2025-2-10 LPO Meeting Minutes

Attendees: Jennifer Adams, Amy Buckley, Karen Calcaterra, Tara Ference, Aleta Harris, Giovanna Lear, Sara Robeson, Mon Sud, Deanna Vardeman, Nicole Vandesteeg, Chelsea Watson, Dawn Werk.

 

Welcome/Call to Order, Giovanna Lear

The meeting was called to order at 7:07 pm.

 

Secretary, Amy Buckley

● January 13, 2025 Minutes Approval. Aleta Harris motioned. Jen Adams seconded. The motion carried.

 

Principal, Dr. Karen Calcaterra 

●     The freshman carnival was well-attended. The musical was great. Curriculum Night was standing room only. 

●     Lafayette is projected to have an enrollment decline in approximately 5 years with our number of students expected to dip below 1500. This is due to a trend of families who move to our geographic area staying in place and minimal turnover of residences. 

●     Interviews for the open Assistant Principal position (replacing Ms. Fields who will be retiring) are underway and wil take place on 2/19.  

●     All students will receive an individual sized Nothing Bundt Cake on Friday, February 14th. 

●     Waterway Carwash has donated carwashes for seniors.

●     A handful of staff members have recently lost close family members. Dr. Calcaterra will provide a list to Giovanna so the LPO may send a sympathy card. 

●     Congratulations to our LPO President, Giovanna Lear for her ROSE Award Nomination. 

 

President, Giovanna Lear  

●     The next Presidents’ Forum meeting will be held February 12, 2025 at Ellisville Elementary

●     Standing Rules update - still working on this

●     NEED TO CHANGE DATE for the April 14, 2025 Speaker "What to Expect When You Get On Campus" due to the rescheduled Taste of West County Event for that date ● Calendar date changes:

○ Suggest canceling the March LPO meeting unless there is a pressing need to meet

○ Suggest changing the April meeting to Monday April 7th

●     Present Board Slate in March, Vote on Slate in April, Board transition in May

 

Treasurer, Deanna Vardeman             

●     Financial Reports were distributed and discussed

●     The LPO Financial Responsibility Form is available in Membership Toolkit for all LPO Board and Committee Chairs to complete.

●     Reminder to Class Directors/Treasurers - any help needed from the Treasurer for Class Fundraisers should be requested 1-2 weeks in advance (Sam's card, petty cash box, etc.)

●     The corporate matching email went out to families who donated to the direct donation campaign. 

●     The banking information has been corrected in Your Cause.

 

VP Communications, Aleta Harris  

●     Please send content to Aleta by Fridays for inclusion in Monday newsletters. Please send an email to Aleta even if you do not have new content so that she is aware.

●     Social Media

●     Social media chair needed

●     Submit any graphics of information for social media

 

VP School Community, April Ladner (presented by Giovanna Lear) ● Volunteer Needs:

○ Co-VP of Communications

○ Community Event Chairs: A chair is needed for Special Olympics. A signup genius is being prepared for the Volleyball Challenge to be held on April 11th. ○ Social Media Chair

○ School Store Operations Manager, Volunteer Manager, Morning Shift Managers, Tuesday Lunch Shift Manager

●     Nominating Committee                                                                                                           

○ Work is underway to develop the 2025-2026 Slate of Officers. The current Secretary will not be returning du to student graduation. Please alert April with any interest.

 

●     Staff Appreciation : Special Recognition, Nicole Vandesteeg 

○ A hot cocoa bar was held in January

○ Bundt cakes will be provided for counselors this month. SRO day is also coming up and Nicole is working on this

 

●     Staff Appreciation : Staff Dinners, Colleen Poling

Thursday, February 27, 2025 3:15pm. Qdoba will be provided. Giovanna will need to take care of this payment, Deanna will be unavailable. 

End-of-Year Luncheon: May 23, 2025 10:30am

 

VP School Support, Monika Sud 

●     Lancer Direct Donation Campaign       

○     Corporate Matching email was sent to those families who had previously donated this year.

○ Will continue to advertise after Class Fundraising events are complete. 

             

●     Lancer’s Landing

Inventory, Chelsea Watson

○     Pretzel Days: 2/26, 3/12, 4/2 & 5/7. It seemed like the quantity ordered was accurate for the most recent Pretzel Day. 

○ Item of the Month-Pillsbury chocolate chip cookie packs in pink valentine packaging

○ Fun Food Friday on 1/24 had a great turnout and the increased advertising was successful

○ Upcoming Fun Food Friday days: 2/21, 3/28, 4/11

 

Operations, (Open Position)

○ Need additional morning shift managers

○ A new lunch shift manager has been trained to overlap on Tuesdays for training

 

●     School Grants, Dawn Hagen 

○ A meeting is scheduled for 2/12 to begin work on the grant cycle and finalize details. The committee will be open to all interested.

 

●     Spirit Wear, Jenny Shaw & Angela Sublette

○ Pricing for remaining items updated

○ Staff discount scheduled Feb 10th-28th

 

Class Updates

Class of 2025 Director’s Report, Tara Ference/Dawn Werk

●     The last meeting was held 1/14/25. Upcoming meetings are scheduled for 2/18/25, 3/11/25, 4/15/25 and 4/29/25

●     Senior Week will take place March 31-April 4 with the Cardinals game on 4/2. 

●     Baccalaureate will be held on May 8th at Pathfinder Church

●     Saturday, March 1, 2025 11:00am - 2:00pm Mother/Daughter BINGO at Forest Hills CC

●     Saturday, March 1, 2025 6:00pm - 9:00pm Father/Son Game Night at Forest Hills CC

●     Monday, May 12, 2025 - Senior Celebration at Amped Up

 

Class of 2026 Director, Elizabeth Nolan/OPEN (presented by Giovanna Lear)

●     Monday, April 14, 2025 5:30 pm Taste of West County NEW DATE ○ Many restaurants have been contacted. 6 have confirmed. 

○ Discussed strategies to reach out to and secure restaurants.

○ Based on feedback received, we will be requesting a lesser number of samples per restaurant compared to last year.

○ Discussed possibility of increasing ticket prices.

○ Amped Up has been secured for next year’s Senior Celebration. 

 

Class of 2027 Director, Jen Adams/Jenny Archambeault ● Meeting recap from 1/20/25.

○ Donations and volunteers are trickling in, along with event registrations. 

○ Auction donations look good and have been consolidated into larger baskets instead of more smaller basket ○ A dry run of trivia will take place on 2/17/25.

○ It was decided to have each table turn in their response sheets instead of using runners

○ Student and staff tickets will be $10 per person. Adult tickets will be $30 per person. All tickets include soda/water and the opportunity to play the games

●     Next Meetings scheduled for 2/11/25 and 2/25/25

○ Saturday, March 8, 2025 7:00 pm LHS Trivia Night, doors open at 6pm  

 

Class of 2028 Director’s Report, Jenny Champlin/Stacy Nagel/Sara Robeson ● Saturday, January 25, 2025 10:00 am - 2:00 pm LHS Winter Carnival ○ The event went well.

○ The notes provided by the Class of 2027 and the bins were very helpful and appreciated. May look to add a more bins, so each game can be stored in its own bin.

○ Volunteer requests via Parent Square/Student Square were really helpful. It was more work up front from Giovanna & Aleta (thank you), but was helpful on the backend to have parents signing up for parent spots/students signing up for student spots and being able to view the signups. ROTC was a great help.

○ Prizes were managed differently this year utilizing 1 large prize table. There was a bit of confusion regarding ticket quantity to hand out, but that was quickly taken care of. 

○ Requested approval for a Candy Cart after school to sell remaining candy. Permission was granted. 

○ Final numbers are not yet in, but ballpark numbers look to be in the $7200-7500 range. 

 

Next Meeting ● Monday, April 7, 2025 7:00pm Lafayette Room 180.  Adjournment by President Giovanna Lear at 8:12pm