Atholton High School (AHS) Parent Teacher Student Association (PTSA) Monthly Meeting Minutes for December17, 2013 In Attendance:Lisa Bader, Mary Acker, Amy Bagley, Curt Bathras, Mistra Memarzadeh, Carol Zimmerman, Dede Matrongola, Barbara Norton, Jennifer Clements, Carrie Thompson, Maureen Bentz, Kathy Wolf, Amy Levitt, Monica Punjabi, Jhana Shimizu, Elaine McAuliffe, Vicki Harvey, Lesley Ahmuty. Note: Text enclosed in boxes denotes reports submitted online. Handouts: Agenda, Budget 1. Lisa Bader called the meeting to order at7:40p.m. at Mary Acker s lovely home. 2. Welcome and introductions. 3. Meeting Minutes for the November monthly meeting were approved. 4. President s Report - Lisa Bader Submitted By: Lisa Bader Submitted For: PTSA President A big thank you, once again, to all of you whose consistent hard work and dedication continues to make Atholton and the PTSA look so good! Please continue to submit your updates for this month on the website, even if it is after the meeting. I am abbreviating the agenda for tonight in order to try and keep the meeting portion of this evening as brief as possible, to allow more time for holiday cheer! And a special thank you to Leslie Ahmuty for setting up the Sign-Up Genius for our holiday party! I don t have a lot to report this month, as I have been overwhelmed with the holidays and family commitments for the past month. I apologize if it seems like I dropped off the face of the earth! I have not heard anything from Gold Party Events since the conferences. I don t think they had much of a turn-out, so I expect our portion to be minimal. I believe the Event they were conducting for us ends this week, so we should hear something soon. In partnership with HC DrugFree, we have agreed to host one of the county s two Beach Week Presentations by the OCPD. This will be our Community Connections event that was planned for March 13 and will be held in our auditorium. Stay tuned for further updates on what our responsibilities will be. No real updates on RP3, including no chairperson yet. I will re-double my efforts to move along the planning after the holidays, but I maintain that I CANNOT act as a Chairperson! This should be in our Delegate report, but because we need a quick discussion and a consensus, this is my summary of action the HCPTAC is taking: Howard County s PTAC will be voting on a resolution in January to support Dr. Foose s efforts to get the Federal and State Education Departments to repeal the requirement for state testing (MSA s) that does not line up with current curriculums (Common Core). Our two delegates and myself have a vote at the PTAC meeting. We need to have a brief discussion on how our votes should be cast on this important resolution. I will forward the email from PTAC that includes the resolution and a letter from Dr. Foose, and we will get the information on our website for our membership as well. Our next meeting will be Jan. 22 at 7pm, hopefully in our newly renovated Media Center! Best wishes to you and your families for a fun and safe holiday season! Atholton High School PTSA Meeting Notes Page 1
5. Principal s Report- Jennifer Clements Submitted By: Jennifer Clements Submitted For: Principal AHS PTSA Principal s Report 12/17/13 1. Renovation Winter Break move (Phase 2-3) Students will learn new rooms for moved teachers tomorrow (12/18) and will report to the new rooms on 1/2 2. Mid-term Exam Schedule High school semester exams are to be administered as follows: Tuesday, January 14---Full Day--Period 1 exam Wednesday, January 15--Period 2 & Period 3 exams---3 hour early dismissal Thursday, January 16--Period 4A and Period 4B exams---3 hour early dismissal Friday, January 17--Period 5 and Period 6 exams--3 hour early dismissal In order to provide a consistent schedule for students attending the ARL and for public information purposes, all high schools must adhere to this schedule. No semester exams may be given to students before the scheduled dates for any reason. Upcoming events Winter Break the BIG move! Dance Concert January 9 & 11 NHS Inductions January 13 Mid-term Exams begin January 14 Current last day of school Friday, June 13 6. Snack Shop Submitted By: Elaine McAuliffe Submitted For: Snack Shop Overall Snack Shop is running smoothly. We are trying to be good neighbors to the Athletic Boosters, as we need to share more space during winter sports. 7. Treasurer s Report- Curt Bathras Submitted By: Curt Bathras Submitted For: Treasurer Our P&L Statement continues to look good. A couple of things to note: We've receive $150 in Directory Ads when we budgeted $0. New memberships are still coming in, but VERY slowly. We stand at 555 memberships - 71 of those are teachers. Snack shop keeps rolling!... and rolling! We're ahead of our pace from last year for income for Driver's Ed, Membership, SAT Classes, and Snack Shop. Snack Shop expenses are over budget, but this is good news because we're selling like crazy. The additional income more than offset the expenses. We received two more Funding Requests: Rocketry Club and Model UN. We will discuss these fully at the meeting. (see new business below) $600 received from Orioles concession stands. Atholton High School PTSA Meeting Notes Page 2
8. PTA Council Delegates Report Dede Matrongola Submitted By: Dede Matrangola Submitted For: PTA Council Delegate The following are highlights of the PTACHC December Meeting, with one action item listed in 3.b dealing with MSA testing and an announcement about the Common Core program scheduled for 12/08/13: 1. Board of Education Report: Presentation of Policy/Reports & Public Hearing Dates. 2. 12/05/13 Public Hearing Policy 6080 Sustainability & Undesignated Fund Balance. 3. 12/05/13 - Proposed 2014-2015 Calendar Presented; Public Hearing January 2014. One less ½ day and revised scheduling of parent/teacher conferences are being proposed. 4. 01/07/14-2015 Operating Budget Presentation; Public Hearing January 2014. 5. 02/13/13 Wellness Policy 9090 Report Presented; Public Hearing March 2014. 6. More information can be found on the HCPSS website, http://www.hcpss.org/, and Board Docs (link on the website). 7. HCPSS Staff Report: School Safety Report. 8. Building Security: Elementary Schools almost all schools have buzz-in security installed or in the completion stages and 40% have through-the-front office entrances. PODs are being reconfigured to be secured. Middle Schools -- have received approval for State funding for buzz-in entry installation and this should be completed by Spring. All Schools should have a software management system for entry/exit cameras and swipe-card entry for staff by the end of the school year. 9. Emergency Response Plan: Is drafted and in the next few weeks an Emergency Response professional will work with HCPSS to review and strengthen plan. Plan also may include dealing with apparent threats, such as disgruntled students or parents. 10. Mental Health: Staff is being and will continue to be educated about bullying issues and general mental health issues. 11. Miscellaneous: Buses 50% have security cameras; will report to Administration comments about inconsistency in school policies regarding attendance reporting and entry/sign-in procedures; security for before and after care will be addressed at next level of report. PTACHC Report: Initiatives: Data Collection: Requested List from HCPSS identifying with whom data is shared. Also, exploring Opt-in vs. Opt-out option. MSA Testing: A draft resolution to write to MD Superintendent of Schools and the State Board requesting a waiver of the MSA testing is to be discussed at local meetings. (See attached.) There is a planned vote in January 2014. Dr. Foose wrote a commentary about the testing published in the Baltimore Sun Paper in Aug. 2013 and recently had another article about testing published in the Sun on December 2, 2013. Social Media Policy: Frank Eastham, Executive Director of HCPSS, will present an update on the policy at the January 2014 PTACHC meeting. Budget: PTACHC will write a letter to Dr. Foose requesting that the 2014 Budget be as detailed as in the past regardless of it being a Zero-Based Budget. Future programs: Common Core, see attached flyer; Bus Safety, target date in 2014. Submitted By: Carol Zimmerman Submitted For: Corresponding Secretary Bylaws vote held at the Community Connections meeting on Wednesday Nov. 13. Unanimous approval. Submitted to Maryland State PTA in Glen Burnie. We are now waiting for their approval and return of the bylaws. Atholton High School PTSA Meeting Notes Page 3
Submitted By: Phil Rogofsky Submitted For: Technology Boosters Tech Booster held a meeting on Dec 4th. Major discussions points were parental support for the build season, fundraising, and volunteer opportunities. Also, awards dinner was discussed. The next meeting will probably be in March because the Boosters will be focusing on supporting the team during build season. The HoCo Math Festival was postponed due to the weather. Event will be rescheduled for late January. 9. COMMITTEE REPORTS Directory Carrie Thompson Submitted By: Carrie Thompson Submitted For: Student Directory The directory is still in progress. I am finishing updating to the online version. Then an email will go out asking people to confirm their information. I will give them until Jan 1. Then the online version will go live. The printed version will be taken from that information. The printer will take 4-5 days then it will be ready. Tonight I asked Jen for a new school map to include. Drivers Education Stephanie Beckmann Submitted By: Stephanie Beckmann Submitted For: Driver's Education We had 28 students in the Dec. class. Proceeds are $1,820. Next class will begin Jan. 27, 2014. Have a great time at the party! I won't be able to attend... SAT/ACT Preparation Jhana Shimizu and Angie Bernard Submitted By: Jhana Shimizu Submitted For: SAT/ACT Prep Classes Only one class was held in November. The results from the combo SAT/ACT practice test were mailed out November 20. Anyone that did not receive their results can email me. Kaplan is offering a $150 discount on their classroom prep classes. The promotion ends tonight. Next classes: The Answer - Nov. 19 and 21 Kaplan - starts January 11 Atholton High School PTSA Meeting Notes Page 4
Submitted By: Monika Punjabi Submitted For: Reflections Exciting news from Reflections!We have received the following submissions: 18 Photography 1 Special Artist 1 Literature 1 Visual Arts Of the 21 Submissions we are elevating 7 to County!! Four from photography and the others are all automatics because we received less than 3 submissions in each category. We are so excited about our Special Artist too! This week we will inform the winners of who they are. We would very much like to have a special recognition of our Reflections participants, not just the winners. We will bring up some ideas at the board meeting. Happy Holidays! Marjorie and Monika Webmaster Curt Bathras (www.atholtonptsa.org) Submitted By: Curt Bathras Submitted For: Website I implemented some other minor tweaks for usability and bug fixes. Another reminder that for meeting input you should select your committee/position from the drop down list. This helps Mistra when she's organizing everything for the minutes of the meeting. Please send me FAQs and answers I can post to the website. I know everyone has a lot of knowledge in their heads that would be useful for families and AHS. New Business 1. Curt received additional information from Ms. Haffey about the Dance Program funding request. The funding is for extra-curricular activities they are planning for the year. They will be making two trips to NYC to participate in dance lessons with the Rockettes and the Newsies. These lessons cost $3,000. The request will benefit 130 dancers. The total cost of the trips is over $7,000. They are requesting $1,500. Barbara Norton made a motion to approve $1,500, Amy Bagley seconded the motion, a vote was taken and the board unanimously approved the request. 2. Dawn Tache, sponsor for Model United Nations, requested $1,000 towards registration fees for two conferences. This benefits approximately 35 students, and the total cost of registration is $2,000, and the club does fundraising to pay for transportation and hotel costs. Barbara Norton made a motion to approve the request for $ 1,000, Mistra Memarzadeh seconded the motion, a vote was taken and the board unanimously approved the request. 3. Devin White, on behalf of the Rocketry Club, requested$300 towards the purchase of parts and materials to participate in Team America Rocketry Challenge (TARC)" on May 10th. This benefits approximately 30 students. The total cost is approximately $1,720 for which the club does fundraising and donations. Barbara Norton made a motion to approve $500, Curt seconded the motion, a vote was taken and the board unanimously approved the request. Adjournment Lisa adjourned the meeting at 8:20 and the gift exchange started. Atholton High School PTSA Meeting Notes Page 5