Category: Meeting Minutes

Sunset PTSO October Meeting Minutes

6:30pm, Sunset Library

Attendance: President Sarah Tycast, Vice President Shannon Ilas, Secretary Heather Goodrich, Treasurer Katie Norquist, Volunteer Coordinator Liz Jacob, Principal Michelle Wilson, Emily Goodwin, Darcy Peak, Sarah Duffin, Jenny Frank, Michelle Toney, Stacey Mastromonaco, Frances Araujo, Kelly Manning, Claire Riley, Megan Sullivan, Sarah Liddell and guest presenter Pam Pearce.

Meeting called to order by President Sarah Tycast at 6:36pm.

Welcome and Introductions

The group was welcomed followed by brief introductions. The August minutes were reviewed and approved after a motion from Darcy Peak and a second from Jenny Frank.

Financial Report

Treasurer, Katie Norquist, handed out the first quarter Sunset PTSO 17/18 annual budget for review. Everything is similar to last year’s budget. The following was reviewed:

• Back to School BBQ- sold $280 (more than we expected) which gave a cushion
• Fall Fundraiser- Have deposited $900 so far, but there is more from this week to deposit. Fall fundraiser chair Michelle Toney said that as of 10/4, we have raised $1,632 and change.

Community Living Above: Presentation by Pam Pearce

Pam Pearce presented to the group about her story of addiction and recovery, which lead to an opportunity to lead a 5013C called Community Living Above (CLA). It is a teen drug prevention organization that is based on community collaboration for a drug-free teen youth.

CLA was recently selected for Facing Addiction’s Pilot Project, making West Linn one of just 15 cities to be selected by the national nonprofit dedicated to finding solutions and providing resources for drug abuse prevention. The pilot project will work to reform the public response to the addiction crisis in the communities selected via a grassroots-driven campaign strategy. Lessons learned will help develop a grassroots template accessible for any community across the country.

With West Linn being one of the Pilot cities, she was asking for help from our group. Primary school age is the best time to start talking to children about drugs and alcohol so we can help nip it in the bud before they have a thought of it. Let our children know it is ok not to do it and not to put poison in their bodies. According to Pam, 12% of children use drugs and alcohol regularly. If we can get our kids to wait to experiment until 17 years old, 70% will outrun the disease. If they wait until over 21 years old, 90% can outrun it.

An upcoming event will be posted on the Sunset PTSO Facebook page. On October 19, a Community Forum-Speaker Panel will be held at West Linn High School. At the event, they will be looking for individuals and organizations to help create a network of support for individuals and families who may be in crisis.

Fundraising

• Fall Fundraiser: Michelle updated the group on the progress so far. About one third of the money has been raised (our goal is $4000). The top fundraising class will be rewarded. Suggestions from the group included having Sunny the Eagle (our mascot) make an appearance at a Friday school meeting to raise awareness; asking teachers to send out reminders to their parents and having whoever is counting the money that day encourage the class to donate.

• Beaking: People would purchase a set number of Eagles and choose a yard in the community to be the recipients. It would promote school pride. Since Sunny the Eagle is our mascot, the idea was to call it being beaked. Darcy updated the group on this new fundraiser:
  • Darcy contacted a sign company and we are getting two sets of eight yard signs.
  • There will be a beaking committee who will put the signs in yards and collect them.
  • A flyer will go home to tell people how it works and encourage people to take a picture of their yard and post on the Sunset PTSO Facebook page.
  • Still figuring out pricing, how long to keep them at people’s houses and how people who want to beak someone else will pay.
  • Upgraded packages will be offered- birthday, good luck, congratulations, etc.
  • Suggestions from the group included:
    • Making an email address like beak@sunsetptso.org for people to order
    • $25 for beaking and $5 for upgrades
    • Pick up from yards in 48 hours
    • Beaking teachers during teacher appreciation week
    • Posting videos of the beaking committee putting up the yard signs

• Kids Kreations: This an art fundraiser where kids make high quality art in their classroom and the company will make a variety of products with the kid’s art on it. The school receives a percentage of the profits and it doesn’t cost us anything but time for the kids to create their art. We are hoping to get the art created in the next few weeks so that ordered products can be received in time for Christmas.

Upcoming Events

• Barn Blast: October 27th
• Chair Sarah Liddell gave an update:
  • Megan Sullivan and Sheri Brooks have offered to co-chair with Sarah
  • 4 main parts of the event:
    • Spooky Walk (starts at walkway from school entrance to playground)
    • Gym- pizza, dancing and group games (pumpkin walk, etc.)
    • Craft table – Emily Gilbo helping (area to do crafty things)
    • Book Fair- in library
  • Need Volunteers for set up, clean up, food, collecting money at the door; stationed in spooky walk. The more people we have, the less time to volunteer and more enjoyable for everyone.
  • Annual crafty party will be held on October 20th at Sarah Liddell’s house.
  • If you have ideas- talent- or know someone- contact Sarah Liddell

• Social Events– New!
  • Stacey Mastromonaco used to be the social chair for her old school, which had a large and engaged PTA. She has offered to be the Sunset PTSO Social Chair because she wants us to build a parent community.. The following are events she is planning:
    • BurnCycle- November 11th
      • in Lake Oswego
      • Instructor is Ms. Ellis’ daughter
      • They donated studio time and instructor is donating time
      • $20 to get in
      • Maybe go somewhere afterwards
      • 25 minimum participants- 44 maximum
    • Tumwater Vineyard Wine Night: December 7th (Thursday)
      • Fits 85 people and they will need to sign up
      • Includes 1 glass of wine and heavy appetizers
      • $20/$25 range
    • Other Ideas- from Stacey and the group
      • Go out after PTSO meetings- build community
      • Sunshine Committee that would provide meals and other things for people who just had a baby, are going through an illness, etc.
      • Sunset Bunco group

• NW Children’s Theater Production
  • Sarah brought to the group’s attention that the production is supposed to be next month, but we still don’t have any co-chairs. In addition, this production coincides with another community production from Krayon Kids. So it was suggested that we move this event to the last week in January. NW Children’s Theater was fine with this. Also, if we move it to January, Katie Christensen and Susie Morgan will be co-chairs.
  • Sarah proposed we move it and the group agreed. Auditions would be held a couple weeks prior and scripts would be handed out at the end of audition week. All grade levels would be invited to participate and all rehearsals would be done in one week. We provide the kids and NW Children’s Theater provides everything else. It will cost $4,000 and we will offset some of the costs by selling popcorn and flowers at the event.

Additional Items

• Spirit Wear
  • We used to have school spirit wear, but we haven’t had anything new in four years. Both Liz and Darcy have connections with designers, we just need someone to spearhead this. If anyone is interested, please talk to Sarah or Liz.

Principal Update

Principal Wilson gave an update to the PTSO which included:

• The school dedication last week was well attended and will be in this week’s paper.
• Teachers are working hard on goal setting conferences. Between assessments and establishing partnerships and connections with their students.
• There is a new model which has five dimensions and involves classroom culture/environment and how it extends across the school. Really focusing on “I” messages, empathy and boundaries with one another.
• Book Fair is coming up and there will be a parent coffee on Wednesday of that week.
• Hoping to start a Monthly Coffee with Michelle to give parents time to talk with her. It will be first thing in the morning.

Meeting was adjourned at 7:55pm.

Respectfully submitted by Heather Goodrich

Sunset PTSO August/September Meeting Minutes

8:30am, Sunset Library

Attendance: President Sarah Tycast, Vice President Shannon Ilas, Secretary Heather Goodrich, Treasurer Katie Norquist, Volunteer Coordinator Liz Jacob, Principal Michelle Wilson, Instructional Coordinator Willow McCormick,Caitlin Scales, Scott Scales, Emily Guerreno, Amanda Callahan, Laurie Hurley, Dana Midles, Lana Tucker, Darcy Peak, Mai Sorenson, Emily Gilbo, Sarah Duffin, Claire Riley, Jenny Frank, Stacy Barger, Lucie Shook, Bettina Jacobs, Linda Ta, Jenessa Dixon, Michelle Toney, Allison Lorenzen, Amy Varga, Jessica Lew, Cheryl Landazuri, Karen Compton, Stephanie Tomlin, Caitlin Rychel, Patty Dawson, Noy Bunn and Jacob Faust from Eco-School Network.

Meeting called to order by President Sarah Tycast at 8:25am.

Welcome and Introductions

The group was welcomed followed by brief introductions. The June 2017 minutes were reviewed and approved after a motion from Darcy Peak and a second from Laurie Hurley.

2017-2018 Calendar Review

• PTSO Meetings
  • Most monthly PTSO meetings will be held at 6:30pm in the evening, with the August/September, December and May meetings at 9:30am.
  • The PTSO has a website with the current calendar, meeting minutes and other helpful items. Go to https://sunsetptso.org and sign up on the lower right hand side to follow the blog. Any calendar changes will be updated here.
• Back to School Picnic
  • Will be held on September 15th behind the gym on the covered concrete area. Families should bring chairs and we are hoping the school will also put out tables.
  • Flyers will come home with children about the event and offering a pre-pay option for dinner. You can also pay at the event or bring your own dinner.
• Fall Fundraiser: Fill the Jars
  • We need a chairperson for this fundraiser- let Sarah or Liz know if you are interested. Can be a single person or a group of people.
  • This fundraiser is a check writing campaign. We want children to bring in checks, cash and change. The goal is to raise $4000 and we are still deciding what the money will go for. The last couple of years, funds from this fundraiser bought non-fiction books for classrooms.
• Chairs for Fundraisers
  • Liz made a list on the calendar where we need event chairs:
    • Fall Fundraiser: need a chair or co-chairs- NEED NOW!
    • Barn Blast: Need a co-chair with Sarah Liddell- NEED NOW!
    • NW Children’s Theater Performance: Need a co-chair with Susie Morgan
    • Winter Movie Night: need a chair or co-chairs
    • Family Breakfast: need a chair or co-chairs
    • Fun Run: need a chair or co-chairs
    • Staff Appreciation Week: need a co-chair with Frances Araujo

Financial Report

Treasurer, Katie Norquist, handed out the Sunset PTSO 17/18 annual budget for review. Everything is similar to last year’s budget. The following was discussed:

• Items to be changed if voted (later in meeting):
  • Moving money from tax accountant to staff appreciation luncheon
  • Moving money from Popsicle Palooza- moving 200 to “Beaking” fundraiser

• We still have money left over from the Fun Run. It was dedicated to the Artist in Residence project last year which designed the tree and the mosaic in the new school. After paying the artist, we still have funds to be used towards the arts (since that is what we said we would do with the money when we raised the funds).  Sarah suggested putting some of it towards the NW Children’s Theater. We are switching from Missoula and it will cost quite a bit more. If we dedicate some of the leftover funds, the cost per participant will be similar to last year. It was also discussed to use part of the money for art literacy in the school and supporting an art literacy parent or parents.

Center for Earth Leadership: Eco-School Network Presentation by Jacob Foust

Eco-School Networks are composed of parents leading projects at elementary schools with a goal to introduce sustainable practices and raise eco-awareness with the children. This presentation was to introduce himself and the network to the PTSO and build an opportunity to work together and develop initiatives with the new school.  

It was suggested that Sunset let parents know what type of sustainable practices were put into the new school.

For more information, contact Jacob Faust at jacob.faust@gmail.com or go to http://ecoschoolnetwork.org/

Fundraising Overview

At Sunset Primary, instead of selling things to raise funds for the school, we have two donation campaigns: Fill the Jars and Fun Run. The Fall Fundraiser still needs a chair and will be previewed at curriculum night. The Fun Run will be a Star Wars theme: May the 4th be with you.

The other fundraisers are ongoing throughout the year and include:

• “Beaking”- People would purchase a set number of Eagles and choose a yard in the community to be the recipients. It would promote school pride. Since Sunny the Eagle is our mascot, the idea was to call it being beaked.
• AmazonSmile- When you shop on Amazon, if you go to smile.amazon.com and select Sunset School PTSO, a portion of your order will come back to the school.
• Box Tops- Collect “Box Tops for Education” from the tops of hundreds of products and send them to school with your children. The school receives 10 cents per box top collected. Box Top flyers will be going home the first week of school.  Amber Duncan is the Sunset Box Top Coordinator.

Sarah brought up an idea that was brought to the PTSO last spring. Kids Kreations is an art fundraiser where kids make high quality art in their classroom and the company will make a variety of products with the kid’s art on it. Items include water bottles, cards, Tshirts, blankets, etc. The school receives a percentage of the profits and it doesn’t cost us anything but time for the kids to create their art. We are hoping to get the art created in the next few weeks so that ordered products can be received in time for Christmas. If there are any parents who would be willing to teach an art class, let the PTSO know.

Items for Vote

Sarah brought the following items up for a vote from the PTSO:

• Move $200 from Popsicle Palooza to “Beaking” Fundraiser startup costs.
  • Popsicle Palooza was overfunded and will not be over budget with this move.
  • Darcy Peak moved and Liz Jacob seconded the motion. It was approved to move the funds.
• Increase Staff Luncheons/Appreciation budget to $1300 by moving funds from the tax accountant line item.
  • Current treasurer, Katie Norquist, can prepare the taxes.
  • Karen Compton moved and Laurie Hurley seconded the motion. It was approved to move the funds.
• Addendum to bylaws: extending board membership to 3 years- vote to drop temporary addendum
  • In 2016, an addendum to the PTSO bylaws was added to extend maximum board membership from two to three years. This was due to no interest in PTSO positions, so those who had already served two years stayed a third year. Since there is much more interest, Sarah asked to remove the addendum.
  • Laurie Hurley moved and Darcy Peak seconded the motion. It was approved to remove the addendum.

Principal Update

New Principal Michelle Wilson gave an update to the PTSO. Her goal is to build a culture of cooperative and contributing citizens with a strong connective sense of community. She spoke of new procedures, like the five point scale to help children be aware of themselves and others.  She also thanked the PTSO for the back-to-school lunch the previous week and the Popsicle Palooza.

Meeting was adjourned at 9:25am.

Respectfully submitted by Heather Goodrich

SUNSET PTSO June Meeting Minutes

6:30pm Sunset Library

Attendance: President Sarah Tycast, Secretary Heather Goodrich, Treasurer Becky Wilson, Volunteer Coordinator, Amber Duncan, Principal Lisa Hawking, Shannon Ilas, Tyler Toney, Michelle Toney, Katie Norquist, Liz Jacob, Kelly Manning and Grady Manning.

Welcome and Introductions

The group was welcomed followed by brief introductions. The April and May meeting minutes were reviewed. Lisa corrected the May minutes to state that school will end at 11:10 on the last day of school, not 11:20am. After a motion from Lisa and a second from Becky, both the April and May minutes were approved with the time correction.

Financial Report

Treasurer, Becky Wilson, gave the financial report, which included:

• The last PTSO event- Pizza Bingo- was very successful. We budgeted $1700 for the event and brought in $1791. This is not a money making event so we were happy to be close to even.
• Teachers are still turning in expense reimbursements.
• Purchased non-fiction books with the money raised from the Fall fundraiser.
• From the Spring fundraiser, we paid for the artist- specifically the tree and part of the mosaic. We have funds in reserve to hang the mosaic in the new school in the Fall.  
• We raised $16,000 less expenses during the Spring fundraiser. The artist was $6,000 and we still have $8000 or $8500 that needs to be allocated to art (since that is what we said we would do with the funds from the Spring Fundraiser).
  • We will figure out something to do for the new school in fall.
  • If you have any ideas, please forward to Sarah Tycast.
• We made $30 from AmazonSmile. Remember to go to AmazonSmile and choose Sunset Primary when you shop on Amazon.

PTSO Board Elections 2017-2018

Sarah sent nomination forms home with children for the 2017-2018 PTSO board. We received nominations for each open position and Sarah Tycast was nominated to serve as President for a second year and Heather Goodrich was nominated to serve as Secretary for a second year.

Sarah motioned to approve the new proposed board and Heather seconded the motion. The approved board for 2017-2018 is:

• Sarah Tycast, President
• Shannon Ilas, Vice President
• Heather Goodrich, Secretary
• Katie Norquist, Treasurer
• Liz Jacob, Volunteer Coordinator

Thank you to all who stepped up to serve on the board next year.

Preliminary 2017-2018 PTSO Calendar

Remember 7:50am in the new start time next year.

• August 24th @ 2:30pm: Open House and school supply drop off.
  • Doors won’t open until 2:30
  • 5th graders will go in first so that they can give tours of the new school to the Preschool-4th graders and their families. They will be wearing name tags to show that they are there to help.

• September 8th @ 5:30pm: Back to School Picnic
  • This is the day after curriculum night. Becky confirmed that this is NOT the same back to school night as Rosemont. Rosemont’s is September 1st.

• December 1st (maybe): Movie Night
  • The school used to movie night in gym. Families would bring chairs and wear their pajamas.  
  • The PTSO would like to try this again. We will find somewhere in the budget to put it in so that is is a fun, free event for the entire family. We hope to sell popcorn and possibly hot chocolate.

• January 26th: Family Breakfast
  • There was a discussion that with a 7:50am start time, there might not be enough time if we start the breakfast at 7am. It will be held in the multi-purpose room since the new school doesn’t have a cafeteria.
  • It was decided that we wouldn’t start earlier this year. If there isn’t enough time, we will look at moving the start time earlier in following years.

• April 14th- very tentative date! (Saturday): Pizza Bingo
  • This event is usually on a Friday and has been very successful. Previously, it has been held in May, but with the Fun Run, Staff Appreciation Week and Kindergarten Open House, we decided to move it to April.
  • There was a discussion of moving the event from Friday to Saturday night due to Spring sports. Lisa and Sarah will look into what is involved on holding it on a Saturday.

• Monthly PTSO meetings:
  • The new board will figure out meeting times and dates for 2017-2018.

Fundraising Ideas

The PTSO would like to look for additional fundraising opportunities for Sunset. We will keep our Fall and Spring Fundraisers because between those, we have been consistently raising $20,000 per year.

The goal is to not have the children sell items that people don’t really want. Ideas that were presented at the meeting were:

• Pottery Painting Night
  • Sunset used to do this and we are thinking of putting this as a station at the Back to School Picnic. We would only have to buy the paint because the school has a kiln.
• Flocking Fundraiser
  • People would purchase a set number of something (Eagles, Flamingos, etc.) and choose the same number of yards in the community to be the recipients. Since Sunny the Eagle is our mascot, the idea was to call it being pecked or beaked.
• Kids Kreations
  • Kids Kreations specializes in transforming original works of art into personalized gifts and keepsakes.
  • This would be something to do at the beginning of the year and built into school curriculum. Every child that wanted to participate would be sent special paper, create their artwork and send it back. Parents would be able to order things like cards, bags, etc. to arrive in time for Christmas.
  • The school that Amber works at has done it and it was very successful.
• Snap Fundraising
  • Tyler Toney suggested this because it has been successful for the high school football team he coaches.
  • Each class or the whole school would make a video of what the funds raised would be for. Children would have the opportunity to bring in email addresses of people outside the household and/or it could be shared on Facebook. There would not be a minimum for each child for emails, but the competition could be between classes on how much was raised.
  • The school gets to keep 90% of the money raised. Snap would film the videos and there would be no cost from our end to get it up and running. It was suggested to tie in with the Fall Fundraiser.
• Tiles for Sunset
  • Children would buy a tile, put their name on it and it could be put on an exterior wall of the new school. Lisa will talk to the District about the possibilty of doing this and where to do it. .
• Restaurants
  • Other schools partner with restaurants to earn a percentage of profits on a night. We would like to look more into this.

Children’s Theater

We have made the decision cut ties with Missoula. We are going to use NW Children’s Theater. It will be similar to last year with the entire event lasting a week- including practices and performance.They can take 50-75 students and it will be a traditional musical production. Susie Morgan has volunteers to be the chair for this event. The cost is $1100 more than Missoula, so the board will look at where that money will come from the budget.

Other Updates- Principle Hawking

• Sunset has ordered an e-book subscription that teachers can use with classrooms and families can use at home. With this format, you can choose to have it read to your or you can read it yourself. It has 246 books with it and will be coming in the Fall. It is similar to Tumblebooks, but has more non-fiction books.
• CampFire was selected as the Before and After school care for Sunset Primary. They will be at five out of the six Primary schools in West Linn for the 17-18 year.

Meeting adjourned at 7:47pm..

Respectfully submitted by Heather Goodrich

Sunset PTSO May Meeting Minutes

9:30am Sunset Library

Attendance: President Sarah Tycast, Vice President Susie Morgan, Secretary Heather Goodrich, Treasurer Becky Wilson, Principal Lisa Hawking, Kelly Manning, Katie Rasouli, Liz Jacob, Jessica Nazario, and Michelle Toney.

Meeting called to order by President Sarah Tycast at 9:30am.

Welcome and Introductions

The group was welcomed followed by brief introductions. The April meeting minutes will be reviewed with the May meeting minutes at the June meeting.

Financial Report

Treasurer, Becky Wilson, gave the financial report, which included:

• $16,039 was the final dollar amount raised from the Fun Run.  

• • Samantha Houston was the individual with the highest donations and will get to be Principal for the day.
  • Ms. Nofsinger’s class raised the most with the most children participating. They raised $1240 total.
• Teachers have been turning in their supply receipts. The PTSO gives each teacher $200 per year.

• The PTSO is going to donate a $50 grocery gift card to the 5th grade family that lost their family member. This money will come out of the PTSO discretionary fund.

• The PTSO sponsored the 5th graders tuition to BizTown and in turn, the 5th graders wrote notes of thanks to the PTSO. The thank you notes were passed around the meeting with an overall theme that adulting is difficult.

Staff Appreciation Week

This first week of May is Staff Appreciation week. Frances Araujo and Katie Rasouli chaired this event and we thank them for creating such a great week! Bus Driver appreciation is also this week and a sign was created for students to sign and on Friday, desserts will be sent with bus drivers.  

Upcoming Event: Pizza Bingo

Pizza Bingo will be held on May 19th with Noel Dahlby and Kelly Manning chairing the event. Darcy Peak will be the bingo caller and an email will go out asking for volunteers to help collect money and serve food.

PTSO Board Recruitment 2017-2018

Sarah is going to send out a letter and a PTSO nomination form for board positions and event chairs.

The Sunset PTSO bylaws state that each position is a term of 1 yr and the same person cannot serve more than two years in a row for the same position. President and Secretary have served one year, but all other board positions need to be filled by someone new. Voting will take place at the June 7th meeting.

It was decided that we will not fill the Fundraising Chair, since it isn’t an official board position,  instead asking for separate fall and spring event chairs.

There was a suggestion to create a SurveyMonkey survey asking parents what they would like to see from the PTSO, how to create better participation at meetings and how to get more parents involved with volunteering for events.

Community Building

Sarah brought up the topic of Community Building at Sunset. This would be a time to build community, meet other parents and down the road- add raising money for events. It was agreed that we should start with smaller parent social events rather than focusing on asking for donations.

Ideas included parent socials, poker nights, destination events such as wine tasting or going to entertainment type events.

Ideas for future fundraisers included auctions, online auctions, silent auctions, etc. Other schools have been very successful with auctions for fundraising and building community at the same time. It was also suggested to offer childcare to get more participation.

Children’s Theater

There is a new contact at the NW Children’s Theater. More to follow next meeting.

Other Updates- Principle Hawking

• Lisa  thanked the PTSO for Staff Appreciation week. A HUGE thank you to Katie Rasouli and Frances Araujo for all their hard work in organizing the event this year.
• Without a field to have Field Day in, all students will go on a field trip to the Oregon Zoo on June 19th.
• The 5th grade celebration will be on June 15th with the 5th grade party afterwards.
• The end of the year assembly will be at 8:25am on June 20th and all parents are invited to attend. Remember, school that day is a half day with children getting out at 11:10am.

Meeting adjourned at 10:20am.

Respectfully submitted by Heather Goodrich

Sunset PTSO April Meeting Minutes

6:30pm Sunset Library

Attendance: President Sarah Tycast, Vice President Susie Morgan, Secretary Heather Goodrich, Volunteer Coordinator Amber Duncan, Principal Lisa Hawking, Darcy Peak, Emily Goodwin, Katie Norquist,, Katie Rasouli, Frances Araujo, Jenny Frank, Ginger Fitch, Dylan Hydes, Trey Maust, Regan Molatore, Grady Nelson and Mike Taylor.

Meeting called to order by President Sarah Tycast at 6:30pm.

Welcome, Introductions and March Meeting Minutes Approval

The group was welcomed followed by brief introductions. The March meeting minutes were approved after a motion from Darcy Peak and second from Susie Morgan.

Financial Report

The April Financial update was deferred until the May meeting due to Treasurer Becky Wilson being unable to attend this meeting.

Darcy Peak let the group know that the Fun Run met it’s goal of $16,000 with the total amount raised being $16,039. A big thanks to the families that donated and to Darcy for championing such a great event.

Guest Presenters: WLWV School Board Candidates

There is a Special District Election on May 16, 2017. The West Linn Wilsonville School Board has three open positions with two candidates running for each open position. All six candidates were present to talk to the PSTO about their reasons for running and what they hope to accomplish if elected.

Position 1: Regan Sonnen Molatore and Michael J. Taylor

Position 3: Dylan Hydes and Grady Nelson

Position 5: Trey Maust and Ginger Fitch

The main message presented by all three candidates was for everyone to VOTE! May elections during an during an off-election year often have low turnout. School board positions are very important to the future of our children’s education. Take the time to read about each candidate in the Clackamas County Voters’ Pamphlet that will be coming out later this month and make sure to VOTE!! The PTSO thanked all the candidates for taking the time to come to our meeting.

Upcoming Event: Read to Us Week

Read to Us Week will be held next week April 10th- 14th. Read to Us Week is where community leaders and parents come into the classrooms for a half-hour to read a book to the class. They can talk about their careers and/or community involvement, and the importance of reading. As Chairs of the event, Emily Gilbo, Mai Sorenson and Jenny Frank have been working hard to arrange readers, schedule with the classrooms and find volunteers to walk readers to the classrooms.  Jenny was at the meeting to update the group.

Upcoming Event: Staff Appreciation Week

Staff Appreciation is the first week of May. Frances Araujo and Katie Rasouli are chairing this event and handed out a flyer on what will be happening each day of the week:

• Monday
  • Coffee and Pastries: Parents will be asked to bring baked goods and someone will pick up coffee from Starbucks for the teachers and staff.
  • Doors will be decorated the Friday before with flowers that will be sent home for each child to color. Parents will be asked to help decorate the doors on Friday, April 28th.
• Tuesday
  • Breakfast Bar: Granola, Berries and Fresh Fruit will be set out for the teachers and staff. A parent will be asked to volunteer to set this up.
• Wednesday
  • Catered Lunch: a parent will be asked to pick up lunch boxes from a restaurant and deliver it to the school.
• Thursday
  • Snack Cart- snacks will be provided to teachers and staff. A parent will be asked to volunteer to set this up.
• Friday
  • Dessert Bar- the Kindergarten and 1st grade parents will be asked to bring in desserts (instead of the usual lunch).

In addition, parents will be asked to donate bottles of wine and little gifts will be given to each teacher. Gratitude jars will be set up so that parents and students can write messages to teachers and staff.

Thank you to Katie and Frances for creating such a great week!

As of 4/28, there are still a few volunteer positions open. Please go to

https://m.signupgenius.com/#!/showSignUp/30e0f4eaaae2ba2fe3-sunset

to sign up. Show the teachers and staff how much they mean to you and your students.

Upcoming Event: Pizza Bingo

Pizza Bingo will be held on May 19th with Noel Dahlby and Kelly Manning chairing the event. More updates next meeting.

PTSO Board Recruitment 2017-2018

Sarah let the group know that we will have open board positions next year. Vice President Susie Morgan, Volunteer Coordinator Amber Duncan, Treasurer Becky Wilson and Fundraising Chair Darcy Peak’s positions are open.  If you are interested or if you know of a friend that would be, please let Sarah or the PTSO Board know.

Children’s Theater

Sarah has been trying to get into contact with the NW Children’s Theater. Katrina Edwards has done research for us because she has an educational theater background. She has identified 5 choices to explore and we will hear more about those next meeting.

Count Me In Update

The West Linn Wilsonville Education Foundation gave us an update of their Count Me In Campaign. The goal for Sunset Primary is $5,000 from 50 families. As of this meeting, Sunset had met 6% of the goal from 9 donors.

Other Updates- Principal Hawking

Lisa Hawking thanked the 2nd and 3rd grade parents for the wonderful staff lunch they provided in March.

Meeting adjourned at 8:00 pm.

Respectfully submitted by Heather Goodrich

Sunset PTSO: March Meeting Minutes

6:30pm Sunset Library

Attendance: President Sarah Tycast, Vice President Susie Morgan, Secretary Heather Goodrich, Volunteer Coordinator Amber Duncan, Treasurer Becky Wilson, Principal Lisa Hawking, Emily Goodwin, Sarah Duffin, Katie Rasouli, Frances Araujo and Jenny Frank,

Meeting called to order by President Sarah Tycast at 6:30pm.

Welcome, Introductions and January and February Meeting Minutes Approval

The group was welcomed followed by brief introductions. The January and February meeting minutes were approved after a motion from Becky Wilson and second from Katie Rasouli.

Financial Report

Treasurer Becky Wilson passed out the current budget.The following was discussed:

• Amazon Smile doubled this month to $40.
• Spring Fundraiser (Fun Run): Total right now is $14,213. We still have more envelopes coming in, $1000 outstanding from a sponsor and the 20% back from Mapel Boutique night. The expenses were $2100 for the T-shirts.
• Scholarships have been paid out for field trips.
• More teachers have submitted for their $200 annual fund from PTSO.

Guest Presenter: Toby Weber- “Count Me In” WLWV Spring Campaign

Toby wanted to educate the PTSO about who and what the West Linn Wilsonville Foundation is and does. The foundation was created 25 years ago with a sole purpose to raise money to hire teachers in the District.  The money raised picks up the cost of the first year of a new teacher. Count Me In is the largest campaign of the year. Honor our Teacher, Blazer event and Tonkin Fun Run are also Foundation events throughout the year to raise money.

The money raised has funded more than 28 positions in the WLWV School District. That equates to 1-2 teachers per year since its inception. The Foundation board is made up of parents, teachers, principals and high school students. In 2016, the Foundation presented a $137,000 check to the District.

The goal for the 2017 Count Me In campaign is $100,000 for Count campaign made up of 1,000 contributors. In 2016, $103,000 was raised with a little over 500 donors. This year, the Foundation would like to broaden the base of supporters. Within the $100,000 goal, each school is given a goal. Sunset Primary’s goal is $5000. Sunset raised almost $6,000 last year with 27 contributors.  

The Foundation would like to establish a 2-4 person action team from each school to represent the school and try to get more participation. The Sunset PTSO already has three parents that are ready to volunteer their time to help.

Fun Run Wrap-Up

The Fun Run was a success! It was smaller this year due to it being in the gym. It is looking like we will be really close to our goal of $16,000. Once all envelopes have come in, the class with the most donations will get a class party and the individual that brought in the most donations will get to be Principal for the day. The kids had a great time, t-shirts looked great and we are excited to be close to our goal.

A huge thank you to PTSO Fundraising Chair Darcy Peak for all her time and effort coordinating this event- from sponsorships to volunteers to collections to everything in between- Darcy did an amazing job! Thank you also to Tammy Ellis for running the event day of and making it a fun and memorable day. Thank you to all the students and parents for donations.

The money raised from the Fun Run will go to working with Artist in Residence Kaaren Pixton. She started on March 8th and will be here through the following week. Preschool through 4th grade children are brainstorming ideas for what should be in the tree. Each child will have their own individual piece of art put on the tree. The 5th graders will work on the mosaic for the entry of the new school. Photos of the old mosaic will be framed next to the 5th grade piece.  

Parent helpers are needed. You don’t need to be artistic to help. Emails and Facebook posts have been sent asking.

Upcoming Event: Staff Lunch- 2nd and 3rd grade families

The Staff Lunch, hosted by 2nd and 3rd grade families, will be held on March 23rd. Nina Ladha is chairing the event. A sign-up has been emailed out and is almost filled. We just need a few more salads and soups. A big thank you to all the families who are contributing either with food or with donations.

Upcoming Event: Read to Us Week

Read to Us Week will be held 4/10-4/14. Community leaders and parents come into the classrooms for a half-hour to read a book to the class. They can talk about their careers and/or community involvement, and the importance of reading. Emily Gilbo, Mai Sorenson and Jenny Frank will be chairing the event. Jenny was at the meeting to give an update:

• Have lots of new readers this year- very excited about the event
• Need volunteers to walk readers to the classrooms
• Teachers will be contacted to get time slots and will build a schedule from there.

Upcoming Event: Staff Appreciation Week

Staff Appreciation is May 1-5 this year. Frances Araujo and Katie Rasouli will be chairing this event. More updates next meeting.

Upcoming Event: Pizza Bingo

Pizza Bingo will be held on May 19th. Noel Dahlby and Kelly Manning will be chairing this event. More updates next meeting.

Theater Experience 2017-2018

Missoula Children’s Theatre has been our production company the past few years. Following up on concerns this year about quality, Sarah Tycast has been looking at other options. Willamette Primary is using NW Children’s Theater next year. The PTSO likes the idea of a local company- it will cut down on the need for host families. It would also not have to be done in one week. That is a huge commitment that could be spread out longer with a local group. We need to get a sense of cost from a different organization. Could have funds from the Fall Fundraiser go towards it.  More information to come next meeting.

Athey Creek PTSA Garage Sale

Athey Creeks big fundraiser will be held at the end of April. They are currently accepting donations and have asked the PTSO to publicize it. A handout will go out in the 3/10/17 newsletter email. Everything that didn’t get sold got sent to Honduras last year.

Other Updates- Principle Hawking

Lisa Hawking gave updates on:

• Field Day
  • Without a field, there will be no field day this year. Tammy Ellis looked at Sunset Park as an option, but the terrain isn’t safe. It was suggested that the school does something with nature.

• Conferences
  • The Spring conference format will be different this year. It will be an open house format to celebrate learning. This will enable more families in at a time and will be able to reflect on learning. This will be the final conference of the year, but the final progress report won’t go out until the end of the year.

• Reading Challenge
  • Kicks off week before Spring Break. Teachers will do an assembly to kick it off. The components are:
    • Read to Us Week
    • Author visit
    • Home component (keep track of minutes. individual goal)
      • Draw or write what they learned from experience
    • Get together with buddy class to share what they learned.

• Preschool
  • Looking at offering a four day preschool. We need 15 kids to want four day in order to hire another teacher. Currently, there are 10 interested in three day and 10 interested in four day. An idea was to have an extra hour with an IA and include lunch.
    • Reminder- all primary schools will start at 7:50am next year.

• Touchstone
  • “A caring community of joyful learners…you belong here.” was chosen. There will be a project related to it for the SUnset Showcase on April 27th. More to come.

Meeting adjourned at 730pm.

Respectfully submitted by Heather Goodrich

SUNSET PTSO: February Meeting Minutes

 6:30pm Sunset Library

Attendance: President Sarah Tycast, Secretary Heather Goodrich, Treasurer Becky Wilson, PTSO Fundraising Coordinator Darcy Peak, Principal Lisa Hawking, Emily Goodwin, Sarah Duffin.

Meeting called to order by President Sarah Tycast at 6:32pm.

Welcome, Introductions

The group was welcomed followed by brief introductions.

Financial Report

Treasurer Becky Wilson passed out the current budget and discussed the following:

• Family Breakfast
  • 1,124 pre-pays
  • 928 at the door (cash coming in)
  • Scholarships were given out for the breakfast
  • Confusion with some people coming in the back door instead of checking in at the front. Some pre-pays didn’t check in, but since we ended even with funds, it was fine.
• Box Tops
  • $350 was deposited from the end of last year. We are expecting around $350 again this year. Sarah mentioned that she is getting positive feedback about having the sheet protectors in each classroom for Box Top collection.
• AmazonSmile
  • Received $40 on 2/1. We haven’t advertised so it’s great that we are getting funds. A reminder will go out in the newsletter to go to smile.amazon.com and select Sunset School PTSO as the nonprofit. It’s easy and free.
• Teacher Request
  • Ms. Puk and Ms. Detjens have requested funds for an owl pellet dissection activity. This would connect a hands on activity to the study of birds. Funds requested would come out of Student Support. PTSO has already funded $184 in scholarships for field trips out of this line item. An amount requested wasn’t specified, so there will be follow up.

Family Breakfast Follow-Up

The Family Breakfast took place on January 27th. The PTSO thanked Sarah Tycast for chairing the event. We had a great turnout. 305 breakfasts were served to students and their families plus 30 more for the new school construction workers. This is a better turnout than last year. The Chinese lanterns that were made during the event were a hit and look great hanging in the hallways.

Family Fitness Night Follow-Up

Family Fitness Night was held on February 3rd. A huge thank you to Sarah Tycast and Tammy Ellis for all their hard work. There were 224 participants- the most we have ever had. Twelve stations were offered from professionals in the community and the PTSO has received great feedback about the event.

Upcoming Event: Spring Fundraiser- Fun Run

The Fun Run will be held on March 3rd with a kickoff assembly on February 10th. Darcy Peak is the chair for this event. The following was discussed:

• Becky has received $2,750 out of $4,000 confirmed from sponsors. With Mapel Gives Back Night, it is estimated that there will be $5,000 in corporate and personal sponsorships.
• On February 23, from 6-8pm, a fundraising event will be held at Mapel Boutique next to West Linn Safeway. Mapel Boutique will donate 20% of all sales for the entire day, but will have drinks and sweets from 6-8pm. Just mention Sunset Primary while shopping that day.
• The T-shirts have been designed. It will be white this year with eight logos from sponsors on the back of the shirt.
• Packets have been made for each student and will go out on Friday, February 10th.
• Tokens are new this year. They will be sneakers instead of feet. For every pledge sheet, a student will get a sneaker for their necklace.
• On Fridays, every pledge for the week that is over $10 will be entered into a drawing. Two or three people will be drawn for a small PTSO swag prize.
• The student that raises the most money will get to be Principal for the Day.
• The goal this year is $16,000 to go toward an artist-in-residence to help students create an art installation for the new school.

Upcoming Event: Staff Lunch- 2nd and 3rd grade families

The date for the Staff Lunch has changed to March 23rd because of the extra school days added on that week due to the inclement weather. This lunch is provided by the 2nd and 3rd grade families. The PTSO needs a parent coordinator for this event. They don’t need to cook the food, just organize the menu and set up. Please contact PTSO President Sarah Tycast or Volunteer Coordinator Amber Duncan if you are interested.

Upcoming Event: Staff Appreciation Week

Staff Appreciation Week is May 1-5 this year. The PTSO needs someone to chair this week long event or a couple people to co-chair the event. The chair organizes the week and provides communication to the staff, parents and students. Please contact PTSO President Sarah Tycast or Volunteer Coordinator Amber Duncan if you are interested in chairing this event or co-chairing with friends.

Upcoming Event: Pizza Bingo

Pizza Bingo will be held on Friday, May 19th. We have to have a chair for this event, so please let PTSO President Sarah Tycast or Volunteer Coordinator Amber Duncan if you are interested in chairing this event or co-chairing with friends. The pizza has been ordered and bingo sheets have been purchased. The chair would organize the event and the volunteers.  

Parent/Volunteer Engagement

There was a discussion about how to get more parents to volunteer at PTSO events. There is a core group of people chairing and volunteering at events, but we want to make sure everyone has an opportunity to help. Without help, we can’t continue to keep putting on great events, like the upcoming Pizza Bingo night, and we don’t want that to happen. The PTSO board can help the chairs of the events, but we can’t chair all of the events ourselves. Ideas to improve volunteering participation included:

• Reaching out to other PTSO boards to see how they get parent involvement
• Give more details of what exactly is involved with chairing an event or volunteering. It is actually a lot of fun, especially when you have enough volunteers to help.
• Ask earlier for help. It was brought up that when we ask too early, people put off signing up, but when we ask the same week, people are already committed.
• Ask classroom teachers for names of parents that might be interested.

Other Updates- Principal Hawking

• Visiting Author Week: Trudy Ludwig is Sunset’s visiting author this year. She is a local author that writes about bullying and adolescent issues. She will present on Tuesday, April 4th to the students at an assembly. That same evening, she will have a parent presentation that includes understanding kids online and offline; friendships, cliques and power plays and give tools and resources to help parents. We are partnering with Cedaroak Park Primary to offer this presentation with Sunset Primary hosting the event.

• Sunset Touchstone: The touchstone continues to be revised. Lisa read the final two to choose from:
  • A caring community of joyful learners…you belong here
  • Bring your caring, wonder and joy…you belong here

• Artist in Residence: Kaaren Pixton will help our students and staff create art for our new school. Karen created the mosaic in the current entryway. There are two pieces being planned: one to be designed by our 5th graders so that they can feel connected to the new school and a tree themed component for our Pre-K through 4th graders to help with. All the funds raised from the Fun Run this year will go towards funding both of these are projects.

Meeting adjourned at 7:35pm.

Respectfully submitted by Heather Goodrich

Sunset PTSO: January Meeting Minutes

 6:30pm: Sunset Library

Attendance: President Sarah Tycast, Secretary Heather Goodrich, Volunteer Coordinator Amber Duncan, Treasurer Becky Wilson, PTSO Fundraising Coordinator Darcy Peak, Principle Lisa Hawking, Charles Hull, Kelly Manning, Katie Norquist, Bryan Goodwin, Sarah Duffin and Jenny Frank.

Meeting called to order by President Sarah Tycast at 6:30pm.

Welcome, Introductions and December Meeting Minutes Approval

The group was welcomed followed by brief introductions. The December meeting minutes were approved after a motion from Darcy Peak and second from Lisa Hawking.

Financial Report

Treasurer Becky Wilson passed around the current budget. The only change for the month of December was $0.29 cents of interest. There were no checks written or deposits in the month of December.

Upcoming Event: Family Breakfast

The Family Breakfast will take place on January 27th from 7-8:15am. Sarah Tycast has stepped in to organize the breakfast due to not having a chair for the event. The following items were discussed:

• PTSO will plan for 300 people like was planned last year. 240 people showed up and we had to pay for 275 meals instead of the full 300 (caterer gives the option to send some food back). The extra food that was paid for was used at lunch last year.
• Pre-pay forms will go out very soon (Friday hopefully). There will be an option to check boxes on the form to help volunteer for the event.
  • Last year, 2/3 of the meals were pre-paid.
  • Will have until Wednesday, 1/25, to turn in the pre-pay forms
• The price has gone up to $6 per person. This includes pancakes, strawberries, butter, syrup, fruit, bacon, coffee, milk and juice. Not sure if eggs are included- Sarah will follow up. It was reiterated that sprinkles, chocolate chips and whipped cream will NOT be served with the breakfast.
• Volunteers are needed:
  • Thursday night to set up (4-5 people)
  • Friday morning to help Becky collect money (1 person)
  • Friday morning to serve from 8-8:15am (teachers serve from 7-8am, but have to go to their classes at 8am)
• Chinese New Year begins on January 28th, so it will be incorporated into the breakfast.
  • Lisa will get pricing for oranges from nutrition because it would be more expensive to get them through the caterer.
  • An activity table will be set up for kids to make Chinese New Year crafts

Upcoming Event: Family Fitness Night

Family Fitness Night is coming up on February 3rd from 6-8pm. Sarah Tycast is the chair and the following was discussed about the event:

• Similar format to last year: fitness stations in the gym with health/nutrition stations in the library. Families will get a passport/map and will be assigned a number to know which station to start at. Every 6-8 minutes, will switch stations.
• Event is free.
• Volunteers:
  • No parent volunteers during this event to encourage parent’s participation with their children.
  • Need volunteers to help set-up the stations before the event
  • Need three people to help with check-in
  • Need one to two volunteers to watch over the snack table at the end (to make sure everyone gets something before people go through again).
• Sarah has been working on donations: Safeway, Market of Choice and applied for Walmart Foundation grant. She is going to follow up with Pacific Foods. Francis Araujo has also been helping Sarah.
• Most of the fitness and nutrition stations are set. Still needs a yoga station, Pilates station and one or two more. Please let her know if you have any recommendations.
• Amber requested an information table about Girls on the Run be set up at the event.

Spring Fundraiser- Fun Run

The Fun Run is on March 3rd with a kickoff assembly on February 10th. Darcy Peak is the chair for this event. The format will be the same as usual. Every student will receive a pledge sheet and a chain with one charm (foot in the past). As the children get pledges, they will bring in a donation sheet (without money- that is turned in at the end) for each donation. They will earn charms for donations. The class that earns the most donations gets to choose if they want a popcorn or popsicle party. The top two students who earn the most donations will either get to be principle for the day or get a street sign with their name outside the school. In addition, the following items were discussed:

• Sponsorship opportunity letters will go out soon (hopefully Friday, 1/6). Letters will go out via Listserv and in children’s backpacks. The goal is to raise $16,000.
  • Last year, the goal of $16,000 was met and was used to buy 1:1 technology for classrooms.  
  • With the success over the last two years with purchasing technology, it was suggested that this year’s funds go toward an Artist-in-Residence project for the new school.
    • The current mosaic at Sunset cannot be saved.
    • The same artist that created the current mosaic can make the new project and installation.
    • All the children would have an opportunity to help create the new project.
    • Lisa Hawking will get more information about this and send it out.
  • All money donated goes back to the school.
  • Goal is to get 8-15 companies to sponsor.
• The PTSO budget is $1,500 for the event. This money will cover T-shirts (every child gets a T shirt to wear at the Fun Run), tokens for the necklaces and popsicles at the finish line.
  • Noel Dalby will design the T-shirts with logos of all the companies that donate.
• Darcy will be forming a committee to come up with a plan to solicit donations and plan the event. This is Sunset’s largest fundraiser of the year. She wants to committee to brainstorm ideas to make it new and fun.
• Mapel Gives Back: Mapel Boutique will offer another event where for one day, they give 20% of their sales to the school for anyone who mentions Sunset Primary. Last year, they donated $600 from this event.
• Other ideas discussed for the event were:
  • The possibility of doing a different charm other than feet this year.
  • Looking at local restaurants to see if they will donate a percentage of sales on a certain day.

Other Updates- Principle Hawking

Lisa Hawking gave updates on:

• 5^th Grade Party
  • This is not a PTSO event. The 5^th grade parent run it and the PTSO has funds to donate if needed. Last year, they raised all the money needed and didn’t use the PTSO budget.

• Sunset Touchstone
  • The touchstone continues to be revised. Lisa read a few ideas for the touchstone:
    • A caring community of joyful learners…you belong here
    • Bring your wonder, possibility and joy…you belong here
    • A caring community of wonder, possibility and joy…you belong here
  • After a discussion of each of these, the following was suggested by the group:
    • Wonder, passion and joy…you belong here

• Middle School Boundary Process
  • There was a meeting held at Sunset Primary on January 6^th. Only three community members attended with five task members.
  • If anyone has any feedback, please let Lisa Hawking know.

Meeting adjourned at 7:40pm.

Respectfully submitted by Heather Goodrich

SUNSET PTSO

December Meeting Minutes

12/7/16 9:30am Sunset Library

Attendance: President Sarah Tycast, Secretary Heather Goodrich, Secretary Emily Gilbo, Treasurer Becky Wilson, Principle Lisa Hawking, Instructional Coordinator Willow McCormick, Liz Jacob, Laurie Hurley, Abby Schmidt- Representative from Girl Scouts of Oregon and SW Washington.

Meeting called to order by President Sarah Tycast at 9:35am.

Welcome, Introductions and November Meeting Minutes Approval

The group was welcomed followed by brief introductions. The November meeting minutes were approved after a motion from Laurie Hurley and second from Liz Jacob.

Financial Report

Treasurer Becky Wilson handed out the current budget and discussed the following items:

• Amazon Smile
  • We got our first Amazon Smile reimbursement.
  • Becky wants to push this with Christmas coming. It’s a great time to get contributions. More information will be going out to families about this.
  • The group discussed that more information about how the program works should be communicated. For example, you need to sign up and use a different website, it doesn’t cost anything and it won’t work on the Amazon app.

• Missoula
  • PTSO made $100 over what was budgeted. The profit will go towards scholarships.

The Financial Report was approved after a motion from Laurie Hurley and second from Willow McCormick.

Guest Presentation- Abby Schmidt- Girl Scouts of Oregon and SW Washington

Abby is the membership engagement specialist for Girl Scouts of Oregon and SW Washington. She asked to talk at the PTSO meeting to try and get more participation and hopefully, a troop for girls at Sunset Primary. Currently, Sunset has six girls involved, but they all go to troop outside the Sunset area. Through their registration program, they can see that girls from the Sunset area start the registration process, but stop when there isn’t a troop in the area.

She discussed the importance of having troops established at schools. It helps to grow the program and teaches philanthropy at a young age. Girl Scouts is a powerful organization to provide an outlet for young girls and help with confidence boosting.

To establish a troop at Sunset, there needs to be two parent volunteers. That is difficulty in starting programs. There are usually plenty of girls that want to be involved, but it’s hard to find parents who want to commit the time. Requirements include having a girl scout (can be a mom or dad) and going through a background check.

The Girl Scouts of America website has training programs and volunteer toolkits. This makes it much easier for leaders to plan with meeting templates. An example of the time needed would be five hours a month: 2 hour meeting, 2 hour excursion and 1 hour of prep work.

Abby is going to provide Sunset with a flyer that has clickable links. Lisa suggested to add the simplicity of the process to the flyer- let parents know that it’s very doable. She also reminded the PTSO that Sunset room reservations have to go through the Community Offices, not through the school. It was also mentioned that Girl Scouts provide insurance for any Girl Scout gathering.

For more information, visit www.girlscoutsosw.org

 Upcoming Event: Family Breakfast

The next PTSO event is the Family Breakfast on January 27^th. We REALLY need someone to chair the event. The PTSO has the caterer, we just need the chair to send home flyers and organize the event. Volunteers will help with set-up and take-down. The PTSO will send out pre-pay forms the week of January 9^th. Teachers usually serve the breakfast and there are supervised activities for the kids when the parents have to leave for work.

Willow mentioned that Chinese New Year begins on January 28^th.  She suggested incorporating it into the breakfast. Kids could make Chinese Lanterns to decorate the school and we could serve oranges. It was discussed to have the oranges as the centerpiece with a table tent of a rooster for the Year of the Rooster.

PTSO reiterated that butter and syrup will be served with the pancakes. No sprinkles, chocolate chips or whipped cream. The kids don’t need the extra sugar.

Set up will happen the night before. We will budget the same as last year- 280 people.

Upcoming Event: Family Fitness Night

Family Fitness Night will take place on February 3^{rd –} earlier than usual.  Sarah Tycast will chair the event again (for the third year in a row). Event is free. She needs help getting donations and healthy snacks. Sarah put in application from Walmart Foundation for $300. In the past, Market of Choice has given $100. Safeway usually donates bananas. PTSO will buy milk and apples through the school district. It was suggested to contact doctors and dentists to donate items (and can leave business cards). Emily will look online for Kaiser and Providence to see if they can donate.

This event has grown every year. The first year there were around 80 participants and last year, we had 200.

Sarah has been reaching out to fitness and nutrition organizations and businesses to host a station at the event. All stations will be scheduled by Winter Break. This is one of the only events that does not need any parent help during the event. We want all the parents to participate with their children. Ms. Ellis is the emcee for the event and is very involved.

Spring Fundraiser- Fun Run

Kickoff is February 10^th with the actual event on March 3^rd. After the break, Darcy will start coordinating the timing for sending home letters for sponsors and helping with logistics of donations and feet charms. The Fun Run will be held in the gym this year because with the construction, there is no track outside to run on. That is another reason that it didn’t matter to move the date up to early March. All students will get a Fun Run T-shirt from the PTSO.

There was conversation about older kids losing interest in the feet prizes. A suggestion was to appeal to 5^th graders by the importance of giving back and raising money for the school. Other discussion included:

• Getting input from 4^th and 5^th grade teachers
• Giving small gifts for certain dollar amounts raised (they do this at Rosemont)
• In past, we have had each class pick a crazy sock color to wear the day of event.
• Keep track of donations by class. Maybe get something when a class has 100% participation
• Different incentives. At Rosemont, they have themes- some kids who weren’t interested initially, got pledges once they got to make costumes for the theme.

Other Updates- Principle Hawking

Lisa Hawking gave updates on:

• Middle School Boundary Process: Lisa sent a link this morning- asking for feedback- each school will have a meeting. Sunset’s meeting will take place on January 3^rd in the library. A question was brought up about Out of District kids and how that affects the enrollment numbers. Lisa explained that the first year during open enrollment, sixty children were let in throughout the entire District. Last year there were less than 10. Open enrollment versus Transfer was explained: Open Enrollment- live in Happy Valley and want to go here; Transfer- within the District to a different school.

• Progress Report Information Meeting next Thursday. Progress reports go home next Wednesday.

• LUBA Appeal Update– hearing tomorrow (12/8). The District Operations Director and Project Manager are attending. There won’t be any public testimony or anything new. Land use attorneys are hearing the case. We will hear the results in a few weeks. In meantime, construction has continued.

• Recess Options:
  • The Ga-Ga ball pit is being moved to the blacktop due to the pit in the barkdust getting mushy.
  • A new mobile play system- waterproof foam blocks- will be arriving soon. Look at http://www.imaginationplayground.com/product/medium-blocks.html  We are getting the medium size blocks. We will be able to use them here and new school.

• Children from China– Sunset will have fourteen children grades 1^st grade through 8^th grade coming to school for a week from China.

• Classroom Celebrations– Lisa had meetings with all the teachers so that everyone is on the same page. Celebrations will be connected to some sort of classroom purpose (lego robotics; reading, writing, etc.) with one or less reasonably sweet treat. All parents will be invited to at least one. The goal is to incorporate community.

Box Tops

• Sarah showed the new way we will collect Box Tops. Flyers with a sheet protector that you can actually put the box tops into, will be put on each classroom door and around the school.

Meeting adjourned at 10:55am.

Respectfully submitted by Heather Goodrich

SUNSET PTSO

October Meeting Minutes

11/2/2016: 6:30pm Sunset Library

Attendance: President Sarah Tycast, Vice President Susie Morgan, Secretary Heather Goodrich, Treasurer Becky Wilson, Principle Lisa Hawking, Emily Goodwin, Sam Burton, Sydney Wilson.

Meeting called to order by President Sarah Tycast at 6:30pm.

Welcome, Introductions and September Meeting Minutes Approval

The group was welcomed followed by brief introductions. The October meeting minutes were approved after a motion from Becky Wilson and second from Sam Burton.

Financial Report- look at Becky’s notes

Treasurer Becky Wilson handed out the Sunset PTSO 16/17 annual budget for review. Items discussed included:

• Barn Blast
  • Great turnout- roughly 500 people
  • Haven’t gotten all the expenses turned in yet (DJ, etc.)
  • Next year, more one dollar bills will be available in each cash box

• Fall Fundraiser
  • Exceeded our goal of $4000

• Missoula
  • Goal was to break even, but we made $100 in popcorn sales
  • Should think about adding bottled water to sales
  • This was the first year the PTSO put this on- usually the school does it.
  • A huge thank you to Andrea Boyd-Helm for all her hard work in helping the PTSO (Susie and Becky) put this on.
  • Thank you to Susie Morgan and Becky Wilson for coordinating the event.

• Teacher’s Supplies
  • The PTSO gives all Sunset teachers $200 a year for supplies.
  • So far, three teachers have submitted for reimbursement.

• AmazonSmile
  • Becky wants to push this with Christmas coming. It’s a great time to get contributions. More information will be going out to families about this.

• Scrip
  • Sunset Primary is not currently offering Scrip as a fundraiser, but it was brought up that Rosemont Ridge does it and gets quite a bit of money back from it.
  • Scrip is where people buy gift cards (from the PTSO) for places they already shop at (Safeway, Amazon, etc.). Sunset PTSO would get a percentage of sales.
  • PTSO needs to educate about this. People would send in a form with how many gift cards they wanted. Becky offered to put the orders in if we decide to do this.
  • We need to have at least at least 100 vendors.
  • The PTSO decided to try it this year for the holiday.

Fall Fundraiser- Fill the Jars

Thank you to all the families that contributed to our Fall Fundraiser. Not only did we meet the goal of $4000, we exceeded it by $400. $4000 will go to Sunset Primary for books and the extra $400 will into the general fund to go for other expenses throughout the year. These expenses can include scholarships for field trips and other requests. The PTSO wants to say yes to what we can, so it’s great to earn extra money past the goal. Other items discussed included:

• Half the money came in through PayPal (just over $2,000)
• Got feedback that families liked having the opportunity to contribute during conferences. Often times, change was sent to school with the kids, but more checks were contributed during conferences.
• We don’t keep track of what comes in from each class, but all grade levels were represented well with donations.

Spring Fundraiser- Fun Run

Reminder from Sarah on behalf of Darcy that the Fun Run is early this year. Kickoff is February 10^th with the actual event on March 3^rd. At the December meeting, Darcy will start coordinating the timing for sending home letters for sponsors and helping with logistics of donations and feet charms. The Fun Run will be held in the gym this year because with the construction, there is no track outside to run on. That is another reason that it didn’t matter to move the date up to early March. All students will get a Fun Run T-shirt from the PTSO.

Barn Blast

Thank you to Sarah Liddell and all the helpers that made this event possible. This event was very well attended. The PTSO will continue to try to not schedule events on the same nights as other schools to keep attendance at these events high. Discussion of this event included:

• Carnival games that had usually taken place in the cafeteria were replaced with other types of games in the gym (cake walk, mummy wrap, etc.). Feedback was very positive with this move.
• Crafts were a huge hit. The tables were packed and feedback was very positive.
• Sarah is going to get together with Chair Sarah Liddell to make a list of how to set it up so that future chairs of the event are successful. This event takes a lot of time and effort to set up.
• CampFire kids helped set up the Spooky Walk. This was very helpful and we will ask that they help next year.

Box Tops

Amber Duncan turned in the box tops submitted and the PTSO got a check for $181. There was discussion about how the collection box for Box Tops was moved from outside the library to the cafeteria. Options were discussed on other ways to remind people to save them (posters, different collection containers, etc.) With the new school, the PTSO will look at options. It was also discussed that Box Tops can be turned in inside a plastic bag rather than on the sheet provided. The sheet is just a good reminder to turn them in.

Book Fair

Thank you to Ms. Perkins and all the volunteers who helped with the Book Fair this year. Donuts for Dads was very well attended and feedback was very positive. Sunset will get a percentage of money back from Scholastic on books purchased. Having the Book Fair open during Barn Blast was great.

Upcoming Event: Family Breakfast

The next PTSO event is the Family Breakfast on January 27^th. We are still looking for a chair or co-chairs to run the event. The PTSO has the caterer, we just need the chair to organize volunteers, send home flyers and organize the event. Teachers usually serve the breakfast and there are supervised activities for the kids when the parents have to leave for work.

Upcoming Event: Family Fitness Night

Family Fitness Night will take place on February 3^rd. Sarah Tycast will chair the event again (for the third year in a row), unless someone else wants to co-chair with her. She needs help organizing the event and getting donations. She reaches out to fitness and nutrition organizations and businesses to host a station at the event. All stations will be scheduled by Winter Break. This is one of the only events that does not need any parent help during the event. We want all the parents to participate with their children. Ms. Ellis is the emcee for the event and is very involved.

Other Updates- Principle Hawking

Lisa Hawking gave updates on:

New Progress Report

• The West Linn-Wilsonville School District has revised the progress reports that communicate students’ growth and progress throughout the year. These are the highlights of the revision:
  • Teachers from all over the District have been working two years on the revision
  • Take scope of what we do in school and honor complexity of that and common core standards. Comprehensible; helps parents know what they want to know
  • Parent information meeting next week on November 9^th and 10^th

• • • Give a preview; answer questions
  • Teachers have to decide how to assess each learning target. In December, students shouldn’t expect meet or exceed- might not have been taught.
  • Consistent across the District
  • Previous progress report was revised in late 90’s- not representative of Common Core.
  • Letters will go home to parents.

Celebrations at Sunset

Classroom celebrations for holidays were discussed. Lisa wanted to give parents the opportunity to think and discuss what we want to do with classroom celebrations. Learning celebrations rather than candy and game celebrations were discussed. Through conversations with parents and teachers, it sounds like they appreciate connecting with the classroom and other parents during learning celebrations. The goal is to downplay the more traditional parties with sugar and less meaningful activities. Learning parties are connected to a purpose and show parents what they are doing.

Missoula

There was discussion about Missoula and if we want to continue to work with this specific group. Discussion included:

• • Something this year was different than in years past. The quality wasn’t as high. We might want to look at other options for our school. With Missoula, we don’t have any control over what the play is. Feedback this year was that the story was hard to follow.
  • Positives included that the kids have a lot of fun; kids come so far in just one week’s time; all grade levels have the opportunity; kids starting early getting on stage before they are scared to do it.
  • Negatives included when kids who try out don’t get to participate due to too many people; confusing for first time parents on the time commitment; it’s a lot of work for Andrea Boyd-Helm and the school; late nights for the students and parents.
  • Ideas were presented on doing something else like looking at other companies; doing something to expand what theater can be; having all 5^th graders do something.
  • Sarah asked if there was an opportunity to give feedback to Missoula. Lisa has the contacts and will send to Sarah to provide feedback.

Meeting adjourned at 7:42pm

Respectfully submitted by Heather Goodrich