Many thanks to those of you who made time in your busy schedules to attend our General Membership meeting on Thursday morning. It was a very important meeting as we determined how to spend our excess accumulated funds. This is an important role of our entire membership as it is our duty to ensure that funds raised through the PTSA are properly appropriated and spent in a timely manner that best benefit our students and school community. For all who attended and participated in this process, I thank you for being actively engaged in our PTSA!

For those who missed the meeting, we had a very busy agenda. First Mrs. Fowler initiated our “Coffee with the Principal” portion of the meeting with review and discussion of the district’s Continuous Improvement Plan (CIP) for reading. We then started a very busy meeting that included standard financial business, election of our Nominating Committee, and review of two viable options for accumulated funds spending. We heard information regarding two upcoming favorite events, our Science Fair and Festival of Cultures. Finally, we enjoyed an excellent presentation regarding burn and scald prevention in the kitchen. For more details, please see the General Membership overview article later in this Howler.

We also had a great Fine Arts Night on Friday. It was a wonderful “Night at the Museum” and all who attended enjoyed seeing the beautiful artwork of our fine and talented artists at the school. In addition, our Community Relations team provided a tasty teriyaki meal provided from our local Yoko Restaurant for all our museum patrons to enjoy. Many thanks to our Art Docent & Fine Arts Night Chairperson, Jackie Mueller and to all our wonderful Art Docents, and also to Mary Jo Webb and Lora Wendl, our Fine Arts Dinner Managers.

As you probably already realize, we continue to be a very busy organization and things don’t seem to slow down; this is an indication of the important causes our membership supports throughout the whole year on behalf of all of our students. As always, we invite you to continue to engage and provide input and ideas so we will continue to focus on the right things to which our general community agrees and supports.

Many heartfelt thanks to Ann Brooks and Peggy Rodman for stepping up to chair this year’s Eager Reader program. You gamely responded to the cry in last month’s Howler for help from volunteers and, as a result, we will still have our long-standing and popular reading incentive program this year. We are grateful for and need more like you! Thank you!! For all, be sure to keep an eye out for more details regarding the Eager Reader program timing and plans. I know that Ann and Peggy are planning great things and a program that the kids will enjoy while they expand their reading experience.

Have a great February!

Tina Yerges, PTSA President
tinayerges@msn.com