OMS PTO Meeting Minutes April 14^th 2009

                                                   

Administration:  Dr. Troutman first spoke about the recent announcement regarding his move to Director of Curriculum and Instruction next year.  He expressed he is “not abandoning OMS” but rather will be in a position to do more for the students of Parkland on a larger scale. Dr. Troutman will be here to greet the students in the fall and will take on his new position after the start of the new year. The PTO expressed our sincere congratulations and well wishes to Dr. Troutman.

 

The topic of the PSSAs was discussed and Dr. Troutman was very pleased with how well the students preformed and their hard work was appreciated by all the staff. The students of 6^th and 7^th grades have enjoyed an ice cream party as a “Thank you” from the school. The 8^th grade will enjoy some other entertainment yet to be decided.  The 8^th grade still has the Science portion of the PSSA to complete the last week of April.

 

Dr. Troutman relayed a message from Officer Heffelfinger concerning “cyber safety”. Officer Heffelfinger would be willing to provide to the PTO a program about cyber safety and offer a question and answer session as well at no expense.  The PTO was very interested and will consider this program in the future.

 

Dr. Troutman reviewed the change in dates for upcoming music concerts.  Due to the large number of 6^th graders participating in the Chorus this year some changes needed to be made in the dates. Please refer to the online PTO events calendar at the following link http://www.geocities.com/omspto/newsnevents.htm .

 

Mrs. Ouly thanked the PTO for the wonderful Basket Raffle and Bingo that supported Big Brothers/Big Sisters of the Lehigh Valley.  She commented on how important it is to have the students participate in an event that helps others.  Mrs. Ouly also spoke about the great job the students did on the PSSAs and was very impressed with the attendance, all the grades had near perfect attendance the week of PSSAs. 

                                          

PTO Board: President Cindy Anderson reported that voting for the 2009-2010 PTO Board positions would take place at the May PTO meeting to be held May 12^th. Only those in attendance will be permitted to cast a vote.  Recruiting for next years PTO chairpersons is going well with a few positions still needed. Please note that signing up for position on the current recruitment sheet indicates your desire to chair that committee, volunteer forms for general help will be sent out in the summer mailing for you to fill out. The PTO would like to extend an invitation to all incoming 5^th grade parents to attend our meetings whenever possible or to contact anyone of the Board members with questions.  Cindy reminded everyone that Orefield Middle School PTO has many opportunities for parents/guardians to participate in and that this age level still needs your involvement, perhaps even more that before.  A request from the Festival of the Arts Committee at the High School has been made for a donation to support a scholarship for a graduate that will major in an Arts related field in college. This request has been tabled at this time and will be discussed at the next Board Meeting.

 

Treasurer Natalie Ziegenfuss reported on the budget which is in good standing with the Joe Corby’s pizza sale just finishing up.  A request had been made to offer funds that are budgeted by PTO for field trips for the 8^th grade students to instead be used to help with the 8^th Grade Celebration.  The 8^th grade has not used their field trip funds so the monies will be used to help the school provide a fun night for the kids.

 

Vice President Michele Kurtz addressed the upcoming events- Spring Book Fair will be held on April 24^th –May 1^st, please contact Linda Seitzinger or Susan Horwith if you have questions or are interested in helping.  ARP Auctions will be held May 8^th    and the Instructional Support Auction will be held May 15th – help is needed to contact business’ to ask for donations, please contact Lori Stewart with questions and for a list of possible business to contact. Clothing Drive April 15^th only bagged and labeled items will be accepted and only on that day.  8^th Grade Celebration- plans are in play for a great night, please contact Cindy Palmer with questions.  Field Days- volunteers are needed May 27^th (8^th grade), June 2 (6^th grade), June 4^th (7^th grade), please contact Amy Johannes.  Teacher Luncheon- May 6^th, prep day May 5^th.  Help is greatly needed to both prep food on Tuesday May 5^th and set up and serve on May 6^th.  Please contact Renee Curry to help with this very wonderful way to say “Thank You” to the staff of OMS.  Even if you can not be there in person donations are still needed for food items, contact Renee for information on how you can help. 

 

All contact information can be found at the following link: http://www.geocities.com/omspto/contacts.htm

 

 

We invite you to attend the next OMS PTO Meeting on May 12^th at 9:00 in the OMS Cafeteria.

 

 

                                                            Respectfully submitted

                                                            Tricia Jeffery

                                                            OMS PTO Secretary