PTO Meeting May 9th, 2026 @ 9AM in HMS Library

Attendees

Jocelyn DiRienzo Julie Holt Amy Martin Susan Harris

Gia Rickman Penielle White Michelle Ross Christine Johnson

Jackie Hamilton Katherine Ehrhardt Heather Mann Cathie Gray

Laura Smith Megan Hartsfield Jenny Faszholz Tiffany Perry

Dana Fitch Randy Stolle Ms. Ramirez

Welcome - The meeting was called to order by Jocelyn D at 9:01am. The minutes from the last meeting will be available in the near future.

President’s Report - Jocelyn welcomed everyone. She added a few more members to complete our PTO board. The back to school nights went well. There will be an upcoming parent open house. She will order banners to hang for our yearly sponsors and hang them. Jocelyn is collecting updated teacher favorites forms.

Treasurer’s Report - Julie Holt discussed the financial statement from July. She also mentioned some of the numbers that have come in for the month of August. Christine Johnson made a motion to approve the July budget. Gia Rickman seconded the motion. All were in favor and the motion carried.

Principle/Administrator’s Report - Dr. Finch says the first week of school has been good. She mentioned having no issues. There have been 2 buses that were late this week, but they are double-load buses. The buses and car riders were all on time today! Next week, HMS will host volleyball and football games. She reports that back to school night was busy. She asked for feedback from the back to school night. Cathie Gray shared her prior experiences through her kids at HES, LVES, LES to now HMS. She said other BTS nights are more hype. Some offer food trucks, play music, and it’s more of a social gathering. August 25th from 5-7 is the HMS parent open house. Parents will run through their kids' daily schedule. Randy Stolle mentions seeing posts on social media of disliking HMS. He has an idea about offering coffee time with the admin. He thought this could be offered to invite the community in and allow questions and build good rapport with the community.

Committee Reports

VP of Events - Penie is prepping for the school's first dance of the year. The DJ has been confirmed and paid. Snacks and water will be offered. She will put together a volunteer sheet to schedule people to set up, chaperone, and clean up.
Membership - Tina Herring gave Jocelyn an update. There are 30 staff signed up for Invest in HMS. She will organize Sonic drinks for those teachers.
Hospitality - Christine Johnson has a teacher appreciation treat on August 26th from Andy’s Frozen custard. Sept 9th is Martin’s BBQ for teacher appreciation lunch. Beth Dean is creating a special list so Christine can recognize each teacher and staff on their birthday. She will prepare for custodian appreciation day which is in October.

Corporate Sponsors - Amy Martin gave an update on sponsors. She provided a list of the sponsors. She is waiting on one last sponsor check. There is also a bank that wanted to come to our next PTO meeting and discuss ways we could be more savvy with raising funds, investing, and utilizing discounts.

Communications - Gia Rickman continues to post info on the Facebook PTO page. There is also an Instagram page now! She wants to post more flyers about school sports.

Front Office/Badges - Charlena was not present, but the schedule is in the newsletter.

Copy Room - The copy room signup link on the HMS PTO Facebook page.

Spiritwear/School Supplies - Cathie Gray has the spirit wear link open til August 28th, but we agreed to extend the spiritwear order until Wednesday Sept 2nd. She suggested PTO shirts. She pondered having shirts on hand to sell along with magnets at sporting events, back to school night, and parent night because as a new member to HMS, she has nothing to show support for the school.

Beautification - Katherine Ehrhardt has lawn barbers doing work around the campus. This coming Monday, they will work on the courtyard beside the library. She doesn’t have a big budget item for this school year, so she offered to use some of her beautification budget to help beautify school events and boost school morale.

HMS Athletics - HMS will kick off their fall sports with the football home opener next week. Volleyball will be played at home next week, too. Cross country and tennis are also playing.

Concessions - Tiffany Perry is now in charge of concessions with the help of Jackie Hamilton! She thanked Gia for posting the concession sign up sheets. She has Wednesday's concession schedule filled for a while. She is asking for more help for a couple football games and soccer games.

Lost and Found - Nothing to report.

New Business

Julie Holt shared a statement of concessions. There is a special formula that generates a percentage that is distributed to clubs and volunteer working concessions. It needs to be tweaked a little because after paying out all organizations, there is only a small amount of funds in the account. We all agreed to hold off on paying the PTO portion of money earned until more funds are available.

Upcoming Dates