Minutes

St. Thomas Preschool Advisory Board Meeting

April 15, 2010 
 

The Saint Thomas Advisory Board Meeting was called to order 12:30 p.m. at the St. Thomas Church nursery.  
 

Present: Michelle Garmon, Dusty Murphy, Lorie Cueva-Garcia, Nancy Ruther, Debbie Brooks, Jenny Toole, Jennifer Peterson, Tracy Curtin, Amy Heuther and Chris O’Sullivan. 
 

Opening Prayer was said by Nancy Ruther.

Minutes were approved for April meeting. 
 

Director’s Report

Michelle Garmon

Kindergarten Plus

• After meeting with Father Bill and the finance committee, St. Thomas Preschool has secured a classroom for a Kindergarten Prep classroom to begin in fall, 2010.
• Michelle is working with DigiPost, a postcard mailing company, to send information about the Kindergarten Prep class to the -18, -50, -15, -37 zip codes.
• We already have six students for the class with max. capacity at 16.
• See attachment of the overview for the class.
• Michelle is waiting for a grant to help fund supplies and scholarships but if the grant doesn’t come through, the church is willing to help out.
• A hiring committee of Michelle, Nancy Ruther, St. Thomas parent and a teacher (both to be announced) will go through applications.  The applicant will be Arizona certified with Early Childhood experience and endorsement.
• The assistant for the classroom will be an existing or previous St. Thomas teacher.

Other

• Father Bill is working with Dusty to redesign the school website.
• Father Bill has helped St. Thomas Preschool get a sign instead of the banner hanging out front.  A sign will stand on Valley View Rd at the south entrance to the church as well as on a west facing wall as you approach the school.

 
Fundraising

Jennifer Peterson and Tracy Curtin

• The Scholastic Book Fair was a success.  We were able to get many new books for our school library opening in the fall.
• Tracy suggested that we look at the class projects for the Annual Fundraisers.  She feels that there were too many projects for parents to bid on thus bringing in lower bids.  As well, we should see what brings in the highest bids and focus on those areas when asking for donations of items.
• It was also suggested that we keep a few themes in rotation from year to year to cut down on expenses and time of volunteers.
• Overall fundraising for the year we made some and lost some on projects.  For the 2010-2011 school year we will keep the Annual Fundraiser as our largest event, school lunches, and add an “Academic-a-thon” and “Sports-a-thon”, details to come.

 Community Service

Jenny Toole

• The World Care project didn’t go over too well.  We only had two boxes of items.
• For the 2010-2011 school year we will support REACH OUT, an organization that helps new mothers before and after birth of their babies.

 Communications 

Lori Cueva- Garcia

• Teacher Appreciation week is scheduled for April 26-30, 2010.
• The date was changed because Dusty and Father Bill will be out of town the week of the 13^th.
• Letters to families will go out April 26^th, 2010 explaining events and asking to sign up to bring in items for lunches and playground duties.

 
Treasurer

Amy Heuther

• With the help from Father Bill, things are looking up for the future of St.Thomas Preschool.  The new Kinder Plus classroom is exciting and will bring in new families and retain existing families.

 

New Busisness

• Debbie Brooks started a discussion about the 4-year old program wondering how the new Kinder Plus class would affect the curriculum.  She wanted to make sure the program remained rich preparing kids for Kindergarten.  Some points to consider;

1. Technology
2. Handwriting
3. Centers

 
The next board meeting will be the Thursday, May 13, 2010 at 12:30 pm.  
 
 

Minutes respectfully submitted,

Debbie Brooks