January 14th General Meeting Draft Minutes

Written By Justin Stoller

Vestal General PTA Meeting

January 14th 6:30-8:00pm


1 In Attendance

Board members present

Pres. Jake S, Volunteer Coordinator Janice L, Communications Emma K, Secretary Justin S

Community present

Jessica, Galen G, Kelly S*, Christina M*, Katie R*, Nora J, Aubrey P*, Beth H*, Collier B, Susan D, Emily R, Fred W

* Member

2 Welcome

Meeting convened at 6:35 by President Jake S.

3 Minutes

Minutes from the last General Meeting, held November 12th, were accepted without amendment.

4 Principal Update

Sabrina was out sick, no update.

5 Treasurer’s Report

Treasurer Nicole H out for a family emergency, President Jake S read the Treasurer’s report. Nothing notable.

  • Feedback from Aubrey: How we are performing against our expected budget would be valuable to include in the monthly report.

  • Question: Has there been any movement on the High Yield Savings Account?

Answer: No - we should start in January.

6 President’s Update

  • Due to time constraints with family Jake will not be a Co-President next year.

  • David and Jake will make themselves available to the next year’s president for consultation and advice. Given that he will likely be in an advisory role next year as well, David has resigned from the board for the remainder of the year but will lead a nominating committee to help find board members for next year, in addition to helping coordinate several other events. There will be 3 out of six positions open on the board for next year. 

  • PPS is sending a significant quantity of their 2,000 unused air filters to LA, email Effie Greathouse of Safe Air Oregon at info@safeairoregon.org with any thoughts or concerns

  • Aubrey coordinated a profit sharing night with East Glisan Pizza. The event went well and earned the school around $500! The school community however didn’t bring in a significantly larger crowd than they would typically have. East Glisan Pizza is also happy to do in kind donations (perhaps for the raffle).

  • In talks with The Yard, they could do something as soon as February. Though they would like an estimate of how many people would attend. We don’t have a good idea of what that would be.

  • Aubrey would love to do a profit sharing night more frequently. General agreement that more profit sharing would be better, though every month might be too much.

  • Jake is working with Sabrina on a new logo for the school that includes a bee.

7 Upcoming Events

 January 

  • 20th - Community Care Day  – hopefully will spread bark chips as well. 10am to noon

  • 21st - Green Team Meeting (virtual) – same meeting info

  • Nominating candidates for 2024-2025 board   – email members if you have interest in any of the three positions open next year.  (eg emmaekoehler@gmail.com)

 February

  • 3rd - Bottle Drop

  • 7th - Movie Night

  • Pancake Breakfast – date TBD, David running this down

 March

  • 7th - Movie Night

  • 13th - Bottle Drop

  • 15th - Community Care Day

  • Run for the Arts – date TBD, David working with Ms. Hazen

8 Committee Updates and Community Discussion

  • Galen G discussed the upcoming “soiree” raffle fundraiser

    • Was a great fundraiser when last held in 2020

    • Will have child care - the school will help with this!

    • Will raise funds for Grow Portland, Reading Results, and Play Care

    • To be held in April or early May

    • Looking into TaborSpace

    • Trying to get donations from local businesses for raffle

    • Aubrey volunteered to help, meetings will maybe be at blank slate in the future.

  • Katie recommends inviting community members to the pancake dinner, especially those with young children who might be Vestal attendees soon.

  • Sarah wants to know why the house NW of the parking lot is always trashed (abandoned). Can we pressure the City and/or owners via Montavilla News, etc?

  • How far can we push community care day? Can we work on a joint Care Day/Community Cleanup?

9 Guest Speaker

Topic: Community Resilience / Support

  • Emily introduced Fred and talked about how PPS and the school are thinking about potential police/immigration issues with immigrant children.

  • Potentially having shifts of volunteers to guard against ICE as people leave the school groups. Also looking for resources to share with immigrant families. Vestal Community Immigrant Defense Sign up Sheet

  • Aubrey (and Kelly) work at Glencoe, Glencoe is hosting a Know Your Rights workshop: Could holding a similar workshop or something like empower more community members to do something? - No decision

  • Aubrey shared flyers for the events, can we send them out on our Socials? - Yes

  • Should this general info being covered in the workshops go home with kids (do not hold doors open, etc)? - Needs discussion with Sabrina.

  • The school has cameras, there was some discussion of how cameras may or not be used. We believe PPS has its policies documented online..

  • More PPS resources: https://secure.smore.com/n/5dub6-immigration-resources-for-staff

10 Closing

Meeting was adjourned by Jake around 8pm. We hope to see everyone at our February 11th meeting!

Justin Stoller
Next

February PTA Newsletter