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ELLIS  PTA GENERAL MEETING
December 6, 2006

The December 6, 2006 PTA meeting was held in Room 111 at Ellis Elementary, and opened at approximately 6:00 p.m., by President, Londa Coddington.
 
Londa Coddington and Khoa Nguyen:
Welcome to Theresa Becker and Michelle Saab, the southeast area family liaisons housed at Merrill Middle School, and who are available for us to contact through the PTA or individually.

Also welcome to Estelle Matus of Lutheran Family Services.  The Lutheran Family Services assist refugees in helping them fit comfortably within their community.  They have after-school classes on Wednesdays and Thursdays for 2nd-5th graders.  They also meet once a month.  Their hope is that these parents will come to the PTA meetings.

Additionally, welcome to Mari Dorschner, Marsha Gonzales, and Anita Rickl of the Denver County PTA, who came to speak about the PTA.

Mari Dorschner, Marsha Gonzales and Anita Rickl:
A video was shown about the PTA and how it started.  The PTA’s primary goal is the students.  There is a huge diversity at Ellis – at least 24 different languages.

Kids have a better chance of succeeding with parent involvement groups.  Each of us should try to bring in other parents – they don’t have to become members – and find out what they would like to do to help the school.  Try to get them involved.  PTA is not an exclusive group, but an inclusive group.   It was suggested that we should go to neighborhood business to bring them in and get them involved.

The Colorado PTA can offer grants and has helped give back to the schools.  To get information on grants, go to their website at copta.org, or call them at 303-420-7820.  They do workshops in grant writing.

Parents should keep involved even when their kids go to middle and high school.  Get involved with CSC’s and other parent committees in schools.  Also important to have the students get involved in PTA.  Make sure to ask teachers to get involved.  Using family liaisons can open doors for parents.

Khoa Nguyen:
Regarding the safety issues that have been discussed at the prior meetings, everything will stay the same for now.  Will look into getting one more crossing guard at Iowa and Dahlia.  They need parents to help control parking lot with Eddie.  Will look into getting safety vests for parents who are helping.

Helen Leaver came up with the idea of “Dahlia Demons” to help with traffic and parking on Dahlia, and requested anybody that is interested in helping to let her know.

Khoa mentioned that over the Thanksgiving holiday, an Ellis student was hit by a car near the library.

On December 1, the school had a lockdown drill.  They conduct these twice per school year.  The school passed the test – maintained calm and people knew what to do.

Theresa Becker and Michelle Saab:
Theresa and Michelle talked about the Parent Empowerment Council.  These meetings are a good way to have your voice heard.  It is not DPS driven, but is parent driven.  Their first meeting was in September and 60 people attended.  The next meeting is December 12 from 6:00-8:00 p.m. at DCIS, formerly known as Baker Middle School.  Child care and food are available, as well as interpreters.

Announcements:
Gunther Toody’s Night earned $106 for Ellis.  RIF and the Scholastic Book Fair had outstanding results.  Khoa requested that PTA consider taking a leadership role in the Scholastic Book Fair next year.

Reflections:  Three individual judges will judge all artwork, literature, music, etc., on January 15 or 16 at Place Middle School.  Ellis judges picked top 13.  Ellis students will be recognized at the awards assembly. Every child involved in the Reflections art program will receive a certificate.  The top winners will go to Nationals.

Field trip transportation:  We’ve had 2 requests to provide the costs for field trip transportation.  We are funded for 25 total.

The next PTA general meeting is Wednesday, January 10 at 6:00 p.m.  The day of the meeting was changed because ESL classes were also on Thursday evenings at Ellis.  This will hopefully alleviate any conflict and will allow these parents to attend PTA meetings if they choose.

Khoa would like the PTA to consider putting together an Ellis cookbook.  It would be a good fundraiser.  We have many different cultures that could bring in great recipes.  Khoa had great success with the cookbook at his prior school.

November meeting minutes were approved.
Treaurer’s report:  Helen reported the PTA’s net worth is $4,000.  The insurance is good.  The bank books look good.  We have lots of handwarmers we need to sell.  We can’t overspend right now.

Catherine Garcia suggested that we do more elaboration on the PTA notices that come home to the parents – tell more of what PTA is about, etc.  Jay, Catherine, and Khoa will look into it.

Helen advised that the 1st grade holiday concert is December 20 at 6:30.  She has scheduled INEP (Integrated Nutrition Education Program) to talk at the January meeting.  At the February meeting, the student leadership will speak.  Regarding staff appreciation, the teachers at the meeting thought most of the staff would prefer lunch over breakfast.   Kayti Pohlman has agreed to lead a team for the Ellis Destination Imagination


Respectfully submitted by Karen Kah, Secretary.
 This page was last updated: Friday, February 9, 2007 at 8:01:16 AM

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