PTO Meeting Recap - September 25, 2015

Thank you to everyone who attended our first PTO meeting of the school year. Below are the minutes:

Bhaktivedanta Academy PTO Meeting Minutes

September 25, 2015

Attendees

Kalindi Simic, Lalita Sakhi Leslie, Malika Chacon, Murti McDaniel, Oksana Stefanyshyn, Raghu Consbruck, Ramya Raghavan, Rati Manjari Wahlstrom, Visvambhara Aguilera

Welcome - PTO Overview

• Reviewed purpose of the PTO and recapped foundational steps taken toward the end of the last school year.

• Discussed 3 main categories of involvement:

  • Events

  • Teacher/Class Support

  • Parent Community Support

• Proposal for requiring minimum hours of parent volunteer involvement was discussed. Will discuss further at future meetings for implementation in 2016-17 school year.

• Parent involvement survey was proposed to gauge areas of interest and meeting day/time preferences. Visvambhara will develop and send online and in Friday folders.

PTO Committees

• Discussed committees based on 3 areas of participation. Present members indicated their preferences for being part:

  • Raghu - Teacher/Class and Parent Community Support

  • Ramya - Events and Teacher/Class Support

  • Kalindi - Events, Teacher/Class and Parent Community Support

  • Rati Manjari - Teacher/Class Support

  • Malika - Events and Parent Community Support

  • Oksana - Teacher/Class and Parent Community Support

  • Lalita - Event and Teacher/Class Support along with interest in providing input on Curriculum

• Further commitments will be gathered in family survey.

Harvest Festival

• Annual harvest festival is on Thursday, November 12th.

• Special meeting for Harvest Festival planning will be held on Friday, October 16th at 2 p.m. in the library room.

Family Picnic/Fun Day

• Fall family potluck and fun day was discussed.

• O’Leno State Park is a possible venue on an upcoming Saturday afternoon.

• Malika will look into reserving space.

Srila Prabhupada Jubilee Event

• Instead of typical Govardhana Puja performances at New Raman Reti temple event, teachers are proposing a special event on Saturday, November 14th celebrating Srila Prabhupada.

• Venue would be the New Raman Reti Temple pavilion.

• Parent help will be needed for setup, prasadam (food) sales, etc.

• Murti volunteered to help with devising a means to erect temporary walls around pavillon to insulate from external sounds and to create a nicer atmosphere for the event.

• More details will be sent after teacher meeting on October 6th.

PTO Meeting Schedule

• Discussed meeting frequency and days/times

• It was agreed that monthly meetings would be good as the PTO becomes more established.

• Meeting will be the last week of every month and will alternate between early afternoon and evening.

• Present members indicated preference for a 7 p.m. start time. Exact day and time of October meeting will be based on survey responses.

General Discussion

• To help connect families with one another it was requested that a family directory be provided.

• A reminder that we have a Friends of Bhaktivedanta Academy facebook page for connecting with other parents and posting items that may be of interest.

• Discussed a means for parents to know when visitors will be presenting in the classrooms. Talked about giving all families 24hr notice of special guests and providing list of class volunteers.

• It was suggested that some additional procedures be added to field trips that require all drivers to caravan as a group and that prior notice to parents be sent indicating who is driving on a particular trip.

• Discussion about cost of providing music instruction at the upper elementary level and if it is something the PTO may want to fundraise to make possible. Visvambhara will investigate and report back.

• Discussed students being engaged in practical services for the New Raman Reti temple. Attempts have been made in the past with mixed results. Visvambhara will re-visit the topic with the teachers and temple administration.