December 15th, 2022 In Person PSFA Meeting
1.) Call to Order/Pledge of Allegiance & Welcome: Current PFSA officers in attendance:
Kristen Cichon (2023) Colleen Stemetzki (2024), Debbie Rau (2023), Mary Ann Doyle (2023), Janice Karp (2023).
2.) Principal Gleason’s Report: Mr. Gleason– No report from Mr. Gleason tonight.
3.) Student Government– Lucy Batista- President, Charlie Raynor-Vice President. Lucy presiding: I just want to welcome everyone to the meeting and to the Club Crawl- thank you for coming out tonight. We have started picking out a team of students that will help us with the Fashion Show. Our Fashion Show is run by the SGA and will be on March 10th. Our theme this year is “CHS & Co.” Which is our version of ‘Tiffany & Co’ or a ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’ theme. We are super excited about it and can’t do it alone so we have picked out some junior and senior students to be our committee heads for the show. We have a decorations committee, a hair and make-up committee, a light and sound committee, and a few more just to make sure that the show runs as smoothly as possible. In January, we’re going to be recruiting all the stores that donate clothes for us and getting the students signed up to be the models for the show. We are looking forward to it and hope to see you all at the show. We had our final information session (for possible incoming freshmen) in November and they all went smoothly. Next year we are thinking of implementing an ambassador system where some students are chosen to attend every session and lead the groups that are brought around the school to make it a smoother process and make the info sessions even greater than they were this year. Some recent events that are not SGA related are the recent drama production of “Harvey”, and the Coffeehouse that’s hosted by the junior class. Both super successful events that were enjoyed by all in attendance. If you have any questions for the SGA, please feel free to reach out to me at lubatista@ctemc.org.
- ) Co-President’s Report: Kristen Cichon (2023), Colleen Stemetzki (2024). Kristen leading: We have the ‘Club Crawl’ tonight and hopefully it’s going to be a great turn out. We have done this in the past and it is the opportunity for the clubs to show you what they are doing throughout the school year and to fundraise for their activities- it allows them to travel, to register for events and sometimes they even need it to help pay for the trophies or the shipping of the trophies. It’s a great opportunity for the parents to understand what their kids do inside and outside of school through these clubs. The Communique came out via Remind- I don’t know if you all got it? There are additional copies on the front table. What we started doing, although we are not responsible for everything listed, is putting dates for important events that we felt the parents would like to know about on the back page of the Communique. We will continue to keep you informed, as much as possible, throughout the school year of upcoming events. Colleen has been doing an awesome job of gathering information whether it be from Drama Club or CCC. If you are not receiving the Communique you can look at our website under the PSFA tab and find the codes. Or you can look on the back of the Communique, on the table, and you will find the codes to sign up to receive Remind messages. Each grade has their own code. We do have another ACT/SAT course coming in January. If you missed it in the fall, or your student would like to improve their scores, it will be starting January 10th through March 7th. There is an early sign up to receive a discount on the course. There are also flyers posted around the school and I will be sending out a ‘Remind’ this week with course information. Chaperoning by a parent is required for each class. A parent will need to come for the duration of the class as after a certain point the teachers have left the building. The parent will need to ensure that all of the students have been picked up after the class ends. Our ‘Donation Drive’ is still going on. It is one of the ways that we are able to pay for trips and transportation, registration fees and student and teacher grants that are requested. The funds raised do benefit all students in many ways from Bagel Breakfasts at Exams to Color Wars t-shirts. Everything that you give does go back to the students. We do send you a thank you letter with tax ID information and it is considered a tax deduction. We have a winner for the art competition, I don’t see her here so we will wait until we are at the club crawl to announce the winner. The tote bags will be available for purchase at the Club Crawl. We do have a general website that you can reach out to the PSFA www.chs-psfa.org if you have any questions, comments or concerns. To the Club Crawl! We have Photo Club, Yearbook, Inkblot, NHS, NAHS, NTHS, SkillsUSA, CCC, the SGA, and the Class of 2026.
The meeting minutes are on the website and if anyone would like to see them they are under the PSFA tab. Motion to accept last month’s meeting minutes: Colleen Stemetzki, seconded by Diane Makin.
5.) Corresponding Secretary Report: Janet Schneider (2025): (not in attendance) (Kristen presiding) Nothing new to report. If you have any questions that you’re unsure of who to ask-you may send them in to the chs.pfsa@gmail.com email and we will find out who you should contact and let you know, or get you the answer ourselves.
6.) Committee Reports:
- Fundraising
i.Gift Auction – Debbie Rau(2023) – Hi everyone, I am the chair of the Gift Auction. It is a traditional Gift Basket Auction with a sit down dinner; a fifty/fifty; birthday board games; cigar box shuffle and different games. It will be on March 11th, 2023 at Jumping Brook in Neptune. Email Invitations will be going out in January, you may mail in a check or there will be an on-line system for you to purchase your tickets. You may have seen the email ‘wish list’ full of ideas. We have started shopping and have some great gift items already. We are looking for any new kind of gadget that someone would like to win in a gift basket. I have a nice committee so far and just looking for some extra people to join us. It is a group effort. If you received any gifts that you are not interested in keeping you can donate to the gift auction. We need people to help with gift wrapping when it gets closer. We are looking for several people to help out. We need someone to help solicit in Wall, in the area near the school; the Belmar/ Spring Lake area; and also in Ocean Grove. We have Donation Letters with information and our tax ID that can be given to the various businesses for their records.
- Merchandise – Lina Esposito(2023) – (Kristen presiding) We created a competition to use a student design on the canvas tote, which will be available tonight at the Club Crawl.The winner will be given a $100 gift card. All other merchandise will be available at the Club Crawl.
iii. Donation Drive – The annual donation drive letters were mailed to your home. Any donation that you make to this organization is a tax write off. You will get a receipt and an email will be sent to you with the information you need to use it as a tax write off.
iiii. Membership – Teresita Weiss(2023) Krista Kingsly (2025) – Krista- If you wish to become a member please reach out and we will accommodate you. Kristen- If you have a senior student who is interested in applying for one of the scholarships you need to be a PSFA member and may still join- you do need to pay the full 4 year fee. If you are not sure please check with the membership committee and they will let you know if you have previously joined. If you know of a family that has not joined please reach out to them and see if they know about the PSFA and want to consider joining. If you have ideas of things you would like to see happen within the PSFA please reach out.
Public Relations– We are working on getting more information out to the parents. We are working on gathering more information, even if it is not PSFA related and having a space to post it so people can find out about most things happening at CHS. CHS Facebook page and Instagram – We are looking for someone to help chair PR and publish any news that is noteworthy- please submit your name to chs.pfsa@gmail. Please submit events and activities that your students are involved in and we will post to celebrate events in your student’s life, send to chs.pfsa@gmail.
- Enrichment Education: i. The SAT/ACT- Kristen Cichon (2023) We do have another ACT/SAT course coming in January. If you missed it in the fall, or your student would like to improve their scores, it will be starting January 10th through March 7th. There is an early sign up to receive a discount on the course. There are also flyers posted around the school and I will be sending out a ‘Remind’ this week with course information. Chaperoning by a parent is required for each class. A parent will need to come for the duration of the class as after a certain point in time the teachers have left the building. The parent will need to ensure that all of the students have been picked up after the class ends. ii. Book Club -Patti Riddle (2026) No new information.
- Parent Chat– Marlaina Loushine (2024) – The next parent chat will be at the next meeting on February 2nd. We will not be having a meeting in January.
We do these chats frequently and try to find topics that appeal to parents of HS students and their parents. We are open to ideas and your suggestions, please reach out to me at the general email with your ideas.
- Hospitality-Lisa Lippincott (2025), Kathy Seeto (2025)- We do anything that has to do with food and we would love to have people help out by signing up on sign up genius. You can help by sending in paper goods, snacks and food for all different events- We help with bagel breakfasts, and many social events at the school.
6.) Treasurer’s Report: MaryAnn Doyle(2023):The P&L is available on the table. Not too much is going on. We do have the Annual Donation Drive going on and we are doing well with that, we have about 20% of the families that have donated so far. Amazon smile is another way to contribute to CHS by selecting CHS as your charity of choice if you shop with Amazon.
Motion to adjourn: Kristen Cichon; Janice Karp 2nd.
Next PSFA Meeting is February 2nd, 2023 in person