Minutes of the June 8^th, 2016 meeting of

The 19^th Ward Community Association Schools Committee

Attendees: John Boutet, John Laing, Dan Ross, Jay Ross

Guests: Sheila Driscoll, Diane Watkins, Carleen Wilenius

May minutes Approved

Spelling Bee Budget/ Spend

• In December the schools committee provided a budget for the Spelling Bee which totalled $2,540. The actual spend for our initiatives was $2,244.20. In addition there was $1775 spent on gift cards, of which $450 has not been distributed. We reviewed the items to provide an initial sense of a 2017 budget to provide to The Community Foundation (TCF) in September.
• We discussed a proposal to encourage the students to compete in the Scripps spelling bee but decided that the expense would be greater than the potential benefit. We agreed that we would obtain the list from Scripps ($140) to complement the effort of the school 44 coordinator, who is making up word lists from the past several years and common core words. There may be some expense for the teacher. The following items are for the preliminary budget which needs to be finalized in our September meeting.
• We had a budget item of $500 for items to be given away to students in addition to the pencils.
• $1000 for t-shirts
• $690 for cash awards
• $720 for In-school celebrations/kick-offs for a total spend of $3,190.
• The actions of the schools committee and the executive committee surrounding the grants from TCF and spending initiatives were discussed. We resolved that in the future we would meet earlier to avoid situations getting out of control.

School 29 status

On Monday there was game day in the garden at Arnett and Wellington and the library for the students from school 29. Stories were read in the library and there were many new library cards issued.

School 16 status

• The FMP bill has hit a snag in the legislature. Encourage everyone to contact Gantt’s office to show your support for the bill.
• Dan suggested that we have the district schedule a meeting for parents and residents of the school 16 feeder pattern to get community input. This needs to wait for the passage of the funding bill.

Next Meeting

Wednesday, July 13^th at 7 pm in the 19^th ward association office.