Pam Staneski and David Hourigan, Board of Education representatives, will be attending our May 7 PTA meeting.  We can chat about anything EXCEPT teacher/student relationships or grades as well as teacher/principal stuff.  We can discuss budget process, roles of BoE members, advocacy at the local, state, and federal level, operating budget vs bonding packages.  They have asked to speak at the beginning of the meeting.  This means that we should designate a time period and possibly come up with a topic or two that most agree they would like to discuss.  If we leave it as an open forum, we could be there all night.  Comments?  Suggestions?  Please spread the word that the Board of Ed representatives will be at the meeting.

There will also be a representative from RakGear, a backpack company, available to demonstrate their products.

The proposed nominees for the upcoming 2008/2009 ESMS Executive PTA Board are:

President                                  Michele Olsson

Vice President                          Kathy Huber

Treasurer                                  Jane Jurgot

Recording Secretary                 Sylvia Hazard

Corresponding Secretary          Melissa Wunder

PTA Council Rep                     Leslie Callahan

PTA Council Rep                     Cindy Dobie

PTA Council Alternate              Tanya Rotzal

Of important note, most of you may know that Mr. DiBiassio’s (6^th grade science teacher) son has been in a rather serious accident. He was hit in the head with a golf club.  He was hospitalized and is now in rehab in Hartford .  The teachers at East Shore and some parents, etc. have been pulling together to arrange for meals for the DiBiassio family.  Both of the parents are currently not at work and they have two other children.  We, as a PTA, should also do our share.  I talked with Kathy, our Treasurer, and we agreed that we have plenty of $$ in hospitality ($800 budgeted) that will not all be used.  We proposed that we take $$ from those funds and purchase gas cards, or the Visa cards to purchase gas.  It must be costing them a fortune to commute back and forth between their home and the hospital.  Since meals and restaurant cards are being taken care of, flowers are not an appropriate option and we don’t know how responsive the child will be to gifts/games, etc., we thought this would be the best route to take.  Since our next meeting is not until May 7^th, we would like to have a decision on this right away, so if the Executive Board agrees to it we can move forward.  We did not designate a dollar amount, but I propose $200-$250.  Please provide your comments ASAP.