Franklin PTA Annual Report

2010-2011

The Year in Review

It’s important to take a minute to reflect upon the things we’ve accomplished over the last year. It was a great year, and we had strong participation in PTA! Many, many parents, staff and community members joined our PTA this year, and we were only 7 people shy of our goal of 100% membership. One of the goals we did meet—actually we exceeded it—was our fundraising goal, so we were able to fund the entire budget as planned.

Not only did we raise money, we saved it (along with a few trees) with a full year of weekly electronic packets. Last year we used about 76,000 sheets of paper for packets and this year only about 1,000. Go Earth! With the change in our main method of communicating with members (paper vs. email), we focused our parent survey this year on communication, and will use the feedback to keep improving how we communicate. Our VP’s of Communications worked with the school to enhance and integrate both the school’s and the PTA’s websites. Both sites now work together and are chock ull of useful information. The school website is your source for information about activities, events, messages from the principal and more. The PTA website is your source for PTA related information, such as legislative updates, volunteer opportunities, and meeting agendas.

One change we made based on last year’s parent survey was to add a dance to our special events lineup. It was a huge success! The students learned new dances all week with the DJ, and then showed off their new skills at the family Hoedown. It was great to see younger siblings and families show up.

Our Staff Appreciation Week committee also changed things up a bit. Along with organizing an amazing breakfast and luncheon provided by parents, the committee organized a coffee card drive for teachers, and a community project aimed at filling planters for all the teachers and staff for a long-lasting gift. Finally, the bulk of the PTA Staff Appreciation budget went to a special gift for the school: a team building day at a ropes course. The teachers’ comments were that it brought them closer than ever and will improve their working relationships.

This year’s Nominating Committee successfully recruited a diverse group of parents for next year’s board, including several parents with kids in the younger grades. September 6, 2011, here we come!

Education and Enrichment offered several after school classes this past year: Lego, Mad Science, Martial arts, Chess, Art, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese and the Ski bus to Snoqualmie.  In addition, PTA paid for science programs including The Toymaker; and author visits from Yvonne Palko, Tom Brenner, Janet Wong and Sundee Frazier.  Among the PTA-sponsored assemblies at Ben Franklin were Martin Luther King, and ones from Wonderglobe (Rick Hartman) and Poetry Alive.

Health and Welfare supported the annual Health Screening, Walk to School Week in October, and updating the Emergency Preparedness kits as well as offering an E-Prep workshop at the school.  Students and staff were excited to see Popcorn Fridays return on a regular basis.

Thank you to all for the fabulous volunteer commitment that improves our children’s educational experience!

Just the Numbers

• PTA Members in 2010-2011:  496
• Students at Ben Franklin:  503
• Teachers and Staff:  48
• Fundraising goal for 2010:  $38,500 (including $8000 in matching funds)
• Actual Fundraising for 2010:  $42,000 (includes matching funds)
• Fundraising goal for 2011:  $40,000 plus as much matching funds as we can get!

2011 Financial Overview

Our goal for the Jogathon was $38,500, which included $8000 in matching funds.  We realized $34,000 in donations with an additional $8000 in matching funds specifically from the Jogathon as well as an additional $7000 in matching funds for other donations and volunteer hours.  Clearly the matching funds help our school tremendously.

The money raised in the Jogathon funded the 2010-2011 budget we adopted last Spring which funds a variety of things at Ben Franklin: all-school assemblies, buses (and in some cases, tuition) for class field trips, art instruction for all classes, Emergency Preparedness supplies, books for the library, PE equipment, the Toymaker, and so much more.

Due to the generosity of our Franklin community in supporting our students, we were in the enviable position of having surplus funds.  These went to:

·       $5000 for Ben Franklin's Continuous Improvement Plan (CIP) which benefits all students in all grades: math games, manipulatives, etc. that were requested by our teachers

·       $1100 in scholarships for students to attend Marine Science Afloat, 6th Grade Camp and other field trips.

·       $120 headsets for the Computer Lab

·       $200 for classroom supplies

We have proposed a budget for next year that reflects trends around us.  We have less income coming in a few areas (PACE program went out of business), but we expect to bring in enough to offset the loss of PACE through matching funds -- especially as we continue to promote the importance of matching every contribution as well as volunteer hours.  Our expenses have increased, however.  We have two classes "graduating" next year:  5th and 6th grades, with an increase in Outdoor Ed (Camp) and Moving Up ceremony costs. In addition, we have allocated more money for scholarships and committed to more for CIP.  We have evaluated each item in the budget against our goal of "enhancing the learning environment for our students" and cut where we affected the least number of students.

2010-2011 Board

Presidents: Donna Blinn and Valerie Horvath
Secretary: Christy Hentges
Treasurer: Mandy McChesney
Scrip Treasurer: Lisa Vincent
Health & Welfare VPs: John Wharton & Sally Norred
Special Events VP: Rena Petersen
Fundraising VP: Cindy Furutani
Communications VPs: Colette Ulloa and Laura English
Education & Enrichment VPs: Keleigh Greenwood & Rosie Chkodrov