PTA General Meeting Minutes -- November 19, 2008

Call to order:  6:35  Quorum established 

Minutes from last general membership meeting reviewed

Motion made by Lori Faha to approve minutes

Minutes approved via unanimous voice vote 1st agenda itemPrincipal's reports speaker: Linda Kapranos  *  support from parents is overwhelming. The staff always feels comfortable coming to PTA. The staff feels PTA is very supportive to the staff  *  Elmo document cameras have been purchased. Margie is passing them out after a full training has been provided. Linda believes there were enough purchased to share throughout the whole school.  *  Linda believes the tech committee was very thoughtful in their way of asking teachers what they needed.  *  Linda reports all staff are working on behavior in the classroom and hallways. This includes Paraprofessionals who are valuable members of the team.  * Cynthia is taking on extra responsibility for TAG this year 

*  5th-8th grade teachers are taking on enrichment classes

*  There is embedded professional development once per week.  

* Linda believes the climate in the school is shifting to a healthy K-8 school, especially compared to 1-2 years ago. One example is a drastic reduction in behavior problems.

* Enrichment classes continues to be evolving and is not perfect at this time. This is in part a direct result of limited options when changing from a 6-8th grade school with more sections at each grade level, to fewer sections at each grade with K-8. This is also a result of apportioning Spanish and Band, which also limits any additional FTE staff.  

*  A vision statement has been crafted by the staff and will be presented to students.

  *  Teachers are learning about differentiated instruction.  

*  Excessive absences and/or tardies are indicators for possible drop-outs later in a student's academic career. Linda has started sending out a letter is students have excessive absences or tardies in an attempt to remediate this problem.

*  BCS is creating specific criteria to address math in order to challenge students who are gifted.

 2nd agenda item:Membership chair report via Sam Shiffman

There are 214 members at this time

 3rd agenda item:Legislative chair report

speaker: Amy Baskin

PTA legislature thanks all participants for their interest in finding out how PTA suggested you vote. All measures on the ballot passed or failed, according to how the PTA had hoped.

 4th agenda item :Foundation chair report Speaker:  Bob Leek  

*earnings so far are double expectations, due to winning "Earning for Learning" from Lloyd Center.

 5th agenda item:Vice-Presidents report

Speakers:  Anita McKey, Susan Crabtree

 6th agenda item:Volunteer coordinators report

Speakers:  Lori Faha, Bonnie Gee Yosick

*  There is a community service bulletin board posted at the Fernwood site.

 7th agenda item:Treasurer's report

Speaker:  Nancy Drinnon

*  Fundraising is much lower this year than was budgeted. Magazine sales are much lower than were planned on. Chinook Books are also much lower.

 8th agenda item:Grant committee report

Speaker:  Kathy Tell

*  The Grant Committee had requests for $30,000 from a fund of Grants of $10,000. The two biggest disappointments were not being able to fund Ralph Nelson and tutoring requests from Linda Kapranos. Otherwise, most requests were granted.

 9th agenda item:Nominating committee

Speaker: Doug McMahon

*Doug McMahon has taken on co-chair of nominating committee with Andrew Briggs and Jenny Shea. A new president will be needed for next year.

 10th agenda item:Site Council presentation

Speaker: Carol Shrader

* The school has created a staff vision statement, but parents on the site council would like to have a parent's "vision statement" to accompany this.

 11th agenda item:School website demonstration

Speaker:  Clay Marshall

*  There is now a Powell's link and an Amazon.com link on the website which will generate funds for BCS if accessed through our school website.

One final note:  Don't forget about SCRIP. It doesn't cost a penny and it brings in money for our school

Doug McMahon moves to adjourn meeting

meeting adjourned at 8:13