General Meeting Minutes: 12.11.2024

Lea Home & School Association

General Meeting 12.11.2024

1. Introductions

   1. Welcome Tamika Lawson as new Vice President

      1. The addition of Tamika gives us great middle school representation: working to make sure all kids at Lea are represented

2. Officer Reports

   1. Treasurer (Denise)

      1. Overall current finance picture, including outstanding items

         1. Currently we have $8380 in HSA funds

         2. raised $1,198 from the Chili cook-off

         3. Kindergarten snack off to a great start

         4. Giving Tuesday-received $685 in donations! 

            1. exciting for our first try; learned a lot of lessons

   2. Fundraising (Bret)

      1. Goal is to raise $20,000 over the course of the year 

         1. trying more non-event fundraising, giving Tuesday was our first try

         2. will maybe try something towards the end of the year

         3. Lessons for future efforts: want to make sure that people feel comfortable giving what they can and how they can

            1. making it easier for people to donate

            2. add the cash app to the website

            3. make it clear in the note what it’s for

      2. Event Based Fundraising: Chili cook-off

         1. we’ve learned a lot from it, lots to build off of for future years

         2. Perhaps next year move it up into October?

   3. School Spirit (Kathleen)

      1. Monthly teacher celebration in the lounge: funded by HSA and all of you!

         1. In November -apple cider and mini pies

         2. In December- hot cocoa bar with all the fixings!

      2. Lea Gear- sales of this support all the efforts of the HAS

         1. December promo- Lea bulldog t-shirt and backpack bundle $20

         2. Planning to do a promo on Lea heart shirts in February- wear your Lea heart on Valentine’s Day

         3. January- potential basketball product-baseball hat (potentially to encourage everyone to wear to a Lea basketball game)

      3. Teacher’s lounge improvements-HSA will be buying two more comfortable chairs for the lounge, restocking coffee, tea, cups; a few small art projects in the works

   4. Other Initiatives

      1. Kindergarten Snack Pilot Program

         1. snack happens currently for K-3 grade but can often be a source of challenge in class

         2. kids are hungry, not everyone brings a snack and teachers were paying for it out of their pockets

         3. We’re trying this buy in program to solve this problem

         4. parents pay in (we suggest $10 but some parents are paying less and some parents are paying more)

         5. Lea HSA purchases the snacks and packages it up and manages distribution to the teachers

         6. Teacher feedback is that it’s a success, kids seem to like it

         7. Outstanding questions:

            1. Should this program expand this year?

            2. We’ve already gotten feedback from parents in other grades asking why it’s already only for kindergarten

            3. Perhaps we should expand to 7-8 graders next since they are not currently participating in the Fresh Fruit program

            4. program is labor intensive-will need to recruit volunteer parents from those grades to purchase and store snacks

            5. need to be thoughtful about pest management

            6. costs are currently roughly 50 cents per kid per day

            7. can work with Mr. Rich to find partners who might be interested in funding an expansion of the program

            8. How can we make expansion work? 

            9. program is labor intensive-will need to recruit volunteer parents from those grades to purchase and store snacks

            10. need to be thoughtful about pest management

            11. costs are currently roughly 50 cents per kid per day

            12. can work with Mr. Rich to find partners who might be interested in funding an expansion of the program

      2. Middle School efforts in the works:

         1. 8th grade trip to NYC to see The Lion King

         2. Dance on the Spirit of Philadelphia-March

         3. Plays to the Arden Theater and Walnut St. Theater

         4. Principal Snyder shared that student council is working on ways to empowering students to fundraise for their trip

      3. Grade Band Parents-implement for January

         1. building out the network to help with communication to all grade levels

         2. working on a proposal to sketch out the program

         3. please share your ideas of what this should look like!

3. Goals for the rest of the year

   1. With $8k in the bank and two of our largest fundraisers behind us we are continuing to look at the draft calendar Lea HSA (Draft) Calendar of Events 2024-25 and think realistically about what we can accomplish and support through the rest of the year: 

      1. supporting middle school trips

      2. teacher appreciation

      3. subsidizing snack & expanding the program

      4. boosting sports and the musical

      5. improving communication- bulletin boards

   2. Defining existing roles and pointing out gaps as we write our new by-laws and welcome Tamika.

   3. Adding by-laws to website