can drop them off at school when it opens again. Most Box Tops are now digital, instructions were sent out in the last newsletter. Receipts from online grocery purchases can be emailed to Box Tops. Parents can also drop receipts off at school when it opens and we can scan them in.

Event Ideas
Virtual Halloween: Costume contest, wear costumes in school and online, pumpkin carving or drawing contest. 
Virtual Talent Show
Parent Parking Lot Tailgate Swap Shop: (Emailed suggestion from Cindy B.) Sell sporting equipment that our kids have outgrown so we can swap, sell or trade. It can be an outside event and socially distanced by stepping aside when people are checking out the goods. We parents can offer 10% back to the PTO of anything we sell. Will check with the school to see if this would be allowed.

Next Meeting:  November 12th, 2020 at 10 am via Zoom
Adjourn: 11:00 am. Thanks to everyone for showing up!