Varina PTSA Executive Board Meeting Minutes
August 16, 2011 6:30 p.m.
Martin’s Community Room
Present: Tara Adams, Alynne
Mallory-Pryor, Sandi Coffey, Kelsey Coffey, Rhakisha Williams, Zynora Manson, Andrea Beck, Sitrena Woodson, Delores Carter,
Brad Bradley, Tiarra Brown
Absent: Jenny Gwaltney, Debra Carroll, Donna Roots, Gwen Simms
Call to order:
6:40 p.m. by Tara Adams, President, in the Community Room at Martin’s.
Purpose of Meeting: The
Executive Board met for the first time this year for the officers’ reports, chair presentations, and plan events for
the upcoming school year.
Expectations: Tara reviewed the goals for our PTSA which
include:
1.
Increase
Parent, Student, Teacher, Community Involvement and Engagement
2. Fortify the Varina High School PTSA brand
3.
Build strategic partnerships with other
Varina student organizations, school PTAs, and organizations in the community
Alynne distributed procedure
binders to the chairs that include important dates and general information about the PTSA and their position. We all need
to work together and not have anything going on behind the scenes. Everything that is being worked on will be shared with
the board. We also need to meet the needs of our stakeholders which include the entire Varina community of students, teachers,
parents, community leaders, volunteers, etc. The PTSA needs time, money, talent, and ideas.
Secretary:
The minutes for the July 12th meeting were distributed and approved. A revised copy will be sent out. Kelsey was
voted in as the secretary for the 2011-2012 year. She will email the agenda for each month’s meeting to everyone before
the meeting. Minutes will be emailed out no later than 7 days after the monthly meeting.
Membership: The VP
of membership position is still available. Our goal for this year is to have 1,000 members. Everyone is encouraged to ask
anybody and everybody in the community to join. We will have tables strategically placed around campus on fee nights and back
to school night. During the week before fee nights, Power 92.1 will be advertising our membership drive and fish fry. Sponsors
have been secured to cover most of the cost for this advertisement. We will have raffle drawings for people who join prior
to back to school night. A way to get students to join is if teachers offer extra credit in their classes for becoming a member.
We will be at the East End Tigers game with Rolfe on September 10th and October 1st to sign up PTSA
members at the Little League games. We will be working closely with the Athletic Boosters and could possibly have a table
at football games.
Programs:
Donna Roots is getting dates for Baccalaureate and the Black History program and it was suggest that Zynora be a possible
speaker at Baccalaureate. We are having a town hall meeting about college and career readiness on October 18th.
A social media/sexting presentation will be done in directed study in the fall. A Wellness Grant for $1,000 will be applied
for, to be used for a program on wellness
Fundraising: In Jenny’s absence, Tara discussed the fundraising
ideas. Everyone in the executive committee will have a fundraiser to help Jenny with. The fish fry being done at the upperclassmen
fee night will hopefully raise $800. The Blue Devil Pride Fund is projected to raise $6,000. Levels of sponsorship with different
amounts will be used. An idea of selling tickets for the Soul Bowl at Shrader Lanes was presented with the goal of earning
$2,000. Selling brick pavers to be laid by the main office will begin in the fall. Another fundraiser idea is the Papa John’s
ordering. If someone mentions our name, we get the proceeds from the order. Verizon will be giving us more information about
a fundraiser with them. A main thing to remember about fundraising is that for every fundraiser we do, the PTSA must have
3 programs in place.
Treasurer: Sandi reported that the audit was completed by Debra
Carroll, Vicky Newcomb, and Kelly Christensen and signed by them. The final audit was not voted on by the
Executive committee due to errors found by the Treasurer that required clarification. The President also
requested time to review the audit prior to voting. The procedure for final signatures was questioned by
the former Treasurer, disputed by the current president, and tabled for later discussion. The proposed
budget was distributed, and the total projected income is $33,161.86. The projected expenses are $33,161.86. Zynora proposed
adding more money to the teacher grants. $500 was added to the projected fundraiser of $3,500 from brick pavers to have $1,000
for teacher grants.
Reflections: The theme this year is Diversity Means… The goal is to
have at least 35 entries. Prizes will include certificates and a gift card with a reception in February. Zynora thought they
would need more money, so Andrea suggested moving $150 from Student Recognition to increase the Reflections’ budget
to $500. This was voted on approved and accepted.
Spirit Wear: In Debra’s absence as well as
non-issuance of a Spirit Wear plan of work, Tara discussed using the Heritage Printing Company.
A board t-shirt design was voted upon and approved. A small group will be meeting to decide on spirit wear items to start
off with. This was put into motion, moved to second and approved.
Scholarships:
Also in Debra’s absence and plan of work omission, Tara and Alynne talked about scholarships.
The goal for this year is $6,000. Students have to be a member by March 31st, 2012 in order to be considered. Discussion
about not requiring being a member in order to participate occurred. It was decided that $5 is not a lot to join and if there
was an extreme case where the student couldn’t afford it, that matter would be handled accordingly.
Bookstore:
The need for volunteers is huge. Sitrena is looking to monitor the selling of items to know what is and is not popular. Teachers
will be asked to occasionally work it in small shifts because they have little planning time. It was presented to work jointly
with the Athletic Boosters that if they work the bookstore and can sell Booster merchandise, they would get their spirit wear
profit only. It was voted down due to having to keep separate records of sales, and whether or not we would get a profit from
allowing them to sell their merchandise.
Fatherhood Initiative: Brad has created a program he wants to have
that is similar to a mentoring program called FANS (Fathers Affirming and Nurturing Students). It’ll encourage men to
be examples to their peers. He has a protected document outlining the program that he shared with the committee. It is a work
in progress, and hopes to have it started soon. The guiding principles include education, encouragement, empowerment, and
expectation.
After Prom: DeLores plans on getting with some students and teachers
for ideas on location and theme. The prom date for 2012 hasn’t been announced yet.
Student Recognition:
Andrea met with Dawn Rogers, an AP to discuss her plans. She is using the P.T.S.A. awards that will be given out each nine
weeks-Positive Attitude, Teacher selected by their peers, Student doing good work, and Academic improvement. She also hopes
to recognize the students that aren’t usually awarded.
Teacher Recognition: Tiarra plans on doing superlatives for 4 teachers per 9 weeks with ideas such as most effective teaching style, most caring, most engaging,
most to give one on one time, etc. The award will be a $25 gift card.
School Board Representative: Sandi gave out a summary
of the school board meeting on August 11th. Revisions to the code of conduct were approved as well as suicide prevention.
Melinda VanDevelder, a VHS science teacher won $1,500 in the Henrico Education Foundation grant to fund innovative science
investigations in the school community. Mehfoud Elementary is getting a $3.7 million dollar, 12 classroom addition.
Website: On
behalf of Jenny, Tara reported the website is in progress with changes.
County Council Representative:
In Gwen’s absence, Tara encouraged the committee to try and attend the county council meetings.
Lay Advisory Delegate:
Rhakisha will be attending their meetings and submit a report of the meetings.
New Business: The VP of
Membership position is still open. Kelsey was nominated and approved as the Secretary for the 2011-2012 school year. The committee
also voted and approved to hold meetings on the 3rd Tuesday of each month at 6 pm. The standing rules changes were
tabled until the next meeting due to time. The main office needs volunteers to finish back to school packets by the 23rd
of August. Tara encouraged everyone to attend the free leadership training that is given on August 27, 2011. Andrea will reconcile
the bank statements with Sandi. The idea of 5th quarter parties was presented by Tara. The football team has 5
home games this season and it was suggested that after two games, PTSA member students can attend the party in the cafeteria
due to the gym being renovated. It would occur until curfew and be supervised. There is no charge other than you must be a
PTSA member. Possible dates are September 30th October 14th and October 28th. It was voted on and approved
by the committee with one objection. The concern is not having a line item in the budget and funding it. It was decided the
events will be funded by membership dues and the expenses will be membership incentives. Alynne made brochures
and posters to be distributed to provide more information about VHS PTSA to be distributed in the parent packets. The next
Board meeting is September 20th and Back to School Night is September 19th.
Adjournment:
Tara adjourned the meeting at 9:45 pm.
