Welcome Back Breakfast
8:15 a.m.
The Cafeteria Terrace
Attending Parents: Roberta Conroy, Tracey Cirillo, Frank Maturo, Abby Taylor, Noelle Hughes, Tracy Harris, Monica Filanowski, Susan Doelp, Carol Sorokin, Judy Fisher, Patricia Conforti, Aksenia Mace, Monica McKnight, Denise Carol-Quinn, Mari B. Flicker, Lydia Sullivan, Cynthia Parker, Liz Moley, Amy Lane,
Stephani Whittaker, Katie Traynor, Susan Cugliari, Tara Backe, Dawn Bennett-Mickens, Betty Quigley-
Cizynski, Susan Shack Sackler, Meredith Hutchison, Lisa Rintoul, Diane Connelly, Mary Vickery, Bonnie
Hirschfeld, Nancy Saipe, Gary Miyashiro, Edmund Sullivan, Wendy Nixon, Karen Mascarenhas, Jeanne
Hard, Deborah Wood, Hannah Young, Judy Straight, Kristen Rowinsky, Joanne Costello, Scott Singer,
Mary Jo Romano, Minoo Saghri, Debra Carson, Sally Holzinger, Dana Lipman, Suzanne Sholes, Mara
Arzi, Emilda Nylander-Smith, Kim Rummelsburg, Eleanor Monroe, Neena Singh, Kelly Adams, Karen
Johns, Marcie Lapido, Anne Ross, Carol Wilson, Cathleen Morgan, Molly McGrath, Lynne McAlevey,
Alison Lew, Brooke McIlvaine, Mary Jean Koster
The meeting was held on the cafeteria terrace and started at 8:15. Molly McGrath and Lynne McAlevey,
co-presidents, both introduced themselves. Lynne then introduced the members of the Executive Board-
Anita Mattoo, Vice President; Alison Lew, Treasurer; Georgette Fogarty, Assistant Treasurer; Betty
Cizynski (U.S.)/Brooke McIlvaine (M.S.)/Laura Kaufman (L.S.), Class Parent Coordinators; Mary Jean
Koster, Secretary. She also mentioned the PA Board and mentioned several recent/near-term events: BBQ,
Directory, Family Portraits, Heritage Dinner, Homecoming. Lynne said that the board has agreed to ‘fall
into step’ with the greening initiative at GFA and, to that end, will no longer be handing out printed
materials, including agendas, minutes and invitations. Also, there will be no more plastic bottles at events .
Other format issues for PA meetings include a request to sign in when arriving and to reserve speaker
questions to the end so that the meetings can end in a timely manner. Lynne also mentioned that the board
will be working to reduce unnecessary spending such as mailings so that more money can go to important
needs such as financial aid.
The next order of business was approval of the May minutes which Molly raised and these were approved.
She mentioned the clipboards for volunteer sign-ups for anyone who hadn’t seen them on the front table.
The three new PA fundraising events were mentioned: Family Portrait Day, Java Jam and a Spring 2010
Westport Playhouse production.
The next speaker was John Elmore, new head of Upper School. John gave a brief bio on himself. He was at
the Hewitt School in New York City both as Science Department Chair and Director of Counseling. Then
he went to a private school in Grosse Pointe, Michigan as Director of College Counseling and Dean of
Upper School. After that he was Assistant Head of School at Trinity in Texas. It was a new school and
during the time he was there, it was transformed into a prep school. In addition to being Head of Upper
School at GFA, he is Head of Studies, works with Lynne Laukhuf on Student Life, teaches a 9th grade class
and is 9th grade academic coordinator. He is also a parent of a second grade child at GFA. John mentioned
that he was drawn to GFA because of the seriousness of purpose he saw here as well as the comfort
between students and faculty, which make the school unique.
Janet Hartwell spoke next and began by thanking all the parent volunteers. She said the school year is off to
a great start. All the construction was ready on time: new windows went into the second floor of the main
house, wiring and drainage work was finalized, the septic is completed, additional parking is in place by the
maintenance garage. The new varsity baseball/soccer field is being built by the Audubon area and will be
ready in the Spring. In conjunction with the town of Westport, GFA is working on a final traffic study in
October. GFA survived last year’s economic meltdown and is in a good spot. She also mentioned a new
web base system called ‘Pick a Time’ for parents to set up their own conferences in the middle and upper
school. It allows parents to schedule and reschedule if they have a conflict. Janet said the PA is like a welloiled machine. There is great willingness to look at and experiment with a new task and it continues to
evolve and meet the needs of the school.
Alison Lew, Treasurer, defined her job as being responsible for disbursing funds and reimbursing
volunteers for events. She said the PA started this year with a balance of $10,000 and within a few days she
will get an additional $11,000 from PA dues. The activities are comprised of fundraising activities (e.g.
Family Photos, Westport Playhouse) which contribute funds to the PA and committee activities (e.g. Back
to School BBQ) which use funds from the PA. Last year the PA had about $39,000 net profit and of that
$27,000 was a gift to the school for financial aid and $10,000 went to the final installment of the PA pledge
to the Capital Campaign. Alison mentioned that Georgette Fogarty is the Class Treasurer so all class related
reimbursements should go to her. For events, Alison reminded everyone to stay within the given budget,
remit expenses on a timely basis, and use the tax exempt number when making purchases. For
reimbursement, the forms are on line and in her mailbox in the faculty lounge. They should be submitted
with a receipt and the committee head signature.
Molly talked about Java Jam and said the date is April 17, 2010. It is a family event in which GFA alumni
who were involved with the acapella groups –Beachside Blues (males) or Harbor Blues (females)- are
invited to come back and sing with their college groups. They will have alum/groups from Brown,
Princeton and University of Rochester, to name a few. One of the members of the Beachside Blues gave a
singing demonstration. The money raised from Java Jam is used for teacher enrichment programs.
Diane Connelly spoke about the Family Portraits. They are being done by Coffee Pond in various town
locations and on various dates. The tickets are $65 and $30 goes to the school and $35 to Coffee Pond.
Once you purchase a ticket you can call Coffee Pond directly to arrange the date/place of the sitting.
Tickets are being sold at this meeting, all the back to school nights and are available in the lobby area of the
school.
Molly said a decision was made yesterday to have the Back to School BBQ merged with the Homecoming.
Lisa Lawrence discussed Homecoming and said they are going with a street fair theme. She said if anyone
wants to market their PA event or do fundraising for their grade, let her know. There will be a Middle
School soccer game, jump tents, Dragon store items for sale. Kids will get community service time for
working on this but they also need a lot of parent volunteers.
Wendy Nixon spoke about the Dragon Shop. She said all profits go to the PA. Usually that is in the range
of $16-20,000. She reminded everyone there is 20% off one item if you go right after the PA meetings.
They need a webmaster for the on-line store items. Wendy is also working on a new approach for the book
buy back at the end of the year.
Bevo Tarika spoke about the Horizons program and explained it has a summer K-8 program for students
from Bridgeport schools as well as a Saturday school year program. She mentioned that on October 2 is the
third annual celebration of graduates. The speaker is Rehema Ellis who did a segment on Horizons on the
nightly news with Brian Williams.
Marcie Lapido gave the dates of December 4 and 5 for the Book Fair at Barnes and Noble. She said there
will be guest authors and entertainment by Beachside and Harbor Blues. They are looking for volunteers
and mentioned that there was a sign-up sheet on the table.
The meeting concluded at 9:15.
Submitted by Mary Jean Koster