Five parents attended the meeting.
Early release day tomorrow; 8th grade pizza sale fundraiser. Also after-school bake sales, including one at Walmart next Saturday.
Last year the PA did a teacher-appreciation breakfast on their in-service day following the last day of school. This year there are no in-service days after school ends, so we will wait and do the buffet lunch in August.
One parent asked about teacher resignations this year. We know that Mr. Mandeville and Mrs. Link will not be returning.
Ruth Milner handed out a summary of the contributions the Parent Association has made this year and the topics that have been covered at the monthly meetings. She has also clarified the Mission and Purpose statements as well as reorganizing the list of tasks and interests that were developed with input from parents last year. The other parents seemed to be satisfied with the new wording. There was a question about the role of the official fundraising committee and how that might overlap with the PA's fundraising efforts. Since the standing committee has been essentially defunct for some time, it's not clear how it would function; however the PA activity is mostly aimed at either donating materials (e.g. baked goods) for students to sell at fundraisers, or by helping at the event, rather than at managing large-scale fundraising campaigns. We agreed that there is value in having the PA be recognized as its own organization, with support from the school, rather than being absorbed into either of the two school governance groups (Governing Council or administration).
Most of the discussion focused on increasing the number of active PA members. It is quite common for parent organizations to have a low turnout at meetings. The topics with higher attendance were testing/curriculum, the bullying prevention program, and the dress policy review. Surveys in the past indicated Tuesday or Wednesday in the early evening as the most popular meeting slots, but it may be time to check again. Our school is small, so the core volunteers will be an even smaller group than most, although we hope this will be offset somewhat by the fact that a charter school is ultimately run by parents and that we might therefore expect a higher interest level than at most schools.
Parents are doing a great job when called upon for school events. We are mostly short of people who are willing and able to organize/co-ordinate things. For example, one area where parents could be useful at the school is by supplementing teachers on the playground, with a particular focus on monitoring potential bullying situations (primarily the less obvious verbal kinds that are harder to detect). Doing this effectively would require someone to spend time arranging schedules, confirming parent availability, etc. Minda Stillings also mentioned the idea of lab assistants in the middle school science classes, and of parents helping to produce things like periodic classroom newsletters. She offered to talk to Mary Nutt and Jill Urban to see what other tasks they know of that would be suitable for parent volunteers. If we know what needs doing, it should help us find parents who are interested in doing them. Ruth will also create updated handouts, including brief surveys about suitable meeting days/times and topics of interest, for the annual before-school potluck in August. (Side note: could this year's be held either at the school or at the nearby park, rather than at Tech? Ruth will check with Jill.)
There was also some discussion about the communication-related tasks that are seen as part of the PA's mission. For example, should we do more regular reporting to the Governing Council (at least when there is something to report)? It might be useful to have someone act as a liaison between the two groups. Mary Nutt is a fairly regular presenter at PA meetings, so we already have reasonably good communication with the school administration.
No additional subjects were brought up.
Tuesday, September 5, 2006, at 6:30 p.m. This will be the first meeting of the 2006-2007 school year.