October Meeting Draft Minutes
Vestal General PTA Meeting
October 12th, 2026 6:30–8:00pm
1 In Attendance
Board members present
Abbie Collier, Rick Delhommer, Steve Pagenstecher, Christina Maul, Irina Stignei
Community present
Sabrina Flamoe, Tami R, Sarah N, Rebecca G
2 Welcome
Meeting convened at 6:33 PM by President Abbie.
3 Minutes
Minutes from the last General Meeting were accepted without amendment.
4 Principal Update
Sabrina – Reviewed the current Rightsizing scenarios:
A: Rose City will close and we absorb about 200 students.
B: Rose City will not close and nothing changes for Vestal.
C: School board does nothing/no changes. Go back to drawing board.
This Friday, KOIN TV is coming to Vestal from 10-12 to do a story about the outdoor
classroom!! Not sure when it will air.
Two new para-educators are joining Vestal
Sabrina shared positive feedback she got from Dr. Armstrong and Dr. Charles about
their visit to Vestal. (There is a link to the video of the meeting with the superintendent in the October PTA newsletter).
5 Rightsizing
Monthly update and discussion
o Abbie had a meeting at Threshold last Thursday with nearby schools in the SE elementary cluster.
o Bridger and Clark want to provide feedback on what school mergers can feel/look like. They had to go through this 3 years ago.
o PTA does not have a position on rightsizing. Members are allowed to advocate for themselves.
o Portland does not have a regular PTA meeting between all the elementary schools. PTA’s are communicating more to share resources recently as rightsizing has started.
o It is unknown is how rightsizing will affect staff/class size at Vestal
Advocacy Opportunities
o Tomorrow at Creston 6:45-9:00 SE schools will get a chance to share their opinions/concerns about the rightsizing information so far.
6 Treasurer's Report
October Treasurer’s Report:
Total funds including restricted fund and green team funds is just over $60,000.
$2600 in expenses for the month (movie license, library, fees for several subscriptions).
PTA Taxes are due soon. (Good luck Steve!)
Changes to the PTA budget presented by PTA President Abbie:
We are increasing reimbursements for specials supplies requests from
$1500 to $2500
Decreasing the RPS budget (will keep the silent auction) and adding a Jog-a-thon. Rose City and Bridger have done jog-a-thons and raised a significant amount of money. Our goals is $4000. Some fundraising will remain with raffle baskets throughout the year.
PSpEd PTA has reformed to support families of students in Special Education. Renee Bacerra is starting this new PTA and will need our help to pay for basics like insurance.
Konstella will be replacing Honeycomb in December. This will cost the PTA $850 per year. Rose City Park and Bridger are currently using this platform. To pay for this we can have businesses sponsor this. Irina has volunteered to pay for this program this year through her business.
Rock Paper Soiree: At a recent RPS meeting which included previous key volunteers it was decided we will be doing this every other year. Having other fundraisers to make up for this deficit, like more dine-out fundraisers and a jog-a-thon. Having a kid-focused dance party for years we don’t have RPS. We should keep in touch with previous businesses that have donated to us in the past.
We can still have 7-10 raffle baskets throughout the year to have at movie nights, pancake breakfast, etc.
Academic Committee for education enrichment has a $1500 budget: This can be spent on auditorium presentations with a STEM theme. We need ideas on what to do with this money. Christina will look up some options.
Embark Program: The code is live! Christina will work on tutorial on how to add the code to your existing Embark account and receive money. We are trying to have as many households in Kindergarten sign up as possible. They can get a free $150 in their account and the PTA has the possibility to earn another $2500 if we get 100 families to sign up. All other grades get $50 in their accounts. We will have a way to keep track of progress soon through a dashboard. Christina will try talking to other kinder parents to tell them about this great program. Please spread the word!!! Possibly having a visual in the hallway to mark progress?
Grounds updates: We have money for projects. Possibly having 5th graders do their graduation projects painting the blacktop and improving the outdoor space.
7 Unfinished Business
10/16 - Movie Night this Friday starts at 5:30. We need more volunteers for this event. Irina will pick up pizza. Could we do a co-movie night with Bridger? Sabrina says yes, we can invite Bridger as long as kids have a parent/guardian with them.
10/19 - SITE Council: Sabrina says there are enough people who have signed up. She wishes there was more diversity to better represent our student body. Spread the word that anyone can join!
10/20 - Academic Night – will NOT be happening on the 20 th . The school committee has decided it will be MOVED to January or February.
10/21 - Early Release
10/24 - Community Care Day 10-12:00
Update on the garden: Abbie shared photos that Kristen took over the past year.
10/26 - 10/28 - Spirit Week
10/28 Picture Re-take Day: We need 3 volunteers
10/29 - No School
10/30 - No School
11/3 - Election Day
11/4 - Vestal Cafe
11/5 - Ranch Pizza Fundraiser
Every Friday - Fresh Food Market: We need volunteers for this every Friday until SUN can hire more staff
8 Open Discussion
Sarah and Kelly will soon meet with a maintenance technician to learn how to maintain/clean/upkeep the air purifiers in the classrooms. They will share with staff what they have learned.
Derelict house update from Sarah. Not a whole lot has happened to the property since the summer.
How do we get more people to volunteer for events?
o Ask people directly?
o Make a sign on either side of the front entrance before a community care day and change the date accordingly?
o More posts on social media with photos of volunteer events?
o Before and after photos?
o PTA volunteer shirts? Ask me shirts?
9 Closing
Zoom meeting was adjourned by Abbie at 7:58 PM.
