Author: Kathy Austin

Bryant PTSA Board Positions for 2016/17

Kathy Austin

The Bryant Elementary PTSA board consists of a President, Vice President, Treasurer, Secretary, Membership Chair, Volunteer Coordinator, Fundraising Chair, Legislative Chair, Member-at-Large, and Teacher Representatives.

These positions are extremely important to our school and community. We are thankful for the wonderful and dedicated parents that fill these roles every year! If you are a member of the PTSA and have an interest in a board position or know of others with interest, please contact the Nominating Committee at volunteer@bryantschool.org. We welcome anyone with the desire and commitment to get involved.

For 2016-2017, we have several open positions, including Co-Treasurer and Legislative Chair. Read more →

New bell time task force findings

Kathy Austin

Thank you for completing the parent survey posted a couple of weeks ago. Your feedback is very valuable as the PTSA helps to align after school activities with the new bell times.

Several important themes emerged from the survey.

  • More parents will require after school child care. 50% of parents said they will now need to secure child care because of the new bell times.
  • No morning programs. Only Bike/Walk to Bryant and Safety Patrol/ Crossing Guard Duty would remain in the morning, all other programs would need to move to the afternoon.
  • Participation in Clubs, ASE, & other programs seem unaffected by bell times.
  • Participation in Clubs, ASE, & other programs improve when time is increased to 2 hours.

Read more →

Bryant PTSA Board Meeting Minutes – April 2016

Kathy Austin

Tuesday, April 5, 2016
7:10

Attendees: Leann Huntington, Lauren, Abraham, Jennifer Mahlum, Rachel Schaw, Kim Love, Kim Larsen, Amy Shanafelt, Julie Pearson, Dan Sanger, Sam Fogg, Tiffany Morgan, Jason Smith, Michelle Ireton, Whitney Griesbach, Mary Britt-Love, Sara Fenzl, Anna Marburg, J Fangman

February Board Meeting Minutes -Approved

Office/Standing Committee Reports

  • Treasurer’s Report (Lauren Abraham & Jennifer Mahlum)
    • Increase in expenses for next year
    • Budget Committee meeting with The Building to explore creative compromises
  • Fundraising Committee (Kim Larsen)
    • There is a need to increase the ask for the Annual Campaign for 2016-2017 school year
    • Discussion around how much it should be raised by.
    • The Budget Committee will bring a proposed increase at the May meeting
  • Update from the bell times task force (Leeann Huntington)
    • Parent survey results indicate preference is to prioritize the following programs for space allocation: LASER, ASE, school clubs & play
    • Taskforce is working with Dan/Julie on logistics of room scheduling.
  • Legislative update (Joan Crooks)

New Business

  • Funding model for ASE coordinator position (Leeann Huntington)

8:26

Support our 4th Graders as they Run for Islandwood!

Kathy Austin

RunforIslandwood-logoFriday, April 1 at 6pm

Bryant 4th Graders will be running one mile around the Bryant Track to raise money to subsidize the cost of next year’s Islandwood trip. Come cheer them on as they put in some sweat equity to ensure all 4th Graders can participate in this memorable team-building camp experience. 4th Graders, sign up now to get your fundraising link. It takes 5 minutes and is free!

If you’d like to contribute to this campaign and send all of next year’s 5th Graders to Islandwood, please visit our Run for Islandwood website. Questions? Email Kim Love.

Bryant PTSA General Meeting Minutes – March 2016 *Draft*

Kathy Austin

 

Tuesday, March 8, 2016
Bryant Library

7:06pm

Attendees: Leann Huntington, Julie Ohrazda, Lauren, Abraham, Jennifer Mahlum, Rachel Schaw, Kim Love, Janie Booth, Amy Shanafelt, Meghan Delaney, Carleen Confer, Katie Boyes, Sam Fogg, Ann Sonner, Heather Kokorowski, Rose Campagnola, Anna Marbury, Patricia Parker, Sara Fenzel, , S. Shelly, Tiffany Morgan, Jason Smith, Michelle Ireton, Whitney Griesbach

October General Meeting Minutes -Approved

Office / Standing Committee Reports

  1. Treasurer’s report -(Lauren Abraham & Jennifer Mahlum)
    • General update
    • Budget Committee meets 3/16
  2. Update from bell times task force -(Leann Huntington)
    Task for made up of parents and representatives from ASE, Bryant Play, Chess Club & Laser

    • Survey gathering parent feedback on how space should be allocated before and after school given the new start/end
    • Early results indicate that the community is prioritizing the space in this year Child care, ASE, Bryant Clubs for Art and Music
  3. Emergency preparedness update -(Heather Kokorowski)
    Purchased Emergency Kits for the classroom

    • New Chairperson and additional members. Contact hkokorowski@gmail.com

New Business

  1. Nominating Committee: Approved by General Membership
    Committee names the slate for 2016-2017 PTSA Exec Board @ June General Meeting

    • Nominating Committee is Janie Booth, Megan Delaney, Katie Speizer. If you know someone who is interested in
  2. Discussion of building budget and Letter of Intent (Leeann Huntington)
    • The Building Budget needs to be locked in advance of the PTSA budgeting committee and June meeting. A Letter of Intent is signed by the PTSA to indicate the intent to fund a Building position/initiative.
      • These are used when there is a prior precedent has been set based on what the PTSA voted to approve in previous years and at what amount.
      • Final approval is pending approval by the General Meeting in June.
    • Planning to sign the following LOI
      • Funding the reading specialist
      • Funding instrumental music instructor
  3. Review progress of PLC and Interventions/Extensions model (Bryant Staff)
    • Dedicated time for collaboration between Grade Teacher teams for content planning, assessments, student/teacher goal setting and planning for differentiation (extend or intervene) for all students.
    • The PLC meets regularly to calibrate expectations and best practices across grade levels

PTSA Nominiating Committee elected

Kathy Austin

Thank you to the PTSA members who attended the Mid-Year General Membership meeting last week and elected our Nominating Committee: Janie Booth, Meghan Delaney and Kate Speizer. These PTSA members are responsible for shaping the PTSA board by presenting the general membership with a slate of candidates to fill 2016-17 board positions to be voted on at the Spring General Membership meeting in June. If you, or someone you know, want to get more involved in the Bryant community, please email Nominating Committee chair Meghan Delaney.

Gold, Silver, Blast!

Kathy Austin

Save the Date! Inspired by the Summer Olympics, this year’s Blast theme will honor athleticism and our very active students.

The Bryant Blast will be held on Saturday, May 14th from 12 pm – 4 pm. Plan for pony rides, fun games and activities, sno-cones, tasty food and much, much more!

Wanna help plan the Blast? We still have the following lead position available!
Outdoor Activities Lead — Plan and organize outdoor activities, entertainment, ponies, and more. Past Blast leaders will be available to lend extensive guidance!

Bryant PTSA Board Meeting Minutes – February 2016

Kathy Austin

Tuesday, February 9, 2016
Bryant Library

7:04

Attendees: Leeann Huntington, Julie Ohrazda, Lauren Abraham, Jennifer Mahlum, Rachel Schaw, Kim Love, Kim Larsen, Joan Crooks, Amy Shanafelt, Carleen Confer, Julie Pearson, Patricia Parker, Sam Fogg, Mary-Britt Love, Tiffany Morgan, Whitney Griesbach, Angela Kirk, Shiri Ourian, Andrea Cooney, Rachel Gleeson, Michelle Ireton, Natalya Yudkovsky

Approved January Board Minutes

Treasurer’s report

  • Not much have changed since last month
  • We do collect boxtops, $$ allotted for that will go in to the emergency preparedness fund. Used to buy some security blinds for the class room.
  • Looking for members to be part of the budgeting committee
  • Will need a co-treasurer for the 2017-2018. Great for those people to also be involved in the budgeting committee

Legislative update and reports

  • Natalia gave an report out of her trip to WSPTSA Focus day. For more information on priorities see website.
  • ParamountDuty.org is an organization started by NE Seattle Parents who are committed to going to Olympia on a regular basis to raise awareness and drive support for fully funding education.
  • Leann Huntington will reach out to Eastside King County PTSA Districts to see how we can partner together to get support from their representatives to fully fund education.
  • Walk-in on Thursday 2/18 @ 8:45. See Bryant PTSA Go Red for Edfor more information.

Seattle Public Schools Bell times task force

  • Doing an survey of Pre and Post School activities to understand what programs are impacted
  • Task force will do 2 surveys in early March
    1. Understand needs for afterschool care for our families
    2. Explore what vendors can do in terms of extended class times

New Business

  • Board voted to approve $419.87 to purchase checks & deposited (Lauren)
  • Update from Bryant Blast committee. Need an outdoor event activities coordinator. Blast will be May 14th, 2016 (Julie)
  • Preview March’s General Meeting

Meeting adjourned 8:35