The first Keystone PTO General Meeting was held on Wednesday, September 20, 2006 in the Keystone School Theater.

The meeting was called to order at 6:35pm by President, Susan Kaufman
The minutes from the April 19, 2006 meeting were distributed and reviewed.
The minutes were approved as written.

Officer’s Reports

President: Susan Kaufman
Susan offered condolences to the family of one of our 7th graders, Roman Hlatky whose father; Dr. Roman Hlatky was killed in an automobile accident. A special fund for the family has been set up at Frost Bank.

Susan announced that this year’s PTO theme is “Building Community Through Communication”. The names of the PTO Council representatives were announced for this school year to the assembly. The Council is introducing a PTO newsletter this year to help with the communication of school activities to parents. The first edition will be distributed with the first grading period report cards.

Treasurer: Mark Vilagi
Mark provided the assembly with this year’s proposed budget which included a proposed pledge of $5000.00 for the Keystone Fence Project. There was discussion with regards to the fence project proposal with suggestions to wait until all of the Teacher Wish List requests had been reviewed and budgeted. Past PTO Council representatives explained to the assembly that historically, the PTO has made major contributions to the school for specific projects. The budget and fence pledge were approved by majority vote.
As of September 20, 2006, the available cash balance is $9,028.67.

Membership Committee: Karen Kelley
Karen announced that to date, there are approximately 170 families that have signed up for membership in the 2006/2007 PTO. There will be membership forms available after the meeting for anyone that would like to join. The membership fee is $20.

Teacher Appreciation Lunch: Jo Mascorro Saylor
The first Teacher Appreciation Lunch was held on campus last week and was a huge success. Jo thanked the parents that have volunteered to help with the monthly lunches and asked that others interested in helping, sign up after the meeting.

Turkey Feast: Jo Mascorro Saylor
This year’s Turkey Feast will be on Friday, November 17, 2006. Jo announced that student’s families and grandparents are invented to attend. Jo asked that individuals interested in helping with the feast please sign up after the meeting.

Spirit Day: Jo Mascorro Saylor
There will be two Spirit Days this school year; one in the fall and one in the spring.
The dates are currently being scheduled by the school coaching staff. They will be home games and the students will be asked to wear red and black to school. All families and students are invited to attend the games to show your support for our athletic teams and to have fun with the Spirit Day activities.

Speakers Bureau: Lisa Weissler
Lisa thanked the parents that have submitted recommendation for topics thus far.
She is still open to topic suggestions and asked parents to please continue sending in their recommendations. Due to popular demand from last year’s meting, there will be another lecture this school year on Internet Safety. A schedule of planned lectures will be posted later during the semester.

Textbook Recycling: Trent Heisser
The textbook recycling program is an ongoing, year long fund raiser. Trent thanked the families that donated books at the end of school and during the summer. We are 67% of goal thus far. Books can be dropped off in the marked area next to the Lost and Found in the main school building.

PSIA Liaison: Francis Lam
Francis provided an update on this year’s PSIA competition. He asked all parents to review the brochure that lists all the categories and to encourage student participation.
The district meet will be sometime in March or April followed by the state meet in Ft. Worth. The school is looking to begin forming categories sessions with coaches in October in an attempt to get an early start. There is also a need for volunteer coaches for some categories, so any interested parents should contact Francis or Ruth English at the school.

News from Division Heads
Lower School: Ken Rothrock
Middle School: Michelle Rothwell
Upper School: Suzanne Elizondo

Each division head provided a brief update on the current school status thus far for the year. Overall it has been a great start and many of the student’s organizations are busy planning their activities for the year.

Virtual Keystone: Todd Moore
Mr. Moore provided the parents a guided tour of the Virtual Keystone web based site that is being used by the students, faculty and staff. The site provides a learning environment that helps facilitate student-to-student and student-to-teacher discussion on various class topics. There was some discussion to a possible PTO section for parents. There was also discussion from parents concerning student safety with regards to guest access that is a functionality of the application. There seems to be a need for a deterrent wall within the application. Mr. Moore will look into these concerns and possible modifications to the application to ensure student safety.

Key Club News: Jessica Cihal
Jessica introduced this year’s Key Club members:
Luis Lafer Sosa, Matthew Tjahja, Megan Wilson and Dena Furman
This year, the Key Club is working to increase community awareness of Cystic Fibrosis.
They will work to raise money for CF research by setting a “One Mile of Quarters” goal of $15,840 for the year. They are also planning to participate in a fund raising walk this coming spring. One hundred percent of the funds raised will go to research. The San Antonio area Foundation Speaker was in attendance at the meeting and praised our Key Club students for their dedication and willingness to help with this worthy cause.

Annual Fund News: Ignacio and Maura Aranguren
Ignacio and Maura Aranguren are leading this year’s Annual Fund campaign.
They announced that this year’s goal is $150K. This is the fourth year the school has had an annual fund raising effort. There are different levels families and participate for donations including the Anniversary Club which is $58 this year. There are many ways to make donation payments which are listed on the schools website. Each class grade has parent leaders that will help to ensure we have a greater level of participation compared to last year’s 70% level.