Board Meeting Minutes.docx - Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools



EE Waddell Language Academy PTSO General Meeting and CoffeeFriday, January 27, 2017Meeting called to order at 8:29 am.Board members present:Yvette Bolden, PresidentAdrianne Johnson, Past PresidentWendolyn Gildehaus, Assistant TreasurerSusan Alexander, SecretaryHeather Hensley, Director of Passive FundraisingKate Chan, Co-Director of Advocacy, Chinese Co-AmbassadorSandra Freeman, Chinese Co-AmbassadorErika Strubbe, School Leadership Team ChairAgenda:Q&A with Dr. EyblBoosterthon update:Final numbers for Fun Run and Color Run:Goal: $60,000 / Actual profit: $57,745Fun Run:School profit: $49,500Registration: 81%Financial participation: 74%Meals donated: 210Color Run:School profit: $8,245Registration: 61%Financial participation: 33%Meals donated: 18Total school profit: $57,745 (at 94% collected)Amount left to collect: $6,142World Market update:Goal: $15,000 / Profit: $12,000PTSO purchases:Playground and basketball goals and sidewalk gamesSound board equipmentPTSO Web siteAll Pro Dads at WaddellUpcoming events:Chaperone/child dance: February 10Waddell night at Chipotle: February 17Mardi Gras Parade / 5th grade dance: February 28Waddell Night with the Charlotte Hornets: March 10Waddell Night with the Charlotte Checkers: March 26Business:The president called the meeting to order. The agenda and a copy of the back page of the School Leadership Team (SLT) meeting sheet were handed out. The SLT handout is titled, “An Opportunity for CMS to Build on a Strong Language Immersion Foundation.”The president gave an update on the Boosterthon.The overall goal was $60,000, and our actual profit was $57,745. The elementary school donated 210 meals to Second Harvest; the middle school donated 18. We have collected 94 percent of the monies outstanding. If we were able to collect the remaining amount, we would be able to reach our goal.For the elementary school Fun Run, which profited $49,500, 81 percent of the students registered and 74 percent participated financially. The middle school Color Run profited $8,245, which was an increase over last year’s $6,000. The president said that there is still an opportunity for more participation for the middle school. Registration was at 61 percent and financial participation was at 33 percent. Someone suggested that there be an electronic incentive, such as an iPad or an iTunes card. Some middle school families might be contributing through their elementary school students. We are still having a challenge with getting information about events to the parents. We do currently fund middle school activities quite a few ways, such as paying for the exchange trip chaperones and some field trips. The president would like to see a sixth grade trip to Washington, D.C. Someone asked for us to look at other middle schools and the percentage of students who participate in fundraising activities, to see if our students’ response is comparable.Someone suggested that any purchases we make to equipment be mobile, so that we can move it with us to the new school.Someone asked about the timing of the Fun Run/Color Run. We have our Invest in Your Child (IYC) campaign in the spring. Someone mentioned that some companies have a total cap on matching funds, so they encourage their employees to make matching gifts early in the year. Someone suggested that more tangible incentives be associated with the IYC campaign, such as some sort of community volunteer activity for the students. Kate Chan mentioned a program available as a kit called “The Great Kindness Challenge,” which might be such an activity to pursue.The president mentioned that teachers are currently looking at what they would like to purchase with the budget amounts available to them.The president suggested, since we are falling short of our budgeted fundraising goals, that parents could work to raise funds at the various cultural nights. Africa Night is one of the next opportunities coming up. Currently Africa Night is scheduled for Thursday, March 30, with no school the following day. It was suggested that the date be moved, perhaps to the night before or to the end of the week before, which is Francophonie Week. Officer Wilson mentioned that the baseball, soccer and track schedules have not yet been fully set, and that we should consult that schedule when we are trying to reschedule the event, as March will be in the midst of the season for these sports. If we add performances that would not be only for French program kids, we might attract more families to the event; some all-language groups, such as the chorus, are already slated to perform that night. Someone mentioned that kids would be attracted to events if they feature teachers doing interesting things, such as a pie fight.There will be a fundraising event at Chipotle restaurant in Cotswold at Providence and Randolph, to help offset our not reaching our goals for Boosterthon and World Market. Chipotle will donate fifty percent of the proceeds from Waddell. Waddell families and friends will need to say at the cash register that we are from Waddell on February 17 from 4:00 to 10:00 pm. You can show the flyer, which went out in the Rampage and will go out in backpacks. Someone mentioned another restaurant in Concord that would allow us to decorate a box, and anyone who puts their receipt in that box has part of the amount paid as a donation. The president encouraged everyone to let us know about other fundraising opportunities.Principal Dr. Eybl arrived at the meeting for questions and answers.She did not have anything new, but encourages anyone with questions or concerns about the new facility to approach her and Nancy Brightwell, superintendent of the East Learning Community.We know that two schools, a replacement for Waddell and a mirror school, are going to be built. We do not know where they will be built; we are waiting for CMS to tell us the locations.The information sheet handed out at the SLT meeting is the information that we currently have.We are working with our learning community superintendent, our master scheduler and someone else to look at our schedule to ensure that we are able to keep what we currently have when we move to a new facility.Someone asked whether someone will come and look at our parking and traffic situation; she was worried that a location such as the old Nations Ford site would be too small to accommodate our carpool traffic and parking for events.Another person asked if there was another K–8 school in the district that we could visit; Dr. Eybl said that there is not yet such a school that has been built.Someone asked about the inclusion of a cafeteria, auditorium, gym and soccer field, as she was worried that a soccer field would not fit at the Nations Ford location, and we would not be able to have the Fun Run. Dr. Eybl said we could have a Fun Run no matter the size of the facility. CMS is planning a standard K–8 with a soccer field. There was concern that a soccer field would not fit at the old Nations Ford site.It was mentioned that CMS now does not plan on moving the Smith Family Center, so we are not slated to have our replacement facility at the Smith site with Collinswood. Someone mentioned that there would be advantages to having Collinswood and Waddell together, especially having our middle schools together, even to the extent of joining our middle schools. This would make our middle schools more likely to have a successful, more robust program. Someone also mentioned the possibility of moving the new school for Collinswood to the Nations Ford site instead of Waddell, since Collinswood is a substantially smaller school.The president mentioned that it is important for us to decide as a team what it is that we want going forward. Dr. Eybl mentioned that it these ideas should go to our SLT, as they are our representative in bringing these concerns to the principal and the learning community supervisor.Someone asked whether the room counts proposed would include offices and workrooms. Dr. Eybl said the facility will include workrooms, offices and tutoring rooms. We would not be able to have four workrooms like we have now. We would also like the PTSO to have a room. Currently we do not really have middle school teachers on carts: the 0.5 Chinese teacher goes into a math classroom, the middle school PE teachers go to the science labs for health classes, the language arts labs are in a science room.The SLT will be involved in the naming of the new replacement school. We may consider keeping our “W” somehow to make the transition easier.The head of the SLT wanted to mention that emotions are high around the replacement school issue, since we had so little notice about what was being planned. She apologized about this and said we should be proud of standing behind the school and thanked everyone for their continued support. Emotion is the result of a lack of information. As we have more information, we can go forward.Dr. Eybl asked if anyone had additional concerns. Someone mentioned the visa issue, that a stable teaching staff is important to our program. AG and Carmel are currently also having problems attracting and retaining language teachers. Dr. Eybl mentioned that it is not only the visa problem, but also a problem with the teacher pipeline. She also mentioned that there is an issue with not having substitute teachers who are capable in the languages we teach.Adrianne mentioned the new state law regarding the maximum number of students allowed per class. She said that that law might be affecting CMS’s calculations of a maximum of 1260 students for the new facility (whereas we currently have about 1375 students). The law would affect our ability to maintain class sizes in the upper grades, since we cannot easily add students in those grades. She spoke with school board member Elyse Dashew, who said that they are applying to repeal the law. Dr. Eybl said that she found out that there are no exemptions to the law. Adrianne encouraged that we keep up with this issue.Susan asked about doing something about people who do not turn off their engines in the carpool line and in parking lots. There is recent research on how bad car exhaust is for our health, and affects our kids and the teachers who have to be out for carpool. Dr. Eybl mentioned putting something in the Rampage about this. Someone asked whether Officer Wilson could intercede, but we know he is hesitant to step in unless it has to do with illegal activity. It is up to the other parents to ask these people to turn off their engines. Dr. Eybl mentioned that CMS has signs telling people to turn off their engines; the president will follow up on our getting some of these signs.Someone asked what our next steps should be regarding the new facility. Dr. Eybl said to contact her or the SLT on these concerns. There has not yet been a walkthrough of our property. Dr. Eybl, Herr Nuss, Ms. Lynch, Ms. Lentz and Mara Kobe met with Nancy Brightwell about the schedule, with a look to maximizing available space.Someone mentioned that the new law reducing class size could affect our allotment of teachers; would this reduce the number of teachers we could have? Dr. Eybl said that we might be able to add teachers to the lower grades to accommodate larger class sizes.Sound equipment that will be used with all the children is in the process of being ordered and purchased this month. This equipment will be able to be moved to our new school. The equipment will be in before the middle school drama performance.Waddell parent and therapist Gerald Brown introduced All Pro Dads, a program that encourages fathers and other chaperones, guardians and grandparents in our children’s lives to develop their fatherhood skills. There will be an effort to recruit people to participate in the program, which will start with a monthly breakfast on Thursday, February 16, at 7:30 am (the location is yet to be determined). Statistics on kids who grow up without fathers show that they are more likely to be incarcerated, 54 percent more likely to be in poverty, twice as likely to drop out or fail out of high school, and fatherless daughters are seven times more likely to experience teenage pregnancy. One topic will be covered per meeting. Discussion will occur on different activities, and will encourage dads to understand the importance of engagement with their children. The president mentioned that it would be great to find other ways dads could participate in the school such as helping with car pool, or being a group we could call on when there are specific needs and activities in the school. Someone mentioned that some dads would love to participate with children who do not have a father in their lives, perhaps buddying up those kids with other kids that do have a father so that they can participate in activities together. The information on the first meeting will be in the Rampage and will go out on our Facebook page.Upcoming events include the chaperone/child dance, which will be only $5 per person. The Mardi Gras parade and the fifth grade dance are coming up. Waddell night with the Charlotte Hornets will be coming up; one of the players will speak to us and take questions in French, and other players that speak other languages will also be asked to participate. The children will be able to participate in special activities at the beginning, during and at the end of the night. Waddell night at the Charlotte Checkers is coming up on March 26.Our fundraising goal for World market was $15,000 and we reached an actual profit of $12,000.Someone mentioned that the biggest concern we have about World Market is how crowded it is, and asked whether there would be a better way to distribute the activities. Several people suggested moving the eating space into the hallway, and moving some of the small performances to a little farther away.Someone mentioned that the food was very good this year, although it was a little more expensive. Someone said that if we are losing money on the food, we should use food trucks; we are not yet at the point of actually losing money on food.The silent auction made what we had expected; last year there was a large donation of a summer camp certificate, so we didn’t have funds come in for this sort of thing this year. This year not all classes participated in donating baskets for the auction. We need to communicate better that we still would like every class to participate in providing baskets.Next meetingThe next PTSO general meeting and coffee with the principal will be on Friday, April 28, 2017, at 8:30 am in the auditorium. The next PTSO board meeting will be on Friday, April 21, 2017, at 8:30 am.Meeting adjourned at 9:33 am. ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download