May General Meeting Draft Minutes
Vestal General PTA Meeting
May 13th 6:30-8:00pm
1 In Attendance
Board members present
President Jake Sepulveda, Treasurer Nicole Hochstrasser, Communications Emma Kohler, Secretary Justin Stoller
Community present
Irina S*, Katie R*, Christina M*, David J*, Sarah N, Kristen H, Kelly S*, Reece N, Danny H*, Collier B
* Member
2 Welcome
Meeting convened at 6:35 by President Jake S.
3 Minutes
Minutes from the last General Meeting, held March 11th, were accepted without amendment.
4 Principal Update
SJN coming up, no carts this year but light refreshments will be available
Thank you all for the Staff appreciation week!
5 Treasurer’s Report
Zeffy has been great
We made about 10k total from the Soiree.
We received a check from the city of Portland for $750 for PBOT.
We’ve paid Grow Portland, waiting on the invoice from Reading Results.
Are moving forward with changing banks but nothing to report on that at this time.
6 Upcoming Events
May
29th - Social Justice Night
June
6th - Field Day: request going out soon if not already PTA will handle Water & Otter pops
11th - 5th grade promotion, limited request from the PTA
Summer and Beyond
Montavilla St Fair - Waiting to hear if there’s a spot for us. Would like to make it something that draws more people than in the past. Kids games etc. Katie talked about how it's valuable to have a presence in the community even if folks don’t spend time there, general agreement. Maybe we can get many folks to man the both for short periods instead of longer shifts as well. Lots of support for that.
Summer picnic? Whole vestal community, rice crispy treats, potluck, pay what you want lemonade. Maybe work it into a garden harvest party/grounds cleanup? Jake to move forward with figuring out more details and looping folks in as needed.
Movie nights - Will be earlier next year, pizza all the time ($1 a slice pays for itself), both have strong support. Should we still have the kids vote? Folks generally liked that but we will need to do it much farther in advance.
Scholastic book fair - second week in December, will have two registers, general support for doing it again, volunteer asks tbd. Earned $1200 for the school last year.
7 Nominations for the 2025/26 PTA Board
Jake moved the candidates - Irina Stignei for Volunteer Coordinator and Reece Nitschke for Vice President - be voted on as a slate. Seconded. Unanimous approval.
8 Miscellaneous President Updates
New signage - multilingual signs for not parking in front of the parking lot exit and for closing the gates. No action now, just a heads up we will look into it for next year.
Fundraising - A few folks love pies and sell a bunch, but overall it’s a pain in the butt. Going to not do pies next year. Jake moved to NOT do the annual pie sale next year, seconded. Passed with unanimous approval.
9 What Should We Do In The Next School Year?
We are currently working on a schedule and will have a complete calendar by the start of the new school year. Everyone should send ideas to the PTA for what we can do!!
Katie R, brought up hosting community learning opportunities / a previous parenting seminar / something that parents can come together over.
Jake & Sabrina discussed potentially having a night where parents can come in and learn about Vestal’s academic programs.
Ms. Em’s coffee chats, maybe Principal coffees? Or just a parent’s chat once a month? However, the previous Principal coffees weren’t well attended nor was the volunteer appreciation coffee.
Round of applause for Beth H for all her hard work on the Green Team.
10 Closing
Meeting was adjourned by Jake at 7:25pm. We hope to see everyone at our final PTA meeting of the year on June 10th!
