View the minutes for CATSS MEETING at Esperanza Surls on May 20, 2010
View the minutes for CATSS MEETING at Canyon School on September 19, 2009
CATSS MEETING at Sabina's House, May 27, 2009, 7:00 pm PRESENT AT THE MEETING: Esperanza, Cindy, Sabina Robin, Mimi J., Nina, Avril. FINANCES
Report on recent expenditures and current balance: $30,000.00 (As of 4/30/2009).We have additional pending credit card deposits from the auction. Field trip fund: Jim’s class “zero dollars” 3-4-5 deficit (amount pending); 6-7-8 possible deficit. ELECTION OF 2009/10 OFFICERS – SLATE POSTED. SLATE UNANIMOUSLY ACCEPTED. - President(s) Sabina Rasenow and Avril Fitzgerald
- Vice president Mimi Jung
- Secretary Diane Santas
- Treasurer Robin Smith
UPCOMING EVENTS: The question was raised that perhaps CATSS could cover the costs of extended aftercare before the performance. Sabina will ask Camille if this is a possibility. CATSS is willing to pay. Spring Performances - We traditionally serve beverages: coffee, tea, lemonade. Do we want to do pizza dinner? Yes we do ( A prompt 5:30 serving time would be optimum.)
- Pizza order / pick-up: Cindy?
- Salad: greens (one box): Mimi J.
- Vinaigrette: Sabina
- Ceasar makings: Cindy
- Dessert potluck? Yes… Esperanza will ask Ramona to post a request in the newsletter to all parents for participation.
- Flowers : Robin will ask all room parents to handle this or delegate the task. (The option of flowers or plants were discussed). Of course CATSS will reimburse folks if need be.
Graduation - Beverages: We have lots of fizzy water. Cindy agreed to pick-up a case of T.J. bubbly to add to the festivities.
- Cake (buyor bake?) Bake sounds great, Who? What ? Where ?When? T.B.D.
- Flowers for graduates: Esperanza will ask Wenke & Jessica if they will handle this.
Staff Appreciation Luncheon Will Kay coordinate? This is our last year with her. Yes. Kay already sent out beautiful invitations. Make very certain that everyone is aware that alcoholic beverages are not an option. Next year we will explore other ideas for this. Possibly an off-site staff party where we donate wine, catered platters etc… New Family welcome party Avril will head this up. Last year was very successful. Maybe a repeat is in order. Pot-Luck brunch at the school. Esperanza will ask Electra to invite (inform) the Canyon Community. Possible dates: Sat. June 15th or 22nd. Beginning of year pool party Avril has offered to possibly help coordinate. Romy & Julien may have a lead on an available pool. 2009/2010 CALENDAR Avril has asked us to map out some of the key dates so they can be included on the calendar project. MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS: There are still a few items to be auctioned off. The sideboard may be auctioned off (but not if CATSS has anything to say about it). Mimi R. has agreed to chair the First Day of School pot luck coffee/breakfast. Avril is working with Kathleen on a dining fundraising event, possibly Oct. 17, 2009. She will keep us posted as we wait in joyful anticipation. Adult only participation, with the possibility of off site childcare was discussed. The Halloween Carnival is tentatively set for Sun. Oct. 25, 2009 Parent work days will be: Sat. June 27 & Sat. Aug. 1 CATSS MEETING at Esperanzas House, November 29, 2007 PRESENT AT ESPERANZAS HOME WERE: NINA, GLORIA , SABINA, CINDY, ESPERANZA , JUDITH, GWEN , DONNA MENGE AND MIMI J. AGENDA Finances
Report on recent expenditures and current balance : $17,000.00
Field trip fund 50% participation-Revisit in January
RECENT EVENT: THE HALLOWEEN CARNIVAL
What can we improve? Brainstorming …possible rally in March for higher rate of participation, bring back family pre-carnival potluck to get people interested. Reintroduce pumpkin sales (pumpkins possibly donated?) perhaps a pumpkin carving contest?
UPCOMING EVENTS
Art Faire: Advertise on Craigslist, in Parents Press, The Montclarion, The Times( Canyon Store Trust will pick-up the tab)
Beverages Coffee / tea / hot cider - Sabina & Cindy
Food Soups - Sabina & Cindy
Spanakopita - Group effort w/Sabina leading
Desserts (ideas?)
Friday afternoon “party” After Care & CATSS kids w/ Esperanza leading cookie baking fest.
Lemon Bars
Cranberry Oatmeal
Short Bread
Sign with prices: Mimi Jung
Beverages $1.00
Soup/bread $3.00
Spanakopita $2.00
Desserts $1.00/ 2 cookies
Use School’s dishes, flatware, our jelly jars? Yes, absolutely!
Let's make sure that the Art Faire items are “screened” to be sure there are no PLASTIC BOXES for sale! AAARGH!
Winter Performance dinner
Pizza again? Yes. It makes our kids SMILE!!!
Dessert potluck? ( not necessary ) We ended up using left over yummy delicious home-made cookies from the Art Faire!
SCHEDULE NEXT MEETING T.B.A.
REMINDER, WE NEED TO “HIT-UP” WHOLE FOODS IN JANUARY FOR THE AUCTION!
MISCELLANEOUS:
1. POST- HOLIDAY CLEAN-UP ( SUNDAY AFTER CRITTER CAFÉ BREAKFAST)
2. PERMANENT TETHERBALL POLES :ASK (GLORIA) FACILITIES TO SPEARHEAD THE IDEA, CATSS WILL PAY CATSS MEETING at Canyon School, February 15, 2007
Present were Tony, Sabina, Cindy, Reenie, Eric, Gloria, Judith, Mimi Jung, Jim Smith, Esperanza
We did finances. Our balance is approximately $4k.
From Staff: Gloria let us know about Capoera and music program evening performance. They are looking at March 29th. This could be a CATSS fundraiser idea. We will do Pasta. Reenie to do Pesto, Cindy meat sauce, and Sabina do Veggie Marinara. Mimi will bring greens. Mandy is looking for Capoera pants, and it should be put out to the school. Just do tea
UPCOMING EVENTS
Woman’s herstory night. March 15th. Cindy would like to provide pizza and salad. Cindy will pick up pizzas at Lane Splitters, and some Romaine. Tony will pick up ice cream. Sabina suggested that Tony contact Dryers or even Safeway to see if they would donate. Sabina will draft a letter. Mimi will get lettuce for salad. Just do tea.
AUCTION
4/28/07
Sally is donating a quilt for the raffles. Esperanza will contact Chris Gramp (of Club Sandwich) to let him know of the date. We should have a gift for each member of the band.
Eric will make another page on the site announcing the Auction. He will also do a printable or emailable form for donors. A press kit of sorts.
By the first of April we should have a printed copy of the catalogue. A sign up sheet will be posted for volunteers.
April 19th White Elephant and Used Book Store. Tony has located a storage space for the white elephant sale. Looking for books donations as well as. Gloria will let Jane know that we could use some books. Stoves are under the stage. We need to check on our propane supplies. TONY will chair this event. Tony will ask Tom Llewelyn to monitor kids. It was also mentioned that a lemonade stand would be cute. Sabina said she would ask Benjamin if he wants to handle that.
Tom and Jeffe want to do a music concert event to raise money for the school. The proposed date is 5/12. We decided it would be a good idea for the guys to come to a meeting.
Coffee. Can we start some kind of coffee service in the morning? Put it in the paper. Would anyone like to try this fundraiser? Eighth Graders?
TO DO:
Esperanza: Call Chris Gump off Club Sandwich and let him know about Auction date 4/28. Think of good gift ideas for the band.
Ramona: Post minutes and Reenie’s contribution about Capoera Pants, books etc…
Reen: send Ramona minutes, plea for Capoera pants, plea for White Elephant stuff, Coffee service, Make Pesto for 3/29
Gloria: Let Jane know we could use books for the sale on 4/19
Cindy: 3/15 Lane Splitters and Romaine. 3/29 That amazing meat sauce
Sabina: draft a letter to Dreyers and/or Safeway to get free ice cream for Tony. Ask Benjamin if he wants to help kids sell lemonade at White Elephant Sale 5/19
Your awesome Marinara 3/29
Mimi: Greens both on 3/15 and 3/29
Tony: 3/15 ice cream and accoutrements
Ask Tom Llewellyn if he’ll watch kids during white elephant sale
Eric: Announce Auction on the web, maybe a page. Make a printable or emailable donor form
NEXT MEETING MARCH 22nd. T.B.D.
CATSS MEETING at Cindy Fulton's House, January 11, 2007
Commenced at 6:30 (more like 7:00). It was lovely….
Present were Cindy, Reenie, Sabina, Tony, Eric, Gloria, Paul, Lisa
REPORT FROM THE STAFF (Gloria)
The staff, Esperanza in general, asked if CATSS could float reimbursements for teacher conference expenses. Though the school reimburses these expenses, it has proved to be a lengthy process. All members agreed to do so.
Gloria informed us that in lieu of the Alcatraz trip, Esperanza has decided on a three hour tall-ship sailing fieldtrip to coincide with the classes Tall Vessel Study. They are raising funds for the trip, yet she wants CATSS to know it is a more expensive venture, just in case she runs into the red.
Also, Ernesto is having trouble with his citizenship status, and we can’t pay him legally as a school expense. CATSS decided that Ernesto is an important resource and voted to pay him out off the CATSS fund until another solution can be secured.
Brendan is interested in the National Geographic DNA project called the Human Genome Project. The expense is $100 per kid, and though it looks like about half of the parents have responded positively, it is not clear how much money we be able to be collected from the parents. We discussed the idea of a lottery of four kids who would participate, as $400 would be a lot easier to find in the GATE program or CATSS fund than $2,800. Perhaps parents who want their child to participate in addition to the lottery could donate $100. Reenie will talk to Brendan about that idea and monitor the parental response.
REPORT ON FINANCES (Sabina)
CATSS has a balance of $6,000. Fundraising and expenditures for the year have each totaled approximately $12,000. The $6,000 is our reserve held over from last year.
Recent expenditures:
Ball box
Commercial microwave oven
Wednesday specialists
Field trips (including ice skating)
End of year picnic reservations
The 3-4-5 / 6-7-8 camping trip cost $1,550 for both classes. It was discussed that group camp sites would be considerable less expensive, and we all agreed that $1,500 was far too much to spend for camping. Gloria said she would mention this at the next staff meeting.
Winter performance made $400.
eScrip has brought in $1,354 so far this year. Reenie did a big song and dance about eScrip individual account being difficult to manage, and we agreed that we could use another sign-up program at the next pancake breakfast.
CEF REPORT (Lisa)
To date, CEF has raised about $26,000. Hurray!
CEF has successfully implemented several new ways to give to the School, including pledges and direct draws from accounts. They will also continue to reach out beyond the School families to the Canyon Community for fundraising.
Lisa feels that the group would benefit from more energy and participation (there are usually only three to four people at each meeting). If anyone is interested in helping, they should contact Benjamin Rasenow or Lisa Feuchtbaum.
GREAT GOOD PLACE FOR BOOKS PROMOTION (Reenie)
The next flyer listing suggested books will be available next week. The owner of the store has asked for some dates for a reading at the store. We decided to have her give us a date (not conflicting with our schedule) and we would invite families.
CATSS & SCHOOL WEBSITES (Eric)
Both Canyon and CATSS sites are getting a lot of visitors.
Eric is exploring the possibility of a donate option on the sites.
REPORT FROM DECEMBER SCHOOL BOARD MEETING (Cindy)
The board voted to raise substitute teacher income from $85 to $125 a day, bringing Canyon into line with what Moraga and Oakland districts are paying.
CALENDAR FOR THE REMAINDER OF THE YEAR
Rebecca is due June 9. We should have a shower in late March or early April for Rebecca. Reenie expressed interest in having the shower at her house. May 12 and June 2 work for Reenie. Any input?
WOMAN’S HISTORY NIGHT: Thursday March 15. CATSS hosts an ice-cream social afterwards. Reenie will talk to the 8th graders to see if they want to add a fundraising dinner beforehand. Maybe another potato bar? We are all hoping that Sophie honors Cindy at Women’s History Night for her excellence.
AUCTION: Saturday, April 28. Cindy showed us her progress with donations so far (47 items) and discussed the ins and outs off getting more bidders. We wondered if getting 8th grader’s involved would help. A newsletter with donation forms, sample letters, etc. will go out to all parents the end of January.
STAFF APPRECIATION LUNCHEON: Wednesday, June 6. This will be a potluck lunch in the Grove. More on food and styling t.b.a.
ALL-SCHOOL END-OF-YEAR PICNIC: Friday, June 8. A day site in Antioch, where it will be WARM, has been reserved.
CAMP OUT IN THE GROVE has been postponed to better weather in September, since Spring often proves to be too cold and rainy. Gloria will clear this with the staff.
WHITE ELEPHANT SALE/PANCAKE BREAKFAST should happen a few weeks after the auction. Perhaps May 19.
OPEN HOUSE: May 10.
THE CATSS SHED PROPOSAL
The Facilities Committee is scheduled to meet next week. Gloria will ask them for suggestions on where a shed could be placed. When we have a location, we will be able to determine a size and then shop for various options. We have agreed that we need one but are still deciding on how much to spend on one. Sabina asked that Facilities be reminded to put the heater vents in the dishwasher regularly.
PEET'S COFFEE UPDATE (Paul)
Peet's on Domingo just gave Paul 20 (!!) pounds of coffee, and he really wants to make coffee available for sale in the mornings at the School to raise funds. We discussed having the middle-schoolers do it, but it would take time away from curriculum. Reenie said she would do one morning a week to start and see how it feels. The goal is a gathering of folks, paying for coffee in the morning at the School.
NEXT MEETING
We agreed to meet again February 15. Place t.b.d.
MARK YOUR PDA’s!
GLORIA
• Yes on temporarily covering teacher conference expenses.
• Yes on Ernesto.
• Bring up at Staff meeting the need to always secure group sites.
• Ask if it is okay to postpone spring all-School camp out in the Grove to Fall of next year.
• Talk to Facilities Committee about a shed and remind them to put heater grates in the dishwasher.
REENIE
• Talk to Brendan about genome project.
• Pick a date for Rebecca’s shower.
• Talk to 8th graders about food at the Woman’s History Night.
• Get book orders out.
• Plan author reading night in Montclair.
• Do a coffee morning at the School.
ERIC
• Put donate option on website
LISA AND SABINA
• Talk to David Sharp about helping people sign up for or manage eScrip accounts.
CALENDAR EVENTS
THURSDAY MARCH 15th Woman’s History Night
SATURDAY, APRIL 28th School Auction
THURSDAY, MAY 10th Open House
SATURDAY, MAY 19th (?) White Elephant Sale
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 6th Staff Appreciation Luncheon
THURSDAY, JUNE 7th K–5 Spring Plays
FRIDA,Y JUNE 8th All-School Picnic
SATURDAY, JUNE 9th REBECCA DUE!!
CATSS MEETING at Esperanza's Dome, November 19, 2006
Present were Sabina, Kay, Mimi R., Mimi J., Cindy, Tony, Esperanza, Gloria, Reenie, and Paul. We met at Esperanza’s dome. The location was spellbinding, and we enjoyed hors d’ oeuvres and cinnamon tea cantilevered over the vast Canyon evergreens, surrounded by the inspiration of Esperanza’s amazing art. I told Paul to stand here and look out the plate glass window and he said “Thank you for that." The kids did FIMO downstairs.
FINANCES
We currently have about $8,400. We netted $3,600 from the Halloween Carnival. We discussed how Tom and Jefe were feeling after working so hard on this. Jefe seems to still be feeling like he worked very hard and didn’t get much help from the parents. We will ask Jim Smith, president of the School Board and a good friend of Jefe's, to talk with Jefe and help us come up with a good idea to assuage him. A gift card of some sort for both of the guys may be smart.
We voted that next year it would be good to have a two-day affair again.
The debris in front of the school needs to be cleaned up. We will all make an effort to move the stuff over near the bike rack and ask people to come on THURSDAY 30th after School to help load it into trucks. Esperanza will contact Jefe and let him know.
CATSS should have their own dishes for events, as it is the Canyon Way to not create a lot of garbage. Tony reminded us that there used to be a policy that you bring your own dishes to some events, like the Pancake Breakfasts. Cindy brought up that we could buy dishes at Ikea for a good price. We'll look into purchasing dishes for the Auction this year, so we would then have them for breakfasts and dinners at the School. Part of the issue is storage, which we are working to address. No definite decision was made.
Field Trip Fund is going smoothly. CATSS paid for the 3-4-5/6-7-8 camping trip, and the parents will get a note asking for reimbursement from Sabina.
We all okayed matching our CEF pals for $1,000 to purchase additional laptop computers for the 6-7-8 class.
We discussed the Supply and Material distributions for teachers. The plan had been to disburse $250 to each teacher three times a year. Esperanza put out that it was nice to have the cash in the beginning of the year, yet it may be nice to have a ”wish list” that could be put out by each class. She knew off hand that she would love new rhythm instruments for her class. If the allotted amount were not reached, it could be given via a VISA gift card. This would solve the tax problems of giving money directly to teachers. Esperanza will bring this up at the next staff meeting.
UPCOMING EVENTS
ART FAIRE is Saturday, December 3, 11–4 P.M All should arrive between 9 and 10 to set up and move their cars up top near east of the garden.
Cindy is bringing tea sandwiches and Sabina will buy 100 pork buns from the Imperial Market or some such place in China Town, as well as fortune cookies. We will serve hot cider from a big stockpot via a ladle, coffee, tea. Paul will approach Peets with the idea of a “long term commitment” for donations, yet if he is unable to get coffee for this event, Mimi J. will approach the Montclair Peets for two free pounds. We’ll need hot water for tea.
We need a CATSS committees for set up and decoration (4 people), breakdown and cleanup (4 people), and kitchen work (2 people at any one time throughout the event). Cindy will post a sign to recruit help.
Mimi R. will put an ad in the Montclarion, Sabina in the Berkeley Parent’s Network, Tony on Craig’s list. Esperanza will give Cindy a flyer to mail to wait list families.
WINTER PERFORMANCE is Thursday, December 14. Dinner will start at 5:15, with the performance beginning at 7:00. Dinner will be $5 per person, $20 per family.
Cindy will make her red meat sauce, Reenie her Pesto. Cindy will coordinate with Mimi on salad. Cindy will get bread donated from either SemiFreddi's or Acme. Potluck desserts.
We will be raffling off the Peet's Coffee donations (1st prize: 1 lb. coffee/month for a year, 2nd prize: 1 lb. of coffee; 3rd prize: a tin of tea and strainer). Cindy will send Sabina copy, and Sabina will make signs and tickets.
Flowers, gifts for staff.
SPRING AUCTION
Tony has tried to contact Deva and Gyatri and has not had any luck. He will try again, this time with a bottle of Concannon Pino.
We are lucky enough to have Club Sandwich again, and Esperanza again said that she would MC.
Fantastic art items that will be available at the auction can be showcased in the foyer on a rotation basis in the weeks prior to the auction.
We need to check with Eric that he will do the computer database again.
We decided to meet again on January 11th with no location selected yet.
TO DO
TONY: Speak with Jim Smith and ask him to talk with Jefe about the Carnival. Get a feel for what we can do for him and Tom. Get a bottle of wine and approach Deva. Post Art Faire on Craig’s List. Be available on the 30th to help load stuff for clean up.
ESPERANZA: Tell Jefe about the 30th. Help loading up his truck with extra stuff.
SABINA: Letter to parents to contribute to camping trip. Give Brendon $1K for laptops. 100 pork buns for Art Faire. Post something on Parents Network. Make flyer and tickets for Winter Performance Peet's raffle.
MIMI ROHR: Post something in Montclarion
PAUL: See about coffee for Art Faire (and beyond); if not possible, contact Mimi or Cindy.
CINDY: Teas sandwiches for Art Faire. Put up sign up sheet for volunteers. Mail fliers out to wait list folks. Delegate or organize food for Faire such as cider and tea and coffee. Make meat sauce, pasta, salad, and bread for Winter Performance dinner. Delegate work duties.
REENIE: Make pest for Winter Performance dinner. Put out flyer for Winter Performance to solicit desserts and remind parents of the event. Facilitate gifts via room parents. Flowers etc…
ALL: THURSDAY the 30th HELP CLEAN UP FRONT AREA FOR FAIRE
CATSS MEETING at Reenie's Studio, October 19, 2006 - Good Food, Great Time!
Present were Reenie Raschke, Cindy Fulton, Tony Cataldo, Sabina Rasenow, Siu Ming and Paul Garber, Tom Llewellyn, Mimi Rohr,, Jefe, Mimi (Jiminy Cricket) Gloria, Nina Sadek
HALLOWEEN CARNIVAL
Post cards for the carnival will be here tomorrow. Tony will buy 135 stamps in the morning and send them out. The remaining nine thousand five hundred will be up to us. Mimi Rohr and Reenie will take stacks of them and put them in Montclair village in coffee shops and such. Tom will take kids out on Saturday to Moraga and distribute as well. We asked Tom and Jefe what they needed and they stressed more parent volunteers for working booths and such
Cindy will put out another email. Tom needs a check for the port-a-potties from Sabina.
We discussed if we should even have a raffle this year at all and the idea of an ipod, for only $150 could be a real draw. Paul will see if he can get one cheaper. Perhaps a $50 gift certificate from Great Good Bookstore
for a second prize. We need to locate the template for the raffle tix.
Cindy has some neat crap for prizes and the shed has some prizes Cindy and Sabina are shopping at Smart and Final (Cindy just loves that store) tomorrow night and have assembled a list including Two colors of ticket rolls, candy, squirt guns, fingernail polish, tons of candles, maybe some more prizes, Italian soda cups and syrup
Shari is yet to give Cindy the food lowdown and then the price will be determined. There will be no admission price. The haunted house will sell individual tix for three bucks and each will be an assigned time. Tix then for attractions and booths will be .25.
The boys will need seed money for food and ticket sales
Ginny Prior needs to write a piece for the Montclairion
Tom will have after care carve pumpkins for the squirt gun booth.
The eight graders have the okay to do their jumpy and popcorn machine for 8th grade profit. Juliet is in charge of this and will speak with Tom about time and placement. They would like to also do a potato bar and perhaps more food. Cathy Matgen, room parent, should coordinate any additional food for then to sell. CATSS will not be paying for this, it will be food donated from parents.
Esperanza’s class will do Italian soda.
FIELD TRIP FUND
Money is coming in for FIELD TRIP FUND. Though slowly, Sabina is not worried about it.
ART FAIRE Esperanza has asked for help with food, set up and clean-up. Food proceeds for the art faire goes to the lunch program.
Winter performance Dinner will be spaghetti again.
Spring Auction Esperanza do food. Tony will talk with Deva. We want to do the auction on the 28th of April.
Reenie introduced the BOOK CLUB idea, and all were in favor. She will present it to the staff for the next staff meeting and hopes to get order forms in by Nov 1st.
Mimi will write a sweet article for the newspaper about a Great Good Place for Books for the newsletter.
Middle school room has started making cushions without asking us so we don’t know if we will be asked to help. If they do, we will need to give equal compensation to each classroom. We will wait and see what goes on there.
Montana and David will do escript registration at the carnival because when we set up a table at the pancake breakfast, it was effective. We need to ask them if they’re available to help. Cindy?
Cindy will help Reenie figure out escript
Paul explained to us how much Peets coffee would be interested in donating to school functions and believes he can get them to donate for the carnival.
We adjourned at 8:45 and agreed to meet again the November 19th, with no place in mind yet. Mimi Rohr was going to check with hubby. We all want to see Cindy’s house too.
CATSS MEETING in The Grove, September 24, 2006
Present were Reenie, Sabina, Cindy, and Gail. Meeting started at 2:30.
FINANCES
Sabina showed us a profit and loss statement. We have spent more than we had by this time last year but have used the funds for things that didn’t happen last year.
The Back-to-School Night spaghetti dinner and Pancake Breakfast brought in a couple hundred dollars a piece (approximately).
For the camping trip, we will foot the bill and get some reimbursement from parents after we determine the price per child of the trip.
Sabina has purchased Coleman stoves. Elizabeth Llewellyn is purchasing griddle inserts. These stoves will be available for pancake breakfasts as well as for class camping trips.
The budget for the Halloween Carnival needs to be sussed out. Tom and Jefe will give us an estimated budget. Initial cost last year was about $1,500. Yet this year’s sounds quite elaborate, but Tom and Jefe are working on getting many material donated.
We voted againt a request to fund video editing equipment for the 6-7-8 classroom. We decided the the cost of $1,000 was too much to spend without more information and consideration of alternatives.
RECENT EVENTS: HOW DID THEY GO?
Pancake Breakfast was a success—in the spite of the road closure. The addition of blueberries, bananas, and strawberries were a great touch. Fry pans were a nightmare, but we will have our new griddles for next time.
Spaghetti Dinner was good and profitable. We should do more spaghetti dinners for Woman’s history night, open house, etc. We could use some more help on the clean-up next time. We also need to add a “dessert cop” to monitor kids’ access to the treats.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Halloween Carnival: See above re. budget. Need to schedule next planning meeting, which will include Schari and Dave, who are doing the food. Tony and Cindy will check the CATSS shed to see what materials we have left over from last year. Reenie has put a call into Tom Llewellyn to see what assistance he needs.
Art Faire is scheduled for first Saturday in December. CATSS will be doing this in conjunction with Esperanza. Cindy will do tea sandwiches Steamed buns and pot stickers worked well last year. Music playing is a good idea. Esperanza will get together a list of items that worked well in prior years and give the kids some ideas. She has asked for a little decoration and clean-up help.
Spring Auction : Cindy will start the mailings on donations We’ll be looking for help with soliciting donations soon.
FUNDRAISING IDEAS
COFFEE: Paul Garber came up with a fun idea of a coffee concessions cart. We all agreed it is a great idea, but CATSS buying one of these carts is beyond CATSS’ means. If a private person wants to buy and work it, that would be fine. Otherwise, maybe explore doing this on a smaller scale?
BOOKS: Reenie reported on a replacement for the Scholastic Book deal. She will have a newsletter/catalogue from “A Great Good Place for Books” by next meeting, and book sales should commence by November. The bookstore will give CATSS 20% of the proceeds, and kids will be encouraged to donated books they are done with to the School Library.
ESCRIP David Sharp is taking over! Ginny Prior is going to turn over all literature to him.
NEXT CATSS MEETING: 10/19 at Esperanza’s house or at the School. Reenie will ask Esperanza.
CATSS MEETING September 7th at Gail and Jeff Pratt’s House - 6:00pm to 7:45pm
Attending: Chris Kerrigan, Esperanza Surls, Gloria Faircloth, Tony Cataldo, Cindy Fulton, Reenie Raschke, Sabina Rasenow, Eric Reynolds, Gail & Jeff Pratt, Brian Coyle, Hefe Bernard, Gwen Winslow, Mimi Yung, Julie Peters, Martina Konietzny, Judith Gips, Kay Kopit, Chris Lavin, and Montana & Kayce Rane.
Sabina reviewed financials. We have just under $7,000 in our account [[6,700.00 – but it’s dwindling by the day.]]
There are now two forms we would like people to use when requesting CATSS funds: an expense approval form (before making the expense) and an expense reimbursement form. Both of these forms can be found in the CATSS mailbox (top row, above family mailboxes in the lobby). A notice about this will go in the CATSS section of the next newsletter
The combined CATSS/CEF fundraising goal for this year is $50,000. This is amount is part of the School’s budget, not extra, so it’s important that we get busy and come through on our part. Jim Smith has proposed a fundraising meeting with representatives of CATSS, CEF, and the Board. The meeting will include drafting a letter to parents explaining the School’s financial situation in more detail.
Discussion of field trip account. As was the case last year, parents will have an option to pay for field trips up front or as they go. However, CATSS will not keep track of individual accounts for each student as they did last year since this was just too much accounting work. CATSS will also not be refunding payments made in advance; this money (there is usually not much of it for kids who attend most of the trips) will serve as a donation to defray costs. All families will be asked to pay what they can. CATSS will be happy to contribute field trip funds for families unable to pay. Sabina will draft a letter to go out with the first field trip permission slip in each class explaining the policy. The amount requested from parents will be the same for all classrooms, with the 6-7-8 class being encouraged to raise some funds on their own to pay for events like the 8th grade trip.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Back-to-School Night. CATSS will serve spaghetti dinner. Seating outside, weather permitting. Notice to be posted at School approved. Here’s the breakdown:
Judith: veg. sauce
Cindy: meat sauce, noodles, lemonade
Tony: salad
We could use some volunteers to move tables outside before and help cleanup after. CATSS will also serve coffee and tea. Potluck desserts to share with the kids at 8:15.
Pancake Breakfast (Sept. 16). At the School (bathrooms and kitchen available, although seating outside weather-permitting. 9:00–12:00? Need to confirm time.
Dave Tuchlinski will do sausages again (hurray!!).
Judith asked if we could have a quality sourdough pancakes this year, rather than Krusteez. Esperanza said she would get starter from Dean, and Cindy and Sabina will make batter.
Tony will shop for syrup (real!), butter (real!), and sausages. More Krusteez? We should have some on hand in case we run through the homemade batter. Cindy has bought heavy paper plates, orange juice, and coffee.
Since the Pancake Breakfast is a nice social for all Canyon residents as well as Canyon School families, Tony will get the Canyon phone tree list from Ramona and enlist Aya and Sasha to call local families to remind them of the event. There was talk of getting the email list of bikers that ride through the Canyon, but with road closure, perhaps that would be a wash. A good idea for next time.
Esperanza said she would make a sign for Canyon Road to put on a sandwich board. Perhaps that could be put up at the Moraga Road junction since many folks are taking Redwood Road over.
We need volunteers:
Set up
Cooking
Coleman stoves with griddles or large caste iron skillets
Cleanup
Cindy and Eric will coordinate an EScrip sign up table.
The Halloween Carnival is scheduled for Sunday the 29th and there is much to be worked out about details. There was talk of having two days of the haunted house, including Saturday, yet that happens to be tournament week for local soccer leagues, so we may need to get more info on the 678’s schedules and availability to be present.
The haunted house will be an after school activity, rather than a part of the curriculum. Jefe will run it and feels comfortable doing it with manpower ha can enlist. The kids participation will not be mandatory but volunteer.
Jefe will chair the Halloween Carnival and a meeting focused entirely on the carnival is scheduled for Tuesday, September 19th at the School at 5:30. Potluck dinner. Meeting commencing at 6pm until 8.
Art Faire. Esperanza has invited CATSS to sponsor this event that she coordinates. She’ll still lead the effort, but CATSS will give her official support. Scheduled for the first Saturday in December.
UPCOMING MEETINGS
Halloween Carnival planning: Tuesday, September 19 at the School. Potluck dinner at 5:30. Meeting 6:00–8:00.
Next CATSS meeting: Sunday, September 24, at 2:30 P.M. in the Grove. Bring snacks to share.
POSTPONED EVENTS
Because of the hardship imposed by the road closure (we scheduled our slate of events before we knew about it), we’re postponing two events: the Sept. 24 Welcome Tea in the Grove (we’ve bagged that tea!) and the Oct. 7 White Elephant Sale & Pancakes Part II.
ANNOUNCEMENTS FOR THE CATSS SECTION OF THE NEWSLETTER
Link to minutes on CATSS site.
List of scheduled events.
Notice of expense report forms.
Folks should start thinking about auction: how they want to help and who they know that might contribute.
We still need an Escrip coordinator.
Mimi Jung is going to get info regarding Berkeley Bowl Scrip
Tony is still single
Martina has stepped up to do the kitchen laundry. Hurray!
Reenie will get picture schedule together.
THE SCHOOL WEBSITE
Eric continues his work on the fabulous CATSS website. The site is now password protected. To log in, use userID member and password redwoods.
Parents Corner and Kids Corner areas need material. Contact Eric and Sasha Reynolds.
CATSS MEETING JUNE 10th at Tony’s lovely patio-pool
Present were: Marilyn, Cindy, Tony, Reenie, Kay, Nina, Gail, and Martina.
It was cold, but the kids swam anyway.
We reviewed financials. Since the last Board meeting, Gloria confirmed that the school’s shortfall now totals $26,000 for the year 2006/07. Marilyn and Benjamin agreed that CATSS would contribute $12,000 and CEF would contribute $14,000.This means that we retain approximately $6,000 for each organization (CATSS and CEF) to carry to next year.
We decided that CATSS should have its own post office box so we can receive bank statements when school is not open. [Later note: Since this meeting Cindy has opened a box ($28/year + one-time $8 for keys). Our box number is 52. Cindy has one set of keys (one for the lobby, one for the box) and will send the other set to Marilyn so that she can collect bank correspondence throughout the summer.]
Marilyn will also contact the state for more information on guidelines for non-profits. There was some question about whether CATSS was registered as a non-profit or charity organization. Marilyn will make sure that it is the former.
We will be giving teachers a “Beginning of the Year Classroom Spending Account” of $250 each. There was also mention of other school websites posting teachers’ wish lists. We might encourage teachers to do this on the CATSS website.
Discussion of a classroom parent job.
Kay will draft a list of what duties might be appropriate for Canyon School. Once room parents are identified for next year, we would like to invite them to a CATSS meeting to discuss how best we can work with and support them.
We need phone #’s of incoming parents and to construct a non-emergency phone tree. Since the meeting, Ramona has sent Cindy the updated phone/address list for next year.
We agreed that next year all CATSS meetings will be held on the third Thursday of the month unless otherwise announced. Evenings will begin with pizza or potluck dinner from 5:30 to 6:00, with the meeting following at 6:00 and adjourning promptly at 7:30. We’re hoping this will make the meeting easier to attend for those with small kids. The group noted that this timing allows for individuals to attend the CEF and School Board meetings without being too overwhelmed, and is on a different night of the week to allow those with commitments on a given night to attend at least some of the school’s meetings.
• CEF Meetings – first Monday of every other month, beginning in August
• Canyon School Board Meetings – second Tuesday of every month
• CATSS Meetings – third Thursday of every month
Tentative CATSS Events Calendar for 2006/07 (dates to be confirmed)
Pool party in Moraga, potluck party August 26
Back to school night (we provide coffee and snacks) September 14
Pancake breakfast September 16
School pix Week of September 18
Welcome tea in the grove September 24, afternoon
White Elephant + pancakes October 7
Halloween carnival October 29
(Discussion also included possibly running the haunted house on Halloween night.)
Winter performances (we provide pizza dinner) December 14
Auction April 28
Open house (we provide coffee and snacks) May 10
Teacher/staff appreciation luncheon* June 6
Spring performances (we provide pizza dinner) TBD
Graduation (we provide coffee, drinks, and cake) June 12
* This is a new event, suggested by Kay. On this day we would provide a potluck lunch in the grove and give flowers and end-of-year gifts to the staff.
Martina suggested we have a liaison for events who would be sure events were on the website calendar and contact all parents about events using our non-emergency phone tree.
We reviewed Cindy’s fabulous survey, of which there was not a whole lot of response to, and it seems we did a great job. CATSS will implement the suggestion to add eggs to the pancake breakfast menu.
It was noted that the parents might appreciate a clearer explanation of where CATSS money goes. We will discuss this further in August but agreed that a newsletter communication from CATSS listing activities that CATSS either sponsors or assists with would be a good idea. There are several examples of letters like this in the binders from previous years.
We still have plenty of t-shirts and sweatshirts, but they aren’t selling because the design is just not very appealing. We will not order more at this time. There was discussion of buying some with the old design, as people seemed to like that better.
Scholastic Books. Reenie said she did not want to be the Scholastic rep anymore, and we agreed that it wasn’t really bringing anything to the school. The idea was that teachers could select some free books, but in years past, they haven’t really done so.
Reenie noted that mail order books are the demise of local bookstores and that there should be a way to support our local stores.
We came up with something called “Literature Promotion,” which Martina will research. The idea being a local bookstore, like The Storyteller in Lafayette, or A Great Good Place in Montclair, could offer a selection for the kids to purchase at a discounted rate and the books could then be donated later to the school library. Perhaps kids could visit the bookstore for readings, etc.
We went over the jobs of officers:
• President runs meetings and works with the Board on behalf of CATSS;interacts with families on behalf of CATSS.
• The Vice President is the communicator and gets things done.
• Treasurer does all things financial.
• Secretary takes minutes from meeting and sees that they are accurately posted on the website.
The historian, which is a position that Patty Thompson volunteered for, needs some honing. We’re thinking that the role could be to capture history as it is happening with pictures and memorabilia for storage. Tony will talk to Patty about whether she is interested in doing this.
Marilyn asked if Eric’s job as technical administrator should be an officer’s position given that he is included on nearly all communications. We opted to call it a “chair” position as are those who lead fundraiser events.
Marilyn agreed to draft updated CATSS By-laws to reflect these duties, and to remove the restriction for carrying a cash balance from one year to the next by June 30.
We agreed to meet again, after summer on August 26 to coincide with the pool party, if possible (actual location and date to be confirmed).
CATSS MEETING MAY 22, 2006 @ Canyon School
Present were: All present were Tony Cataldo, Marilyn Drobenaire, Cindy Fulton, Esperanza Surls (Staff Representative)
Kay Kopit, Martina Konietzny (parent of new kindergartner next year)
The meeting was called to order at 6:30 PM.
1. Enrichment Committee Progress / GATE
Esperanza suggested that since the Enrichment Committee and GATE have similar goals, the committees should be combined. CATSS members present agreed, and Esperanza will make the recommendation to the School Board for approval.
Kay Kopit reported on the MUSE band music program, and CATSS agreed it sounded very promising. Details have been distributed to parents of children old enough to participate, and thus far, four families are interested in it as an after-school program. However, Esperanza suggested that, instead, the MUSE program be incorporated into GATE’s elective programs. We could have the MUSE program available for those 6-7-8 grade students interested in band as an afternoon elective course. In addition Ernesto would continue with his specialty in recorder as well as other flutes, etc., for the 6-7-8 graders who are not interested in the MUSE program.
Ernesto may be invited to work with Esperanza with the art program, Eric with the music program, and perhaps Ken Pitts with the Capoeira program to integrate Ernesto’s knowledge of Spanish. This meets several initiatives by adding a higher level of music exposure along with reinforcing the Spanish language program.
2. CATSS Calendar Items
2006/07 School Year Calendar
Marilyn volunteered to draft a 2006/2007 school year CATSS calendar to include all major fundraising events for review at the June CATSS meeting. We’ll coordinate our events to avoid conflicting with the school’s calendar.
Next CATSS Meeting
The next CATSS meeting will be held on Sunday, June 11, possibly at Tony’s complex (to be confirmed), from 1:00 – 4:00. It will be potluck style, and kids are welcome to come with their bathing suits for a fun time in the pool. Tony will draft a flyer once date/time/location is confirmed.
First CATSS Meeting for New School Year
CATSS will hold a meeting on August 26 and will check with Patty Paton and Bill Thompson to see if we can have a pot luck style pool party in Moraga later that day. This will be a good time for families to gather and socialize and meet new parents before the beginning of the next school year, plus fun for the kids.
Questionnaire
Cindy volunteered to draft a questionnaire to seek feedback from parents about CATSS fundraising efforts (Too many pancake breakfasts? New ideas? What did you like? What didn’t you like? Etc.).
Coordinator(s) for Events
Esperanza noted that CATSS used to have a single person who followed up with parents to remind them about upcoming events. Marilyn suggested that perhaps we try to identify one parent per grade to volunteer to be the person to call to remind parents of upcoming events, etc. All present agreed that would be a good idea, since it wouldn’t be quite as overwhelming a task for each volunteer.
3. End of Year Social
The group agreed that trying to host an end-of-year social would be too overwhelming at this point. We’ll just shoot for the August swim party.
4. Lee’s Request for Leftover Plates, Cups, Etc. for All-Day Picnic
Everyone agreed to provide Lee with CATSS’ inventory of plates, etc. for the school picnic. Tony will let Lee know.
5. End of School Year Gifts
The group went over the list of names to whom CATSS would give a gift as an end-of-year thank you gesture. Marilyn will check with Ramona to ensure no one was missed. Tony and Marilyn strongly encouraged CATSS to not give officers gifts this year; instead, let’s just preserve the fundraising efforts and leave the funds for donation to the school.
Gifts, In General, and What CATSS Typically is Expected to Cover
Esperanza noted that CATSS in the past used to give winter holiday (i.e., Christmas) gifts to staff. The group admitted that it is a fairly new slate of parents and hadn’t known of this very important detail! The group reviewed with Esperanza what it is that CATSS is expected to take care of throughout the year and developed the following list:
• Provide snack (or dinner) and beverages for: all plays, back to school night, parents’ night, women’s history night, open house
• Provide graduation cake
• Winter holiday gifts to staff
• Host before school party (pot luck style)
• Back to school gathering (tea, etc.)
Thank you, Esperanza!
Gift for Auction Band, Club Sandwich
Apparently, there was some miscommunication between the coordination of the Auction and the Band’s expectations regarding some basic issues. Marilyn suggested that we should try to make sure the band understands how very important they are to our school and that we make them feel appreciated. Esperanza, who is the person with connections to the band and is the one responsible for their generous efforts, will purchase gifts for each of the band members and will get reimbursement from CATSS.
6. School Pictures/Yearbook
This Year
Tony will check with Reenie to see if she has time/energy to take the school pictures this year. If not, Martina is a professional photographer, and may pitch in if needed. We should plan to have the pictures taken prior to June 2 due to other school activities going on.
Next Year
Esperanza suggested rather than having CATSS plan the year book, let’s wait until the 6-7-8 teacher has been hired and let that person help design and possibly integrate the project into an elective program. The group agreed that is a good way to approach next year’s year book. The year book will likely be something a notch up from the current in-class anthologies but not quite as high-priced as CATSS had proposed this year.
7. Review Financials
Marilyn had reported at the last Board meeting that CATSS would likely have $20,000 to donate to the school’s general fund at the end of the school year, but due to an unexpected high price tag for the Ropes Course field trip, an underwhelming response to the field trip collections, and the end of year gifts, the figure is likely to be closer to $18,000. Overall, CATSS has done a terrific job of fundraising this year. Anyone wishing to view the financials to date, please email Marilyn at Marilyndr@aol.com
Field Trip Funds
Marilyn explained how much time it took to reconcile the field trips fund accounts. The group agreed to return to the prior system of collecting as you go, but we could offer parents a hassle-free option of prepaying a $60 flat fee at the beginning of the year. The difference would be that CATSS won’t do any accounting. For the current school year, the average cost per student (irrespective of grade level) totaled an estimated $63 per student (final tally still being confirmed and will be relayed to parents before the end of the school year).
8. Staff Representative at All CATSS, CEF, Board Meetings
The group observed that in prior years, a staff member was present at the various meetings. The group agrees it would be very helpful to continue that pattern in future years to avoid mistakes (the winter holiday gifts, for instance) and help gain valuable insight into decisions made at these meetings. Esperanza and/or a CATSS representative will bring this up at a future Board meeting. CATSS tries to coordinate having at least one CATSS representative present at each Board and CEF meeting.
9. 2006/07 CATSS Officers Elections
There were no additional individuals who expressed interest in, or signed up for, the available Officer positions as advertised in the school newsletter and by flyers in each family’s school box. The group approved the following slate for 2006/07 school year:
President – Tony Cataldo
Vice President – Cindy Fulton
Secretary – Reenie Raschke
Treasurer – Marilyn Drobenaire
The meeting was adjourned at 8:30 PM.
CATSS MEETING APRIL 20, 2006 @ the home of Marilyn Drobenaire
Present were: All present were Tony Cataldo, Marilyn Drobenaire, Reenie Raschke, Cindy Fulton, Linda Rasenow, and Eric Reynolds.
First we covered some small potatoes:
We decided that a thank you note, artfully put together by the kids at Canyon would be a nice gesture to gesture to Deva for opening his home to us.
Star testing is next week. We usually make breakfast for the kids. Ramona has asked Tony to buy food for it. We agreed that CATSS will pay for this.
Tony has priced out a front area display case. We all approved $250 for him to go ahead and purchase and install it. We have opted to call it the School Announcement Board.
Tony had some fundraising ideas, including taking in foreign exchange students. We opted to hold off on too much discussion on this as we had too much ground to cover about the auction in this particular meeting.
Ken Pitts has announced that he will NOT be doing a Batisado next year. We agreed that an annual celebratory Hoda would be good.
CATSS respects the decision by the school’s staff to not pursue the yearbook this year. Marilyn will be returning checks and sending out a letter with them.
We decided that after the auction we would host a meeting to include CEF, CATSS, GATE, and the Enrichment Committee for the good of the school.
THEN WE MOVED TO AUCTION PLANNING:
Cindy showed us a sample bid sheet. We have opted to have color dots to anticipated the the time each bidding category will end. Reenie will find four people on the decorating committee to be bid sheet grabbers, who will circle the winning name on the sheet and draw a line down from it at each closing time.
REENIE will put a sign up sheet up at school to recruit clean-up help.
Ramona should remind families to respond so we can get bidder information in the data base.
Tony will ask Diane Pittman if she wants to help with the cashier process
Tony and Esperanza will handle signage on the road with balloons and glow stix.
Nina has Christmas lights and glow stix.
We need to have two or three people at the cashier table for check in, check out and to collect payments. Eric, Cindy and Marilyn will do this, but may recruit additional help.
Marilyn will be sure the caterer provides hors doeuvres. Reenie will see if she can get any graduates, Marielle, Molly, Rose or Evan to walk around with trays of hors doeuvres. We’ll ask them to dress up. [Later decided to not have kids do this; hosts’ family members might help.]
Reenie will bring serving trays.
We will need three coolers: Marilyn, Reenie and Linda agreed to bring them.
We went over Marilyn and Tony’s shopping list for ths Sunday, 4/23.
Linda will have Ramona put in the Newsletter that we are accepting Major credit cards. Cindy will make an addendum to the catalogue to include late items.
Judith will be supervising the food.
Closing times of the Auction will be 7pm, 7:15, 7:30. And 7:45 [Later amended to 7:00, 7:20, 7:40, 8:00 to accommodate having four color-coded dots.]
The Raffle will take place at 8:00, followed by the Live Auction. The Live Auction items will include:
• Tour of Pixar
• Tony’s Painting Services
• Henry’s Eggs
• Cesar’s Tapas Restaurant
• Lake Tahoe Getaway
• Golden State Warriors Luxury Box Seats
Check out time will begin at 8:15. If people need to leave prior to 8:15, they can, but must check out so we can bill them later.
Chris Kerrigan can’t co-MC as planned, so Esperanza will MC solo. Marilyn will draft a “program” so Esperanza knows the timeline for the evening’s events/announcements.
Jennifer Cole is bringing shortcake for dessert. It will be delivered to the school on Saturday, 4/29.
We agreed to meet again next Thursday evening, 4/27, @ 6:30 pm @ Marilyn’s house
CATSS MEETING MARCH 8, 2006 @ Reenie Images in Montclair Village
Present were:
Tony Cataldo, Tami Halloran, Reenie Raschke, Marilyn Drobenaire, Eric Reynolds, Cindy Fulton, (Willie’s dad) David, Nina.
It was announced that a BOARD MEETING is scheduled for TUESDAY 3/14 at Canyon School, and all were encouraged to attend as it is to be a teacher’s review meeting.
We discussed the FIRST ANNUAL BATIZADO, put on by our Capoera Instructor, Ken Pitts. We decided that it was poor communication and bad planning that caused last minute disappointments such as unexpected costs and Ken’s feelings possibly being hurt. As this is the first, we vowed to make next year run more smoothly. Eric said he would put a nice blurb on the website regarding Ken, and there was talk of a meeting to take place after the auction to assuage him and assure him that next year, certain steps would be taken far in advance of his planned event to ensure more participation.
We were planning on discussing the YEARBOOK deadline of 4/2/06, when Marilyn notified us that Chris had sent an email a few hours earlier notifying her that he had changed his mind on using Lifetouch, which put us all in a tailspin. After speaking with Jack, it was understood that he was still interested in doing a yearbook and we left it that Reenie would ask Chris if it couldn’t continue as planned, but with another book binding company and a later printing deadline. (Later note: This is where we currently are as of 3/12….. Jack Halloran is working with the 6-7-8’s during Wednesday enrichment beginning after spring break and will be sending work off to another hard book company).
FUNDRAISING SHORTFALL is approximately $11,200 assuming we raise $12,000 at the Auction. Marilyn shared with us an email from Paul Pitman, suggesting a fundraiser for the third or fourth week of March. As Paul is coming off as President of CEF in June, we discussed who might be willing to volunteer to take his place. We talked of a new structure that the School Board has discussed for the CEF. Three directors, one CATSS rep, and one Board member, thus creating some cohesiveness.
Marilyn had a draft letter asking for financial support from specifically-targeted corporations in the name of the Canyon Education Foundation. We all thought it a good idea, and gave her the go ahead.
We decided to publish a “who does what for Canyon School?” for parents as well as the website. This blurb will explain The Canyon School Board, the Education Foundation, CATSS, the Enrichment Committee, site Counsel and GATE. Cindy agreed to put this together.
REGARDING THE AUCTION, SET FOR APRIL 29th
Tami is firming up the raffle flyer. Kay Kopit is to hang her art piece in the foyer at school. Tami will send a link to Eric for the website in order to display the raffle prize. She and Tony committed to having invitations out by 3/27/06. Elena in the Canyon Post Office is able to get mail to all in Canyon, even those without boxes.
We decided to sell advance tickets… $15 per person and $25 per couple. At the door prices will be $15 per person, no couple break.
Cal will not be doing the FOOD, sadly. Marilyn is waiting to hear back from two different catering outfits and will know within two weeks what we plan to do.
Reenie has a decoration committee meeting planed for Sat the 25th at Deva’s house and feels there will be very little problem in getting ready to set up for the Auction.
WE PLANNED AN AUCTION PLANNING MEETING FOR MARCH 29th at SCHOOL AT 6PM.
We adjourned at 8:20 PM.
CATSS MEETING FEBRUARY 9, 2006 @ the home of Marilyn Drobenaire
Present were:
Tony Cataldo, Patty Thompson, Magdalena Pribilovics, Eric Reynolds, Marilyn Drobenaire and Reenie Raschke
Tami suggested we put the books for sale back in the foyer. Perhaps we could add CD’s and videos as well.
Reenie doesn’t have enough time to take care of the Scholastic Books and is looking for someone to take over the task. She will ask Ramona to put a word out in the newsletter
For Eric: Can we remove password protection on CATSS SITE calendar? This arose a whole security issue. We opted to have the marquis on front of home page used to announce calendar events (much like the newsletter format) and keep the calendar protected.
Website should include that Auction money goes to CATTS, then to school, rather than “money from auction goes to the School”.
Eric suggested a Kids area of the site that could be accessible to and buildable by the kids. We all agreed that was a cool idea.
We discussed the Canyon Auction Raffle flyer and reviewed and revised it Tami will work more to decide on the appropriate items for raffle. Tami is considering using kids pix on the flyer. Eric will send her some pix. She will distribute in boxes and give to Eric to post on the site by Friday, the 17th
How to volunteer for CATSS info for the website: Marilyn showed us her blurb and we approved it. Although she received no response when asking for original approval, including teachers, we gave her the go ahead.
Invitations for Auction: Tami and Tony are putting together the invitation. Marilyn to do the copying as she has an avenue to do it inexpensively. We discussed having a professional printer, but decided this is not really a “mass-mailing” as it is really just Canyon families and folk.
Decoration Committee should bring flowers and or a fruit basket to the auction hosts. Jane Pratt and or Tony are checking to see if the 22nd or 25th work as a date to visit the auction site.
Waiting list (what’s this? – do you mean Canyon community?) people should get an invitation to the auction. Ramona has that list. Tami and Tony will handle getting it and sending out invites to them.
Magda is handling the YEARBOOK this year. Her research showed that through Life Touch, a min of 50 books 40 pages hard cover black and white, they would be 25 bucks a book. She expressed her desire to work with the kids.
We all decided that this would be the PERFECT middle school Wednesday afternoon project, and believe we could have them use Life Touche’s Web Design program. Tami told us that her husband, Jack, a credentialed teacher had done yearbook at his school. She thought we could ask him to work with the kids, but he should get some compensation. Marilyn will check to get to see how much the school usually pays for this sort of position. Magda will talk with Jack to see if he is available. Time is of the essence on this as layout would be due to Lifetouch in four weeks.
Food Catering for the Auction is still unconfirmed. Esperanza is out not able to take care of the food this year, and Marilyn has a few other candidates she is pursuing.
We adjourned at 8:30
CATSS MEETING JANUARY 19, 2006 @ the home of Marilyn Drobenaire
Present were:
Tony Cataldo
Marilyn Drobenaire
Reenie Raschke
Cindy Fulton
Eric Reynolds
Judith Gips
Bill Thompson
Patty Paton
We began at 7pm
MUSIC AND LANGUAGE COMMITTEE: The group discussed at length a recent situation involving a parent who had jumped in to help fix the music program, which, appears to be lacking in challenge, especially for the 6-7-8 classroom, and possibly the others as well. This parent had understood that she had the school’s approval to purchase a drum set for the school for just under $600, and had made a down payment toward the purchase out of her own pocket. Unfortunately, it was later determined that this was not the case. (The Executive Committee later decided to address this with the appropriate school staff.)
Based on this unfortunate incident, the group agreed that it is ever more important to move forward with the creation of an “Enrichment Committee” that will focus on the academic needs of the school, specifically, for now, focusing on the music program and Spanish. Marilyn will present to the School Board a proposition to create such a committee to research the needs of the school, and to perform due diligence to come up with potential solutions.
We had some discussion about music and agreed that choral instruction may work well for all ages, as students own the instrument of voice and it has huge capacity for growth and complexity through harmony and fellowship. We agreed that, regardless of the type of instruction, a music director should be well-positioned to be around for a long time (longevity), and be able to pass on his or her theory of work. We agreed that a music teacher needs to not just be able to play an instrument, but be able to teach large groups of children and captivate them. If the idea of a rock group would work, it would have to include everyone and a diversity of skill may obscure the process. Of course, those skilled, should be highlighted; yet, we would need the steadfast direction of a great instructor.
Several times, Mike Walenberg was brought up as having been a great instructor. “Where did he go?” Bill wondered if Mike may consider returning as a paid position as a near-term fix to the music program (and possibly longer-term), even though his child had graduated.
We did not discuss Spanish but all agreed that the goal is a streamline system of both language and Music. If we can enrich the programs sooner, that would be lovely.
YEARBOOK: Moved to next meeting.
TOUR DE CANYON -07: A possible committee for the “Tour de Canyon” could include Eric Reynolds, Benjamin Rasenow and Brian Coyle, who have each expressed interest in participating.
Tony will bring this up to each of the three candidates. A casual start of planning by late April (just after the auction) would be great.
This will be a bike race through canyon by local riders. As there is a big race in the city in March 07, many semi professional riders may enjoy the idea of “warming up” with a sponsored ride through the canyon. A local semi-professional rider would apparently enjoy having a local following, and would like to help the school with this event.
THE EIGHTH GRADE TRIP: needs a good committee to help with fundraising efforts. Kathleen, Cathy Matgen, Reenie, and Tanya seem to be good candidates. Reenie will initiate a meeting for the group to brainstorm ideas. We need to asses money available as well as fund raising capabilities. Tony reminded us that a pancake breakfast would be doable with the supplies we have on hand. Kids’ auction funds will go to this trip, so we should plan to motivate the eighth graders, in particular, to get involved in the process. Tony has a list of things done in the past to raise funds.
OFF THE CUFF: Tony asked if he could get an account with Cash and Carry. We all said yes.
AUCTION STUFF: Cindy said all was just dandy. She handed out some contact sheets for those business who had been sent letters, but have not yet responded, for follow-up calls. Marilyn and Tony will make these follow-up calls.
Reenie said she was also right on track with music (band will be Club Sandwich) and MC (our principal, Chris, will be the MC).
Volunteers who signed up to help with the Facility tasks:
Kay Koppit
Nia
Linda Rosenow
Jane Prattt
Jaonne Hartman
Reenie will plan a meeting with those gals to get it set up . She asked that we have donation items listed and ready to go by Feb. 20th for layout of tables.
Tami will be handling Raffle tickets. The prizes will be selected from donations; prizes TBD.
Cal may do food. Cost to follow. Esperanza is talking with Cal about this. Esperanza seems to have the food issue under control, but we’ll follow up with her soon.
Rebecca will be attending the auction, but she will try to get Tom, John and Susan to handle planning the kids auction.
We were all reminded to help our kids come up with cool auction items.
Alice needs to make a certificate for baby sitting.
Technology. Eric not present, but the website is coming along nicely.
Marilyn is going to contact Dayna about doing an auction catalogue.
We talked about the importance of thank you notes following the auction. Cindy is ready to complete this very important task. Reenie suggested maybe running off copies of some of the linoleum print cards that the kids made and using those.
Marilyn suggested we do class projects for auction items and said she would ask the room parents to help organize this effort.
She also wondered if we could auction off those wonderful masks made by Esperanza’s class for the Winter performance? Marilyn will speak with Esperanza about this.
Patty said she would consider being the historian and dig for some old Canyon images for the website.
Ken Pitts has asked for an evening Baptisaro for his Capeora. Tony said he would plan a dinner in late April.
The meeting ended at 8:40pm
We will meet again two weeks from today. Thursday, February 9, at 7:00 pm, at Marilyn’s home
CATSS MEETING JANUARY 5, 2006 @ the home of Reenie Raschke
Present were:
Tony Cataldo
Marilyn Drobenaire
Reenie Raschke
Cindy Fulton
Eric Reynolds
Rebecca Price
Judith Gips
Patty Paton
MUSIC AND LANGUAGE: Reenie brought up some information given to her by Magda Pribilovics regarding a music teacher for the middle schoolers. She is looking for approval to bring him in as an after school option. There was discussion about what was legally required to do so. We need to go to the board and get permission to form a committee to solicit proposals for music and language programs. The goal being to find experienced and committed instructors with background for Spanish and music. We had talked of a choral director possibly working for all ages. Marilyn is going to the board meeting next Tuesday on behalf of CATSS and will obtain permission. We will call for a meeting of the committee in the newsletter. Marilyn will see if she can get permission for Magda’s instructor to do an after school workshop so we can get that going on the interim.
STREAMLINE FUNDRAISERS WITH TEMPLATES: We would like to make it more concrete what the specific duties of each fundraising activity consist of, to facilitate ease in passing the torch as members move on. In addition, we would like to have a SINGLE database for the various mailings that are appropriate for fundraising activities, and other school-related mailings. Right now, it appears we have the following separate databases (maintained by various individuals):
Data Base A = immediate Parents and students. Approximately 75
Data Base B = extended to family and alumni, perspective parents and Canyon community. Approx 300
Data Base C = All of the above plus friends and extended family of alumna. Approx 3000
Data Base D = All of the above plus businesses throughout the bay area and beyond for auction solicitation.
Diane Pittman had been the keeper of the larger, D database, but as she is leaving and has passed the database on to Cindy Fulton who, for now, will now be the keeper and use it for auction events, etc. This should ultimately be in the hands of a single (preferably tech-oriented) person to update as necessary.
We reviewed the financials then moved on to DISCUSSION ON THE AUCTION
Marilyn’s Planning Worksheet was reviewed, slotting people into positions:
Marilyn OVERSITE COORDINATOR
Cindy DONATIONS
Tony PUBLICITY
Tami RAFFLE UPON APPROVAL OF TAMI
Reenie FACILITY
Eric TECHNOLOGY
Rebecca KIDS’ AUCTION UPON APPROVAL OF REBECCA
We have no one for FOOD confirmed, but it was discussed that Esperanza did a fabulous job last year. Marilyn will talk to her about doing the same again.
It was made clear that ALL OF THESE POSITIONS are lead (Chairperson) positions. Questions will be addressed to Marilyn and duties delegated to others by each head. All expenditures are to be pre-approved by the oversight coordinator.
Marilyn will post a volunteer sign up board at the school
The group agreed to move the Auction date to April 22, pending approval from the hosts. Time of the event will be from 5 to 9 PM.
Location the home of Deva and Gayatri Rajan Driveway 35 Laurel Lane off Pinehurst.
Tony will ask them if April 22nd can work.
Entrance fee will remain the same as last year: $15 per person, $25 per couple
Kids’ Auction (child care) fee will remain the same as last year: $15 a child, $20 per family. Tony will ask Rebecca to lead this effort.
Cindy showed us her catalog database called File maker pro. Last year we used excel. She has updated all entries from the old database into the new one.
Marilyn has suggested we include a copy of the East Bay Express article with donation forms going out to help explain what makes Canyon School special and to help promote solicitations.
Eric will research the various ways we can integrate using credit cards, as well as paypal, for fees and purchases at the auction. Eric will also help determine how/where we post the Auction catalog on the Internet.
We reviewed the donation form and the parent letter. Marilyn will revise the letter and have it out next Monday, or as soon as we receive the okay to change the date from the Rajans. The letter to parents will include suggestions about what to donate, a modified version of the planning worksheet, the donation form, and a copy of the article from Parents Magazine.
ERIC AND THE WEBSITE
Patty was very helpful in explaining that Bill does feel ready to pass on the job of the Canyon Website. The problem is it is not okay to put names and addresses and such on a school website. The solution would be to have a CATSS website that can be used for lists of donors to help with communication between Auction volunteers, and ultimately, a copy of the Auction catalog listing items for sale, information for fundraising activities, and other items that the school website is restricted from posting. Marilyn will bring up to the Board a proposal for a trial CATSS website. She stressed several times that “baby steps” are the best way to make these kinds of changes.
The meeting adjourned at 8:30. We agreed to meet at Marilyn’s house on Thursday, January 19, from 7:00 pm to 8:30 PM.
ACTION:
Marilyn:
Attend Board Meeting on Tuesday. Address a music/language committee. Ask for permission to have an after school workshop for middle-schoolers. Address CATSS website. Ask Esperanza if she is interested in doing food for the auction. Post volunteer sheet.
Tony:
Talk to auction hosts about date change ASAP. Ask Rebecca if she will host kids auction
Eric:
Integrate using credit cards for auction. Figure out if we can post auction catalogue on a website.
All Chairs:
Review duties on planning worksheet and begin planning on execution, delegation and costs. Bring results to next meeting.
Cindy DONATIONS
Tony PUBLICITY
Tami RAFFLE UPON APPROVAL OF TAMI
Reenie FACILITY
Eric TECHNOLOGY
MARILYNS HOUSE - Thursday, January 19, from 7:00 pm to 8:30 PM.
Be there or BE SQUARE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
CATSS MEETING DECEMBER 7, 2005
Present were:
Tony Cataldo
Marilyn Drobenaire
Tami Halloran
Brian Coyle
Cindy Fulton
Diane Pittman
Review Financials
- Tami advised that there should be some leftover funds from last year’s fieldtrip funds. Marilyn & Tami will figure out who those amounts are owed to soon. After that, Marilyn will distribute cumulative statements to parents with an accounting of monies paid and spent.
- CATSS agreed to respond to the school’s needs for financial support on an as-needed basis.
Education Foundation
- Doug MacMillian, David Luskerwitz (sp?), and Paul Pittman will remain involved in the annual fundraising tasks, but are looking for help with other activities, such as advertising the school as a facility to rent for non-alcoholic events.
- Marilyn volunteered to handle deposits for the Education Foundation.
Spring Auction
- Cindy has been collecting and logging the donations received.
- Tony will contact Tory about contacting the people who hosted last year’s Auction to see if they’re willing to do it again this year.
- The date of the Spring Auction is tentatively March 25 (date to be confirmed based on location availability).
- Possible neighborhood solicitations:
- Gourmet Ghetto / Shattuck – Cindy Fulton
- Glenview – Ginny Prior
- Solano – TBD
- Piedmont – TBD
- Rockridge – David/Doug (TBD)?
- Cindy and Marilyn will meet within the next week or two to develop a plan of action (tasks and people) with input from Diane. The draft action plan will be routed to Tony, Tami and Reenie for approval and implementation.
Communication
- Email is not effectively getting to all recipients via a single distribution list. Tony will check with Eric, Bill and Ramona to clarify who is working on the website and who is keeping the email list, and how we might best coordinate communications.
- The School Board will discuss the logic of having email addresses on the school’s master address list. Or make them available elsewhere?
Web Site
- Tony will ask Eric to present the CATSS web page to the Board to get its approval to add a link from the school’s website to the new CATSS site.
- While we’re grateful for Eric’s volunteering to build and host an attractive website, an option for next year and beyond is that we might be able to get a low-cost website that is user-friendly (templates) that staff and CATSS volunteers can use easily, and is maintained by a business that specializes in catering to schools and small businesses that otherwise can’t afford to support their own website. More discussion will follow, but for the remainder of this year, we will work with Eric on the existing design and implementation.
Upcoming Events
- Winter performance – Tony and Cindy (with Judith’s input) will coordinate the food for the event.
Meeting was adjourned at 8:15 PM. The next meeting will be on Thursday, January 5 (date is tentative; place TBD).
CATSS MEETING OCTOBER 18, 2005 @ the home of Reenie Raschke
Present were:
Tony Cataldo
Marilyn Drobenaire
Reenie Raschke
Magda Pribilovics
Kay Kopit
Judith Gipps
Primary function of this meeting was the Halloween Carnival, which is set for SUNDAY OCTOBER 30th from Noon to 4. Set-up should start NO LATER than 9am. Tony pointed out that we can breathe a bit easier this year as we have a whole Saturday before to get supplies top the school.
Yoyo the clown wants $200 this year. We opted to say yes. Tony will call her.
Marilyn discussed the various booths and set-ups for the carnival. We are set and organized for five booths and a cake walk, a pumpkin carving contest and a tickly spider cave, not to mention the haunted house.
Shari is in charge of food and needs to be aware of her helpers. Judith will inform her of her helpers and talk with Shari to see if she can suppliment the menu.
Marilyn will update list of duties and email it to us. She will also set the heads of each booth operator straight and invite them to her house for the next meeting.
Marilyn will chair the pumpkin carving contest
Alice has suggested the “spray the pumpkin light out” booth. If someone else wants to do a booth, we may suggest that.
We decided to let go the idea of additional schools joining in for the carnival
We should be listed on Craigslist Tony will do that too
Kay will do Canyon School Raffle for the quilt. She will sell tix as well as organize the drawing. She’ll grab a child to do the drawing toward the later part of the day.
We have signs for booths and food and such. Tony will distribute them to the appropriate heads of each booth.
Lisa Feutchbaum said she could handle tickets. Marilyn will contact her.
Tom Llewellyn is running the haunted house.
Patty Thompson 345 class parent
Cathy Matgen 678 parent
Connie K12 parent
Reenie will contact room parents to get the ball rolling on baked goods for the cakewalk as well as supplies for scarecrows.
Kay brought up the notion of better Harvest like decorations
Judith is a harvest festival volunteer for Full belly farm. She will look into getting a tonn of pumpkins and stalks. Her budget is $150. Tony will look in the shed and see what kind of decoration we might have. Kay is very good at this kind of stuff, perhaps she could help with decorating on Sunday.
After school kids should make scarecrows TONY WILL Contact Rebecca.
Reenie will research hay bales. Her budget is $50
Tony wants to blow the whole patio area. I wonder if Jefe might want to do it. It takes three hours.
Diane Pittman should call him.
TSHIRTS MAY BE DONE BY THE 30th. Perhaps they could be for sale at the carnival Dana will bring these. Perhaps Dana. Potential to raise $2000.
We have more breathing room this year because it is Sunday this year instead of Saturday.
Magda wants to research book for year book. If there is no money lost on the venture Marilyn said go for it. Magda and Reenie will discuss book binding at a later date.
We adjorned @ approximately 8:10. Next meeting is set for Wednesday, Oct 24th @ Marilyns house 6:30 – 8:00 directions to follow
CATSS MEETING OCTOBER 5, 2005 @ the home of Reenie Raschke
Present were:
Tony Cataldo, President
Marilyn Drobenaire, Treasurer
Reenie Raschke, Secretary
Magda Pribilovics
Brian Wade
Cindy Fulton
Diane Pittman
Judith Gipps
Eric Reynolds
Treasurer, Marilyn Drobenaire passed out balance sheets to let us know where we are financially. She is getting together all of the historical documents from past meetings and building a comprehensive book. She is missing the bank statement for June 05.
We discussed minutes going in the newsletter and decided they should from here forward, so all could get a feel of what is going on.
She showed us Bill Thompson and his son Ethan were on the cover of BAY AREA PARENT this month describing Canyon as a Bay Area pearl.
A BULLETIN BOARD for all announcements, from bunnies for sale, to carpool sign-ups to announcements of meetings and upcoming events needs to evolve. Tony would like to build one outside of Esperanza’s room. He will write up a proposal for the construction of that as well as the SHED. THE SHED, discussed at the last meeting, could hold a lot of items that are crowding the school. We agreed on buying a lock and some metal shelves from home depo to make it workable. He will put a call out to some volunteers to get these things done.
We talked about the White Elephant Sale briefly, but decided we had it under control and it would not pertain to these minutes as they would be distributed after such.. We will try to collect small things that could work as prizes for the Halloween Carnival at the sale. Donating the leftovers has been difficult in the past, as donation trucks don’t like the drive. We opted to try Craig’s list.
Halloween Carnival Oct 30th: Kathy Matgen reported that funds were made available at the site council meeting for the carnival. Tom Llewellyn is in the process of doing the middle school haunted house. We went through the volunteer questionnaires and found we have three people willing to do booths, one willing to help with haunted house, and a few other random volunteers. Marilyn agreed to assign chairs for different categories based on these questionnaires. The middle school kids want to do a booth to raise money for a baseball team for Canyon. Shari is doing a food raffle.
Kay Kopit had made a nice poster for the quilt, we discussed having her make one for the Carnival.
The afterschool program is making signs for the Carnival. We discussed having signs urging drivers to slow down for pedestrians. We addressed the parking problem and did not come to a conclusion, but thought Del Valle Staging Area could be a parking area and we could use someone with a van to shuttle people in.
Regarding the AUCTION, Diane had us stamp and return address envelopes for the mailing. She is sending out “thank you for last year” and “will you donate again, please” letters to business’. She is fine with the mailing the donation part of the auction, but desperately needs someone else to PLAN THE PARTY ITSELF. We need to get the word out that we need a volunteer to coordinate food and entertainment. We agreed that Diane should write up something for the newsletter asking for help.
THE NEWSLETTER: should have listed in it all CATSS meetings and all Board meetings. The board meetings, the second Tuesday of each month, should be attended by one of us. We decided to take turns.
We then discussed Eric Reynolds taking over the CANYON SCHOOL WEB SITE. He showed us the new front page, which is lovely. He is in the works planning a interactive calendar page, a visa paypal for school stuff, and we talked of adding scholastic book ordering as well as a blog page.
Meeting was adjourned at 8:30, next meeting time was not decided upon CATSS MEETING SEPTEMBER 19, 2005 @ CANYON SCHOOL IN ESPERANZA'S ROOM
Present were:
Diane and Paul
Doug MacMillen
Marilyn Drobenaire
Tony Cataldo
Reenie Raschke
Benjamin Rosenal
Kathie Matgen
Subjects of the evening
September 24th SATURDAY
CATSS DINNER IN THE GARDEN
David Lascurettes is making Gumbo All are to bring meat.
Diane will bring soft drinks.
Tony and Reenie said They’d bring salad for ten and Tony will put a signup sheet for desserts on the door
Diane said she would ask her sister to bring a salad
It was determined that last year there were about forty people
The dinner starts @ 4:00
We need to enlist a truck to move tables up to the garden
HALLOWEEN CARNIVAL- SATURDAY OCT 29th
Kathie will be attending a site counsel meeting this Friday and will discuss what funds could be made available for theatre entertainment. We discussed having yoyo the witch again, as it seemed good for younger children. Diane thought some variety, like something different might be nice.
The middle school kids often make it an elective to plan the haunted house
There was much discussion about whether it can happen this year or not with just five weeks to plan. We have decided to let Tanya decide if she can manage that. Tammy Halloran will not be available to coordinate it again. Tony wondered if the draw would be as strong without a haunted house.
Tammy has put out an invitation to other school(s) to set up booths.
We discussed the idea of bringing in other schools and decided we will invite “proposals” for booth set up. Wenke had asked a sweet little charter that felt okay to all of us.
Marilyn agreed to don a silly witch hat at open house and recruit folks to assist at the carnival. We agreed that we really need someone to take charge of the whole HALLOWEEN CARNIVAL. We will put feelers out at back to school nite. Tony said he’d make a pitch.
WHITE ELEPHANT SALE IS OCTOBER 8th 10am to 3 or 4
Should we get pumpkins? no
Things can be brought in three days prior. Staging area will be on the porch.
Tony will make a sign to keep people from bringing things too early and put an add on Craigs list.
Reenie said she would ask Ginny Pryor if she could put an article in the Montclarion
We decided to have food leftover from the pancake breakfast available at the white elephant sale.
We need a sign up sheet for help cooking b-fast. Tony is on it.
WE HAVE A COOL SHED that we should use. Tony has requested $20 to buy a tarp, and said he will enlist some help to get that cleaned up. We will try to get contributions.
Tony wants to put together a wish list.
THE SCHOOL WEBSITE
Eric Reynolds has offered to donate his time to change and/or update our site. We believe Eric needs to get together with Bill Thompson to discuss the possibility.
At back to school night, WEDNESDAY August 21, we don’t want to hog too much time, but we should briefly address:
SCRIP remember it needs to be renewed annually - Ginny
Fieldtrip fund _ Marilyn
Need set-up help for Saturday_ TRUCK
Halloween Coordinator_ Marilyn
CRAFTS FAIR
… has no date yet, November something (before Thanksgiving). Diane planted the seed that this is a subject that needs some ironing out and mediation.
WE ADJORNED AT 8:40 AGREEING TO MEET AGAIN OCTOBER 5TH AT 6:30 AT REENIE’S HOUSE |
