Grants
Slide – $200 more (in addition to additional funds already put in for a deposit)
Swings $238
Books – $585
6th grade seating – no for now, consider wiggly seats similar to Chapin
Core boards – $165 more
Spirit Monkey – $550 for one per student and weekly prizes
Motion to approve: 1st – Katherine, 2nd Laura
Joni End of Year
Staff hoping to contribute to travel basket, can donate to Kelly Larsson
Families are invited to vote on a charity of choice via a Google Form that will be sent via ParentSquare (created by Katie) using our PayPal to collect donations
Bricks
Have not put together bricks for past retirees. Discussed making one for Joni and catching up on missed bricks next year.
Golden Eagle
Need new placard. This year’s presentation will be June 13th
Available Board Positions
Co-president
Co-VP of Web communications
Co-VP Family & Community Affairs
Co-VP of Volunteers
Chair Positions
Bingo night co-chair
Movie night co-chair
Skate night co-chair
Family dance co-chair
Art docent co-chair
DEI Committee co-chair
Recap of Events
Bingo night went smoothly. Turn out wasn’t as large, but went well. Consider the fall for future events?
Spring Fundraise – over $1,000 profit for Flower Power
Teacher appreciation went well. Great music and vibe, amazing cake.
Yearbook payments? No update for tonight, but fliers sent home
First grade reading night – a success! May switch back to kindergarten only reading night next year
Grounds clean up – won’t schedule on PLL weekend and have a team in place beforehand. Under budget, had plants donated
Family engagement survey
Help your kids win a popsicle party! Survey for next year – which events did you go to? What are you interested in? What would you like to see in the future? Events during the day – Science on Wheels, art docent, square dancing (did your kids like this? Or not?) Incentives for completing the survey. Heather will complete it
Upcoming Events
Thursday, June 1, is upcoming Kindergarten event. 6-7pm.
June 13 – Volunteer mixer, 6-9pm
Brigid’s
Everyone is available, everyone has volunteered in some capacity
Golden Eagle Award
June 16 – Field day
Needs for volunteers
Specialized need – pick up the dunk tank around 7:30am. Need a trailer hitch ball. Katie or Thad think they may be able to help.
June 21 – end of year
Rented out Hickman
Ice cream for everyone
Potluck separated by grades
June 23 – 6th grade graduation
10 donuts
10:30 graduation starts
Stay tuned for playdates
Going home at welcome night
Get for newsletter
Adopt a Family
People that are interested in making new friends. We have incoming students that would love to be paired with same grade peers. Reach out to Lauren if you are interested in
Last PSO meeting
Molly’s last PSO meeting, Colleen’s last meeting, Katherine too, Alise
Land acknowledgement
Minutes from last meeting approval
Kevin motions to approve
Ciara Leckie seconds
Katherine Combs from Edmonds Library
Summer programs and reading
Library flooded last year, they’re still using a temporary location
There is a reading log available. Every 10 hours gets a sticker, first ten hours gets a free book.
Sno-isle.org/studentaccount is a free student account that has no fines or fees, is valid year-round
Advantages include free $7 worth of printing per year, tutoring resources like brainfuse HelpNow, movies with kaopy, bookFLIX (for beginning readers).
Summer reading starts June 1st
Construction is about to get underway this week. This is a significant remodel of the 17k sq ft space.
Important upcoming dates for May and June include BINGO Night, Running Rocks end on June 2nd, two additional spirit days, Field Day is June 16th, Family Ice Cream Social on June 21st…
PSO Budget update
Great walkathon this year, which makes up a majority of the PSO Budget
Winter and Spring fundraisers fell short of budget projections
We fund items such as craft night, family dance, end of year bbq, bingo night, movie night, and skate night
Programs such as field trips, field day, pe/recess equipment, talent show, library funds, kinder visit…
We give each teacher a discretionary funds
We are projecting to be event or at worst $2k in the hole, which isn’t bad as we continue to recover from the pandemic. Excess funds still available due to COVID. Staff can submit requests for grants, which the PSO funds through the excess funds.
Principal update
Belonging Survey, which helps us track social/emotional progress
95.2% of kids answered YES to “I feel that I belong at Sherwood”
At least one adult at Sherwood notices me 94.2% is YES
Just over 75% of kids answered YES to “It’s easy to make friends at Sherwood”
I have friends at Sherwood 99% YES
I have a trusted adult is 94.9% YES
The school is working with students on challenges in understanding the questions and also in trying to understand the answers
There is a “Be Kind, Be Safe, Be a Learer” program where students earn tickets when they are caught acting out the motto. The kids are loving this and going out of their way to live the motto and earn the tickets.
Students who are excelling at iReady math and reading and so the principal is highlighting the top learners at announcements right before pick-up.
We have new families coming into the Sherwood school system and so Robyn is looking for established Sherwood families to be buddies with them.
District is deciding right now if kids will be able to take their Chrome Books home for the summer or not. Last summer, a lot of damage was done to the Chrome Books.
Playground update – the bug is staying, June 19th the district will begin putting in new grass and sprinklers, plus the walking path. No date for playground installation, but it will happen before the beginning of next school year. This will be an ADA accessible playground.
Open PSO board positions include co-president, co VP of web communications, co-vp of enrichment, co-vp of family & community affairs
Motion to approve the board for next year – approved
There is room for co-chair positions such as comfort kits, bingo night, craft night, skate night, family dance, art docent, dei committee.
DEI committee is Aurora Parrish, Ciara Leckie, Robyn Saltzman, Tina Burton, Lauren Wagner
Craft Night
Great night! Under budget by $200. Extra take-home bird feeder craft can go to Kindergarten/1st grade orientation. Extra crafts will be stored in PSO facility and used for future craft nights.
Kindergarten to Sherwood
The campus is thrilled. It’ll be a tight squeeze with more kids on campus. Decide if the funding is there to buy books for the incoming Kindergarten and 1st grade orientation night.
June 1st from 6-7pm
We discuss if the budget needs to be doubled to cover the books for both 1st grade and Kindergarten.
Heather motions to approve extra funds for the books. The funds will be removed from the surplus funds. This would bring the budget line for the event to $800. Katie seconds.
PSO Board/Committee positions
We have a few positions still open
Spring Fundraiser check in
Ridwell Fundraiser
How our school can be more green and get into recycling more.
QR code in newsletter will show families how to sign up. QR code is also posted to FB page.
School Supplies
Feedback has been received that teachers are not liking the quality of the products.
VariQuest
This is a program that allows for the making of cut-outs, buttons, posters, banners, bumper stickers, etc… Other school districts have it.
Joni Celebration
We would like to throw a celebration party for her given all of her contributions to Sherwood. A scholarship is an idea. Name the courtyard after her? Golden Eagle recipient?
Staff Purchase Requests/Grants
Teachers and students have been very appreciative for the supplies and activities received from these grants.
Upcoming Events –
Spring Clean Up – May 29th Erica
National Bike to School Day – May 3rd Pamela
Teacher Appreciation Week – May 8th to 12th Michelle & Katie
Kinder/1st grade visit – June 1st Robyn
First Grade Reader’s Night -June? Robyn
End of the Year Event – June 21st Michelle & Katie are planning this with a potential location of Hickman Park. PSO will provide ice cream.
Field Day – June 16th Pamela/Heather
Volunteer Mixer – will be at Brigid’s Bottleshop. The Golden Eagle award will be presented at this event. ALL volunteers at the school will be invited. Date TBD. Katherine is planning.
Meeting called to order
Michelle Maiello motions to approve, Jen Fritz seconds
New Sherwood Mission Statement Vote
Unanimously passes
Edits to make: remove “continue to” from community building value
General PSO meeting debrief
Looking back at the history of these meetings, this was another well attended PSO General. We held it both in-person and on zoom, which offers parents a flexible choice. The two speakers we had at the meeting may have been a draw. We also communicated more this year than in years past with the help of ParentSquare, which served as a reminder shortly before the meeting.
Looking ahead to the final General PSO meeting – we’ll be looking for new speakers. A general update or a principal’s update is needed. Mr. Sonnen did a wonderful job with his library prestation.
Spring Fundraiser
Popcorn fundraiser was not well received ad we think it may be because it was online only, plus $10 shipping.
Not a lot of movement on the flower bulbs. It runs through mid-May, so we’d like to promote it in a unique way and make sure there is a presence at the upcoming PSO events like Cultural Night, Craft Night, Movie Night, etc…
Good note from Erika Will that the popcorn fundraiser might have been a tough sell for the first part of March because of Girl Scout cookie sales.
Figuring out ways to sell items at events, such as flowers for the performers at talent show, may be a great way to gain extra revenues. The neon dance night took in an unexpected amount of donations due to the snacks line.
Budget Overview
Total for field trips is $8500 and that is almost exactly what we’re lacking in general PSO funds, due to the fundraisers not being as strong as years past. We may lose field trips if we cannot make up the funds. Busses are the most expensive at around $600 to $700.
We are shy $750 for field trips. Devin motions to approve using grant money to make up that deficit. Heather Seconds. All in favor.
We also have some COVID overage funds that are still available. There is agreement that those funds can be used to help cover the cost of these field trips that the spring fundraiser may not be able to cover.
Looking ahead: Before we have set the budget based on costs and per student. We are down 100 kids this year and everything costs more… so of course we’re not going to be able to balance the budget. We did this year, but it was very difficult. We need to increase the per-student amount for the walk-a-thon. Is that realistic? Or do we need to cut events or programs, even temporarily, in order to capitalize on select events.
Do we want to fund square dancing in the future? Anecdotally, many kids and teachers do not like this event. It’s up for debate on whether kids like the curriculum.
Grants
Ms. Roper is requesting $360 for phonics materials for her classroom that are reusable. We are tabling this request until we learn more about a possible new program coming in next school year.
Ms. Chapin would like to purchase more flexible seating options for kids and an automatic pencil sharpener for $227.14. There is a question about whether items purchased through the grant program should stay at Sherwood even when the teacher leaves the school.
Kevin moves to approve the grant request for Ms. Chapin. Katie seconds. Approved by board.
Student Pick Up & Sidewalk Safety
Parents can be in the courtyard, but it can’t be past a certain sandwich sign so it doesn’t make it difficult for teachers to get kids to the car pick-up line. Can the adult with the crossing guards help tell adults they can spread out onto the campus. Parents can be in the courtyard, but don’t block the office door.
Upcoming Event Dates:
March 24th – Spirit Day (Career Day)
March 30th – Talent Show – we need more volunteers
March 31st – Early release
April 3- 8th – Spring Break
TBC* April 15th Clean up date at Sherwood
April 14th – Community Cultural Night – we have two tables from students, we would like pso members to volunteer to have a cultural table
April 20th Craft night
April 21st – Spirit Day (Anything Day)
April 21st – Movie Night
April 28th – Early release
—
TBC* May 18th Bingo Night
May 8th – 14th – Staff appreciation week
TBC* May General PSO Meeting
June* 6th Grade Musical
June* Field Day
June* End of the year BBQ/Celebration Michelle/Katie
June* PSO Board end of the year celebration Katherine
June 26th – Last Day of school
PSO General Meeting 3/14/23
Meeting beginning with land acknowledgement
AGENDA
PSO approves minutes from 11/08/22
Michelle Becker motions to approve minutes, Brittany Yang has seconded
OPEN PSO BOARD POSITIONS
PSO Board positions open for the 2023/24 school year: President, Auditor, Enrichment (grants, funding opportunities, experiences).
LIBRARY UPDATE
Mr. Sonnen presents on the Sherwood library after receiving a number of questions about the library during the book fair. He introduces himself wit his educational and work background. Hobbies include open water swimming (took it up during COVID), and water polo. He’s interested in ChatGPT, FREADOM (group against the banning and editing of published books).
The Sherwood library is for all students, teachers (he helps pick materials for them and collaboration on projects), and the community (sometimes parents check out books and that’s great). Presentations can include signing kids up for Sno-Isle library cards and a representative from the League of Women Voters.
Sno-Isle libraries are giving access to their library system for all Edmonds School District students, except for students that live in Woodway (there are about 20). This access will last them through senior year of high school.
He sees every class for 30 minutes a week, 10 of which is book selection and check out. Kids can come at any point in the day, not just at class time. Sherwood Library access online is 24/7, the link is on the Sherwood Elementary website and on the students’ chromebook. They sign in with their Google or district username and password. This is how you can find out what’s checked out and what’s due.
PSO Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee bought books through a grant, those can be accessed by looking up books by group on the website.
The library has 11, 674 books with 5 main sections:
E = Everybody (easier)
F = Fiction
B = Biography
# = Classified (non-fiction)
Mag = Magazines
Average copyright date is 2006. Classics will weigh that date down, but books in tech, medicine are updated more often. Recommended copyright date is 2012.
Recommended books per student is 20 and our is 28, our average is up due to the loss of kindergarten to another school post-pandemic and the loss of some students year over year.
Budget: School district money has decreased due to the Kindergarten class moving to a different school, PSO contribution has stayed the same and Mr. Sonnen uses the money to buy more books, Scholastic Book Fair is consistently good with about $3,000 coming in, donations/grants rarely happen.
Total so far this year: $7,200
Library needs $10,000 a year for maintenance and book replacement, which is why the copyright date isn’t at 2012, which is where it should be.
How can you help? Continue to support the Book Fair, Increase Budget support from PSO beyond the annual $340 classroom standard, some schools do a birthday book program, Amazon wish list, cash donations or donations to the PSO earmarked for the library, grand opportunities.
Question from text line: Can we solicit new or gently used book donations at PSO events? Or perhaps hand out fliers with QR codes to the wish list?
Mr. Sonnen answer: Donations are tough because they might not fit in with the diversity of books the library is looking for, and often they are outdated copyrights which doesn’t help lift our recommended copyright of 2012. QR code flier can definitely be handed out at events and would help a lot.
ONLINE SAFETY:
Dr. Karen Hickebottom, she supervises teachers in integrating technology into the classrooms.
SLIDESHOW PRESENTATION WITH LINKS TO TOOLS AND INFORMATION
Obesity, sleep, internet gaming disorders, tech addiction, cyberbullying, depression, multi-tasking while engaged in academic tasks, exposure of personal data, exposure of inappropriate or unsafe content, misuse of technology.
Positive outcomes:
Exposure to new ideas and information, raising awareness about events and issues, promoting civic engagement, collaboration, nurturing relationships, preparation for work/career/life, student agency to direct their own learning, creating and sharing with bigger audiences, communicating with others.
American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no tech under 18 months unless it’s video chatting, one hour of high quality tech that’s not solo between 18-24 months, 2 and up is left to families to decide.
At school, technology is about how you’re using it: consumption, production, creation, innovation
Kids are good at consuming technology, but don’t know unless we teach them how to use technology with purpose.
District protections in progress include: A digital citizenship instruction, internet filters (Palo Alto ad SecURLy), Blocking YouTube for elementary students after school, email in “walled garden,” and an acceptable use policy.
An issue right now is kids getting around the filters the district has put in place. This is because kids can go on YouTube and look up instructions on how to circumvent the filters. Kids also need to be reminded that the district can see everything they’re doing on their Chromebook. Parents can access SecURLy to see student browser history.
Question from the audience: How do you block YouTube?
Dr: SecURLy can help parents do that, but the district has blocked it for elementary school students because inappropriate videos were being found and also instructional videos on getting around the filters.
Comment: They like the ability to block, but some things are hard to block. Are there any instructions on how to do this.
Dr: Google has instructions and it is difficult to block some activities.
Comment: You can set the Chromebook to only work during certain hours.
Question: Our students are faster than us, how can we meet them where they’re at? What’s the best bang for our buck to keep kids off things are inappropriate.
Dr: Having conversations with your kids. Don’t be afraid to ask them what the new tech is, how they’re using it, and if they think it’s appropriate or the right thing to do. They may not respond in the way we hope, but it will get them thinking. Is it a technology issue or a behavior issue?
UPCOMING SHERWOOD EVENTS
March 24th – Career dress up day
March 30th – Talent Show
April 3rd-7th – Spring Break
April 14th – Community Cultural Night 6p-8p
April 20th – Craft Night 5:30p-7:30p “April Showers Bring May Flowers”
Still to be determined: movie night, bingo night, teacher appreciation week, spirit days, field day, end of year celebration
Spring Fundraiser: Now through May 15th you can purchase spring bulbs for yourself or have them sent to friends and family.
STAY CONNECTED
PSO Newsletter
PSO Website
PSO Facebook Group
Family Directory
Class Parent Communication
Last meeting miniutes: Michelle approves
Megan 2nds
Unanimous approval
Movie Night
“The Bad Guys” – great attendance, better than last moth’s movie night,
Asking Pamela Thaine to apply for a grant for additional floor mats. Pamela doesn’t have a need for additional mats, but she would like to write a grant for better scooters. There are additional (appx 50 mats) in a room outside the gym that might help with movie night.
$750 in concession sales
$450 for PSO bank
Skate Night
Night wet well, great turnout, only money spent was on fliers ($40 for 550 fliers). This does not pull in money for Sherwood or the PSO, but there is a benefit to having this community event. Lynnwood Bowl and Skate reserves the skate deck for our school only. Some noted the promptness that your group needs to move out of the skate deck for the next group reservation.
Science Center
There were some aspects of the center that weren’t working for some groups. Volunteer information could have bee clearer from the center. Some science presenters were great, others were not… and that didn’t seem fair to the kids. We will communicate our feedback and future needs to the science center, but we do plan on offering this trip.
The PAWS program that the 4th Grade group is doing is mentioned as an aside. PAWS comes once a week for 6 weeks to teach about animals. The kids love it. It’s $250 per class.
Spring Gear Sales
The company wants to leave sales open for another week because the contract requires a minimum purchase. We are 5 items away. It’s discussed that we perhaps purchase the remaining five and use them as raffle tickets. Otherwise, we will mention it in the newsletter.
Spring Fundraiser
Target is $8,000. Three ways families can support the Spring Fundraiser: March 3rd-7th is popcorn fundraiser, option to just donate, spring bulb fundraiser. Popcorn fundraiser will be online only. Flier set home Friday, March 3rd and at the Family Dance. Bulb Fundraiser will be in May. Committee would like a landing page on the website for the Bulb Fundraiser. Zeeks fundraiser is also an option – if someone comes in and mentions Sherwood we get 10%. It’s mentioned that you can also bring a flier in, which might help with participation.
Lost and Found
Please send out a note in the newsletter that the Lost and Found needs to be checked regularly. Sherwood gives away good jackets and other clothing items all the time because parents aren’t checking the lost and found.
Heather mentions the group: Mabel’s Labels
Comedy Tickets
We get two tickets to the comedy night in Edmonds. One option is to donate them to College Place to help their PSO get off the ground. Every school gets two tickets to raffle off or give as a ‘thank you.’ This would give College Place four. Proceeds from additional tickets sold through the website go to the school of the ticket purchaser’s choice.
PSO in approval to doating Comedy Night tickets to college place.
Staff Purchase Requests
The PSO has received an unexpected $700 invoice that has benefited a Sherwood Family for treatment that they needed. There was a misunderstanding that the PSO had this money as a budget item meant to benefit Sherwood Families and would not need PSO approval. Everyone had the best of intentions to help a family, but the misunderstanding means we are on the hook for $700.
Discussion: Treasurer finds certain line items in the budget for random items like “snacks for classrooms” or “health and safety” for the nurse’s office that are unmanaged and loosely defined. If we combine these random line items we could pay the $700 debt. There is enough in miscellaneous, too. That category would require PSO approval. Should we ask the district to share the cost? Should the PSO start a new budget line item called the “Family Wellness Fund” that can be used as a secondary fundraiser at other official fundraiser nights – a jar out to collect funds. Someone suggests we contact the company if they would consider reducing the invoice?
This incident will mean a new policy for the PSO with tighter approvals from the treasurer.
Where do we take funds from to cover this and then figure out how to make up for it? We will use the emergency and community service funds.
Playground Update
There are some designs on paper and the principal has sent it back to make it the most inclusive as possible.
School Supply Kit
The school will benefit in $200 in free school supplies for just participating. There will also be a 13% discount quoted by the company that can be used to benefit the fundraiser. We wonder if parents like this service. PSO shares that it’s a good option and usually has a decent though participating that it’s worth it. We need to sign a contract with the company by the end of March. The kits would run about $40 per. The fluctuation in price isn’t much between grades.
2023/2024 PSO Board
The board needs someone willing to take the President or co-President position. Many members are coming up on their second year of service, which is the minimum requirement and also the maximum for some positions.
UPCOMING EVENTS:
Family Dance (posters around the school) – March 3rd … free event, glow items sold at dance.
General PSO – March 14th – will we provide childcare? We do plan to stream the meeting through Zoom.
Talent Show – March 30th – there is a designated website sherwoodtalentshow.com and that is where students can submit their entries.
Craft Night – April ??
Movie Night – TBD
Spring Cleanup – April 22d
Culture Night –
Food Drive called “Fill the Bus” – March 15th
Staff of Sherwood have brought up the Watch DOGS (Dads Of Good Students) program where dads can get involved. They thought recess would be a good place for dads to get involved, or at drop-off.
Meeting called to order 7:10pm
In-person and zoom meeting
Snowflake program: Joni sent an update that the program was a success. 17 families (including 29 children). Each kid received 4 gifts from their wish list, plus a stocking, and $10 gift card to Dick’s. Wesco donated 10 $100 WinCo gift cards. $2,000 in gift cards donated by Sherwood families, too.
Joni suggestions for next year: start earlier (perhaps before Thanksgiving Break), have a consistent name for the program (perhaps Holiday Giving Program), potentially tie it into the Winter Fundraiser, revamp the wish form and split it between “basic needs” and “gifts”.
Robyn Saltzman speaks up to say it was a fantastic experience. Joni needs help with people asking for last-minute requests. Some people come up late in the program and doesn’t like to turn them away.
Heather says teachers oversaw getting the word out and some didn’t get back to Joni. She suggests looking at the free and reduced lunch program, another member suggests looking at past years as a base for which families need help and are still at Sherwood.
Colleen wonders why we don’t advertise the program more, and members say it’s because it would likely bring more participants and we need a more robust vetting system. We also don’t want to be in the position of determining what “need” looks like. Colleen suggests we do make room in the budget for this program, tie it to the winter fundraiser, ad incrementally increase the budget with goals to serve more families each year.
There’s general support to use the free and reduced lunch list to start as a basis for determining who needs services.
Winter Fundraiser: They sold all ornaments in their possession. They sold 50, but the goal was 100. We made $11.25 per ornament. There were issues with the vendor. The ornaments were really nice, but this is not something they would do again. Budget was $2,700 dollars for profit, we fell short $1,600 dollars.
The committee wonders if we need to make it up with the Spring Fundrasier, or if we can do another project like partnering with MOD, Papa Murphy’s, or Chipotle. Double Good popcorn fundraiser was successful last year. Flower Power sells bulbs and flowers and each school can get its own website, flowers are sent directly to the purchasers. There is $6 shipping for Flower Power. Cookie Dough fundraiser is no longer offering services this year. The committee really wants transparency in the fundraising process so families know where the money is going. The popcorn fundraiser last year was successful because it was tied to the playground.
The music program needs risers, and Carrie wonders if we tie the winter fundraiser to that cause. They would cost $10k.
Pam suggests picnic tables for the courtyard for when the kids eat lunch outside. And also additional money for a field trip.
Group discusses that teachers need to know they have access to grants through the PSO and also through the Edmonds Foundation.
Talent Show: Tiffany presents her schedule for how the talent show will play out. Fliers will go out 2/13. There will be video audition submissions first, and then MC auditions. Talent show practice will happen the week of 3/20. Dress rehearsal will happen 3/29. Talent show for kids will happen 3/30. Parents can come on 3/30.
The committee will not be making schedule accommodations for dress rehearsal. They did last year and it was chaos. There will be a SignUp Genius site for volunteer sign-ups. This information will go out in the newsletter.
Book Fair: Book fair was a success. We raised over $13k in sales, which is one of our best. The community fund was also a success, as there were a lot of books bought for kids in need. Lots of volunteers, which was nice. Timing-wise, not as many people used the book fair as a chance to get book gifts as they thought would happen. Ideas for timing: before summer, during conference week with all the half days.
Principal Update: Robyn Saltzman passes around a rendering for the new playground, which will replace the old red and yellow playground. The bug will not be removed as it is a popular attraction for the kids. Money from the levy will pay for this, as well as a walking path around the field. Timeline for playground is summer 2023. Were on our way to making safety upgrades, including push button door access in the office. Gates are also being put around the school.
Heritage Night: What do we call it? “Celebration of Cultures Night” is a name another school uses. Aurora says the committee is still trying to figure out what day to have this on. February is a possibility with only Skate Night being February 3rd. April 14th is the date.
Spirit Days: The student council voted on spirit days
Feb 10th: Twin Day – or even triplet day
March 2nd: Word Day – dress as your fav word
March 24th: Career day
April 21st: Anything but yourself day
May 12th: Pajama day
May 24th: Hobby day
June 9th: Someone you admire day
Last day of school is a half day on a Monday
Science on Wheels: Molly heading committee. It will be space themed. Information will go out in newsletter and through teachers. They need two adult and four student volunteers to help unload the van. Same for packing up. There also needs to be parent volunteers to watch over the science stations throughout the day.
Movie Night: Next movie night will be February 10th. Movie ideas are welcome.
Craft Night: Committee is meeting this week to solidify a date and ideas for the event.
Skate Night: Paper fliers will go home. That has had success in the past.
School Dance: Date is being solidified. March 3rd is the current proposed date. Aiming for end of February/beginning of March. Theme ideas: neon nights glow dance, awesome 80s dance, ad out of this world intergalactic dance.
Spirit Gear order #2: Many missed out the first time, so we’re running a second order. This closes on February 10th. Fliers will go home in a week. We love the company we’re working with called “Spirit Wear” because of how organized and easy the process was. We got a check for about $400 for the sales in the first round. We’re hoping to continue with this company and perhaps offer it a few times a year.
Grant application votes: The PSO is offering grants for teachers. There are three submissions.
Erika asks if the teachers who want the core boards (communication assistance boards) can apply for the district grant first and if they don’t get it we can fund.
Katie points out that the money for these grants will come from surplus money so it’s not like we’re breaking the bank to fund these grant requests. The group feels there needs to be some education around how to use the core boards.
Heather moves to vote on the grant proposal for the core boards. Jessica seconds. Unanimous approval.
Mr. Sonnen wants to take his library helpers to the Seattle Public Library for a field trip to introduce them to this world class building. They will do a self-guided tour to see how the work they do at the Sherwood Library mirrors professional librarians.
Katie motions to approve this grant proposal. Jen seconds. Unanimous approval.
Third and final grant proposal is from the 5th grade teachers for owl pellets to provide the students with a hands-on science experience. Pellets are not reusable, but the 15 books they want to buy are. The cost of $270 for owl pellets is high, but the group feels this is an impactful project.
Kevin moved to a vote. Jess seconded. Unanimous approval.
General Updates: Floorball is anticipated to start in late February. Kids need to make sure they are covered through their parents’ insurance to play.
The next General PSO Meeting does not have a date yet. Coming up, we need to start thinking about vacant positions within the board. We’d like to bring in a speaker for the next General PSO Meeting to draw more attention to them. Robyn proposed a speaker on social media in light of the Seattle Public Schools suing social media companies. Erika brings up the group ‘Wait Until 8th”.
PSO Mission and Vision needs an update. Heather needs a group to work on that.
Katie Dire moves to approve the October board meeting. Kevin Solberg seconds.
The meeting minutes pass.
Meeting begins with land acknowledgment.
Carrie Mackerer updates the group on the book fair progress. Two additional parents have stepped up to fill the gap that Mr. Sonnen has left because of jury duty. PSO member Brittany Yang, and Mary Jezierski.
Ewallets and cash will still be offered as a payment option. There will also be a community Ewallet so that kids who aren’t sent with money can still participate.
Carrie is looking into how to get startup funds for the cash box during the book fair, which is challenging because Mr. Sonnen has done that in the past.
December 2nd through 9th is the book fair.
Katharine Kahumoku asks if there will be teacher request baskets so parents can buy books for the classroom. The PSO can also help by putting book ideas in the baskets so if a teacher doesn’t have time to do it, we can still support their classrooms.
Clean-up day at Sherwood is on Saturday 11/19 from 12p-4p.
Heather Alschuler says the chair of the Craft Night at Sherwood can no longer commit to the night and so we need a new chair and can also move the date of Craft Night, as the first week of December is typically the date and
Colleen Byrum says she is tentatively interested in taking over the craft night, but would need to move the date.
Katharine Kidwell shares that volunteers for the Art Docent program might be interested.
Lauren Wagner and Michelle Becker share another possible Chair for the event.
Heather shares that this can also be an add-on to a current project rather than a stand-alone night.
The next movie night might happen during book fair week, but more discussion needs to happen in order to make it happen. Kevin Solberg shares that we do need to message to parents that they are responsible for their kids and kids cannot run around campus unattended.
Alison is going to send Katharine Kidwell an email about soliciting for volunteers for Movie Night.
Heritage Night is happening, as Lauren Wagner shares an update. She needs to fill out a form to reserve the gym. She wants to get students involved as much as possible. The project is still very much in the works.
Heather asks Ciara Leckie if the DEI committee would like to get involved in Heritage Night. She shares that at her school the teacher takes on the responsibility of doing a focused, cultural art piece and presentation. Families come out, too, and share traditional dances. Lauren asks if we know of any indigenous families in the Sherwood community that can share a dance or traditional showing at Heritage Night. Robyn Saltzman says the school is less than one percent native.
Ciara Leckie shares that the DEI committee had a low attendance the second meeting, unlike the first that was well attended and resulted in great conversation. The DEI committee would like to figure out how to incorporate into Heritage Night, so Ciara and Lauren are going to meet separately to talk details.
Heather shares an update on the mitten program and we will go back to pre-covid style where we have had family requests and we do our best to meet them. The front office at the school has put out wish list forms and has reached out to teachers to compile families that need assistance this holiday season. We will have the paper mittens on a giving tree. All requests will be confidential. The wish list will begin after Thanksgiving.
Heather needs help – someone who is interested in working with Joni to organize the wish list and getting the display up. Heather guesses 3-5 people would be needed to take this on. Brittany Yang, Michelle Maiello, Jessica Eickhoff, and Katie Kahmoku volunteer to help. Lauren Wagner has a Cricket machine and can make the snowflakes for the wishes.
The Budget is reviewed by Kevin Solberg and Jen Fritz. Heather asks if we can find money in the budget to possibly offset the wish list that isn’t met by parents… if the PSO board votes to do that. Jen thinks we have about $2k for miscellaneous items, and there’s also a surplus of funds (more than $25k) we have not spent. Jen Fritz shares that we could start a grant program, where teachers can request money for field trips or other projects they wouldn’t otherwise be able to do without funds. Katie Dire supports the grant program.
Lauren Wagner shares that we really need to spruce up the friendship bench. Colleen Byrum shares that we can use some of the funds to do a dedication plaque at the new playground.
Kevin Solberg asks that processes we have in place for doing a grant program. There is nothing in our bi-laws that indicate there is a process, but we can make one. Jen’s idea is to have certain times of year when grants would be accepted, that way we can carefully give out the funds and not overspend.
Heather asks if we should move the grant program forward to a vote, since this is a lot of money.
Ciara Leckie shares that College Place Elementary PTA just started and they only have a budget of $232. She shares that to add perspective to the surplus. She thinks sponsoring a school’s PTA to help lift them, and it make sense to partner with College Place since Sherwood kids go there. Colleen Byrum supports this idea, especially since Sherwood kids feed into College Place. She wonders if our PSO can sponsor something like a field trip as a start.
Jessica Eickoff shares that a good use of the funds, and a way to support a sister school, is to provide scholarship opportunities for 6th graders to attend Cedar Springs Camp.
Kevin Solbert shares a concern that the money was raised to go to Sherwood and so he would be hesitant to use a large chunk of the money.
Jen cautions that if we aren’t as successful in the rest of the school year’s fundraising efforts and some project, then we would need our excess funds to cover that. So, she also supports being cautious about the amount of money granted through a grant program or partnership with another PTA.
Katie Kahumoku would like the entire board to vote on the grant requests as a way to educate the board on how these processes work. Jessica Eickhoff also supports the entire board voting on grand requests.
Brittany Yang updates the board on the winter fundraiser, which are ornaments. We will make $22 on each ornament sold. They cost $40. We have already had a few families purchase them. She shares that teachers seemed to really love that we had a new offering this year. Brittany asks if the winder fundraiser is typically used to help fund the extra mitten project wish requests. Jen Fritz has to check on this, but she doesn’t have a lot of notes about past usage of the winter project funds. We’re hoping to sell 125 ornaments. Brittany has asked Robyn Saltzman to put it out on ParentSquare, fliers went home with kids today, there are fliers about purchasing one on the gym, on the message board, there will be a FB post about it… lots of advertising opportunities.
Brittany would like to see more messaging about where the money raised through fundraising, so parents can see what the PSO is doing. Lauren Wagner also agrees and believes parents would appreciate it, too.
Colleen Byrum shares that attaching fundraising to a specific project could cause some parents to opt out if they aren’t particularly passionate about it. Similar to how some voters won’t approve a school levy because they don’t have kids in school anymore. Kevin Solberg agrees, but also thinks we need to tout our funded projects more – the messaging of what we do is not getting outside the group.
Lauren Wagner wonders if we can fund a para-educator for Sherwood since what teachers really need is assistance. Colleen Byrum thinks we can’t use the money raised for Sherwood to pay for a district position, put wonders if we can incentivize volunteers with a gift card offering one month.
Ciara Leckie shares that in Edmonds, you can’t use raised funds to pay for people. Katie Kahumoku says she’s heard of a public school that did use PSO funds for people and they got in major trouble.
Katie shares that Mrs. Flo’s grant request for another square dancing session like 2021 got rejected. Katie would like the board to vote on funding Mrs. Flo’s square dancing program since the dance instructor is already booked. Jen Fritz shares that the money is in the budget to do this. The money would come out of miscellaneous funds.
Colleen Byrum wonders if in the future we can discuss other forms of dance, Laruen Wagner agrees as Square Dancing is very gender specific and some kids might feel left out.
Jessica Eickhoff moves to vote on using PSO funds for Square Dancing. Lauren Wagner seconds.
Katie Kahumoku thanks the Leckie’s for coming through with their business to help with the teacher/staff appreciation lunch tomorrow.
Katie Dire would like the group to get together in December – a social gathering.
Katie Dire moves to adjourn the meeting at 7:45pm.
General PSO meeting 11/8/2022
5pm start via Zoom
22 participants
Land acknowledgement
Minutes from October 6th General PSO meeting presented: Kevin Solberg moves to approve minutes, Michelle Becher seconds. Minutes approved.
Jennifer Fritz and Kevin Solberg, co-treasurers, present the PSO budget proposal.
Income for the year sits at $83,442. After cost of goods sold, gross profit, expenses, net income sits at $38.00 for the year.
Money is brought it through walkathon, winter ornament sales, spring fundraiser (TBD), book fair, and comfort kits.
Kevin calls for the budget to be approved through a ‘chat’ vote – unanimously approved.
Michelle Becker and Brittany Yang present the Walkathon wrap-up presentation
Walkathon brought in $48k, which exceeded the goal
Heather Alschuler presents way to stay connected with the PSO, including the Family Directory, Class Parent Communication, PSO FB Group, PSO Monthly Newsletters, and the PSO website.
The PSO opens the floor to questions:
There is a question about the mitten program, where families would fill-out wish lists and other families would purchase those wish-lists. The program may not come back this year.
Principal Robyn Saltzman presents the family survey results
School Climate is up 10%
Teacher-Student relationships is up 6%
Safety is down 2%
We do not have a full-time school counselor or student psychologist, but survey results show the feeling of positivity, anti-bullying, and supportive relationships is all up.
No questions from PSO General Meeting participants.
Katie Dire presents.
The Staff Appreciation lunch is coming up. Donations are needed.
The end-of-meeting raffle is done by Katie. The Sherwood Gift Pack (sticker, bookmark, gift certificate for a slice of pizza) it goes to PSO Treasurer Kevin Solberg.
PSO meeting adjourns at 5:40pm.
Hybrid in-person/Zoom attendance
Introductions before the meeting for new members of the board or those who have not yet attended a meeting in-person.
Michelle moves to approve last meeting’s minutes.
Jessica seconds.
Walkathon update: Michelle and Brittany
We made our goal by $21!! on RallyUp
Our entire walk-a-thon goal was $43k
Raffle netted $2500
The final net minus expenses will be known by next week.
Thursday (10/20/22) is the assembly to hand out prizes and announce winners.
Lesson learned – have more raffle tickets, some expressed surprise with how the raffle tickets were priced so low
Spirit gear update: Heather
Teachers will be getting fliers this week to distribute to kids that will allow families to purchase spirit gear. This purchasing opportunity will be open through November. Ten percent of proceeds come back to us and it’s a direct profit since there is no cost to us through the company.
Alise says some people are interested in purchasing items that have the full mural on it. We have some extra bookmarks.
Nourishing Network – ESD: Michelle
This provides students experiencing homelessness with weekend meals.
This is the official partner of the Edmonds School District and may be something worth promoting via PSO means.
The Nourishing Network collects food via a van around Edmonds.
The “food cabinet” is at the old Edmonds-Woodway High School and is now at Edmonds Heights.
Winter Fundraising: Michelle and Brittany
Glass Ice Studio does handblown glass art and the owner has offered to create a special Sherwood ornament. We need to decide how much to sell for the ornaments and are thinking $40.
We aren’t sure what to call it yet as we want this to be used year-round, not just as an “ornament”
Someone suggests personalized bows that says “Sherwood 2022” and can be updated each year.
Family Cultural Night: Lauren
She wants the school community to celebrate the many different cultures we have and how much diversity and richness we have within our school.
This would be an evening event in January.
We can play different kinds of music from various countries represented in our school.
Kids can dress up, make posters, be ready to discuss their backgrounds.
Families can also bring food to share that is unique to their culture.
Kari Deloma suggested a flag quilt as an art project that can be put up during the evening.
Lauren’s goal: She wants Sherwood to feel like a big community, a big home for everybody like it has for her and her children
The DEI committee would like to work with Lauren on this
Upcoming Calendar: Heather and Katie
General PSO meeting is coming up November 8th
We had great attendance via Zoom: 29 individuals
Do we want to keep it virtual or go to in-person for this meeting? The group discusses the pros and cons of Zoom vs FBLive. Zoom seems to be preferred.
Mitten Giving Program is in question. Lauren Wagner is willing to take on the responsibility of the mitten giving program to provide gifts for families in need.
Some lessons learned from this past movie night – the first since the pandemic. Some kids were too distracted and ruined the sound/experience for other kids, some kids were playing on the playground unsupervised.
PSO would like to see more volunteers for supervision and check-in/check-out. We could also be more obvious about this not being a drop-off event, and that kids need to be supervised. Heather says at a past movie night she stopped the movie to settle down the kids.
DEI Committee update: Ciara
There are some new members to the group, 7 total. Ciara notes that feeling included on the parent side of things is important, as is the inclusion of kids to Sherwood. The DEI committee can help with that. One new parent to the committee suggested more meet-and-greet events for parents at pick-up or drop-off.
Robyn recommends October 28th for a morning meet-and-greet and is hoping the PSO can fund/organize that. Someone asks if this will be purely social or if there will be an agenda? Both Robyn and Ciara say this should be social. Someone suggests the room parents champion this effort to get involvement.
An idea gets brought up to make it more of a class-specific play-date. Some think this may be better as a non-play date and consistent date like the last Friday of the month.
PSO General Meeting
10/6/2022
Attendance: 29 individuals
Land acknowledgement
Heather asks to approve minutes from the May 2022 PSO General meeting.
Michelle Maiello moves to approve minutes
Michelle Becker seconds
Co-President Katie Dire goes over what the PSO is:
We are a non-profit, every parent and staff are members, there are no membership fees, and we support the students, staff, and community.
Katie shows a power point slide listing all of the activities, specialists, and even a discretionary fund for the Principal and teachers.
Co-President Heather Alschuler introduces the board and gives their roles.
Spruce-up Day. This was a great event to make sure the Sherwood campus was ready to welcome students on the first day of school. There is another Spruce-Up Day on Earth Day.
Sherwood also got a new playground in August, provided in-part by the Sherwood PSO.
The new mural was also finished this summer and is beloved by all. What some may not know is that the hidden words within the mural came from students.
Upcoming dates:
October 7th: Movie Night and Walk-a-thon kick off assembly
October 14th: Walk-a-thon
October 21st: No school
October 24th-28th: Conference half days
November 8th: General PSO meeting #2
Stay connected with the PSO via:
PSO Newsletter
Website SherwoodPSO.com
Facebook group
Family Directory
Room Parents
Michelle Becker takes the mic to talk about the Walk-a-thon, which starts October 14th. This is the biggest PSO fundraiser of the year – with 100% of the donations going to our Sherwood kids.
Fundraising takes playce October 7th through the 17th. You can raise funds electronically through RallyUp, but cash and check donations are still accepted.
Principal update:
Robyn Saltzman shares Sherwood’s Strategic Plan, Mission, and Goals.
Sherwood has a race breakdown that is 70%white. There is a 1% homeless population. We support 20% of kids on free/reduced lunch. We also have a large Special Education class, which makes up nearly 20% of our study body. Nearly 8% of students are bilingual.
Goals include math and reading – Sherwood wants students to make a 5% growth in reading via iReady. Sherwood always wants to see students make a 5% growth in grade level math standards as measured by iReady. This includes grade 1-6 for both goals.
Sherwood also wants to see a 5% growth in students’ feelings of belonging and connectedness over the next three years.
Heather does the raffle draw…
$30 Mod Pizza gift certificate, donated by Mod: Bethany Allen, 1st grade parent
Meeting ends at 6:50pm
PSO Meeting #1
9/13/2022
Meeting called to order at 6:10pm
Minutes from previous meeting approved
Michelle and Katie from hospitality go over Teacher’s Breakfast, Tears and Cheers events. Coffee ran out at teacher’s breakfast. Teachers loved the event and were happy with the leftover food. Lots of parents, new to the school or PSO events, seemed to want to get involved. Volunteer opportunities!
Heather talks about new signs with QR codes that make it easy for parents to scan and find out about volunteer opportunities. QR codes are posted on the PSO billboard near the office and flagpole. An idea was proposed to make the PSO billboard bilingual, as most materials posted there are in English.
Heather talks about Google Drive – this is open to board members to access all documents from PSO. Historical data is there to help with events.
Communications – led by Jessica and Deanne. Both are new to the role. They are talking about ways to get information to the PSO group and from the PSO group. Robyn wonders if she can send information through ParentSquare that doesn’t look like it’s from her, and instead from the PSO. Robyn will look into of the PSO can have its own account to send out information on their own. Constant Contact has a great template for newsletters, but parents have to opt in and opt out of this. S’more is another platform that can be used, but it’s untested. Most board members agree that if we have the ability to use ParentSquare, that would increase our communication abilities and reach the most families.
Taking a brief pause from the agenda to introduce ourselves from the crowd since there are new members and also returning members with new titles.
The upcoming General PSO meeting is September 20th. Pre-covid the PSO did a Facebook Live and it was successful. We may try for a hybrid meeting of in-person and zoom… should we? It’s tough to get non PSO families involved… we’ve even tried prizes. Deanna asks what the incentive is for other families to come… Heather says in the past we’ve had special speakers. Information at the General PSO will include Walk-a-Thon information. Should we shorten the meeting and have it on Curriculum Night on September 29th so that more people have an opportunity to attend, but not make it a long night.
Robyn wonders if the September 29th Curriculum Night, the same night of the playground and mural ribbon cutting, would be a good opportunity for the PSO to meet-and-greet as part of the general meeting… and hand out information about upcoming events and how to get involved.
Through conversation tonight, it’s clear this board needs to do more outreach and talking parents through our general meetings.
Should we bring the Art Docent program to keep the kids busy with an activity while we do the various agenda items such as the mural/playground unveiling and teacher curriculum night.
Ciera shares that at College Place they are making it more family-focused, where the kids get to bring their parents to their classroom to show off artwork – then pamphlets with qr codes are handed out that will send parents to actual curriculum information.
Principal update – we have 446 kids, we had just over 400 last year. This means we get a half of a sixth grade teacher. Sherwood is in desperate need of para-educators, but there are no applicants. We need to get the word out about how to advertise for paraeducators.
Walk-a-Thon with Michelle and Brittany – they have a hand out that is a draft of this year’s event. New this year (post-pandemic) there is an actual community walk. We’re aiming for $38k as our overall goal. The committee issuing rally up again. Board is worried about the implications of communicating per-student fundraising goals, but some think it’s a helpful guideline. The per-student donation verbiage will be tweaked, but remain in the communication. One issue is that the older classrooms have more kids, so they often win fundraising prizes because they can raise more.
Board gets a preview of this year’s t-shirt, which will feature a minimal version of the mural and in a teal color.
We will have in-person raffle prizes this year, and more kid-friendly prizes. We’re still working on a DJ for the walk-a-thon event. Pizza and salad will be served.
October/November events – Heather will email out information. She’s trying to figure out how to put together a one-sheet for monthly events so communication is more clear for families.
Comfort kits and yearbooks are being worked out with Joni. Families are going to be asked for a donation once this year – but the goal is to provide comfort kits and yearbooks for every student.
Buddy families – Robyn sent out a link for new families to be buddied with an existing Sherwood family. Nine families showed up and there is a potential for more. We are looking for someone who can help facilitate that program. Lauren volunteered to help with that.
The family directory is in the works.
Robyn addresses the 5k with the Edmonds Foundation. There are a couple Sherwood teachers interested in the grant process.
Spirit Gear online store – this is new this year and will be open year-round. This is separate from the walk-a-thon gear. Price points are equivalent to what we have done in the past. Board members get free walk-a-thon tshirts.
PSO bi-laws, mission, and goals will be discussed later, perhaps at the November/December meeting.
Heather would like the board to look over the bi-laws, mission statement, and goals to come up with new ideas. This will need to be reflected in our 501-c documents.
Rebranding of the PSO is needed.
Idea for fundraising is brought off as a last-minute item. There is an opportunity to create a Sherwood-specific ornament. General reception is positive from the board.
Meeting ended at 9:15a
August 18th
PSO meeting #1
In attendance:
Katie Dire, Heather Alschuler, Jen Fritz, Brittany Yang, Michelle Becker, Katie **, Michelle
Maiello, Katherine Kidwell, Jessica Eickhoff, Carrie Mackerer, Molly Reeves, Lauren Wagner,
Ciara Leckie, Erika Will, Robyn Saltzman
Absent:
Colleen Byrum, Kevin Solberg, Alise Rueckert, Deanne Odell
Meeting called to order at 5:45
Introductions –
Meeting started out with board intros, including names, kiddos, and board positions
Board played an icebreaker to get to know each other a little better
Playground update –
Robyn gave playground update
Playground is currently being installed
It is almost ready good to go
However, woodchips are not being delivered until the first day of school
o It will not be usable until they are delivered
Bars have been moved by the old playground
Staff will discuss is a playground rotation is needed during recess time
Robyn will talk to the after-school care (YMCA) to make sure there is an agreement that the
community can use the playground during the afterschool hours
Plan to have a grand opening/ribbon cutting celebration in conjunction with the mural
Perhaps this could be during curriculum night (date tbd – mid September)
Plan to also purchase a plaque with a thank you to major donors (grants), Sherwood
families, and land acknowledgment – Colleen interested in leading (tbc)
Mural update –
From Molly:
Edmonds Art Festival Foundation (EAFF) provided funding and has been updated on the
progress. They are extremely happy with how it has turned out.
During the ribbon cutting ceremony the entire EAFF board would like to attend. Community
invites and some local media will also be invited.
Mural still needs to have words and school slogan added (words provided from classes and
school motto)
The district also needs to add a sealant (anti-graffiti sealant)
Thank yous need to be sent for mural. Photo of kids infront of the mural would be great.
Stephanie Rothmier said she’d help with thank yous.
Future grants –
Grant team (Carrie and Molly) are going to focus on obtaining a science grant for the school
Kick off events –
Hospitality provided update (Michelle and Katie)
Kick off to school event – Nacho average welcome back! (pun and name being worked on)
o September 1 st Hickman Park Reservation
o 5:00’ish – 8:00pm
o Nacho bar theme
o Sign up genius will be sent to Katherine (volunteers) soon – help with serving and
potluck style for some of the sides (looking at assigning side type by grade)
o Still looking at budget to see what PSO will provide vs what families will bring (Molly
will look at getting a quote on meat, as well as bring a stereo for the event)
o Adding some races and fun competitions for kids
At all welcome back events PSO will provide sign ups for
o Family Directory – **Need someone to help with this
o PSO Newsletter
o Volunteer sign up (district – Robyn looking into if paperwork needs to be filled out
again this year)
DJ Erick
o looking at getting him a budget line to pay him this year for the many events he does
for the school.
Staff kickoff breakfast
o Hospitality has this covered
o August 31 st 7:30am
o Breakfast – bagels and spreads
o Coffee – Walnut
o Fresh fruit
o Croissants
o Hard boiled eggs
o Water
Tears and Cheers
o September 7 th
o Held in the courtyard
o Board will provide a baked goods
o Oranges
o Coffee
o Water
New Volunteer Sign in process – coming soon!
Robyn
o Volunteer ID badge will be coming soon
o Swipe in and out
o Easily track hours
o More info to come
Ground cleanup
Erika
o This upcoming Saturday, August 20 th
o 9:00 – 1:00
o Bring equipment and gloves
o Doughnuts will be provided!
Sherwood Staff theme
Robyn
o This year’s Sherwood staff theme is One team, One dream
o Would like to try to incorporate into PSO events as much as possible
o Sports
Yearbook and comfort kit
Katie and Heather
o PSO will purchase yearbooks for each student this year
o Will ask families to pay one payment for year books and comfort kits
o If we fall very short we can either make a second ask later in the year for donations
and/or fundraise for the cost with a winter or spring fundraiser
o Need to confirm yearbook cost with Joni
Meet the teacher
Robyn
o Sept 6 th – teachers will be voting for time and will be announced
o Looking as having new families come 30 minutes early to meet Robyn and PSO, and
be officially welcomed to the school (could also include 1 st , 2 nd grade families)
ESDF 5k
Heather
PSO would like to encourage families to sign up
Mrs. Thain will also lead the charge
School/teachers received a lot of money because Sherwood won the largest team prize
Could look at supporting signups with offering raffle prizes
Walkathon
Brittany and Michelle
Friday, October 14 th
Keeping some of the positive changes from last year – theme of team/sports and building
community
Robyn will send out an ask about businesses for shirt sponsorships and donations
Auction is still up in the air – potentially might do some themed baskets. Idea was even to
have one basket from each classroom
Room parents
Katie
We will be having room parents once again
Can use them more this year with more parent involvement in the school
Field trips
No overnight trips allowed again this year (district level)
Field trips are okay
PSO – need to keep in mind with budgeting
Some brainstorming about some longer day trips for 5 th and 6 th grades, since they miss the
overnight camp that use to happen
Google drive
All PSO documents are put onto the PSO Google drive so everyone has access to them
all
Heather will share with the board (specifically new members)
A great resource for archived documents
Principal update
Leadership team met yesterday and the plan is to have school do more to celebrate the
diversity of the student body. Each month one characteristic trait will be chosen to be
celebrated (ie language, recipes, family traditions, etc)
Coffee once a month with principal Saltzman
o Robyn will offer a time each month for families/parents/guardians to come in
and have coffee with her
There are many new families to the school
o Up to 452 students this year. Finished last school year at 412.
o Thinking about starting a family buddy system? match a new family, with a veteran family
with students in the same grade **room parents can also help with this***
o Looking to make new families feel more included in the community
o Idea – Create fact sheet of what you need to know about Sherwood
Robyn will share general PSO Facebook page – PSO needs to pin class groups to the top of FB
page so everyone is able to find the right page
Need help with Blaze would like to have Blaze at all events
o Make a sign up for people who would like to volunteer to be Blaze
Numbers are high for classes (2 nd and 6 th especially) and may have fourth day count shuffle
o District has the call to make it a proactive approach with hiring another teacher
Woodway – Brittany can help bridge Woodway and Sherwood parents. Malory Cook is willing
to be the teacher connection/contact
Robyn – Book swap (teachers have first look – incorporate Collage Place Elementary and give
them some donations as well )
o Erika and Carrie offered to organize
Jen – idea of sports gear swap
Erika – Mural addition – plan to collect rocks and place in front of mural. Will use blue paint
from the mural and will paint all blue and then have each student at the school decorate their
own rock to be a part of the art.
Meeting adjourned at 8:36
Stephanie moves to approve last meeting’s minutes. Tina seconds.
Michelle Becker says popcorn fundraiser was a success. We are trying to solicit opinions from more families about the popcorn.
Steph Woody says she enjoyed the online aspect. Carrie Mackerer says distant family really loved the online ability to support the school. Tina Burton thought the auction the PSO did during COVID was great and wonders if there is an option to do something like that again if we have items to auction.
Deanne Odell shares that the popcorn felt expensive for what it was, but needed to remind people that 50% of the cost goes straight to the school. She thinks is was a great fundraiser, but that was a hindrance for some. Alise shares that feedback she received similar feedback that people would rather just donate a specific amount rather than buy into a product that didn’t feel worth the price.
Jess shares that the popcorn was very good in terms of that it didn’t need a lot of volunteers to operate the delivery of the items. Whereas the cookie dough had to stay frozen and took a lot of people to get out.
Heather gives an update on other post-COVID events put on by the PSO. Events such as Bingo Night were a success and we were surprised at the response. Earth Day was also a beautiful success, plus Ms. Thain’s gardening club is picking up members.
Tiffany Sjong updates the group on the upcoming virtual talent show. She show is currently in the first week of rehearsals. There will be another round of rehearsals soon and the day-of event could use volunteers.
Heather reads updates about Field Day via Ms. Thain. It is set for the morning of June 17th. The volunteer list is filling up, but a few spots are still left. She needs someone to pull a truck with a trailer hitch to help bring in a surprise.
Heather says June 15th and Let’s Go Bike Day.
Sunset Celebration, Monica is in charge of this. It’s an end of the year celebration. On the same day during the day the kids have field day. Sunset Celebration is an after-dinner event for fun and ice cream. An ice cream truck is coming, so each kid will be able to have something from the truck. Tina Burton is working on craft ideas for the kids. There will be a live DJ and a bouncy house. Student art work will be hunt in the gym.
Molly Reeves updates us on grants. The Hazel Miller $6700 grant is a success, but no official word yet. We got $2600 Edmonds Arts grant for the mural. Ms. Thain pledged to give $1500 of a grant she got for the playground. There is also a $3000 grant up for grabs. She would like the board to consider a new area of focus for the kids, perhaps science.
Heather shares that the Kinder Visit is June 1st, a Wednesday. The PSO is playing a small role in this and will commit to having a presence that day, purchase books as a take-away for the kids, and to help with the scavenger hunt.
Heather invites Aurora Parish to share information about the mural that’s begun at the north wall of Sherwood. The primer is down and the mural will begin on the first weekend of June. Improvements have been made to the original base design. Our school motto will be on it as well as the “Sherwood Elementary” banner. Kids helped with a word cloud and each class determined the most important word for them, so inside the tree trunks, flowers, and mountains will be those essential values of Sherwood. They got a $2200 grant from the Arts Foundation to help with this project.
Stephanie shares miscellaneous grants and other requests. The board recognizes the request from Woodway Center’s for a grant from the Sherwood PSO. The board originally decided to pass due to the unknown success of the popcorn fundraiser and our over commitment to the playground project. Now that we have paid ourselves back and then some, we are circling back to the idea of granting Woodway Center’s request. The school is asking for funds to put towards their school’s needs for supplies, that teachers are right now paying for themselves.
Colleen Byrum is in support of the donation now that we know that we’ve paid ourselves back for the extra playground money we used and that we have grants and other money coming in.
Tina Burton, Stephanie Woody, and Stephanie R support the donation, too.
The PSO proposes increasing the amount to $1,600 as a one-time payment. Colleen Byrum is concerned at the amount considering we were only considering $900. Deanne Odell clarifies that this is a one time payment and that further conversation would be needed if we were to make a more serious yearly contribution. The majority of the board votes ‘yay’ to contributing $1,600.
Steph Woody asks if the PSO has a preference outside of Bridgid’s Bottle Shop for our June celebration. Most agree it’s a good spot to host our party.
Heather shares open positions for next year’s PSO board members. The hospitality position is open with two Sherwood moms would like to co-chair. There is also a Sherwood dad joining! We still have open chair positions and some interest in the Walks-a-thon position. This is the main chair position we would like filled.
Stephanie Woody shares an appreciation letter written to the PSO by the 5th grade classrooms.
Robyn Saltzman shares that the tragic school shooting in Texas on May 24th took a toll on a lot of the older kids today. Younger kids are less exposed to the details. Sherwood has its flag flown as half mast. There were conversations in classrooms. She talked to kids to think about the families impacted yesterday and how we can be safe at Sherwood. Robyn was 10 minutes from the Parkland shooting and has knowledge and experience with this. She assures the board that the staff is very aware of all visitors, they are trying to get fences in unsecured spots.
Colleen thanks Robyn for speaking to the tragedy. Robyn really wants parents to know how vigilant the teachers and staff are for our kids.
Stephanie Woody mentions the Golden Eagle awards coming up and that Colleen will send an email with details soon.
PSO General Meeting – 5/11/22
Meeting opens at 6pm with land acknowledgement.
Stephanie Woody, PSO Co-President, goes over the agenda for the evening. Asks for the February 23rd minutes to be approved. Michelle motions to approve and Monica seconds.
ESD Family and Community Engagement Coordinator, Dr. Sally Guzman is the special guest for the evening to talk about the family engagement survey. Heather asks how often a parent needs to fill out this survey and the answer is once per school. Robyn asks about how to get the word out about the survey. REminding parents at pick-up and drop-off is good. Dr. Guzman mentions she has used QR codes in the past and those have been very useful. Paper copies will be available in Principal Saltzman’s office at some point.
PSO Budget update: Stephanie Rothmier and Jen Fritz
Stephanie presents the budget and mentions the excess funds that were collected in the last two years, so this budget planned for a deficit. However, we are on track with the budget. Fundraising overview shows Walk-a-thon is the largest fundraiser. The popcorn fundraiser, book fair and a small portion of the fundraising profits come from an “other” category. We still have funds to spend from our expenses, so we are on track.
Heather discusses open positions for the PSO. Voting on the 2022/2023 positions. Stephanie moves to approve the board, Tina Burton seconds. Hospitality will be filled at a later date.
Other open chair positions include: Walkathon Chair, Movie Night Chair, Craft Night Chair, Family Dance Chair, Skate Night Chair.
Michelle Becker, co-fundraising chair, goes over the popcorn fundraiser results, which replaced the cookie dough fundraiser this year. We set a goal of $5,000 and we raised $6,000. How it compares to cookie dough fundraiser is comparable as we raised $7,000 last year in cookie dough sales. Colleen Byrum asks when a survey will go out to find out if people prefer popcorn over cookie dough – that could happen on social media after the brochure deliveries are made.
Heather announces that we raised more than enough to complete the playground project. This additional piece of playground equipment is on target and on track to be installed before the start of the next school year. Principal Saltzman adds that the levies that happened a couple years ago will also install a walking path around the field that connects to the playground. The money will also help revitalize the existing playground.
Colleen Byrum brings up the possibility of including a plaque at the new playground to mark when and why this addition happened. It will be discussed at another date.
Heather says the book fair brought in $3,000 for the Sherwood Library. Dozens of students in need were also gifted books thanks to families contributing to an account that goes to kids who otherwise wouldn’t have been able to purchase books. The additional funds from that account went to the school counselors so they can help students who might have missed the opportunity.
Heather presents the results of the first Family Bingo Night, which was attended by 200 people. The Earth Day clean-up was also a success and made the school grounds look great. Staff appreciation week was carried out and yummy waffle kits were put together for staff, teachers, and bus drivers. Theme: “We appreciate you a waffle lot.”
Stephanie Woody presents upcoming events: Sherwood shoe drive is Friday, April 29th – Friday, May 20th. All shoes can be turned in no matter the conditions. Good condition shoes can be refurbished and given to kids in need, shoes that cannot be refurbished can still be recycled. Sherwood earns money for the shoes turned in.
Pamela Thain has a Kids Heart Challenge coming up May 2nd-31st. It’s important that as many kids as possible sign up. The school that has the most kids registered will receiving extra PE time.
The 6th Grade Musical with a theme of Pirates is on May 19th.
Edmonds Health and Fitness Fair and Track Meet is at the Edmonds-Woodway track. Pamela Thain is running track events for students that day. It’s on May 21st from 9a-12p. Ms. Thaine would love volunteers for the event.
Kindergarten Sherwood Visit is on June 1st from 6-7pm. This is so the kindergarteners can visit the campus before starting 1st grade next year. There will be a scavenger hunt for the kids, such as finding the library. They will be given books to take home.
The Sherwood Mural project will happen June 4th-5th and June 11th-12th. The wall is being power washed ahead of the mural. Volunteers might be needed for the first weekend of the painting project.
The Talent Show is June 9th. Students will be able to see the acts during the school day and parents and families will be invited at a later date/time.
First Grade readers night is June 13th and 14th from 5-7:15pm. This is returning after a break because of the COVID pandemic.
Wheels Week in PE is back for June 13th-16th.
Field Day is on the morning of June 17th.
End of the Year Family Picnic and Student Art Walk will happen June 17th. The hospitality team will organize and announce the details.
Orchestra concert is June 6th.
6th grade graduation is June 23rd.
Brittany Yang, VP of volunteers, says we still need a lot of volunteers to pull all of these events. Volunteers@edmonds.wednet.edu
- Volunteers are needed for gardening club, which is every Tuesday. There is also a gardening club for 1-3rd graders, which is at final recess 2-2:30)
- Field Day volunteers are needed.
Principal Update with Robyn Saltzman: open Q&A
- Stephanie Woodie asks about the SBA results. Robyn says results are not received until fall, but the turnaround could be quicker. Results will show up in your child’s skyway account.
- Carrie Mackerer asks about the forms filled out for our students that will play into classroom placement. The forms are generic but they are used to make sure the students end up with teachers who fit their learning style and that there’s a good mix of students.
- Jessica Eickhoff asks about 5th grade camp and mentions it didn’t happen this year. She’s wondering if there can be a 5th/6th grade camp next year. Robyn says she has no information at this time, but will let everyone know if she learns more.
Heather adjourns the meeting at 7:04pm
Attendance: Heather Alschuler, Colleen Byrum, Stephanie Woody, Dr. Sally Guzman, Brittany Yang, Robyn Saltzman, Kari DeLoma, Michelle Becker, Cheryl Agrawal, Stephanie R. , Rachel Dotson, Dustin and Rachel Toftdahl, Molly Reeves, Nikki Wiley, Katherine Kidwell, Monica Floreno, Michelle Maiello, Jess’s iPhone, Sara Redford, Katie Dire, Tina Burton, Pamela Thain, Jessica Eickhoff, Sara Gravelin, Carrie Mackerer.
PSO Monthly meeting
4/20/2022
Attendance:
Heather Alschuler
Stephanie Woody
Colleen Byrum
Pamela Thain
Aurora Parish
Brittany Yang
Robyn Saltzman
Ciara Leckie
Monica Floreno
Tiffany Sjong
Setphanie R.
Deanne Odell
Carrie Mackerer
Jen Fritz
Alise Rueckert
Katie Dire
Michelle Becker
Tina Burton
Meeting starts at 5pm with land acknowledgement to the Salish Tribes
March meeting minutes approval: Tiffany moves to approve the minutes, Monica seconds
Pamela Thain (physical education teacher for Sherwood) visits meeting to present what she’s doing with grant money. She’s giving $1500 towards the Sherwood spring fundraiser to help raise money for the playground. WOW! She says ESD representative suggests the PSO applies for a grant worth $3,000 towards our playground, too.
Pam also won a grant for the gardening project happening at Sherwood. The grant indicated she’ll teach kids how to garden every Tuesday after school starting in May. It’ll run from 3:05-3:35. That’ll cover 4th, 5th, and 6th graders.
Erika Will, who has a 3rd grader at Sherwood, says she will help Pam… but Pam opens the door to other volunteers, too.
Pam also has the kids heart challenge and raised $8,000. The kids will work hard and learn about fitness. She needs volunteers to help her stuff bags full of fun goodies like bracelets and other items.
Field Day is usually run by Pam herself and volunteers come the day of, but this year she needs volunteers to help her organize field day. She needs 40-45 people day-of, but would really like a point person as we lead up to field day.
June 17th is field day.
Pam is starting a pickleball team at Sherwood now that the sport is the official sports of Washington State. Grades 5th and 6th will be eligible for the team and tournaments will happen at Woodway Elementary. She would like a volunteer to help her with the team and the day of the tournament.
Pam is running a track meet at the health expo on May 21st from 9-12. There’s a fun run, booths, and more and says it’s very fun. She needs volunteers here, too, and is thinking they can help at the start and finish lines.
Running Rocks has gotten so big at Sherwood that Pam would love help for the remaining 7 or 8 Fridays of this club. The volunteers could help steer the kids as they run around the school or for if a kid falls and needs a bandage.
Brittany Yang, who runs volunteers for the PSO, will take over trying to find volunteers for Pam’s requests.
Aurora Parish is updating the mural project. Molly and Carrie wrote the grant for the project and was successful. The budget for the project sits at $2,000. The district arts coordinator got them in touch with an artist who will volunteer their time to show the kids how to project their mural onto the wall and how to approach painting it. The final design is forthcoming, but students have come up with incredible ideas that will be interactive and will age well.
Painting weekends are in May and possibly in June if needed.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee is presenting the parent engagement survey:
Survey respondents were less diverse than the Sherwood student body and mostly women responded
We discuss results that indicate people would like to be on the PSO but really don’t know how. Barriers include: work schedule, COVID, not hearing about events.
Seems many parents don’t realize that they ARE the PSO, whether they attend meetings or not. Everyone is welcome. Someone brings up if a name change for the group would help? Perhaps some PR around how working parents CAN be involved and it won’t overwhelm them.
Michelle Becker presents updates on the Spring Fundraiser:
We are fundraising by selling popcorn. The fliers went out to students and gives us a couple different ways to raise money. There is a brochure and online version to hopefully increase sales. We’re also offering for people to just donate money to the playground project.
Carrie Mackerer speaks on the book fair coming up on Saturday. April 23rd-29th.
Liz Morgan is the book fair chair. Megan Walla, a Sherwood parent, is also volunteering to help. Today, Joni (front office) sent out information about the book fair to Sherwood families. Details will also be included in the PSO newsletter with information on how to send your student to school with money to shop. The book fair will also be open during bingo night for families to shop.
A chat message asks if there is a way for families to donate for kid who may not have the funds to buy books. There are instructions on the flier of families would like to do that.
The book fair could use volunteers, but you have to already be approved through the official district volunteer process.
Tiffany Sjong talks about the talent show. The permission slips went out with the kids along with guidelines for appropriate content and how to submit acts virtually. The videos are due Monday, May 9th. May 10th and 12th, judges will get together to vote on who gets into the talent show and which students get put into an ensemble group. They will need volunteers who can work from home a little bit and then run rehearsals to polish the kids’ acts.
She wonders if parents of kids who are in the talent show might be the best to approach to ask if they’ll volunteer.
6th graders can try out for the MC position. They want 5-6 MCs to give more kids a chance to do this.
Stephanie Woody talks about the “Got Sneakers” program that wil be run by Alison.
The group is asking for all athletic shoes that families no longer need. They can be dropped off into bins at Sherwood – the company recycles the run down shoes and also refurbishes ones that can be. The schools receives money.
The program runs April 29th through May 20th.
Stephanie also talks about the Earth Day cleanup run by Erika Will, a Sherwood parent, along with Pamela Thain. This will happen on Saturday, April 23rd from 9am-1pm. They will be spreading wood chips and doing other beautification projects.
Heather Alschuler talks about bingo night next Thursday, April 28th at 7pm at the school. The book fair is open right before bingo night starts. They need 2 volunteers to hand out prizes and 2-4 volunteers to run concessions. The bingo night typically lasts an hour.
Robyn Saltzman, Sherwood Principal, gives an update on the Sherwood Playground. She got a call yesterday from the district that our draft has a part of it that they cannot do without it costing more. So, they’d like to move the parallel bars over to near the existing “bug” in order to make room for the zipline.
Robyn talks about the kindergarten students coming up to 1st grade. They’re going to have a 1st grade night for the incoming students on June 1st. They’re going to have a scavenger hunt for the kids to learn about the campus and its teachers. Sherwood is trying to rent a bus so that families from Westgate can get on the bus together and get over to Sherwood for this day. We also want to purchase a 1st grade level book for each student, a Eagle sticker, pencil, and possibly more.
Monica Floreno gives a hospitality update. They are going with the “Recipe for Success” theme for May 2nd… “We appreciate you a waffle lot!” They purchased mini waffle makers, a mini whisk, and a mini bottle of syrup for all teachers and bus drivers. The end of year BBQ is happening but planning hasn’t begun.
Last agenda item presented by Heather – Woodway teachers requested funding and Westgate provided them with some money. The teachers came to us with a request and we opted to vote ‘no’ due to the debt to ourselves with the playground. This was done in an email vote. We will revisit whether we can give money after the spring fundraiser.
Meeting ends at 6:40pm
March PSO meeting
3/16/2022
Board starts by looking over and approving February meeting minutes
Stephanie Woody moves to approve
Michelle Becker seconds
Heather goes over the agenda, which includes a playground update, the spring fundraiser update, confirmation of next year’s board roles, an update from the principal, and all upcoming events run by the PSO.
Robyn has a playground update
The playground equipment is ordered and it takes 12-16 weeks to receive the equipment
We’re still waiting to hear about additional grant money from Hazel Miller or Verdant, which would help replenish the PSO funds that were borrowed to pay the remainder of the playground cost.
The spring fundraiser will also help pay back some of that money.
Michelle Becker
Spring fundraiser has a few ideas
She wants to really use the announcement of the playground to also announce the spring fundraiser.
Some ideas that have been tossed around is using a thermometer or perhaps a large jar with wood chips to show how far we’ve come in our fundraising goal.
Some fundraising ideas:
Cookie dough
Popcorn from DoubleGood (fun names like “butter believe it” “carmel diem”)
Community has loved the cookie dough for a long time, but it’s worth looking at unique options
Some ideas to have the kids do the fundraiser includes the traditional method of sending home a piece of paper where selections are made, or have the kids open their own online store.
Colleen comments that it’s a good time to do a unique fundraiser because it’s a unique reason and then compare that data to the past cookie dough sales.
She also shares that Carrie Mackerer has shared a fundraiser she heard about that involves bulbs and plants.
Carrie shares what she knows about the fundraiser and tells Michelle that she’ll send her information.
There’s discussion about whether the students starting their own online store is a good idea?
Colleen shares that she thinks the online sales idea plays perfectly into the newfound online skills they obtained during the pandemic.
Brittany thinks popcorn is a better sale at this time of year because Girl Scouts just wrapped up their cookie sales. The boy scouts typically sell popcorn in the autumn so our popcorn fundraiser would not ruin that.
Stephanie R and Jen talk about where our budget stands and share what our fundraising goal needs to be:
Stephanie is going through the budget line by line
There are some areas where we can save money, like not using all of the professional development funds
The technology fund is another area, but Robyn has spent it
There is some additional savings with the Four Square grant and Fill the Truck
That leaves us about $4,024 in the hole in our budget
The board is wondering if we should shoot for the amount we borrowed to pay for the playground, which is about $6,700, or if we should shoot for somewhere in the middle like $5,000.
Is that more achievable?
Is it a rounder, more pleasing number to tell a story around?
Most agree that $5k is the best option
Some wonder how the 6th graders will feel about the playground being the only incentive considering they won’t enjoy it the following year as they’ll be moving to a new school
There’s discussion about a pizza party
Of campus parties aren’t allowed right now because we can’t afford the busses
The two treasurers agree on the $5k fundraising goal for the spring fundraiser
Robyn moves on to volunteer opportunities
After spring break volunteers can be back on campus
Heather announces upcoming events and activities on campus
She wants us to hit the spring running
Earth Day clean-up run by Erika Will. She will need a couple volunteers to help her organize it.
She wants to go walk around with Robyn and Joni and see where the needs are for the earth day event
Alise wants to help and also Robyn says Ms. Thayne does
Monica is talking about the staff appreciation event
PSO members say adding bus drivers to the list of staff we make sure we reach is a good idea this year
Robyn says Steph has a “recipe for success” idea that may work for a future event
Tiffany shares information about the talent show
They are aiming for June thanks to the theatre department switching their musical to May
Key dates include and email blast on March 28th to the parents to let them know how the show is going to work
Trials will be sent to the talent show email address
Trials will be due Monday, May 9
Anyone who doesn’t make it can be put into an ensemble
Wed, June 8 is rehearsal
Thu, June 9th at 7pm in gym
There will be no volunteer mixer this year
But we would like to have a PSO get together this year in June 21st
Ciara works at College Place Elementary and she says they are just starting a PSO
Someone had the idea of having a “baby shower” for their PSO since they are “just starting out” as a PSO
In that, we can extend a gift to them
Heather proposes we dig through our PSO attic above the gym that we can possibly gift to them
Heather goes over the positions that need to be filled next year on the PSO
Colleen proposes we be more intentional about who is on the PSO and perhaps seek opportunities every day to approach a dad or anyone else who might add diversity to the group
Stephanie reads a letter to the PSO
It is from Robyn, who really appreciated the coffee bar we provided for the teachers and staff.
Meeting ends.
People in attendance: Molly Reeves, Kari DeLoma, Alex Waltz, Jen, Carrie Mackerer, Robyn Saltzman, Michelle, Stephanie R., Stephanie Woody, Heather Alschuler, Colleen Byrum, Brittany Yang,
Stephanie Woody opens meeting with acknowledgement and go
Stephanie Woody moves to approve November 11th, 2021 General Meeting minutes.
Stephanie R. motions to approve. Michelle seconds.
Heather goes over the four open PSO positions for next school year:
Co-Treasurer, VP of hospitality, VP of Volunteers, Co-VP of Family and Community Affairs.
Stephanie Woody shares upcoming events:
1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade families are putting on a Staff Appreciation Espresso Day on March 4th.
Scholastic Book Fair April 18-22. We’re hoping for a “normal” book fair with hands on books. We’ll have to watch the COVID situation to determine how to do the book fair.
Virtual Family Bingo Night in April. Exact date TBD.
Staff Appreciation Week May 2nd-6th.
Talent Show in mid-may. Exact date TBD.
Heather is updating the group on the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee. DEI will be sending out a family engagement survey to learn more about how Sherwood can further engage communities.
Heather also updates us on the Mural Project – they want a large mural on the external gym wall that faces the east parking lot.
The PSO surprises the group with an exciting announcement!! The PSO will be using surplus funds from the last couple years of COVID cut-backs in activities to fund an addition to the Sherwood Elementary campus playground. The PSO is partnering with the City of Edmonds and the Edmonds School District to fund this project. PSO’s surplus funds of $20k have been matched by the city another $20k for a total of $40k. The Edmonds School District then matched that $40k to make the project total $80k. The PSO has a playground mock-up that is inclusive, to abilities both physical and cognitive, and ADA-approved.
Slides were shown of the playground mock-up.
Principal Robyn Saltzman gives an iReady update. Slides indicate student progress or non-progress between fall and winter testing. Reading scores improved from 40% proficient in fall to 56% proficient in winter. Math improved from 20% in fall to 41% in winter.
Brittany Yang asks a question in chat if parents are provided with a break-down of scores for individual students? Robyn instructs to ask your student’s teacher to access those scores. That way you can talk with the teacher about an individual play to improve scores that are lagging.
Robyn asks 2nd grade teacher, Kari DeLoma to share her thoughts about iReady. Robyn shares that she does believe we can glean information about our students from this program and supports its use.
Heather A. asks if all Edmonds SD schools use iReady and they do.
Stephanie W. asks how Sherwood is doing compared to other schools. Robyn says she doesn’t have access to all school scores but feels we are on par for the district as a whole.
Michelle asks about the Smarter Balance assessment, which Robyn clarifies is for 3rd through 6th grade students. It is a statewide test that helps us compare us to other schools in the district and other schools in the state.
No further questions on Robyn’s iReady presentation.
Heather shares ways to stay connected to the school:
PSO newsletter, Website, Facebook group, Family directory, and Class Parent communication.
Next General PSO meeting is in May – specific date TBD.
Heather adjourns at 6:41
Heather opens with acknowledgement
General notes:
PSO needs a chair for next year’s Walk-a-Thon
Mural meeting is tonight at 7
Friday 1/21 is Dress Up Day – The Job You’d Want
Stephanie Woody motions to pass the November board meeting minutes
Tiffany Sjong seconds
Board minutes are approved
Agenda #1: Deanne O’Dell about family communication affairs
They were thinking about an environmentally-friendly project this spring
A group of 6th graders started a team to do something good for the earth, so thinking about joining up with them to come up with a project
Spring sports gear swap: Tons of parents have sports equipment their kids have outgrown, so they wanted to try and do a gear swap
They also wanted to do something to help parents, who are going through a lot of stress in this pandemic. There are a few options of speaker and presenters, and those choices cost money.
Amy Lang did a free webinar (how to ace sex talks with your boys) that they’re going to add to the newsletter
*Clothing for student emergencies: the school needs extra clothes for when kids get wet and muddy on rainy days. It’s always good to deliver more, so a reminder to do that.
Robyn says frequent reminders help because people respond to that
*Carrie asks about if Sherwood would consider an Amazon wish list to address some of the needs
Robyn thinks that might be a step too far, but she’d rather put our monetary resources into other items like gift cards for families
Agenda #2: Tiffany Sjong talks about talent show
It’s going to have to be done virtually, so they are thinking about the best ways to do that.
They’re thinking about having the kids send in videos of their proposed talent show act… they’ll then choose 10 acts.
A question comes up about group talent performances – whether people would wonder if that’s “COVID safe” and Heather says she’ll create some language to avoid that.
Agenda #3: Colleen talks about the playground update
Summarizes the email she sent to the group in December announcing the potential funds coming in to match the PSO surplus funds, which will be used to get a playground addition in Sherwood
The District has approved the project, and will match funds, pending what we get from the city and Verdant
The City has our proposal and extra questions answered, they need to go to the council now
Cont…
Verdant has been radio silence since the new year, but I remain vigilant in trying to get them on board
We need all funds approved by about mid-February in order to order the equipment to get it installed in time for the next school year
*Idea brought up that new basketball nets are needed, so perhaps we can get community involvement to beautify the existing equipment.
*Michelle is curious if there is a process for upgrading playgrounds by the district and if we jumped in line
*Jess wants to be assured that the playground is ADA compliant because by the looks of the picture it is does not look fun for kids who are not as mobile. Jess and Dee are going to come up with some ideas to help us maybe swap out some of the features for alternative features for kids with mobility challenges
Agenda #4: Heather talks about Sherwood spirit gear – tabling this topic
Agenda #5: Jessica and Michelle talk about their fundraising efforts
Good turnout for walk-a-thon… great money
They don’t feel we need a Spring fundraiser
Agenda #6: Monica and Tiffany update hospitality efforts
Agenda #7: Principal update
Education levy information: the district is looking for volunteers to do phone banking
They really need parents to vote because levies rarely get the effort behind them they need
COVID update: isolation time has changed to 5 days if there is an exposure or a positive test, kids can return to class on 6th day
District ordered 21k rapid tests, but right now they only have PCR which takes time to come back
Three walkie talkies have been received since the November meeting
She wants ideas for a spring swap – maybe books
Heather closes meeting talking about reaching out to potential members of the Sherwood Community for PSO roles to fill next fall as other members graduate out.
Meeting ends at 6:37pm.
Robyn: brought up that the first spirit day is this Friday and the class chose ‘Twin Day’. Another class chose ‘Disney Day’ (date TBD) and we are still waiting for the last class to choose a dress up day. We have two eagle names submitted so far – Sky & Blaze. Team discussed ways to gather the student votes. Thinking of paper votes counted by the winning 5th grade class.
Click for slides –> General PSO meeting 2 November
Present:
Steph Woody
Colleen Byrum
Michelle Becker
Heather Alschuler
Monica’s iPhone
Jess’ iPhone
Molly Reeves
Robyn Saltzman
Jen Fritz
Vanessa Stevens
Brittany Yang
Carrie Mackerer
Deanne Odell
Christina Burton
Mary Zoe
Meeting opens with land acknowledgement
Stephanie Woody: Calls for approval of last meeting’s minutes, which were shared via link on the Zoom chat and are posted on the PSO’s website
Host has disabled participant screen sharing
Michelle Becker moves to approve the minutes, Colleen Byrum seconds
Heather Alschuler: She shared her screen to look at the PSO by laws.
Heather gave an overview of the PSO by laws.
Tina Burton moves to approve the by laws, Michelle Becker seconds.
Jen Fritz presents the PSO Budget Summary
We have a surpless of $20k that she would like the board to use and not sit on.
Upcoming fundraisers include the winter auction, book fair, cookie dough
She lays out where the parts of the budget go – including events such as 6th grade graduation, comfort kids, staff appreciation breakfasts/lunches, etc…
Heather talks about the $20k surplus and what can be done with it – playground upgrades, curriculum upgrades, etc… and says there will be a committee that will field ideas and decide how to spend this money.
Jen calls for a vote of approval through chat:
Yays: Stephanie Woody, Colleen Byrum, Tina Burton, Heather Alschuler, Deanne Odell, Carrie Mackerer, Mary Zoe, Jen Fritz, Robyn Saltzman, Monica Floreno, Brittany Yang, Michelle Becker. Steph Woody votes ‘yay’ via text to Colleen Byrum because she can’t enter her vote in the chat due to sharing her screen for the group.
Budget is approved
Michelle Becker: Wraps up the Walkathon
Raised $42,000, including the money from sponsors
Nine different classrooms won a classroom experience, all classrooms earned Tier1 eagle sticker prizes, Tier 2 silicone bracelets prizes… 8 classrooms reached Tier3 pizza coupon prizes.
The top 3 fundraising classrooms will choose an all-class spirit day theme and get to select Sherwood Eagle names for the school to vote on.
Heather gives a shout out to the committee and all of their hard work.
Sherwood Holiday Community auction is from 11/29 to 12/2
Stephanie: Reminds group that there are many ways to stay connected including the family directory, the class parent communication, pso facebook group, pso monthly newsletters, pso website.
Robyn Saltzman: COVID-19 updates
If a student is not fully vaccinated they must do a 10 day quarantine, but if they can prove a medical verification test on day 5-7 that they are negative… they can return on day 8.
Fully vaccinated students do not need to do a quarantine unless symptoms exist
Jessica asks if the quarantine starts at the time of known exposure or at the time of discovery. Robyn says it’s at the time of known exposure.
Heather asks via Zoom chat asks if vaccinated students need to be tested to return? Or only if symptoms exist? Robyn says the vaccinated student only needs to be tested if symptoms exist and last more than 24 hours.
Jessica asks if the same protocol exists for teachers… Robyn says yes.
Tina wants to know if more vaccine clinics will happen… Robyn doesn’t know.
Robyn moves on to the School Improvement Plan: Literacy, Math, and Social Emotional.
Literacy goal is between this year and the fall of 2024… students in grade 1-6 will make a 3% growth in grade level reading as measured by iReady and Running Records.
Between 2018 and 2019 – 66.4% of students met standards of English Language Arts.
Math goal is similar – 3% growth in math as measured by iReady and the curriculum-based assessments. Last measured at 61.6% meeting standards.
Social emotional survey:
86 percent of kids felt they’ve been bullied
72 percent had positive feelings about school
71 percent felt they have supportive relationships
66 percent have been having challenging feelings
Colleen asks how often the survey is given throughout the year – Robyn says three times
Robyn says the goal is to challenge the kids who scored higher in testing
Heather wraps the meeting by announcing the next General meeting, which is in March 2022.
Toggle Content
PSO Board Meeting
10/19/2021
5pm-6:30pm
Attendance:
Stephanie Woody
Jenn Fritz
Heather Alschuler
Michelle Becker
Brittany Yang
Carrie Mackerer
Stephanie R.
Molly Reeves
Monica Floreno
Ciara Leckie
Alise Rueckert
Tina Burton
Tiffany Sjong
Deanne Odell
Robyn Saltzman
Jessica Eickhoff
Katie Dire
Heather asks if it’s okay with everyone that the meeting can be recorded. We all agreed and the meeting is recorded.
Heather read the land acknowledgement.
Meeting minutes from last month: Stephanie approved, Tiffany seconded, meeting minutes approved.
Comfort Kits
In the process of being put together for classrooms. Only things that need to be replaced are consumables and perishables. Chelsea is the chair, working with Joni to determine what is needed. They decided to not ask for family letters sent for individual comfort kits. Looking at purchasing lanterns for classrooms because the district warns that power outages could happen this year. Those are being priced out. Kits are supposed to be finished by the end of the month. Use year’s prior budget for kits.
Make a Difference Day
October 23, 1-4pm
Erika Will is leading the charge. A message about the event was posted on FaceBook today. PSO will help spread the word. Bulbs to be planted, mulch delivered, spruce up campus, set up to look nice come Spring.
Alise, Michelle, and Katie can come for portions of the event.
Goal by the end of the year to have a little Sherwood library created.
Band Request for Funds
Mr. Ellis, the band teacher requested PSO funding to help fund some student band books. 10 or so students might need help purchasing. Can we help fun this? Approximately $100 would be needed from the PSO. Stephanie suggested that we pull from the scholarship fund. Heather will let Mr. Ellis know we can fund the books.
Robyn, Principal’s Update
Grateful for what everybody has done on volunteering on the side for Sherwood.
The staff is looking at equity in their school improvement plan. They are working toward on more of a feeling of belonging. At the next PSO meeting, she wants to discuss school improvement goals and how the PSO can be a part of that. So far, many people have been invited to the DEI meetings.
Conversation about safety on the field. What we can do at recess to keep issues at bay. Walkie talkie issues. Can we purchase new ones? Get an idea of how much they would cost and build it into the budget. Emergency fund has been used to replace walkie talkie parts.
Driving around the school. People are driving very fast. Person at Robinhood has almost been hit and person by stairway cross walk. Remind all to drive safely around the school. Gotten more out of hand than in the beginning of the school year. Can we advertise as a PSO?
Would PSO be able to purchase flag football belts?
Walk-A-Thon (Jess, Michelle, and Brittany)
Walk-a-thon raised $33,548.00!! Feels like a huge win. Kids seemed to rally around the classroom prizes.
Prizes:
$300 tier 1 – sticker/decal, all classes got this
$1000 tier 2 – bracelets, all classes got them
$2000 tier 3 – 8 classes hit tier 3, coupons for Pagliacci
Daily classroom experiences – 1 class won twice, otherwise the experiences were evenly distributed
What to do with the donations?
- Donations have been put into 8-9 baskets
- Suggested raffle for November for a holiday raffle, Seahawk tickets need to be used
- Initial thoughts about how to organize – Flyer sent home listing gift baskets, families can send back envelopes with money indicating basket of choice, kids could get a raffle ticket and choose the basket they want to put their name in for, possible option to film name pulling live
- Could do an online auction, but that might not be as equitable, WA state said no to online raffle
- We got these items and if we don’t use them, we would need to tell the businesses that they won’t be used this year. Seahawks tix would be forfeited.
- If Bookfair is in December, is there a way to link up bookfair with raffle?
- Auction vs. Raffle? Auction hasn’t been discussed yet with fundraising team.
Does anyone have any huge concerns with doing a raffle in November? No concerns, but a choice needs to be made between wreaths and the raffle.
Do we want to do wreaths? Last year brought in $3773, spent $1884, about $2000 profit. Mittens program brought in enough donations. Money wasn’t used from PSO for the mitten program.
Discussion about doing raffle instead of wreaths. It was agreed to go ahead with the raffle instead of doing wreaths.
It was discussed that we need to find a way to bring the community together with the gift basket raffle tied in. Craft Night or bookfair? Celebrate all families, not just those who bought raffle tickets. Drive thru event like snowflake craft like last year. Maybe each child could get a small gift, all kids unwrap their present, all students would get something and raffle money could be collected.
Follow up with Ms. Flow if she is doing any concerts in the Winter. Everyone could attend virtually?
Questions to think about – Who will organize the raffle? How you want to execute the raffle portion? Does hospitality want to think of something for bringing the students together?
Voting – if it is incorporated into budget, then we can vote on it within the budget.
Fundraising team will come up with support they will need for this fundraiser.
Maybe do the fundraiser at the end of November/first week of December.
Maybe create some kid geared raffle boxes?
Volunteer Updates (Tina and Brittany)
When to do craft night? Could we wait until spring and do it outside?
Last meeting Tiffany agreed to be the chair for talent show. Still looking for the chair of the art docent program or craft night.
Brittany shared that a volunteer, Sara Foster, is excited to take on craft night. The job would be to put together some kits to go home to families. Tina is happy to be co-chair for craft night. Brittany can put Tina in touch with Sara Foster. Still need co-chair for art docent program. Tina wants to pitch to Sara about co-chairing the art docent program. This year will be just prepping materials. Teachers will teach the lessons.
Do we still need a movie night chair? No.
Bookfair Chair – Carrie Mackerer is working with Liz on the bookfair. It might be moved to Spring. Mr. Sonnen is thinking of changing the date. What is needed for bookfair volunteers? Carrie will get back on that one once Carrie meets with Liz Morgan. The DEI committee put together a wish list of books, purchased quite a few for the library. Can the bookfair chairs put together a DEI wish list? Tina will send a list to Carrie.
Reach out to Tina and Brittany if you need any volunteer needs.
Tina would like to ask teachers to keep a volunteer log of people that volunteer in the classroom. It is important those people are recognized as well as PSO members. Can a room parent keep track of that? We can ask teachers, but not sure if all teachers would follow through on that. What is the goal for the recognition? Specifically for names for the end of the year mixer to ensure those people are not overlooked when we do a volunteer appreciation mixer and for the Golden Eagle award so we have an idea of who these people are. Always nice to recognize volunteers. Making sure we aren’t creating more work for volunteers and teachers. Great resource for knowing who is willing to volunteer. Robyn – Thinks it would be okay to ask the teachers to create a log of who is helping out. Tina will create something for teachers to keep track of volunteers.
A question was raised about DEI and art docent committee chairs joining our PSO board? Concern about making the board too large. Tina suggests we invite the chairs to our meetings. There was discussion about all chairs being invited or just the DEI and art docent chairs. The benefits to a smaller board is that positions cover a broad area. Does the chair even want to be a board member? Beneficial for them to be able to speak on their own. When boards get too large, less gets done. It is better to have committees make decisions. Boards are a broader picture. Maybe DEI can come once a semester to discuss goals, updates, and needs. DEI is feeling supported by the PSO based on conversations with Aurora. Is anyone opposed to not putting forth the invitation to the chairs of events? We can make it optional for committee chairs and add them to our PSO email that we have a PSO meeting coming up and if they have something to share about their event they are welcome to attend the meeting.
DEI
Aurora is putting together a survey for the entire school community. She will probably use the tool Answer Garden to see what the community feels its biggest gaps and priorities are.
They will ask PSO for $500.
Talked about working with Erika with school spruce up. Painting doors with positive messages. Possibility to ask a Scriber Lake student to work on a mural. Grant opportunity possible for the mural.
Aurora would like a co-chair. Someone who does not have connections to the PSO. Need a match with religious or cultural diversity.
Cultural night? Likely not going to happen. No art walk either. Merging those together is a topic being brought up.
Grants (Molly and Carrie)
Art grant to look into for a Nov. 1 deadline.
DEI grant with a deadline of tomorrow. Aurora will take care of it.
Molly and Carrie will meet soon to discuss grants.
Grants are project specific. Art is a common one. What kind of projects do we want to go for? Science? STEM? We have to be very specific about what we use the funds for.
They are looking into local organizations. Who is funding different things now vs. a few years ago?
Teachers can ask for money for miscellaneous grants. Ask teachers if they have any special ideas that they would need grants or funds for.
Skate Night (Molly)
We need to pick some dates. Lynnwood Bowl and Skate is ready to have parties. Timing wise… historically it has been in February. Molly will coordinate with Joni. Thinking February would be fun.
PSO Thank You Notes (Stephanie R. shared)
College Place Elem. – CPA greatly appreciated the ice cream social.
Mrs. Alderson – Amazing with all the events we put on during the pandemic.
Hospitality (Tiffany and Monica)
Planning staff appreciation lunch for November 10. Sending out flyers to 4th, 5th, and 6th grade families. Asking for a $10 donation from each family. Usually they would refer to the family directory, but its looking slim so going to send out flyers instead. Deadline of November 3 to receive donations. How much money they get will determine what kind of lunch. They would like to do a catered lunch with turkey and mashed potatoes.
Question for Stephanie Rothmier – to make donations equitable, option for Venmo, or send in an envelope that says staff appreciation. Teachers can put it in a lock box? Stephanie says this is okay.
This year we are not doing the every month teacher lunch, intermediate is doing a Fall lunch, primary will one in the Spring
Other
November general meeting is November 10.
Can we change the meeting time to increase attendance for the general meetings?
Can we change board meeting time? Can we do a text alert?
Newsletter, room parents, paper flyers to get the word out.
Katie will send link to room parents and ask them to remind their families.
Heather Alschuler opens meeting with mention this meeting is being recorded… and with acknowledgement.
Attendance: 20 participants at its height
Heather calls for someone to motion to approve minutes from the last General PSO Meeting on June 14th.
Michelle Becker approves
Ciara Leckie seconds
Stephanie Woody introduces group to what the PSO is. New is that we are officially a non-profit 501c.
Lays out the PSO Mission, Vision, and Goal
Describes the people and positions within the PSO
Heather talks about what the PSO Has done so far this year:
- Sherwood Spruce Up – families came to campus and cleaned up the grounds
- Teacher welcome back breakfast
- Meet the Teacher Drive-thru
- Cheers and Tears on first day of school for kids
- Goodwill Fill the Truck
Heather tells the group that the eagle mascot was also purchased this year and will be holding a naming contest.
Stephanie talks about the HOST of upcoming events… all events are tentative because of the ongoing pandemic.
Talks to the group about how to stay connected with what the PSO Has going on including: PSO Newsletter, Website, Facebook group, Family directory, class parent (new this year) communication.
Stephanie opens the floor to questions: None
Suzanne Campbell takes over to talk about the 12th Annual Walkathon
This will set the PSO budget for the year
It is from 10/11-10/15
Kick off is 10/7
There will be an online donation page, which is new this year
Classes will compete during 2 PE classes for the most laps
The winning class gets the coveted Golden Shoe
There will also be tiered classroom prizes and daily top classroom prizes
Suzanne asks if there are any questions: None
PSO Board Meeting
9/22/2021
5pm-6:30pm
Attendance:
Stephanie Woody
Colleen O’Brien
Jen ??
Heather Alschuler
Michelle Becker
Brittany Yang
Carrie Mackerer
Stephanie R.
Molly Reeves
Monica’s Iphone
Ciara Leckie
Alise Rueckert
Tina ??
Tiffany Sjong
Deanne Odell
Robyn Saltzman
Jess’ iPhone
Stephanie opens with the acknowledgement
HEATHER WITH UPDATES:
Heather asks for last month’s meeting notes to be approved – Tina approves. Monica seconds. Everyone in favor.
Volunteers Committee acknowledged for their three recent events. Heather notes the events helped with outreach to parents. The welcome back breakfast for teachers was appreciated and a great way to kick off the year.
Comfort kits
Chelsea V?? has volunteered to spearhead that communication
Google Drive PSO folder – contact Heather or Steph if you don’t have access to it
Facebook Rules and guideposts are (where??)
We have our mascot! Heather thanks Steph for making that happen. We got a great deal on it! Just over $300. PSO will have it cleaned a few times a year – money budgeted.
PSO bylaws need to be reviewed every few years. Heather will email out to everyone and if we need to change come bylaws we can do that with a board vote. She asks we review those bylaws and propose any changes or edits.
ROBYN:
Shows off the new Sherwood t-shirts. Theme is “recipe for success.”
Says the mascot has been a big hit.
The kids did an evacuation drill this past week, they also practiced an earthquake drill
The car line, she says, is a work in progress… someone told her it’s gotten better… but some parents are not following the rules. More seriously, neighbors are NOT happy about this situation. Says pickup lasted until 4:01 today (9/22) which is a big improvement.
Robyn got a mean phone call/voicemail today from a neighbor complaining about a road blocked.
SHE WOULD LIKE PEOPLE TO HELP HER BRAINSTORM IDEAS TO MAKE PICKUP LESS PAINFUL
Standards Based Assessment: English language arts, math and science
4th, 5th and 6th graders are taking this now. It is a shortened version to help them instruct to where the missing pieces are. November 5th-14th.
Curriculum night is online. It will also be recorded and sent out if parents can’t make it to the live online presentation.
1st grade – there is another unit coming. Hope is by the end of the month they’ll know what teacher it is and they can move forward.
Carrie asks when the kids will be moved… Robyn will be sending out a letter to parents who will be affected by this. She’s going to wait to send out the letter until she knows who the teacher will be.
DEANNE ODELL
She’s talking about the weekend Goodwill drop-off event
They filled 1 full truck and then some of a second truck
We get credit for the full truck and some of the second truck
They’re going to put notes together for future event coordinators that will be available on the PSO google drive
Lesson learned: Missed out on 10 cars because there was a misunderstanding about when Goodwill needed to be out of there. Because of that we missed out on about 20 minutes of donation time.
Teachers donated “a ton” of books into the gym… which helped a lot with donations
They set aside a bunch of new books from that donation pile to open a little free library at Sherwood.
Steph notes that we would like to do the GoodWill event again and since it took so long the first time around we definitely want to jump on any opportunity to do it again.
BRITTANY YANG: VOLUNTEER UPDATE
With no volunteers allowed on campus, she wants more information on how the events are going to work.
Tina notes that she was able to make those craft kits that were handed out at the end of the school year. It took about 45 hours to put the kits together, so she needs more volunteers if we do the same thing this year.
Robyn has no idea if volunteers will ever be allowed on campus at any point this year.
Tina presumes this means we won’t be having a movie night… says maybe a drive-thru book fair might work again.
Some developments:
Movie nights will prob not happen
Craft kits can be made again and supplies can come from art docent program
Talen night is iffy
Brittany suggests an outdoor movie night – Stephanie says they’ve explored that idea before, but it costs $1,000 and weather is always a potential spoiler
Tiffany suggests renting out Edmonds Theater for $350… but according to Heather it takes a lot to make back the cost of the event.
Colleen wanted to talk about how Facebook might not be reaching everyone, so a discussion ensued about if text or something else might be
JESS WALK-A-THON:
Seahawks tickets are a thing!! Colleen will get details on the date/seats.
Michelle is talking about the ins and outs of how the walk-a-thon will work for kids.
This year, they’re pivoting to classroom competitions instead of individual donations
We’re going to use an online platform to monitor donations
They’re exploring ideas on how an individual can still win a prize.
Walk-a-thon is October 11th-15th during regularly scheduled PE.
STEPHANIE R.
Budget talk
Asking for a friend or family friend who can review our taxes to make sure we’re doing okay
Stephanie is asking if everyone is interested in Zell for reimbursement instead of a check in the mail, which is slower.
Ask for CPA volunteers in newsletter
ERIKA WILL
Stephanie says the Edmonds School District, on Saturday, October 23rd, has a Make A Difference Day… and Erika recommended we do another campus clean up. She has volunteered to chair it and wants kids to help her plant daffodil bulbs and clean up other areas around the school. Steph was also thinking an art project would be nice, a mural perhaps… maybe a high school student can do a project for us, and maybe there’s some funds in the budget for hiring someone to do a mural.
Deanne suggests letters to retirement homes
Michelle asks for clarification about if volunteers can be on campus if it’s a weekend… since the rules are so strict about volunteers on campus during the school day.
HEATHER
6-7:30 is the General PSO meeting next Wednesday, 9/29/21
It will be via zoom
Families will soon be able to order school-brand clothing, too.
PSO board members can order 1 free item from the clothing options
PSO board members send their selections to Heather
Meeting ends early! Yay!
This is the only PSO meeting that has been not just one time… but early in the history of this PSO!!
Last minute mention – a service project for college place
Meeting adjourns at 6:21