December 10th, 2007
General Meeting Minutes
6:30 pm - 8:00 pm.

Call to order: General meeting was called to order at 6:36 pm by Wendelin Dunlap, PTA president on December 10th, 2007. Location, Whitney library. All PTA board members were present.

Approval of Minutes: Minutes from November 5th meeting were provided to all in attendance. The minutes were submitted and approved with no additions or deletions.

Agenda: Submitted and approved with no additions or deletions.

Treasurer's Report: Tammy Bartley gave the treasurer's report. Copies of the report were made available to all in attendance. The report was reviewed and filed for audit with no corrections.

We took in $945 for T-shirt orders. PTA made a profit of $166 off of the t-shirt fundraiser.

Emergency lunch fund - paid out $90 - may need to increase budget for that line item.

Special Guest: Super Indendant Chris Borgen was present to make a presentation concerning incorporating additional time for teachers for "Professional Learning Time". Attempting a pilot program to arrange a time slot each week where teachers can connect, dialougue and exchange ideas. See Anacortes School District 103 website for detailed information about Pilot program. Feedback from parents and guardians is enthusiastically requested.

Parents and staff also gave Mr. Borgen information on how the school year is going at Whitney. Shared personal stories about students and successes. Discussed Child Find, trying to locate more children in need. Also discussed how well the Full Day Kindergarten classes are going.

President's Report: There will be no family fun night in December. Possibly to resume in January. Pottery artwork discussed as a potential family fun night... no date yet.

Walk-a-thon discussed as Spring Fund Raiser. There have been two very successful walk-a-thon's done in the past. Roxanna Mosier still has contact information for Connie Conklton (previous walk-a-thon coordinator). These walk-a-thons raised between $5500-$6500. City blocked off the street so parents with strollers could easily participate as well.

General Mills Grant ($10,000). Grant is awarded to schools that have the best idea for incorporating healthy food and exercise into the school day. Rosie is working on getting healthier lunches for schools, we could also include walk-a-thon in grant application. Also discussed using some of the walk-a-thon earnings to help provide healthier snacks/lunches. Wendelin will be helping with the application process.

Fundraising: BoxTops: Last year $127 was raised with Box Tops. This year, with a smaller student population, we have already earned $190 in half the time - that deserves a big WOOO HOOO!!!!

Recycling: we have earned $43

Escrip: earned $111 last year... unsure where we are now as the site is difficult to navigate

Teacher Christmas Grants: Teachers please turn in your receipts for reimbursment via the Christams Grant program (Thank you to Mrs. Mosier and ???... we happily reimbursed your receipts).

Teacher wish list: $20 will be granted to each teacher to help provide small items for classrooms

I-4204 PASSED!!!!! Thank you Wendelin for donating your time at the phone bank!!

Principal's Report: Last Friday Whitney had it's first ever Kinder-Caroling event. Over 100 people participated. We visited Chandler Square and 6 houses. Anacortes American was on hand to photograph the event. Big Success!!

Bond meeting tomorrow night (December 11th) at the Anacortes Public Library. This Bond directly affects Whitney. If it passes Whitney will receive the playground equipment from the YMCA preschool located at the High School.

There will be a preschool summit in January for staff. Eventually will have summit for parents as well - TBA.

Adjourned 8:00 p.m.