PTO Meeting Minutes - March 2026

BLE PTO General Meeting
Tuesday, March 10, 2025
5:30 pm - 7:15 pm
Library
Attendees
Gretchen Archuleta, President, parent
Lisa Carrell, Secretary/Treasurer, parent
Valerie Machado, parent
Ashley Locken, teacher, parent
Maely Keeling, parent
Matt LeMier, parent

Treasurer’s Report, Lisa
Income for January: $2,118.73
Expenses for January: $1,559.99
Ending Balance: $21,305.64

Parents Night Out Debrief
Madness but everyone had a great time.
Could be more organized for check-in / check-out.
Stations were great > library, more low-key (games and crafts). Gym in half, scooters and balls. Outside > gaga ball.
Radios worked well for calling out kids when it was time to leave.
Could consider doing name-tags for kids.
Need to make sure we communicate about who can attend > K-5. Might need a parent to attend too if there are behavioral / support concerns.

Science Options
Lisa checked with Gabi Jones and she said that the site team is working on scheduling.

Books & Bingo
Scheduled for April 17th. It would be great if someone could volunteer to be the number caller.
ACTION: Gretchen to contact the South Sound Literacy group about bringing in books.
ACTION: Chelsi to make a flyer for the event.

SBA Testing
The school wants snacks for SBA Testing.
ACTION: Gretchen will see what we can get for this using our Winco gift cards.

Teacher Appreciation
We are doing a teacher appreciation thing on March 17th on St. Patrick’s Day (“We’re so lucky to have you”)
ACTION: Lisa to send out the communications and sign up to the list of parents we have emails for.

Teacher Appreciation Week scheduled for May 4 - May 8.
Ideas:
Coffee Truck or Coffee Deliveries (Sweet Magnolia, Ember Goods, Dutch Brothers)
Room Service Order
Lunch (could be Vic’s)
Breakfast
Humble Cow or Sophie’s Scoops
Massages (Body Mechanics)
Supplies - consider doing an Amazon wish list for supplies
Tentative Schedule:
Day 1 - Breakfast & Coffee
Day 2 - Desserts
Day 3 - Lunch (Vic’s?)
Day 4 - Chair Massage / Supplies
Day 5 - Room Service
Themes: You’re out of this world, Star Wars
Twinkle Lights in the staff room.
ACTION: Colin to make a flyer for “PTO needs you” to try to get some people interested in helping, in general, and specifically for Teacher Appreciation. Colin can make a google form for this.
ACTION: Matt to check on Vic’s.
Goal is to have everything decided and a SUG ready to be sent the week after spring break.
ACTION: Gretchen to ask Kyle about how to get information sent out to the school about teacher appreciation. What are the rules and the timing?
ACTION: Gretchen will contact Body Mechanic’s to see if they can do Teacher Appreciation.

Garden Day
Scheduled for May 30th.
Interested in figuring out the garden beds. Do we want to have this be a sensory garden?
Matt has a construction company and could bring man-power to this project.
It would be nice to have new benches.
ACTION: Maely is interested in being in charge of the garden bed project.
ACTION: Gretchen to talk to Buildings & Grounds to ask about what is needed.

Request, Mrs. Locken
Wants to have every kid recognized for their birthday and for new kids.
Wants to have a birthday cart with stickers/pencils/etc. for kids to come get something fun.
Start-up would be $350. Annual upkeep would be $200.
Would start this up next year.
Mrs. Locken will organize and keep it going.
We approved the request.

Screen Time at Lunches
There was discussion about screens at lunchtime and discussion about maybe needing volunteers at lunch to avoid the need for screens.

Yearbook
Tabled for next month.

Next Meeting: Tuesday, April 14th at 5:30 p.m. in Library