School Board Report (P. Godfrey):

We are in the process of Board of Supervisors budget input meetings for next year. She foresees budget increases for next year due to 1) we anticipate 3000 new students in LCPS for 2011-2012 and 2) we are opening three new schools.

School Board is requesting $35.9 million on top of current budget. If the Board of Supervisors approves the tax rate increase at $1.3107 per dollar, the school budget would be fully funded (including the 3% increase for teacher COLA.)  

Final vote will be on Tuesday, April 5, 2011 where the BOS will make their decision on the budget. Monday, April 4, 2011 will be the last public input session. She wants as many people as possible to speak in favor of the budget as proposed. Call 703-777-0204 to speak at the meeting.

Another information item for next year that could be important to us: The School Board is changing the language on the under enrolled schools policy. Next year the language will read that transfers to under enrolled schools will be “by request.” They are taking out the “special permission language.” The requests must be in by March and the decisions will be made earlier, by April 30. 

• J. Stewart has agreed to Chair Middleburg Elementary’s Centennial Celebration Birthday party in September 2011.  It will take place on Friday, September 23, 2011.
• Karen ordered 10 panels for Fine Arts night on March 24th.  Set up will be on Wednesday evening. 
• Math Magicians assembly will be on Tuesday, March 15, 2011. 

•  PTO was asked to pay for the agendas for next year (3rd, 4th and 5th grades).  The expense is estimated to be $150.  Katie motioned to approve and Kim seconded.

Treasurer’s Report (Y. McCarty):

•  We only have $75 in our Study Buddies budget for the remainder of the year for snacks. Susan is buying the snacks for the rest of the year. M. Starrett is substituting for Mrs. Heimgartner for Study Buddies on March 31, 2011.                          

Discussion Items:

• Open House was successful with 5 families coming to tour the school.  We are planning to do another on April 12, from 3 to 5pm.  S. McGroddy volunteered to be the tour guide.
• Fine Arts Night is scheduled for March 24, 2011 at 6:30pm. There will be art from all students, poetry readings, music and dance. 
• K. Basinger has sent the spring Thoroughbred Club promotion mailing to all families who have not donated yet this school year.  We are well below are goal but we are hoping to close the gap.                      
• Science Night is scheduled for Thursday, April 14 from 6:30 to 8pm.  We will have Leesburg Naturalist Center here for a discussion along with hands-on stations and possibly some reptiles from Chris Stewart.
• Country Dance – we need a chairperson. We have a lot of volunteers but just need the head honcho.  K. Turner will send out a Horse’s Mouth to try to solicit a volunteer.
• K. Turner expressed interest in the vacant Community Liaison position.  Y. McCarty made a motion for K. Turner to become the Community Liaison for the remainder of the year.  K. Basinger seconded the motion.
• We discussed the CD that matured on October 2, 2010. The board voted to take the interest that was earned from the CD that was put in our general fund -- and to set that aside in a separate savings account so that it can go BACK into the lump of money that is now in a CD. Since we cannot break the CD term and return the money to it now—it has to happen in August when the CD time is up. A motion was made by K. Turner to designate the $5000 CD plus interest to a “Capital Improvement CD”.  K. Basinger seconded the motion. The CD matures on August 12, 2011.  
• We agreed the Capital Improvement Fund will be used by the school community (with a vote from the school as a whole) deciding what we need to do. Some of us might put a walking path in the vote, others might add in something for the building itself… but we want for the decision to be a group thing and not decided or nixed by one person. We hope to add more to that account at the end of this school year so that we can have a healthy, growing fund. Ideally, EVERY year we will add to it.  We are still trying to figure out exactly what we have spent on and need for the rest of this year.