February Minutes (Better Late Than Never, Right?!)

February was a busy month - and those missing three days really seem to shorten it by three weeks, does anyone else feel that way?

We're four days into five days of the Book Fair at school and tonight is one of our last PTO meetings of the year (wild, right?!) so I figured while I've got two hours in the house alone before said meeting I would go ahead and type these up like I've been meaning to since the day AFTER February's meeting on February 16th. - Vicki

The meeting was called to order by Victoria, our President.

Our Points of Topic to talk about were:

- Falcon Friend Initiative

-Book Fair

-Fundraiser Recap

-Compliment Sandwiches

-Finalize Teacher Appreciation Plans

An important note for the calendar: When we began talking we realized the April PTO meeting overlapped with the 2nd grade Capstone field trip, so we rescheduled it for April 19th at 6pm.

At a previous meeting McGuiness had mentioned a request for more projects/initiatives from NEST to be geared towards the HS aged students. Which led to the idea for a "Falcon Friends Initiative" for just High School students.

Students will be encouraged to "spot" other students demonstrating one of Shining Rock's core values - integrity, responsibility, respect, wisdom, compassion, or leadership. When they do, they'll grab one of our forms that will be in their Nest room. They'll put their name, their fellow classmate's name, circle the core value they witnessed, and then they'll write at least one full paragraph explaining what the action was and how it demonstrated the value they selected.

They will place them in a sealed box within the nest room and at the end of the month the NEST members will collect them, read them, and vote on the most compelling paragraph. The winner will receive an Amazon gift card, as will the person who nominates them.

Originally Mrs. Inman and Taylor (our high school representative) were concerned with participation, but Taylor agreed if BOTH could win that more people would have incentive to fill out the forms. The winner will also get an award certificate for "Core Value Award" (a nice one).

If this initial one goes well and there are more than a few entries, we will do this every quarter so that the award lines up with report cards.

A school store in the HS has been suggested:

- discussion of school stores everyone has had in the past were discussed

- could students earn points that total up to dollar values for the school store in the HS?

- things like pencils, water bottle stickers, etc

- Friday mornings? Once a month?

-NEST would stock and student council would help run - we would split profits 25/75

-vending machine for VETS in work from HS

-We'd need feedback from HS students about what kinds of things they'd want to see in a store. It wouldn't be implemented this school year.

Book Fair

Scholastic stops at 10th grade reading level, so it's hard to cater to upper grades.

Taylor & Morgan suggested student council (middle and high school) come in the mornings to help with book fair before class as they can during the busy time. They wouldn't run registers, but would help students pick books, count money, etc.

We will draft a community servicer letter for volunteers who helped at the book fair to use for college applications.

Morgan will be making sure no ball throwing activities will be happening during book fair (as we had issues getting hit with balls last time). He said he'd recommend pacing excercises or outdoor activities.

Fundraiser Recap

- No final Jack The Dipper fundraiser total, yet

- We will be doing JTD fundraisers every other month during the school year and every month during warmer months. At next month's meetings we will choose dates through the start of next school year.

- We definitely want one on August 11, 2023 - the first Friday of the first full week of school next year (YAY)

- Morgan asked about Ingles doing non-profit gift cards and suggested talking to Paul at Hazelwood Ingles

- Leftover Valentine's Day cards will be sold before Mother's Day and Teacher's Appreciation Day and (if there are more still) Grandparent's Day (Father's Day is in the summer)

- Teacher appreciation week is the 1st through the 5th and we will be asking volunteers to help with lunch duty from 10:30-12:00 every day (3 volunteers per grade, per day if possible).

Monday we will be treating teachers to donuts, coffee, and juice (Stephanie's room, possibly where it will be set up). Thursday we will be treating them to a Mexican food bar catered in (with vegetarian options). We will set up by 10:30 and they will serve themselves and store their own leftovers/take them home. So once it's set up people can leave.

Upcoming uniform swap/sale -

Mr. Morgan said feedback about the swap and limits on the sale were very positive.

Morgan had three info pieces:

1) applications looking good for enrollment

2) they are working on dual enrollment for HS students - students can talk to their advisor about getting on that track

3) parents will be getting an "intent survey" soon via email for next school year

New building plans (casual conversation after someone asked how that was looking)

- Starting the new building is a matter of getting numbers right. This one took about 11 months and the hope is the next one happens within the next two years (but that's not an official plan).

Compliment Sandwiches

After a couple of complaints directed toward NEST volunteers within the building this school year we've asked Mr. Morgan to ask staff to please consider how criticism is given to volunteers (and when). While we do want to hear how we can improve, it's so important to remember there are a handful of volunteers doing 95% of the face-to-face volunteering, and complaints on the spot in front of people can be overwhelming and hard to address on the spot especially when we are working. In the future emails would be a good way to send suggestions and critiques so we can take the time to respond to the appropriately. We want to continue to keep the relationship between PTO and staff positive. & on both sides we want to try to keep communication more positive than negative; ergo - compliment sandwiches.

Mr. Morgan feels like communication this year from NEST to the school / parents is doing better than it has in the past/is improving and recognizes hurdles.

NEST had had difficulty getting information to parents because we only have access to emails that we are given and in the past when we've passed out flyers not all flyers have been delivered (we also have to pass flyers out to each classroom now that there are not teachers mailboxes).

Next year possibly send home permission to email parents with welcome home packets? (Doesn't mean a parent is joining - just means we have their email to send information about fundraisers and events).

Final notes:

Popcorn machine donated to sunshine committee and NEST was given permission to use.

Mrs. Clark asked if teachers could wear blue jeans for all of teacher appreciation week and Morgan said, "Probably!"

Meeting called at 7:52pm.