Let's Do the Numbers

With this gem-of-a-summer-like day served up to us, it's likely evening plans include some time at the ball field or in the garden, and the notion of attending a district meeting are low on the radar.

On the other hand, it's worth a reminder that the last opportunity to weigh-in on the Woolwich School Budget for next year (16-17) is 6:00PM tonight at Bath Middle School.

 Really Helpful PDF with Budget Info Here

Some Key Points:
-The school budget approval is a two step process.  FIRST: Tonight is the DISTRICT meeting. All towns who are members of the district are invited.  Registration begins 5:15.

-Residents will vote on each Article, in 11 areas of spending. BEFORE A VOTE, RESIDENTS CAN RAISE THEIR HANDS TO MAKE COMMENTS/ASK QUESTIONS.  And, yes, being present can make a difference.  Last year, an increase to the Woolwich Art program was made only by residents being present.

-Pages 13 and 14 have valuable graphs and worksheets to help summarize the budget.

-At this meeting, residents will be asked to vote to raise funds to help meet this budget through local contribution. (property taxes)

-Costs per student is $13,351 (the PDF in the link above explains how this figure is reached)

-Budget is based on May 1 enrollment of 2125 for the district, 431 Woolwich PreK-12 students (378 at Woolwich Central) and 300 staff.


BUDGET WITH PROPOSED ADDITIONS ON LAST PAGE HERE

SECOND:
The ENTIRE budget will be validated in EACH TOWN by referendum on JUNE 14.  You will then go to the polls to vote - 8am to 8pm as in any standard election.  At this point, any particular issues you have with the budget can not be discussed.  Either the entire budget is approved in entirety, or, it is not.

You don't need to be an expert in finance to either attend, or participate.   We are fortunate to have this opportunity to be involved. For or against, your attendance is encouraged and welcome.

Minutes of March 17, 2016

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Woolwich Central School PTA

Minutes of March 17, 2016

Meeting was called to order at 6:05pm – Lorna took minutes, as Kristen

was unable to attend.

February minutes were voted as APPROVED

Treasurer's report of checkbook balances ending in February can be requested from woolwichptc@yahoo.com.  Expenses paid in February were $120.94 for the Rocky Ridge field trip for K. $98.75 for transportation of 6^th grade to Bowdoin College and $220.94 for 4^th Grade to Bay Day.  All expenses were approved in prior meetings.

Members went over the timeline of upcoming events.

RSU #1 5^th Grade dance- scheduled for May 20.  Romy offered to re-design the LOGO.  Membership discussed costs for T’s last year.  All agreed Woolwich should have a T, we will stay in touch with Bath PTA over costs of T’s for this year.

PTA parent/caregiver survey was discussed.  Lorna advised Mr. Libby had approved the survey.  Membership discussed having them at FAN, and other suggestions included having them available at parent-teacher conferences in April.  Lorna will get approval from Mr. Libby.  Dena will re-format to make form more user-friendly/graphically pleasing.

Sub-committee appointments:

-Recruitment/membership.  Given some members who where interested in this committee earlier were not present, appointment to this committee was tabled.

            -Class Fund/Budget: Mona, Stacy and Lorna agreed to serve this committee.

Other reports:

            -Box tops – WCS PTA will receive $875.00 for the April disbursement.  $10 scholastic dollars will be donated for a winning class for future race. YMCA day passes will also be considered (YMCA had already agreed to donating one for each member of winning class)

            -Amazon Smile – to date, WCS has received -$0.  We need to research why/when checks are sent and where.

            -Clynk has over $60 in WCS PTA Fund.

            -Logo wear– there was brief discussion on placing another order.  Membership decided to wait until Fall 2016.  Leslie Gallant showed interest in being chair for this for next year.

            -Gelato Fiasco – set for April 12.  Flyers will go home with students at FAN, and in the backpacks the week prior.

Meeting was adjourned at 7:20pm.

Somewhere over the Rainbow...

 Today is the kick-off to one of our favorite events.  The Woolwich PTA partners with the Wellness Committee in a week-long celebration of healthy eating, each day representing a color of the rainbow.  Sound boring? No way.

For starters, classroom teachers and their students have been scheming for the "Decorate your Door Contest".   For the week leading up to this event, entries to each classroom (and even the offices) are "a-doorned" with cutout fruits and veggies, tid-bits of nutrition trivia and other surprises.  Mrs. Babcock's class is ramping up to hold their title!

Wildcat Mom, and PTA Volunteer Blueberry B.

Mrs. Devin's Art classes are churning out colorful masterpieces for the hallways, and Mrs. Luchies has carefully selected a pallet of books to display from the library collection.  Students and staff will dress the "color of the day" and the Joanne and staff will decorate the cafeteria for lunch and breakfast - which includes place cards detailing the featured fruit or vegetables of the day.

But how did this all come to be?  Mrs. Harrington, Nurse Sherwood and the wellness team decided to expand the Eat the Rainbow week 6 years ago to include serving snacks to students which would provide samplings of a fruit or vegetable never tried before.  The initial year was funded by a local sponsor with $500 seed money.  Since then, Fuel Up to Play grants have continued to support it.   The team also partners with the Midcoast Hospital 5210 Program.

Through these funding streams, the team, along with PTA volunteers, preps dozens of trays with samples for every student, PreK-8, every day of the week.  (nearly 400 kids!) Wellness team members of middle-school students deliver the trays to each classroom, each server smartly dressed as a fruit or vegetable (costumes donated by Midcoast hospital)

Ready to Serve!

Some teachers also record and graph some of the favorites that students sample throughout the week.  The students also provide feedback on foods of "favored firsts"  Fennel, pomegranate, cilantro, mushrooms, mango, broccoli, and veggie straws are the most popular.

Here is the color key for the week.  Purple socks? Green tie? Red for upcoming Valentine's Day?  Go for it!  And in case you are wondering, the trays ALWAYS come back empty!  Happy snacking!

Monday = Blue/Purple

Tues. = Green

Wed.= White/Brown

Thurs = Yellow/Orange

Fri. = Red (for Valentine’s on Sunday!)

Meeting Minutes December 2015

Meeting Minutes-Woolwich PTA

Holiday Social-December 10, 2015

Meeting at Lorna’s home:

In Attendance-Molly (Casco Bay Glass on Nequasset Road-New WCS Family), Dena, Romy, Alane,

Debbie, Amy, Sarah, Lorna, Stacey & Kristen )

A brief business meeting was held:

STUD-(Shop-Till-You-Drop Craft Fair) Group discussed providing food for vendors next year. Possibly approach the 6th grade to do

this? Goody Walk was successful bringing in $705.

Treasurers Report- For Account Balance please email the PTA at woolwichptc@yahoo.com

Molly told us that in her children’s prior school they had a "Popcorn Friday" fundraising event where kids pay ahead of time to take a sealed bag of popcorn home at the end of the day

Concerns...will would bags stay sealed on bus?  Fresh idea we can research.

There were no financial requests to authorize.

Meeting Minutes November 2015

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Meeting Minutes-Woolwich PTA

November 12, 2015                                                                                              Meeting called to order-6:08PM

In Attendance- Dena, Carly, Melissa, Romy, Stacey, Lorna, Debbie, Alane, Amanda & Kristen

Treasurers Report-

For account balance, please email the PTA at woolwichptc@yahoo.com

We have received $510.00 in checks for STUD and we have $225.00 additional coming in from vendors.

We have approx. $116.00 to be deposited for logo wear (ending tomorrow Nov. 13) and made $146.00 from sales of the Booster.com t-shirts.

Shop Til U drop Craft Fair-

We have 53 Tables booked

33 paid vendors

10 -Teachers & PTA

10 - 8th graders

2- Tables for Book Fair

2- Tables for Goody Walk

Tables-Tables reserved with Taylor Rental.  Discussion- Should we find volunteers with pickup trucks to transport 30 tables from Brunswick to Woolwich or pay the fee to have Taylor Rental deliver and pick up? 30 tables @ $8 per table = $240 + delivery ($100)=$340   The majority feels that it will be hard to secure enough volunteers on Friday with pickup trucks to transport tables and that it will be worth it in the long run to have them delivered and picked up.  VOTE-ALL IN FAVOR OF FUNDING TABLE DELIVER CHARGE-UNANIMOUS

Volunteer Site will be set up and set-up will begin @ 4:00 on December 4th.

Raffles-We will fund the 3 fair punch card prize along with WBS PTO and Phippsburg PTA.  $33, $33 and $34 fir WCS PTA.  VOTE-All in favor of funding $34 to go towards raffle prize. UNANIMOUS

Dena has two Scholastic Book Fair T-Shirts to raffle off as well as Scholastic books. Possible Pie Raffle?

Advertising-

STUD will be featured in the Coastal Journal, Old Fashioned Christmas in Bath Pamphlet, Maine Street Bath Website and publications and on Craigslist.

Book Fair- (Separate report from Dena) we all agreed that Book Fair workers should still receive $25 gift certificates for books.  (No official vote, just discussion)

Grandparents Day- 200 grandparents are registered.  Volunteers are all set up for greeting, check in, navigation to classroom and food prep help.

Close Buy- Sales were down 30% form last year.  We will further discuss this in future meetings.   Possible Scripts gift card fundraiser?  Melissa will gather more info.

Spooktacular Dance- Huge success, no complaints.  Raised $800 for the backpack program plus all for the canned good donations.

Paint Nite- Amy checked with a rep from Paint Nite about a possible paint night fundraiser at the Montsweag Roadhouse.  She can do any Wednesday night.

December Meeting will be Thursday, December 10th.

Meeting adjourned- 7:05PM

Meeting Minutes October 8, 2015

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Here are Minutes from our October Meeting:  For a hard-copy of minutes with account balances, contact the PTA at woolwichptc@yahoo.com

Meeting Minutes-Woolwich PTA October 8, 2015

 

                                                                              Meeting called to order-6:05PM

In attendance-Mona, Leslie, Dena, Romy, Leanne, Melissa, Kristen, Alane, Deb, Stacey, Erica, Sarah, Amy, Lorna.

Close Buy Sales- As of Oct. 4, our online sales were around $4200.  This is down 40% from last year’s numbers.  The online ordering has been extended through the holidays with 20% of sales coming back to us.  Lorna will give feedback to Close Buy about the catalogue having less variety this year with the omission of the Winter Kid Pass and the Maine Magazines.  The online portal is no longer a feature, making it more difficult to track orders and running to Falmouth for catalogs and samples another step requiring volunteer time and gas etc.

We will all be brainstorming about other ideas for next year. KIVA.COM, Gift Card Fundraiser or return of Genevieve.  Amy will be looking into details on another Paint Night opportunity at a local restaurant – Melissa will look into Scripts.

Treasurers Report-

Our checking account balance is at XXXXXX.  We will be paying out money to Math Team, Maine PTA, Bug mobile and 7-8th grade Math team.

Funding Requests- The Civil Rights Team would like $285.00 to cover transportation costs for students to attend the Maine Civil Rights Training Program.  Mr. Beaton talked about what the Civil Rights team is and what they accomplished last year.  VOTE-ALL IN FAVOR-UNANIMOUS

Logo Wear- We will be doing the traditional logo wear order forms and Stacey has designed a long sleeve T-Shirt on Boosters.com.  This is online only and will run for two weeks.  The shirt is $15.

Book Fair Update, Dena

A special thank you to all volunteers!

Fall 2015 Book Fair results

Total Gross Sales fall 2015 = 3,618.41

Total Gross Sales fall 2014 = 3,755.00

Very similar in total sales year over year.

34% of total sales were made the first day

24% of total scholastic dollars were redeemed the first day

Sales dipped drastically after day 4. Is our fair too long? Typical fair according to scholastic is 5 days, ours is 7.

Total scholastic dollars spent = $1,506.98 (total amount of new books in the hands of Wildcats)

Profit from sale was taken in the form of $1,809.21 scholastic dollars.

Next fair (December) we will take the profit in cash.

Lessons learned:

 - During open house set up two registers

 - Move book fair into Gym to avoid congestion? (Mrs. Harrington's suggestion)

Top selling books:

1. A Night Divided
2. Woof
3. The House of the Scorpion
4. Body in the Woods
5. The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend

Shop Til U Drop Craft Fair- Romy

The Craft Fair will be held December 5 from 9-1.

  We currently have 23 requests and 7 confirmed and paid. 

The Fee is $20 per table $25 for table with electricity.

5 tables will be available for the 8th graders.

Kristen will get signage from Karen Madden

The fair will be advertised through Maine Street Bath

Spooktacular Dance-

The dance will be held Friday, October 30 from 6-8.

Deb will have 8 games set up to keep the kids occupied.

Prizes will be given for costumes, pumpkin carvings.

50/50 raffle

E-mail will be sent out looking for volunteers with a link to the volunteer site and a reminder and link to fill out volunteer paperwork for RSU 1.

Families attending will be asked to bring a food item for the Woolwich Backpack program.

Setup will begin on Friday at 2:15

Meeting adjourned- 7:15

Show your Spirit!

Just in time for cooler weather and the Holiday season,  the Woolwich PTA is selling T-shirts, Sweatshirts and Sweatpants.

There are TWO ways to order:

As we have done in the past, we are taking PAPER ORDERS for Hooded sweatshirts and sweatpants: Paper order forms are at this link:  PAPER ORDER FOR HOODIES AND SWEATSOrders for paper orders are due Nov. 13

Hooded Sweatshirt Sample

Close Up of logo on front of Hoodie

Back of Hooded Sweatshirt

We are also trying something new and taking ONLINE ORDERS for LONG SLEEVED T's. If online ordering proves a success, we will expand offerings.  You can choose to have the online product shipped direct to you for $5, or the school for free (just give us a head's up if product is a surprise, otherwise we will deliver to the student).  Long-sleeved T on-line ordering link is here: link for LONG SLEEVED T's.

Online orders are due Nov. 1


Write us if you have any questions with the ordering and as always, we welcome feedback!

woolwichptc@yahoo.com

WCS PTA Spooktacular Dance to benefit Backpack Program

Mark your calendars;  the PTA's Spooktacular Dance is baaaaackk!  On Friday, October 30, 6:00-8:00pm.  This is a family-themed dance for PreK-5 students and at least one parent or adult chaperone!

Cost is $5.00 per family.

Our PTA Veep, Deb O, is going all-out for a fun-packed few hours of music, dancing and games!  Come dressed in costume to enter the Costume Contest (kids and parents too) - Bring your fabulous carved pumpkin as a contest entry in our "pumpkin patch".

Enjoy some snacks - enter the 50/50 raffle, have your fortune read and bring your camera to take advantage of the Photo Op booth!

But here's the best part, all of the proceeds will go toward support of the Woolwich Central Backpack Program!  

In it's 3rd year, the Backpack Program is lovingly looked after by our very own Nurse Sherwood.  Every Friday, students who may be food insecure are presented with a backpack filled with at least 5 non-perishable food items that will create at least one meal for the family.  Response has been overwhelmingly appreciative from those families in need and the program is discreet and confidential.

Each family attending the dance that donates a non-perishable food item will be entered into a drawing for a family movie night package!

Donation suggestions are: canned meats (tuna, chicken), pasta and sauces, dry cereal, oatmeal, canned fruits and vegetables, and peanut butter (always popular and always needed)

Many members have asked how they can help with the dance.  Here is the link to sign up for an activity or task.  Can't come to the dance? Donate a healthy baked good or snack for the snack table (all snacks will be complimentary) CLICK HERE TO VOLUNTEER

Being involved with the PTA need-not require lots of time.  It's often the little details (run an errand, donate a snack, website advice, maybe even just some muscle for event setup) that make the world of difference in the success of something we do!

If anyone has further questions or suggestions, email any time at woolwichptc@yahoo.com.  It's going to be a fantastic night!

PTA Minutes of September 10

Meeting Minutes-Woolwich PTA

September 10,2015                                                                                              Meeting called to order-6:04P

In attendance-Melissa, Lorna, Lacey, Debbie, Danielle,Beth J, Beth H, Sarah, Mona, Amy, Leslie, Stacey, Kristen.

Meet & Greet-Attendees introduced themselves.  Lorna gave a brief overview of what the PTA does. 

Large % of funding for school field trips.

Offer support to for school- school picture helpers, eat the rainbow veggie prep and delivery for Wellness, Grandparents day greeters and lunch prep,  coffee for awards and school functions, presentations at parent info nights. Close buy, Box Tops, Labels for Education, spirit wear and Cyber Awareness.

Upcoming events-

 Book fair will begin September 17th to coincide with open house. 

 Close Buy - Our first fundraiser begins September 11.  Gina picked up catalogs for us in Falmouth (huge help and great example of a way to volunteer if meetings are too hard to attend) Lorna to get product samples week of 9/21. Orders due October 1; online through October 4.

 Deb has put in a request with Mr. Libby to use the gymnasium on October 30th for our Pre K-5 Halloween Dance. Upon his approval, Deb will let us know what she needs for volunteers and any funding.

Box Tops- Stacey has $956.80 to redeem from last year and is planning a fall racecar visit because of its popularity with students.  Local drivers are eager to help in the community and show off their cars to students.

Spirit Wear-We will plan to do 3 drives this school year.  Discussed possibility of having some inventory to display for Shop Till You Drop Craft Fair and (depending on Mr. Finnimore's turn around time) have order forms for holiday logo wear ordering.

Cyber Awareness Night- The PTA plans to host another cyber awareness night for parents this fall.  The feedback was that the State Police power point was well done, but was a bit too scary and intense for parents; the rest was well received.  This will be timed with the MLTI parent info night.

Funding Requests

Mrs. Luchies-Funding for author visit (Poet-Paul Janeczko) $700.  Mrs. Luchies would also like $300 for books for her 8th grade boy’s book club.

Bay Day-The 4th grade teachers would like $210.00 to cover the transportation cost to Bowdoinham for the Friends of Merrymeeting Bay program.

Rocky Ridge Orchards- $150.00 for transportation for Kindergarten students.

Chewonki Bug Mobile-Grade 2 requesting $305 for this visit.

5th & 6th Grade Math Team-Judy Mansfield would like $350 for registration for 4 math meets in Portland.

7th & 8th Grade Math Team-Mr. Huston is requesting $250 for registration for the math team meet for those grades.

Motion to approve ALL funding requests heard.   Motion seconded. VOTE-APPROVED

Child Care for PTA Meetings- Mrs. Fisher arranged for two 7th grade students to provide childcare for children of attendees of the PTA meeting.  They will receive points towards their WCS letters. Motion to approve giving up to two sitters per meeting $25 scholastic dollars each.  VOTE-APPROVED

*When Dena returns from vacation we will confirm our Scholastic dollar balance and vote by proxy on giving each teacher either $25 or $50 to be used at the book fair.

Treasurers Report

Stacey reported an account balance of;XXXXXXXX

Insurance cost is $35 for the upcoming year

Member dues will be $4.75 each.

Labels for Education-Stacey reported that we have points to redeem.  Mrs. Harrington is not in need of anything at this time.  Stacey will redeem our points for a pre-paid visa card that the PTA can use towards school needs.

Amazon Smile- The PTA is now signed up.   If you sign up for Amazon Smile you earn 1/2 cent for WCS for every dollar you spend.

Target Red Card-Families using Target Red Cards can sign up to support WCS.  1% of purchases go to the school.

Clynk- We are now signed up for Clynk.  Upon Signing up we received 10 bags and tags at no charge. When the bags are full of returnable bottles, the bag can be returned to the bottle area at Hannaford supermarkets. The bar code needs to be scanned when you drop off your bag.  Stacey pointed out that it could be a conflict with the DC bottle shed donations.  This was discussed and Lorna hopes that this fundraiser will not put much if any dent in that; as it is for those that go to Hannaford and those who do not are unlikely to make the trip specially for bottles when the ease of dropping them at school is there.  All agreed PTA should stay away from a specific bottle-drive type fundraiser in order to respect the collection at school. Danielle suggested that we get 100 bags ($15) for open house.  The bags can be pre-tagged before hand to ensure we get credit for the bottles.  Kristen will purchase the bags ($50 previously approved for this program via e-mail) and make a sign for the PTA table at open house.

Meeting Adjourned-7:15PM

Here, Kitty, Kitty

 

A little school shopping confession: I paid $15 for a water bottle.  Dead serious.  It’s a sip and mist contraption and I hope the woman at Olympia got a commission because she had me at “the water bottle will be 20% off with your coupon”. Well timed on the heels of my son saying “pleeeeeeese? It’s so cooooool…”

Once home, I began to regret the decision when I watched him misting the cat. (which he does more to taunt his sister, than the cat) Not to mention it’s certain calamity for the cafeteria.  Right up there with those squeezie fruits with helicopter-prop covers.

But with school shopping comes the trends and perhaps I can seek some solace knowing it will likely end up in Lost and Found with the Ugg boots and lunchboxes.

No need to make this first blog a lengthy one knowing you are all busy with your own last minute school prep: but here are some things to feature that may be helpful:

-Picture day is September 10

-September 10 is also our first PTA meeting – right at WCS – 6:00pm.  THIS MEETING WILL FOCUS ON A MEET AND GREET, AND WHO WE ARE.  ALL ARE WELCOME!

-WCS Open House is scheduled for September 17, 5:30 to 7:00.

-The PTA will be sponsoring the 2^nd Close Buy Fundraiser with orders due by October 1.  Online and catalog shopping are both available. Look for catalogs in the next week or so.  Meanwhile, for some armchair shopping, here is a sneak-peek for 2015! 2015 Close Buy Peek

-We are also working on another Cyber Safety info night for parents which will coordinate with assignment of the I pads through the MLTI program.

Also an exciting new way to fundraise!: AND IT'S EASY

Do you shop Amazon?  Now you can easily have .5% of your purchases donated to Woolwich Central!  Follow this link – Amazon Smile

In closing, for those who may not know, three of our members took on The Big Mountain Challenge last month!  BRAVO! to Deb, Lanie and Sarah!

On behalf of all of us in the PTA, we wish you a seamless transition to school, and AS ALWAYS reach out to us at Woolwichptc@yahoo.com!

Summer -'s Here!

The breeze is blowing the chimes in my office, as I listen to the kids outside on their bikes.  I'm feeling I can officially claim it's summer!  What is your most telling summer experience of late?

Celebrity sighting! Mrs. Lane and Mrs. Pols at Patten Free Libary last week

It's been a joy looking at every one's Facebook posts - beaches and hiking and baseball games.  And here we are, approaching August! Proof time flies when having fun.

Though school is not in session,  the PTA is still idling away.  Fundraising companies began courting us the minute the year ended and are looking for contracts.   So,  I've been looking over sales history to provide to our Board.  Deanna has set dates for the first Book fair and is working on a questionnaire seeking feedback and ideas. Our secretary, Kristen, has been looking into ways for more "passive" fundraising (through partnerships with retailers and other businesses) and we are all brainstorming on a membership campaign.  We have closed the books (our fiscal year ended June 30) and are transitioning the records to our new Treasurer, Stacy C!   Deb, Lanie and others will be shopping for Teacher Supplies in August.  (after Deb, Lanie and Sarah decimate the Sunday River Tough Mountain Challenge on July 25! - go get'em ladies!)

I'll keep this blog brief, but wanted to give a shout from summer-land and say "We are still here!" Feel free to contact us at any time.  In fact, just this morning I happily responded to an email from a new parent of a PreK student who was looking for ways to be involved this year.  We love to hear from you - new parent, grandparent or otherwise!

Enjoy!
Lorna Ryan, President

Carpe Diem, Carpe Librum!

"Seize the Day, Seize the Book!" seems an appropriate title to this latest post because tomorrow night, at the Woolwich Town meeting, there are two articles on the warrant that relate to the future municipal funding of the Patten Free Library in Bath.

Before you stop reading and close this post; first, ask yourself a few questions:

-Do you or your children check out books, movies or other items in circulation at Patten Free?
-Does your child participate in the Patten Free Summer Reading Program (last summer, over 200 Woolwich children did just that)
-Does your child participate in the RSU's Battle of the Books and use the Patten Free collection/inter-library loan to achieve their reading goals for this event?
-Does your family enjoy the myriad of free offerings at Patten Free? (Read aloud, author's visits, movie night, reading clubs, chess and/or lego club and more?)
-Would you be willing to personally pay $50 or more, per person in your family for a library card?

In February, 2015, the town received a petition signed by over 180 Woolwich Residents, asking the select board to move the approval of the Patten Free Library Budget from the May town meeting, to secret ballot in June (the same evening we will vote on the RSU school budget).  You may have signed this petition.  This letter by the Woolwich select board does a good job of explaining the result of that petition. http://www.wiscassetnewspaper.com/article/woolwich-town-meeting-chance-voters-decide/52356

The PTA was asked to learn more about this issue, as our mission includes advocating for children and furthering the educational advancement of students in our school and community.  On one hand,

healthy debate is not only harmless, but beneficial.  If numbers at town meeting are historically low, why not put the issue out to voters when more people are likely to show up at the polls?  But as always, the devil is in the details.

Earlier op ed pieces have suggested that citizens who opt to purchase a library card (should the municipal funding not continue) would be "paid back".   The warrant, as currently written, is requesting zero funding to help off-set any reimbursement program.  It simply does not exist. Here is the link to the warrant.http://www.woolwich.us/resources/pdfs/town_warrants/Warrant-15-4.pdf

Currently, a family of 4 would pay $200 per year (expected to go up should municipal funding cease) thereby limiting only those children whose families have the financial means for continued full access to the Patten Free collection and beyond.

The cost per capita for this year's funding request from Patten Free is $16.50.  Other op eds have compared this to the cost of a large pizza - for me, my weekly coffee habit.

$50,688 is a chunk of change. No question.  If other cost centers in the Town are being short-changed as some suggest, then certainly, democracy must work is course and look deeper into "why".

Even our PTA has been known to be fairly conservative on some Financial Requests; we did not approve $50 for playground toys last autumn (it should be noted we approved over $7000 in other requests during that same, and subsequent meetings- and members opted to donate the playground items)  The point is that as an organization, acting as custodian of funds raised by our Woolwich school community, we understand the need to debate where the money is allocated.  Sometimes the results of those votes are not popular.  But this is democracy as well.

The message we hope to relay here is to not assume that there is another mechanism in place to assure our students (and siblings) continued use of Patten Free in the future.  Be informed,  be comfortable with your decision, and attend tomorrow night's town meeting if at all possible.

Thank you for reading, and, as always, emails are welcome: woolwichptc@yahoo.com

Meeting Minutes from March 2015

Here are minutes from our March meeting: Going strong! Write us anytime at woolwichptc@yahoo.com.  Thank you for all your support!

Meeting Minutes-Woolwich Central PTA

March 12 2015

In attendance-Lorna, Jason, Sarah, Debbie, Lanie, Beth, Kristen, Dena, Amy

Meeting Called to order-6:05

PTA Stickers passed out.  To assist custodian, please try to remove if you see them anywhere they should not be.

Approval of February Minutes-forgot to mention Pre-k family night

and the possibility of having a dance for middle school.  Accept minute adjustment.  All in favor

For future meetings, put business/action agenda items at the end of meeting.  All agreed

Cyber Safety- Brainstorming on content, format, dates, etc.

Date?  April, May or June

Audience-?  kids? or just parents.

Sagadahoc Sheriff Dept. willing to come. Can share problems they see and struggles. Deferred to crime lab in Augusta if the case is severe.  Special Agent with Maine Computer Crime Lab had info - possible power point presentation and cases. (9 year old, free access, pics all over the internet) Laws not keeping up with technology-No age discrimination on charges.  Have to focus on intent of picture.  Give Panel Questions ahead of time.  Ask for statistics. Methods for open dialogue with our kids parents can use at home.

 RSU 1 Technology Director can speak to MLTI Ipad policy and use –Effectiveness of firewall etc.  Community Educator from SASMM (Sexual Assault Services of Midcoast Maine)  Good resource from Mrs. Buchan.

-proposed panel of people Q & A?

-set presentation?

-open it up to the entire RSU 1?

-pro-active positive approach-try not to shock and awe

-what parents can do at home- how to filter and what to filter-how to put blocks. Youtube

-Knowledge on what is going on today and how to have a conversation for future things coming up.  How to deal.  Digital footprint-education on what goes on there (web servers), stays on there.

-Provide child care. ?  Good way to let parents know that it will be adult content.  BRCTC provide child care?

-8th grader with parent chaperone?

No Charge!

Treasurers Report  Checking account Balance XXXXXXX

December Book Fair Paid

Box Tops-check coming in from box tops 715.50

K-Wolf Neck to be paid

4-State House Trip

4-Chop Point bus

5th grade tabled because of cost.  Asking $500 but was $670.  Follow up to be sure we approve correct amount.

6th grade-$500 for Mt. Blue-touch base with teachers on what is needed for funds

Box Tops-Race Car-first week of May

Dena-Arrowsic Town Hall Box Tops

Stacey- SQUARE ART-April 6th the book will go home with your child’s artwork.  April 14th collect orders.  You can order online shipped on the 17th   May 7th items are ready

Art work about done.   Art room fundraiser put on by PTA

BookFair Dena will shadow Karen on running April Book Fair.  Most likely will be willing to take over but will at least be able to know how it is run.   BOGO

FAN NIGHT-Books using Scholastic Dollars.  Will put in a basket and do a free raffle.   2 Bikes.  Wellness basket. Dena will put together basket.

Carafe of coffee for FAN

night. 

Motion to buy 6ft tablecloth with WCS logo for $45.00. Vote-all in favor.

Kristen-check on Gelato Fundraiser

Meeting adjourned-7:20