PVO and SACS

		PVO (Parent Volunteer Organization) minutes
		SAC (School Advisory Committee) minutes

The parent volunteer organization (PVO) forms a large part of our school life and community. Parent volunteers engage in work throughout the school, in classrooms as well as in the office and behind the scenes. The PVO ass ists the staff of the school with making the school environment better every year for the students. In the past the PVO have purchased new playground equipment, computerized the library, provided teachers with ‘little extras’, and arranged special parties for the students.

The parents of our students pay PVO dues. With this money, the PVO starts major projects that will fund ‘gifts’ back to the school. Parents can also help by volunteering when asked by the ‘room parents’. If everyone pitches in, it makes it a lot easier.

The following parents have volunteered to lead the PVO for the 2010-2011 school year. Please thank them for their time and contact them if you would like to help with one of their jobs.

President –Rhiannon Molina (Fall Fling Chair, Student Advisory Committee member, and coordinates with the principal on school issues.)

Vice President – Joanna LaFratta (Coordinates Room Parents, succeeds President next year)

Secretary - Karen Ewart (Takes minutes, general correspondence)

Treasurer – Kim Harbison (Head money counter, coordinates with church bookkeeper, manages budget)

Volunteer Coordinator – Jane Ignacio (Raffle chair, maintains volunteer hours, organizes end-of-year volunteer party)

Community Fundraiser Coordinator – Jennifer Mathieu (Food Lion coupons, Harris Teeter coupons, Box Top for Education)

Publicity Coordinator –Pamela Grierson (Keeps parents up to date about PVO events, media publicity for school)

The School Advisory Committee (SACS) provides guidance in establishing policies for Saint Patrick School. It serves as a channel of communication in matters of interest and concern, it supports and encourages the school principal in effectively carrying out the work of administration, and it advises the principal in areas of finance and recruiting.

Ex-Officio Members:
Msgr. Michael Shugrue, Pastor
Dr. Eric Westley, Principal
Mr. Don Bray, Parish Administrator

Members:
Margit Hicks – President/Finance
Jenna Schutzer- Vice President/Public Relations
Kathy Watson – Secretary / Curriculum-Stewardship/Curriculum

Donna Lopez

Mary Pat McDonald -- Catholic Schools Week

Chris Faircloth -- Finance

Melissa Barnum

Lucy Cain -- Facilities

Katy Erickson -- Facilities

Jessica Tucker --

Rhiannon Molina -- PVO President

PVO (Parent Volunteer Organization) minutes

Saint Patrick PVO

Meeting Minutes

August 9, 2010 Meeting Minutes

5:30-7:20pm

Attendance: Dr. Westley, Principal; Rhiannon Molina, President; Karen Ewart, Secretary;  Kim Harbison, Treasurer; Jennifer Mathieu, Fundraising; Pamela Grierson, Publicity; Trish Miekley, Yearbook. 

Not in attendance: Joanna LaFratta, VP; Jane Ignacio, Volunteer Coordinator; Crystal Jones, Art-By-Me/Casino Night

Secretary’s note: I added notes about meeting discussion to Rhiannon’s agenda where we had discussion or action but otherwise left the agenda alone - Karen

New Parent Meeting:  August 10th 9:00 am-I will not be there is there anyone who will be in attendance that can give a quick speech about the PVO and what we do…I will prepare it for you  Note: Crystal Jones gave a good plug for PVO at the New Parent Meeting the day following our PVO meeting.

Parent Orientation:  August 10th 10:00 to 2:00 –three people have volunteered to be there, Jane9-1, Karen 9-12 and Trish 12-2.  We will be sharing a table with the scrip program…we will have flyers and sign up sheets available at this time.  Note: We had good success gathering names for Room Parents, selling Scrip, advertising the Box Tops program, and collecting card numbers for Harris Teeter and Food Lion cards during school orientation.

School Open House:  August 26th (time has not been determined) We all need to be in attendance

Dining Cards—e-mail out to Hal Powers about amounts that can be ordered.  He says that we can order less, trying to arrange a meeting with him this week.   Last year we bought 1500 cards at $3.50/card and sold 827 cards at $10/card for a profit of $3070.  1000 is the minimum order that Hal Powers will take and we have 160 families at St. Pats School this year.   We decided to do Dining Cards again this year and went over the list of restaurant choices.  Rhiannon will contact Hal Powers to order 1000 cards with appropriate restaurants.

Spaghetti Dinner:  Would like to move as a separate fundraiser along with Santa Boot camp.  8th graders have option to use this as a fundraiser should they choose not to do so, we have first bid on it.  Would like to extend hours and add spaghetti dinner to this.  (long day of shopping don’t want to cook)  Reason for moving—it makes for a long day for everyone and can focus more if it is moved and could make more money.  We decided to separate the Spaghetti Dinner from Fall Fling.

Spirit Days instead of spirit nights—charge $1 per child (once per semester).  No discussion.

Fall Fling – Fall Fling will be scheduled on October 23 without the Spaghetti Dinner.  The Social Hall isn’t available that day, but we should check with the Church Office to make sure there isn’t a conflict with the use of the Church parking lot since someone else has the Social Hall scheduled.

• Tickets-how many per bundle and price.  Do we want to leave it as it was last year?  (last year was 5 for $5) Prizes same as last year or do we want to decrease prize money or leave the same? (last year 1,000…500..250)  Is there a need to purchase 35,000 parish tickets, should we decrease and add more to school only 6,000 ordered.)  Weekly winners free dress passes (last year), class winner (ice cream party) over all family (100, 50, 25).  Do we want to keep this?  Order tickets cut and stapled?  20 tickets per parish family or minimize this to 15.  Will need to make sure that school families are taken out.  We decided to mail 5 tickets per parishioner and nominally order 8 tickets per parishioner.  Rhiannon will order the raffle tickets and place the order for pre-cut stapled packs of 5 tickets of the price is reasonable.
• Bake sale:  needs to be publicized more.  Winners same prizes as last year.   ($25 gift cards from scrip)  need judges asap…need Sodality information to get their help or can we do this our selves…  We decided not to do the Bake Sale and instead to a Cake Walk.  We’ll need a Cake Walk lead for Fall Fling.
• Silent auction---needs to be publicized more…can we go back to having class make baskets (room parents assist with this) class with highest bid wins free dress pass….need to contact local business for donations (folders full of info on who can be contacted) $10 per family and/or toy donations.  Need a lead for the Silent Auction.
• New idea---have tent and sell hot dogs, hamburgers and pretzels along with soda…..will need grill and other things to keep it going (12-3)  getting ready at 11 should need about 6 people at a time…..  PVO liked the idea.  We’ll solicit deserts donations (homemade cookies, brownies, etc.) to sell with lunch.
• Hours of fall fling 11-4
• Bulk Mailing (of Raffle Tickets to Parish; school tickets get sent home with the kids) —we will need one day to get this all done and then dropped off at the church.  We need volunteers for this as well.

People need to head following things:

• Bake Sale
• Raffle tickets
• Food for fall fling (my husband has offered to head this up and we would like all the husbands of the PVO Board members to volunteer for this)
• Silent Auction
• Co-chair for casino night

Casino Night

We would like to get and early jump on assisting with Casino Night.  This year we would like to see it make much more than in years past.  After the New Year it will be a huge priority for us.  Crystal is also asking that we try to bring a new family on board to help her out and learn the ropes just in case they are not here next school year. 

I would like everyone to come up with 1 or 2 new fundraising ideas for this upcoming school year.

A possible Free Tuition Raffle was discussed, including review of a sample info letter.  No action taken.

We discussed possibly doing a school survey via Survey Monkey (surveymonkey.com) to solicit input for parents about fundraising ideas and interest.  One survey question revolves around “for profit fundraising” (i.e. spaghetti dinners, Casino Night, etc.) vs. an annual (?) tax deductible cash contribution campaign.

Use of a school supply company proposal was discussed.  A sample order form from School Tool Box was distributed – students would order next year’s school supplies in May based on the teacher’s supply list.  The company would provide the supplies at the published price and deliver them prior to school start.  PVO/the school would make a profit on the sales and families wouldn’t have to spend time shopping for school supplies.  This would not be a required purchase but an option for interested families.  Dr. Westley will survey the teachers for interest.

Next meeting – Wednesday, September 1, 5:30 pm. 

Meeting closed at 7:20 pm. 

SCHOOL ADVISORY MINUTES ON THE NEXT PAGE

SAC (School Advisory Committee) minutes

Saint Patrick School Advisory Committee

Meeting Minutes

August 4, 2010

Members Present:           Jenna Schutzer, Kathy Watson, Chris Faircloth, Mary Pat McDonald, Donna Lopez, Rhiannon  Molina, Melissa Barnum, Eric Westley

Members Absent:           Margit Hicks, Katy Erickson, Lucy Cain, Don Bray, Jessica Tucker

I.      Meeting was opened at 7:05 p.m. with brief introductions around the table.

II.     Approval of the minutes was tabled until the next meeting since the April minutes had not been distributed to the committee for review.

III.   Dr. Westley mentioned that he wants to keep business as usual at first until he has a chance to learn the school, faculty and families at St. Patrick. He knows his priorities involve technology (there is a committee in place already looking at immediate needs as well as long range needs) and the school accreditation up for renewal in 2011.

A.    Accreditation must be renewed every five years. Dr. Westley gave a brief overview of some different nationally recognized organizations that offer accreditation such as the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and the Southern Association of Independent Schools. There are various pros and cons as well as different costs involved with each one. It is a tedious but necessary process.

IV.   PVO reported that the Fall Fling has tentatively been scheduled for Saturday, October 9th. This is the only Saturday in October the social hall is available. After discussion, the committee agreed this was not a good weekend since it falls on a four day holiday weekend (Columbus Day) for the military and many families will be out of town. The only reason the social hall was needed was for the spaghetti dinner. It was agreed that the dinner could be held another night in conjunction with a different function such as the talent show or the Santa’s shopping day the 8th graders host. PVO is meeting next week and will decide on whether to move the date.

V.    Art Auction

• The committee still needs to decide whether to hold the art auction this year and if not, how to replace the money it raises.
• The committee asked Dr. Westley for any ideas he may have from his former schools. He stated he tries to look for ideas that bring in “new” money from the community as a whole and not just rely on the parents.

1.     He has seen success with a car raffle where a car is donated and only a limited number of raffle tickets are sold for a higher price (for example, $100 each). The winner would have to pay tax on the value of the car, but it’s still better than buying it new.2.     He has also seen success with an “art fair” where local artists come to the school and sell their work and give a portion to the school. It allows the artists to showcase their work and brings in people from the community who otherwise may not have a reason to come to St. Patrick.

• The committee is leaning toward giving the art auction at least a year off since the participation and revenue has been declining. We see the same art pieces over again and it would be nice to try something new. The art fair idea was well received as an alternative but might not work well in the fall because of the competition with Holly Day Fair and the Craftsmen Festival.
• Dr. Westley mentioned that no major fundraising campaign can take place during the Bishop’s Annual Appeal which runs December - March. This was unfamiliar to the committee and may be imited to capital or long-range fundraising, not a special event like we have been discussing.

VI.   Marquee Advertising

• This is another fundraising idea that has been mentioned before. PVO plans to ask permission from the Church. St. Patrick has an enviable location (Village Drive) for placing such an ad – where there are advertisers of the month all year long. $500-$1,000 per month could be charged for the space, based on what VanStory Elementary charges. We would also need to verify whether zoning is an issue.

VII.        Surveys

• Various questions were raised about the school calendar and some curriculum. These gave Dr. Westley an idea of what is on the minds of his committee members.

1.     Would it be possible to shift our start and end dates a week or so to line up closer with the public school schedule?

2.     Why do we have science fair projects in so many upper grades? Can we bring back Science Olympiad?

3.     Do the 4th & 8th graders get to keep their annual trips? (This was a yes, for now, but Dr. Westley does have concerns about the safety and liability involved.)

• Dr. Westley mentioned that Survey Monkey is a website that allows a free survey as long as it is under 10 questions. We could formulate the questions and multiple choice answers and even leave space for comments (i.e. any other fundraising ideas). He would need to approve any survey that went out to the parents first.

VIII.       Comments

A.    Dr. Westley mentioned several trees had been trimmed up and back around the property in response to the vandalism that had been occurring.

B.     The next meeting will be held the first Wednesday in September, which is the 1st, at 7p.m.           

IX.           Adjournment

• The meeting was adjourned at 8:30p.m.

Submitted for approval by Kathy Watson on August 9, 2010.