Valentine's Dance

The pink, red, and white balloons bejeweled the ceiling, the lights were dimmed, and the beat of the music had you tapping your foot. You guess it! The annual Chets Creek Valentine's Dance was ready to get in full swing!

This year nearly 1,000 young students and their parents bought pre-sale tickets. Students, some adorned in dress slacks and bowties and others in stunning dresses, crowded to the doors of the dining hall turned dance floor to dance the night away.

Due to its popularity, two dances were offered, one from 6:00 – 7:30 pm and a second from 8:00 – 9:30 pm. A professional DJ provided the entertainment, and PTA sold concessions including pizza, drinks, and candy. The CCE PTA store was open for business. However, the greatest hit was the sale of roses.

Though the dances were packed, the students didn't seem to mind. Like I was, the chaperoning parents seemed equally as impressed with the young dancing talent. They snapped pictures and captured priceless video. They visited, on the sidelines, with other parents captivated by the entertainment.

The entire evening from ticket sales to tear down was organized by Programs Chair, Pam Witt. The evening was a grand success thanks to her leadership, and I want to extend a special thank you, too, to all the volunteers who pitched in. Their service helped make this a memorable experience for all of our young dancers. I'm sure our students had a very happy Valentine's Day!

February Meeting

February 1, 2010

CALL TO ORDER
Approval of Minutes
Correspondence

Julie sent out thank you notes to Mr. Graham for gathering boxes for our Giving Tree project and to Target for sending gift cards to help those effected by it the Links fire. Birthday cards were sent to Angela, Maria, and Patricia, and staff birthdays were celebrated. Thank you notes will be sent for the January Family Night Dinner.

Financial Report
We went over each line item on the budget to report what has been spent and what has not. We need to raise about $3,500 to have the funds to support the items we've agreed to pay for this school year, and to have $11,000 in summer contingency. Fundraising will occur with hotdogs at the Bingo Night and pizza at BUD's Movie Night. Other fundraisers will be considered at the March Board Meeting. If sufficient funds are not raised, fewer dollars will be allocated in Summer Contingency, something we hope to avoid.

Principal’s Report
Susan shared the calendar dates (listed under Dates to Remember), and spoke about the process for doing CCE's mid year School Improvement Plan update and getting started on the budget process for next school year.


OLD BUSINESS:
January Family Night
http://chetscreekpta.blogspot.com/2010/01/january-family-night.html

Next Year’s Family Nights: Business Partnerships
Many local businesses have been in contact with us about building partnerships similar to what we've established with Chick-Fil-A. As reported last month, most of their requests have come in the form of Spirit Nights to be conducted at their establishments. A sub committee will meet to discuss these Spirit Nights, however we also discussed the idea of having our Business Partner liaison create an application form for our Family Night Dinners. The businesses would have the opportunity to submit the application to be considered to host, on our campus, a family night dinner. All applications would be considered based on price point and offerings, and we would book next year's Family Night Dinners with these businesses. This would give local businesses the opportunity to begin their partnership with us, and would then leave the door open for other opportunities.

A sub committee to discuss other Business Partner opportunities will convene in April and present to the Board in May. Committee members include Pam, Julie, Jackie, Lisa M, Romy, and PTA Faculty Representatives. If you would like to participate, please let Suzanne know.

NEW BUSINESS:
Volunteer Orientation –March 1st at 6:30 pm
Due to demand, an additional Volunteer Orientation has been added to the calendar for March 1st at 6:30.

Board Positions for 2010-2011
Board Position Descriptions were handed out. Board Members were asked to read the descriptions and think about the role they would like to hold in the 2010-2011 school year. At our March 1st meeting, we will let the Board know whether or not we want to continue in the role we are currently serving in or not. This way, we will know whether we should be actively recruiting for additional assistance.

Corporate Contributions Contests
Thanks to the hard work of Romy and Maria for running our Corporate Contribution Contest by grade levels this year, in December, we received checks from box tops for $1,942.00, Publix Rewards for $116.00, ink/cell phone returns for $899.00, and Tyson's for $189.36. We've also accumulated points from Campbell's of 15,587 points, and from Coke Rewards of 19,962 points. The Board decided to spend the points by having the Music, PE, and Character Education teachers look through the catalog and submit their requests. Because so many students have asked, Maria & Romy have decided to hold one more contest this year. The contest will be held the week of April 12th for K-5, and the winner will be announced based on a ratio of points tallied for each student in the homeroom.

The fourth and fifth grade contests were a grand success and over 7 boxes full of labels were mailed. Ms. Rice's class took gold in fourth grade and Mrs. Shannon's class in fifth grade.

Programs: Valentine’s Dance
Fitting this year’s theme, Orchestrating a Symphony of Student Success, we've asked the students to come enjoy the music with their friends during Chets Creeks’ Valentine dance on Friday, February 12th! Due to its popularity, PTA will host two dances that evening. Students can choose to come from 6:00 – 7:30pm OR 8:00 – 9:30pm. A professional DJ will be at both dances! PTA will sell pizza, drinks, candy and flowers!

Please remember, all students must be accompanied by an adult. The dance has a $3.00 charge for all students coming to the dance. Parents are free, but must have a ticket. No child will be admitted without an adult and no adult will be admitted without a child. Tickets may only be purchased in advance. To order tickets, students needed to return a form that was sent home last Monday indicating their time preference. There will be 350 tickets per dance sold.

If you have any questions, please contact Pam Witt @ 821-8172. Order forms are due by February 8th. Tickets will be sent home with children by Thursday, February 11th.

Ways and Means: Fundraiser
PTA is assisting with the Cookie Dough fundraiser for patrols currently being held. Angela requested help on the day of delivery and will let the Board know when that will be.

As we reviewed the Financial Report, we were reminded that we have a $3,500 gap between the funds we have earmarked for items and the amount we took in. We expected our Sally Foster fundraiser to take in about $25,000 based on historical data, but this year we only took in $11,000. The school picked up the Academic Support items and we took that off the budget. After readjusting, we still have the $3,500 gap. The Board discussed many fundraisers ideas, some were typical but others were way outside the box. Therefore, we decided to sell Orange Tree hotdogs at our Bingo night and Pizza at our BUD's Club Movie Night. We'll see how much money that brings in. In addition, each member was invited to email Suzanne their other ideas. Suzanne will put them all in one document and add it to the March 1st agenda where all the ideas will be discussed. If you have an idea, please get it to her by February 16. Susan will be checking on the legalities of each idea before the next meeting.

Volunteers
If you would like to volunteer to assist with the Valentine's Dance please let Lourdes, Deb, or Kathi know. We need at least three Board members at each dance and other chaperones are welcome to help with the dance.

DATES TO REMEMBER:
2-03-10 Early Release
2-08-10 Chick-fil-A Night --Sponsored by Grade 3
2-09-10 Florida Writes
2-12-10 Valentine’s Dance
2-15-10 Presidents’ Day-No School
2-17-10 Early Release
2-26-10 FCAT Formal 5 -- 196 Level 5 students have been invited.
2-27-10 Campus Clean Up
3-01-10 PTA Board Meeting & Volunteer Orientation