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October General Meeting Minutes

BAS PTA General Meeting 
Tuesday, October 18, 2022, 7PM
Welcome, Pledge of Allegiance, New Board Introductions 
Benee Meade, President 
Nikki Savino Mulcahy, Vice President
Darshna Kuray, Treasurer
Catherine Venditti, Recording Secretary
Jennifer Jurkowich, Corresponding Secretary
Kate Ryan, Class Parent Liaison
Christine DelRe, Email Blast Coordinator
Courtney Byrne, Member-at-Large
Principal Report (Ms. D’Anna)
  • Thanks the PTA for kicking off the new school year on a great note
  • 5K was successful and kids are still talking about how fun the race was 
  • The school is looking forward to the upcoming events. Everyone is happy to have these events/trips/assemblies in place for the kids this year
  • Information will be forthcoming about Halloween parade
  • Cranford Fire Department made a successful visit 
President Report (Benee Meade)
  • Standing Rules Vote 
  • Join the PTA
    • We are hoping for 100% participation this year. If you’re a class parent or volunteer for any events you must be a PTA member
  • Volunteer Database
    • This is an ongoing list of parents who are available to be a backup volunteer for different events. No one is locked into anything. It’s a great way to get involved for first time volunteers
  • Chair Acknowledgements and Thank Yous
    •  School Supply Kits- Meredith Goldblatt and many volunteers who helped assemble the kits prior to the first day of school
    • First Day of School Outside Décor- Courtney Byrne
    • Mr. Mark Retirement Clap Out- Front Office Staff, Teachers and Jen Jurkowich for coordinating a gift from the families as a send off
    • Staff Welcome Back- Jen Jurkowich for setting up a first day back coffee bar for the staff along with organizing small teacher gifts to help kick off the year
    •  Staff Appreciation/Gifting- Jen again for sending flowers for Ms. Morreale’s engagement and treating our custodians to coffee for custodian appreciation day
    • Picture day- Allyson Konzelman and her team of volunteers 
    • Walk and Roll to School Day- Nikki Savino Mulcahy
    • Outdoor Beautification- Kate Ryan who planted fall flowers around the building      
    • Chris DelRe for designing, coordinating and distributing new BAS Shirts for our incoming kindergarteners, and new students and staff
    • Pretzel Day Sale- Meredith Goldblatt 
      • If anyone is interested in being the AM Kindergarten chair, please reach out to the PTA
    • 5K- Meaghan Bottino and Brian Hart for all they have done to organize the race thus far.  Meagan Cuthbertson for being our sponsorship guru and securing so many wonderful local businesses to participate this year. Our OAS counterparts for a wonderful partnership, and the countless volunteers who gave their time to help ensure the event was successful
    • Stephanie Concannon for running our BAS Spiritwear Sale
    • This Friday is the BAS Pumpkin Patch 
      • Chairs are Courtney Byrne, Stephanie Concannon, Allyson Konzelman, and Madhavi Takionka
  • Your PTA Dollars at work/Upcoming Initiatives
    • Indoor Recess Kit Refresh
      • These are used on days with inclement weather and when the temperature dips below 32 degrees. These bins provide the kids with many options for fun activities
    • Clubs (Art, Environmental, + Coding for our 2nd graders, and Coding for our 1st graders)
    • Classroom Library Refresh
      • We are working on acquiring new books and replacing books that are old and worn out
    • Field Trips- PTA Helps funds these educational experiences for each grade 
    • Additional fundraisers/Assemblies
      • If anyone has any ideas we would love to hear them. BAS is a community and we want everyone to feel involved
  • Stay Connected
    • We are live on Instagram!
    • How to stay up to date?  Website (www.bas.com), Monthly email blasts, Facebook, Instagram, and Remind
      • send text to @basptak, @baspta1st, or @baspta2nd to 81010)
  • Parent Academy- Please take note of these frequently occurring events, funded by the PTA. The first event of the year was last week, but stay up to date on future events by checking out our blasts, BAS weekly blasts, and on our website
  • Pomptonian Lunch updates
    • Pizzeria pizza is back
    • New warmers are coming to help keep hot food hot
    • Better cooling systems for transporting food are in progress
Treasurer Report (Darshna Kuray)
  • Opening balance for 22-23 school year is $13,806.31
  • Proposed 2022-23 budget is projected to have surplus income of approx $5.5K by end of year.
  • We have paid our dues to National and renewed our AIM Insurance this month.
  • As of today, we have taken in $1,600 in membership dues and $2,225 in donations. This equates to 160 memberships.
  • We are anticipating raising $43,800 in change for overall fundraising this year
  • If we stick to our budget this year we expect to have a surplus of $5,365 at the end of the year
  • Budget has passed for the 2022-2023 school year
Class Parent Liaison Report (Kate Ryan)
  • All class parent spots have been filled.  24 volunteers were chosen from a hat this year to maintain fairness
  • Next year we would like to put the class parent form in a separate email in the hopes that we get even more volunteers
  • 6 parties this year (Halloween, Thanksgiving, Holiday, Valentines, St. Patrick’s Day, End of Year) 
  • No food for Halloween or Thanksgiving parties
  • Thanksgiving event is a service project 
  • Ms. D’Anna confirms 2 additional parent volunteers ok for each party and she would like to keep it fair over the course of the year so that everyone gets a chance to come in and volunteer
    • Kate will pass this information along ASAP so class parents can source volunteers for the upcoming parties
    • This year Mrs. Orrichio’s class parents have sent an email asking for parents who are interested in volunteering for parties and they will pick from a hat during the year instead of relying on the first come/first serve sign up genius. This gives anyone who wants to volunteer a chance to do so
VP Report (Nikki Savino Mulcahy)
  • We are looking forward to a great and festive October with the BAS/OAS Trunk or Treat thanks to the collaborative efforts of Darshna Kuray and her OAS counterpart- Ginny Colarusso. We have bins in BAS for candy collection this week, we would love to have as many donations as possible. 
    • Students are available to help replenish candy for all of the trunks so that the parents can stay at their station for the duration of the event
    • We are in need of so much more candy this year. Please donate if you can!
  • Stephanie Concannon launched BAS apparel sale last week.  There are a great variety of items and options for families to show their BAS pride!
  • Allison Konzelman will be chairing the post-Halloween Candy Drive for the Troops! There will be bins in BAS for the week following Halloween to collect any candy donations.
  • Still to come is the BAS Pumpkin Patch which will be taking place this Friday.
  • We will be having a collection in early November for Cranford Family Cares Collection so please look for more details coming your way 
    • Jen Arianas and Mary Novick are chairing this event 
  • Save the date for STEAM Night on November 17th, Jen Jurkowich has some truly spectacular activities in store!
    • Assembly for the first half of the night and a project for the second half of the night
    • Theme for the evening is Pirates
  • Thank you to Meghan Bottino and Brian Hart who were the BAS Chair for the 5K and worked with an outstanding Committee for a fantastic event this past weekend.  
 Corresponding Secretary Report (Jennifer Jurkowich)
  • Celebrate and thank staff throughout the year. (Weddings, babies, retirements, as well as special days throughout the year)
  • Helped kick off the school year by bringing in coffee to “fuel” the first day
  • Teachers received Amazon gift cards, pens, and notepads 
  • Office staff received flowers
  • Custodians received coffee and pastries for Custodian Day.
Recording Secretary Report (Catherine Venditti)
  • BAS PTA website event calendar is updated through January
  • Meeting minutes will be posted to the feed on main page after meeting adjourns for any parent to access
  • Variety Show update: 
    • Co-chairs Catherine Venditti and Susan Burke had a productive meeting with Ms. D’Anna bringing her up to speed on what the variety show entails
    • Darshna has confirmed PTA assistance of $75 dollars per class to help with costume/prop costs
    • Director volunteer form will go out at the end of October/beginning of November. We hope to finalize all parent volunteers by the end of November
    • Student participation form will go out at the end of November/beginning of December. We are hoping for close to 100% participation this year!
    • Rehearsals are slated to begin the week of January 9th
    • Dress rehearsal will take place on Tuesday, March 28th and the show will take place on Wednesday, March 29th at CHS.
 Email Blast Coordinator Report (Chris DelRe)
  • Working on archiving the newsletters after they are sent out so they are in one central place on the website to make looking up information easier. Stay tuned!
  • Check in different folders of your email for the newsletters if you’re not getting the newsletters in your primary inbox
  • Chris is working on getting all staff a new BAS shirt for the year
Adjourn 
Attendance:
Kristen D’Anna
Benee Meade
Catherine Venditti
Kate Ryan
Darshna Kuray
Jen Jurkowich
Chris DelRe
Courtney Byrne
Dana Cascone
Vanessa Azevedo
Lauren King
Manoly Reynolds
Tara McGrath
Katelin Morgan
Allyson Konzelman
Lisa Bracigliano
Merin Rose
Samantha Wilks
Stephanie Concannon
Jessica Satterlee
Nicole McDermott
Laura LeFave


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