Bryant PTSA Board Meeting Minutes – September 2017

Bryant PTSA Board Meeting
September 12, 2017
Meeting Time: 7:00
Meeting Location: Bryant Library

Welcome and Introductions  Julie Ohrazda & Kim Love

Guest Speaker: Jill Geary – SPS Board:

  • District goes all the way to Eastlake and up to Wedgwood (most affluent district in Seattle)
  • 2.5 million granted for Magnuson Community Center improvements
  • 4-5 mil designated for Lake City Community Center
    • Lake City is one of poorest areas of Seattle
  • Teachers with sub training only less than 10% in Seattle, roughly 50% in middle of WA
    • Seattle monies going to WA state due to this
  • Legislative agenda for coming year will be set in meetings coming up in next few weeks
  • 3k homeless kids in SPS, or 1 out of 18 kids
  • If practices do not match policies and procedures, please notify what you observe/experience in an email to the Board.
  • Input on Student Assignment Plan needs to go into email now to board if you have input
  • 400 million dollar backlog on facilities maintenance
  • Families moving south of the city, so less resources for SPS due to cost of living going up in the city
  • Recommendation to parents- positive attitude towards your school and the education of your kids has shown to have one of the biggest outcomes for kids.
  • Jill will be at Zoka on Blakely after drop-off on Tuesdays to talk to parents

PTSA Goals for 2017-18:

  • Increase volunteerism
  • Community Engagement within grade levels
  • Connecting parents within the school through events aligned with LASER’s Parent Night Out

Approve May Board Meeting Minutes

Officer/Standing Committee Reports (Nelly Goodnoe & Brita Willis)

  1. Treasurer’s Recap Report
    1. Treasure’s Report 2016-2017 read aloud by Brita Willis (see report)
    2. General Meeting in October will approve budget
    3. Budget presented again, everything is same except the budget for field trip has changed as well as the 22,000 moving over to unallocated funds. This total will not be confirmed until last invoice from SPS.
  2. Volunteer Coordinators Report Tammy Shorr
    1. Collecting new family packets and already have over 75 new volunteer forms
    2. Will hold a couple of New Volunteer Orientations to further educate parents on the roles
    3. Committee chairs will be inputting names and reaching out to new volunteers immediately so that they are engaged right away
    4. Immediate need for Reflections Chair
      1. Reflections is a national competition for student art
      2. Role involves putting up sign, solicitation of art, finding a jury to review art after building puts up art
      3. City, State, and National rounds of competition
      4. Work commitment to role is mostly in October- November
    5. Sign up Genius for Lunch and Playground coming out soon
      1. No pressure for time commitment- give what you can!
  3. Fundraising Chair Report Leeann Huntington & Sara Fenzel
    1. Annual Campaign launces October 9th-October 20th
    2. Meeting with staff on September 20th to discuss promoting
    3. Ask for a black-out period for communication to parents by committees so that communication is limited to Annual Campaign
    4. Amount of requested amount to be determined at Fundraising Meeting tomorrow
  4. Principal’s Report  Dan Sanger
    1. Smooth start to the year thus far
    2. Helpful to have Ks start later
    3. Hired Amy Shanafelt. (former co-president) in front office! – reach out to her now but please cc Dan or Julie until she is fully trained
    4. Process of finalizing hiring of new office assistant, announcement in coming week
    5. New reading curriculum for teachers- collaborative classrooms
      1. Curriculum has received great response from teachers
    6. PLCs have had great teamwork
    7. Mostly all returning staff at Bryant this year, so ready to go this year!
    8. Deeper into RULER this year, voted unanimously to continue the program this year
    9. Collaboration with PTSA for events around equity/scheduling speakers
    10. Big Thank you to Julie and Dan for all your efforts in staffing the front office
  5. Bryant Forums:
    1. Bullying
    2. Mindful Parenting
    3. Equity

Special Committee Reports
None

Special Orders
None

New Business

  1. Conflict of Interest Statement Whitney Griesbach
    1. Signed by Board and turned in
  2. PCI Compliance Documents Nelly Goodnoe
    1. Form needs to be signed if you are Exec. Board or if you may use credit card on behalf of Bryant
      1. Please talk to Nelly 2-4 weeks before an event to get Stripe set-up or PCI form signed
  3. Present Standing rules Kim Love
    1. Only change this year is checklist only to be used as an internal document- wording changed.
    2. Wording change read aloud/ approved
  4. Grade Level Grants for community events  Kim Love
    1. Grants for social events for parents to get to know one another
    2. Requirements: free event, community building, all families of each grade invited to event
    3. Up to $500 for the grant
    4. Grant advertisement through the Weekly
    5. Motion made and approved to allocate $3k towards $500 grants to each grade for community engagement
  5. PTA School of Excellence Julie Ohrazda
    1. Recognition program that supports partnerships between families and schools
    2. Provides tools an support to increase engagement
    3. Recognition plus $2k reward
    4. Standards include:
      1. welcoming all families through a welcome breakfast,
      2. communicating effectively about student learning,
      3. supporting student success,
      4. speaking for every child to make sure all students have access and are treated fairly,
      5. sharing power
      6. collaborating with community to connect students/parents/staff to expand civic engagement
    5. Process involves:
      1. Taking survey of school staff/families
      2. Making goals based on survey
      3. Track progress towards goals
    6. Julie offered that School of Excellence may align nicely with equity goals already set out for the year
    7. Initial application needs to be submitted by October 1st
    8. Decision to set-up time to discuss further and get more info about time commitment
  6. LASER
    1. There will be a LASER rep at every PTSA meeting
    2. Waitlist kids have been given offer to bus to Laurelhurst
    3. LASER Parent Night Out and Camps are open to all, not just current LASER enrollees
    4. Wednesday 1/2 days can’t be covered by non-LASER families
  7. Library funding – Encyclopedia Britannica  Anne Aliverti
    1. Can’t afford reference materials in library
    2. On line is the trend, and this program has been acclaimed by many teachers
    3. Subscription is $595 for the year, families can have access to it as well
    4. Motion made and approved for October start year-long subscription