Minutes from Parent Teacher Club Meeting October 2024

October 10, 2024 PTC Meeting Minutes
Meeting began: 6:03PM

Principal Report:
Vandalism: We had two kids get into the school. It was vandalized pretty significantly. We found it on Sunday. Both kids involved were arrested. We know how they got in and everything has been secured. We have received so much support from families, the community and schools all around us. I get emails daily supporting us. The Key Club at Salem High School offered their support if we needed their help at all. We appreciate the signs from parents and coffee and goodies for the staff. Some staff were in tears of happiness just to know the support was there.

This Saturday is the costume swap. Attendance Matters Initiative will have a table, PTC will have a table with free face painting available. It will be a fun event.

Friday, November 1st, will be the fundraiser at Panda Express on Lancaster. 50% of all proceeds will come back to us so it’s really a great support. All you need to do is use the QR code which you’ll receive soon on Parent Square, and fliers will go out. It can be used all day. I’m going to ask if the QR code can be posted at the store for anyone to use. It doesn’t hurt to ask.

We received a very generous book donation of 300 books. We hope to gift a principal award with a free book to every student by the end of the year. That’s our goal.

We have a possible new playground in the works. I met with Tom Klocke from the district and we are one of six schools that they are looking at for a new playground. Maybe summer of 2025 or 26. The design team has already been out. They will move it out from under the trees. Wind storms can be dangerous and damage equipment.

We are looking at more fencing for more security for our school as well. More news to come on that.

Band, orchestra, and super singers have started. More dates to come. Honor Choir will be here.

Our statewide In-Service Day will focus on Literacy.

Our first VIP store was today and it went very well.

Outdoor school for 5th graders is next week.

Pumpkins are being donated (yearly donation) October 16th

Earthquake drill will be October 17th

GRASSP started - Jamboree October 18th and 19th (GRASSP is soccer for students through Salem Leadership foundation, elementary 4th and 5th graders, through CFC, they play at Keizer Rapids) They usually accept 25 students but we got them to take on 30 of our students.

Conferences are coming up - October 23rd and 24th

No school on October 25th

We still need volunteers for outdoor school is anyone can help out (who has had a background check)

We are hoping to do Chess for Success
We have a paid position available for a co-coach. Registration is free Curriculum is provided. Team shirts are provided for students and coaches. It’s open to 1st through 5th grade. It lasts 26 weeks. There are tournaments, regional and state Meetups are Thursdays and Fridays only, either once/week for two hours or twice/week for one
hour. Schools receive 13-14 chess boards for kids to practice with Each student gets their own chessboard at the end of the season

Budget:
Coral did a great job last year with what she was given. We have a very old system that we plan to update for accuracy and user friendliness.

The PTC enlisted the help of Bill Holmstrom, and he has been awesome. PTC president would like to propose that Bill become our treasurer until the end of the school year, or until a parent volunteers for the position. He is not an employee of the district (a disqualifying factor) but he is the Principal’s husband. So, as long as everyone is comfortable with the decision, we will vote him in.

Jennipher put forth the motion to have Bill as our treasurer. A parent seconded the motion. Bill is now our PTC treasurer and we’re happy for the help.

Bill Holmstrom: Budget: We are switching over programs. All receipts will be in one location. Everything we input will have a receipt. If anyone has any questions, answers will be readily available. A full budget is available for any member to look at. As a parent, you can ask for the budget.

Teacher Spotlight:
Mrs. Shaffner:
Kindergarten is going pretty good. Adjusting to being in school and with 25 kids. We’re coming along. We’re working on letters, sounds, writing. We are working with them on drawing, using shapes to draw people to help make it easier. Their drawings are getting really good. We have a special student of the day and we make a book for that student. It gives them an opportunity to take what we’re teaching them and practice it. We work on details, they cannot fly, there needs to be a ground, how can I show in my drawing that I’m outside?

The blended class is challenging but I’m up for the challenge. First we had to figure out a schedule so that both sets are happy and I’m able to get to both of them. I had parents of students that I had in my class last year ask me how this year would be different. It’s fun to watch the 1st graders help out the Kinders. 

We are not doing a pumpkin patch field trip this year but we’ll do a field trip in the spring.

Question: Why blend 1st and Kindergarten?
Answer: It’s based on enrollment numbers. What’s really cool is that a lot of the time you can build leadership. We are a very small school and it varies year to year. There is going to be an apartment complex by Childhood Health with about 180 units for families within the boundaries of our school so we’ll start to grow again.

Business:
We signed a contract with a new company for yearbooks this year. We ordered 150 last year and we still have 47 left so we’re out $700. We went with a less expensive company with great customer service. Yearbooks should only cost $13 this year. The company is Jostens. Dorian was another option and they do all the work for you but they charge way more ($19/yearbook our cost). Also, Jostens sends all promotional materials to sell yearbooks for free. They also provide behavioral education systems for counselors or principals to use. The representative was helpful and local. A lot about it was positive. We will submit materials for yearbooks by April 21st with a June 2nd delivery date. We get to chose which photos go in.

Jog-a-thon:
The kids were so fun at Jog-a-thon this year. It’s the hardest event to set up but so much joy watching them. They were really into it this year. The preschoolers and kindergartners were amazing since they had the worst of the weather. Such troupers. When the kids would spot their parents in the crowd they would get so excited. We had so many volunteers this year, thank you! We’ll need to order extra shirts for everyone next year. We learned a valuable lesson, order more adult smalls. A couple volunteers did not receive shirts. Money wise: we pulled in $1500 so far. It looks like Monday will be our big turn in day. Our goal is 10,000. Last year we raised about 15,000 with shirt money from businesses. October 21st is the Jog-a-thon awards ceremony. Four of our top runners were in 2nd grade. I ordered 15 medals but we need 17. So many good runners this year. 25 was the highest lap count by a 5th grade girl. Next year we should challenge teachers to run:)

Halloween Costume Swap is Saturday, October 12th at 10am. Kaileigh (of Salem Cloth Project and PTC Vice President) has been working on that. We did not receive as many costumes this year but we’ve gotten some great donations, high quality costumes. We are trying something different where it’s only open to our Englewood Community for the first hour. Other families can come after that. It should be fun. We received three or four bags of costumes just at Englewood. We’ll have coffee cart with pastries and treats, photo booth, our Englewood Eagle will be there, Facepainting for the kids by the PTC, onsite mending of costumes for free. The weather looks good. We’ll be under the covered area mostly. We had a huge turnout last year. I hope everyone can make it. I would really love to be able to get more Englewood community involvement.

Friday, November 15th will be family night. We have not picked the movie yet. We want to get the kids involved. Our projector now works. We want to show a movie under 90 minutes. We’ll get popcorn donated. It’ll coincide with book fair. It’s a great time to get books for Christmas. If you have a movie idea, let the PTC Vice  Presidents know.

NEN - Northeast Neighbors Association: Lynn Takata
Provided information sheets with numbers for community resources. Camas planting at Englewood Park. We plan to plant 1200 bulbs in Englewood Park. Staff and students sent 41 letters with pictures for this effort. The activity would include education so students could learn about stewardship, eagles, plants, etc. We don’t have a date yet, but it’s coming, please see our website (NEN). You can find us on Facebook. We have our 7th Englewood Forest Festival happening. It takes about 6,000 hours to plan it. It’s free. It’s not fenced, and you don’t have to pay to attend. Last year we had music classes in the park ages 2-10 and we’re hoping to do that again. We won 50 best festivals in Oregon. We try to have a very balanced festival that represents our community. We have worked closely with the developer of the affordable housing complex to save trees. There will be 180 family units. We got $400,000 approved for a flashing light beacon on D street for safety and one of
those radar signs so that traffic violations on D street could be addressed. It’s needed, it’s a very unsafe road and it will get much busier. There will be another daycare that will be low cost and on site of the housing. There will be a 1 acre park on the NW corner, a nature preserve. We have the least parks per capita here. We have our tree committee, we encourage pollinator gardens, we have neighborhood watch. It often takes authorities several months to investigate claims. It takes a community of caring people. We’ve shut down three drug houses. We have a quiet zone under review, there have been 4 railroad fatalities. Highland train blows horn on every block. There are a lot of people camping on the tracks, City of Salem tries to offer services. There are a variety of reasons people decline them. We help by reporting school graffiti right away. As of December 31st, we’ve had no shootings in the area. Everybody wants a safe community. 

Parent Questions:
One Parent: I’m super new here. How do I get involved?
The PTC is open to suggestions about how we can help reach out to parents. The PTC is a great resource so make sure we have your email so that we can update you with events coming up and provide volunteer opportunities. We would love to hear from you about ideas and what’s needed to make it easier. We are working on broadcasting the PTC monthly meetings virtually, because we know not everyone can attend. We’d love suggestions. We are thinking about committees for certain events comprised of parents. We are still learning as PTC volunteers ourselves. Everyone has expertise in some area and it’s all helpful. Any questions or suggestions or comments, email us at Englewoodelementaryptc@gmail.com There’s nothing more important than being active in our kid’s education. There’s a light that shines very bright when kids see their parents involved at school. Please become a district approved volunteer as soon as you can.

Meeting adjourned: 7:02PM