Thank you to those of you who made time in your busy schedule to attend our General Membership meeting on January 24th directly following the coffee with the Principal. Special thanks to our bakers for the delicious treats – you outdid
yourselves! Since the attendance was quite low, our assumption is that most of the community supports the goals and direction of this year’s Executive Board. We sincerely appreciate the feedback from those who did attend and, for those
who could not, here are the meeting highlights:

• We elected Kelly Huber, Stefanie Magnuson, Nichole Wengert, Michelle Lyman, Diana Pugh and Katy Chung to the Nominating Committee. This group will work over the next few months to put together the slate of officers for the 2014-15 school year. This is a big responsibility and we thank you all for your dedication and hard work. 
• We heard committee reports from the Executive Board, including new Spring program offerings, upcoming PTSA events, upcoming Parent Ed opportunities, volunteer needs and a parking lot safety update. 
• Juli Kubicki, our Treasurer, presented the 2013-14 YTD financial report and we shared changes that have been made to the budget since our last meeting. We also voted on and approved a $2,500 grant to Cascade Ridge to purchase K-5 “mentor texts” to support the school’s new writing curriculum. 
• We listened to and then discussed a proposal to move some currently unused playground equipment and make some changes to existing structures. Implementation of this proposal may draw ~20K or more from our reserve funds so we are in the process of further evaluation. 

Our next GM meeting is planned for April and we continue to look for ways to improve attendance at our meetings. If you have suggestions, we would love to hear from you! 

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 year on behalf of all of our students. As
you read on in the Howler, we hope that you will find upcoming events and programs that you and your children are interested in participating in. Please continue to provide input and ideas so that we focus on things that our community prioritizes.

Have a great February!

Ann Brooks, PTSA President
ann_e_brooks@yahoo.com