July PFA General Meeting Minutes

PFA General Meeting

July 30, 2009

Called to order 7:02pm

Welcome and Thank You’s Teachers and EA’s welcomed by Amber.

Presidency Reports:

Secretary- Andrea Eagan read minutes from June 2009 meeting.

Treasurer- Holle McRae announced that the checking account has been set up, so we will be collecting dues tonight for PFA membership. A check has been written to NCA for the rummage sale. Starting August 12^th Bank of the West is running a special, if PFA members open a checking account, after the first $250 direct deposit, the account holder will receive $100 from the bank. Also, once they open that account they will receive free checking, the bank pays for the first box of checks. If parents open an account and mentions that they are part of the PFA then the bank will donate $50 to the PFA for each account opened.

President- Amber Gunnell discussed some of the events that were planned at the fundraising/social event meeting from July 21, 2009. All events are subject to change based on Headmaster Bush’s approval and availability of calendar. September- Movie night with history movie, concessions, and Schwan’s Ice Cream. Also, we will look into the National History Day competition. October will be a literacy day, where we dress up characters of a book. December we will do a service based project and holidays around the world celebrations. This even would include a breakfast. April 30^th will be Heritage Celebration with costumes, music and historic impersonators. Possibly have some of the older boys dress up as minute men. Tonya Freeman is the contact person for this event. End of the Art program and volunteer recognition will be moved to May. We will continue that rummage sale again this year in June/July and include a uniform swap with this. It was also discussed that at the end of each PFA meeting we will hold a uniform swap as students start to grow out of current uniforms.

PFA Council Reports:

Fundraising- Christine Plummer discussed that from the rummage sale and a few items being sold on Craigslist, total funds were $263.65. July 21, 2009 there was a meeting and 18 parents showed up. Lots of ideas were present, and we were able to narrow it down and this list of events will be present to Headmaster for approval. Although many parents did not want to see product sales as a fundraiser, due to being the first year as a PFA and no monies from previous years, this is something that we cannot avoid. Maybe in years to follow, this can be something that we can opt out of. The product fundraiser this year will be Boise’s Best. The PFA will receive 40% profits. Other fundraiser for the year will be script sales, box tops, Chef Pierre pies, and Papa Murphy’s cards.

Social Events Committee- Pam Kruck reminded us of upcoming events. August 5^th 7-th grades will meet to do poster for car wash. August 7^th will be the car wash for grades 7-9 from 10am- 2pm. August 13^th will be the kindergarten meet and greet, 7pm at Lion’s Park. Sing up sheet was passed around for more committee members.

Volunteer Committee: In need of a new committee leader. This person is in charge of room parents and volunteers for the rooms.

Old Business:

Collection of dues- Holle McRae passed around sign-up sheet for those wanting to become PFA members, dues were collected at end of meeting.

Elections/Nominations

President- Amber Gunnell nominated self, Holle McRae 2nd

Vice President- Christine Plummer nominated self, Pam Kruck 2nd

Secretary- Jolynn Morriss nominated self, Andrea Eagan 2^nd

Denise Aggen nominated self, Becky Gabert 2^nd

Treasure- Holle McRae nominated self, Andrea Eagan 2nd

Parent Representative- Andrea Eagan nominated self, JoLynn Morriss 2^nd

Kaleidoscope program- Amber Gunnell read letter from Erin Taylor. Our art program will be similar to the Reflections Program of PTA. We are hoping to get the program going in October, there will be information to follow. There will be end of the year recognition. Erin is hoping to have a committee meeting in August. Teachers at the academy are encouraged to involved. Please email Erin if you are interested in helping out with this committee.

T-shirts- Shawna Schneiderman informed us that everything is ready to go with the t-shirts, we just need the $50 set up fee. These shirts will be appropriate for t-shirt day, PE, or extracurricular activities. These will be white shirts with NCA on the front and the Minuteman logo. If we order over 200 we can get the shirt for under $5 if less then that they will be $10. We need to get PayPal set up so that orders can be placed through the web store. We can also order hoodies and sweatshirts through this company with no minimum number to order. Hoodies are $18.50 our cost. Sabrina Oriheula volunteered to help with this committee.

New Business:

Music Program- Mr. Marvosh discussed that music in a classical education encompasses everything. Grades 1^st to 9^th will get music. Grades 7-9^th , approximately 150 students, will have music everyday. There will be 2 choirs and 2 orchestras. Grammar classes will have music every other day. Mrs. Cook will be instructing 2 classes. He is in need of lots of help with ideas, time, materials, skills. He will get a list of instruments needed that will be placed on the PFA website. The biggest needs are:

1. Instruments- Students will need to provide their own instruments. Classes will not be performance based only, they be taught appreciation and history.

2. No performance venue- We will need to rent something each time there is a performance. Anticipate that there will be 400 to be seated at each event. Stay away from gyms because of the acoustics. Maybe donations can be taken at the performances to help cover the costs of renting. Many volunteers will be need from making programs, supervising students, and set up.

3. Music Curriculum- We don’t have any materials such as sheet music (can’t copy because of copy write laws), we have no rhythm instruments for grammar classes. Possibly looking a recorders because of cost.

4. Would like to have a piano accompanist

5. Uniforms- It would be nice if we could have choir robs, but they are very expensive to purchase. Kids tend to whine about these but when in a performance or competition they look very nice.

6. Risers- These are very expensive to purchase. We could look at building a set. It is nice to have student at different levels so that everyone can have eye contact with instructor. If we build a set they would need to have carpet.

The academy is currently looking into the Dustin Wells foundation for musical instruments. Also, we can look to the community in the way of retired persons to help with instruction.

Meeting Adjourned at 8:16 pm