Teach Boosters Meeting
June 8, 2012
Attendance: Taffy Gonzalez, Riana Baxter, Lori Shields, Idona Cabrintha, Sunshine Cowgill, Altovese Vigil, Paula Fryer, Marie Newmann, Erin Clausen, Summer Kabaker, Chantal Blanchard, Mr. Block, and Jocelyn Leonard.
Meeting called to order at 8:36 a.m.
There was a vote for Financial Secretary, as the nominee could not stay for the whole meeting. Sunshine nominated Paula Fryer for Financial Secretary. All were in favor. Paula will be our new Financial Secretary for the 2012-2013 school year.
Invoices were sent out on Monday to parents who still owe money for study trips. If we don’t hear from them by the end of the week, we will call them on Monday. We have to write off bad debt at the end of the school year. We are especially trying to get the 6th grade families to pay their share before the 6th graders leave the school.
Regarding the approval of the minutes from last month, Idona moved to add to the yearly audit discussion that she arranged to meet with Altee to help balance the books, and that Marie also offered to help. Riana moved to approve the minutes as they stand corrected. Summer seconded the motion. Note: Upon a check by the secretary, that information already is in the minutes from last month, on page 3.
The Student Council now has their own bank account at Coast Hills. The amount deposited into the new account was : $742.28, which was the amount from the penny wars last year. This year the students raised $1004.59 in the penny wars, and $129.57 from movie night. The Student Council can now deposit this into their account on their own. There was a small loss from the Student Council from last year. They lost money on the candy grams, but the Boosters absorbed their loss, so the money currently deposited is what they made from Penny Wars. Heritage Oaks will take care of the pennies from Penny Wars.
An issue was brought up regarding how the money for penny wars was handled this year. The treasurer and the advisor were to pick up the money for the penny wars, and when they went to get it, the money was not there. The treasurer was told by another teacher that the money would be handled differently. Ms. Robson, the student council advisor was not aware of the change of plans, nor did she know where the money was. The money ended up being in the school safe, so it is now accounted for.
We need to do a yearly audit. It will cost money to hire a professional, or we can have a parent do it. Idona and Doris were asked if they would be able to help with the audit, but they are not able to at this time.
Financial Report: All things now match up and are accounted for. The missing check was to Mojo and has been found. The last two years are now all current and everything matches up. We will not get any fines or penalties on our taxes. In our PartnerShare account we have $5, in our checking account we have $17,775.36, one CD is worth $10,017.73 and another is worth $33,073.85. More bills will be coming in that have to be paid. These included the field trips for the end of the year parties, the 6th grade play bill, and all of the deposits for next year’s study trips. These deposits must be paid before the beginning of the school year. Chantal just turned in a yearbook bill for $1798. Income will also come in for the yearbooks.
Regarding the outstanding student account balances, $2500 was originally budgeted for scholarships, we have surpassed that by about 10 students. Idona felt that people may not know about what they owe and that maybe we should fundraise for each grade. They do this at Bishop’s Peak, but at Teach each student has an individual account. We are a public school, so we can’t make people pay. We can’t turn people away. We also have to balance our fundraisers, so we don’t bombard people and lose their interest. Denise suggested that maybe we could look for a different 4th grade trip that is closer to home, and cheaper. All food for thought.
We are currently in good shape financially. A bookkeeper, Jody, from Keeping the Books was hired by Altee, out of her own pocket, to go over all the accounts and reconcile them. Everything is now accounted for and reconciled and in QuickBooks. Altee thanked Idona for offering to meet with her and help. However, after talking to our accountant, he suggested she hire a professional so that the process would get taken care of and not get messier. Chantal asked if the taxes matched. The accountant says that they do not, however we can make an adjustment, we do not have to go back. We are 501 so we will not get any fines or penalties. If there is a problem, the accountant, Jim Erb said they can contact him. Taffy suggested we ask the bookkeeper who just reconciled our books so do an audit since she knows all of our books already. An audit has never been done at Teach. Altee went back to April 2009 (which was before she came) to reconcile the books. That is why there was already a problem with the books when Altee took over. No bills were paid in April, May, or June of 2009. When Altee took over in July 2009, there was already a problem.
QuickBooks has charged us for payroll, which we don’t have, so we will be getting a credit for this.
We are talking about doing an audit for this school year only. The audit is simply the bank statements vs. the ledger. This is supposed to be done by June 30. Lori Shields volunteered to do the audit for us. Taffy moved to nominate Lori as the auditor, Summer seconded the motion. All were in favor.
Elections: Paula has already been elected for Financial Secretary. The other nominees are: Summer Kabaker for President, Chantal Blanchard for Vice President, Erin Clausen for Secretary, and Marie Neumann for Treasurer. Nara had volunteered to be the Ice Cream Social chairperson at an earlier date, but she was not at this meeting to confirm. We also need a chairperson for T-shirts, which are sold at the Ice Cream Social. During the election, Summer was elected President, Chantal was elected Vice President, Marie was elected Treasurer, and Erin was elected Secretary. No one was opposed. As for Class Representatives, Dondi Hubley is a nominee for the 4th grade, but since she is not here, the election of this spot will have to wait until the next meeting. Lori Shields was elected as the 5th grade Representative. Riana was elected as the 6th grade Representative. Nara Clark was nominated as the 6th grade rep. along with Riana, but we will have to wait until the next meeting to elect her as she was not present at this meeting. Idona will be the Room Parent coordinator.
Jocelyn passed the Secretary binder to Erin at the meeting. Sunshine will give Summer the President’s binder on Thursday, and Taffy will give Chantal the Vice President’s binder soon. Altee will pass the Treasurer’s binder to Marie by June 30. Sunshine and Altee will go to the district office to pay the bills by June 30, to close out the 2011-2012 school year. The budget for next year and all of the passwords for the accounts will be given to Summer on Thursday (last day).
Effective July 1, 2012 the signers on the bank accounts will be Marie Neumann, Summer Kabaker, and Paula Fryer. On the Student Council account, the signers will be Summer Kabaker, Marie Neumann, and Shauna Robson effective July 1, 2012. Ms. Robson is the advisor for the Student Council. Effective June 30, 2012 Sunshine Cowgill, Altee Vigil, and Jocelyn Leonard will no longer be signers on the bank accounts or the Student Council accounts.
Battle of the Books: We haven’t voted on whether to buy books for next year yet. Last year it cost approximately $1200. Annika Clements is the chairperson for Battle of the Books. The lists change yearly, and then come back every three years. We currently use the medium list, but there is also a small list of books you can purchase. Chantal moved that we purchase the short list of BB books. Summer seconded the motion. Purchasing the short list is approved. Taffy will tell Annika to buy the short list for the classrooms, after talking to the teacher’s to get their input as to which books on the list they need. If the bill comes in before June 30, give it to Altee, if it comes in July 1 or after, give it to Marie.
Yearbooks: There was a question about a flyer that went out asking for donations for yearbooks for those who can’t afford them. Parents were asked to make donations to the Teach Boosters. The Booster Club does not ask for donations for yearbooks. How will we determine who gets a free one if more people request than donate? Mrs. Jones is handling all things related to the yearbook.
Help is still needed for writing thank you notes for the auction. Please let Taffy know if you can help with this.
Meeting is adjourned at 9:57 a.m.
Thank you very much to Sunshine, Taffy, and Altee for all of your hard work these past two years! We appreciate your dedication to our school!
