PTA Meeting Notes – 2011-12 School Year
Rosa Parks Middle School PTA Meeting
January 10, 2012, 7pm
Attendees: Tea West, Dr. Redmond Jones, Kellie Blake, Nancy Hull, Cindy Keating, Shawn Krasa, Stephanie Clark, Alice Kelly-Enright, Tina Valazquez, Tammy King.
Reading of Last Month’s minutes: Nancy read the minutes and they have been read, voted upon and accepted into our report.
PRINCIPAL REPORT:
· Introduction of Shawn Krasa – Vice Principal in charge of 8th grade and 6A team, Testing Coordinator. He passed around Exam schedule and opened up for questions. Study Hall is a time for self-study, not really an opportunity to go to the Teacher for assistance. Exam schedule Thursday, January 12th – Wednesday, January 18th. Exam makeup day will be Thursday and Friday, January 19th and 20th.
· 2012-2013 Course Registration Parent Meetings. The courses that the students sign up for, drives the staffing needs for next year. Jan 19th at 7pm parent meeting for rising 6th graders. Very strong attendance expected. Earlier 6pm meeting, same day, for students receiving special education services.
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Jan 25th: Parent meeting for rising 7th and 8th graders in Media Center, 7pm.
· Jan 26th: Parent meeting for rising 9th graders, 6:30pm at Sherwood HS
· Little Shop of Horrors, musical: students $5, general admission $10; Jan 26 @ 7pm, 27 @7pm, and 28th @6pm.
· Jan 31st at 7pm, Superintendent Panel Book Club, Central Office. Dr. Redmond-Jones and Kim St. Johns were invited to participate on the panel. Book: Drive by Daniel H. Pink. Author will be at book club. Small studio audience. One more book club offered in April.
· January 11th is MCCPTA testimony at CESC, 7pm
· Community Service Project: Students from area middle schools (public and private) are currently meeting about a community service project. Students will be collecting a variety of items: toys, etc. Items will be donated to both Montgomery General Hospital and to Children’s Hospital. Each middle school will be collecting something different. This project will be publicized soon.
· January 17th: Parent & student basketball game, Gym at 3pm
· Harris Teeter is now participating in the Together in Education Program. RPMS School code 1400. Please participate.
· January 12th, 7pm, Sherwood HS: Cluster Principals and NAACP representatives will meet to discuss activities and programs for the remainder of the year.
OLD BUSINESS:
Bylaw Committee: no major changes from old Bylaws. MD State PTA has made changes and we need to incorporate those into our Bylaws. One item that has been reiterated: check signing needs 2 signatures. MD State Bylaw Chairman also noted that a number of PTA’s that are in good standing has decreased. Each PTA needs 25 PTA members to be in good standing. RPMS is in good standing.
Motion, Seconded. Submission of our revised Bylaws will be mailed to MD State PTA.
NEW BUSINESS:
MCCPTA: Operating budget is being presented Wednesday, 1/11/12. Biggest concern for the Sherwood Cluster is the removal of several Counselor position due to budget cuts. We need to reinstate our Counselors from now Part-Time back to Full-Time positions. If the position was cut, then we need to put the position back to Part-Time. Counselors in the school are necessary for the social and emotional need of our children and it is crucial that these Counselor hours are back in the school budget.
Teacher Awards: Veterans Teacher Award. PTA nominated Mrs. Van Patten for this award and Tea West and Dr. Redmond-Jones will be doing the paperwork involved.
Parent Award: PIMA (Parent Involvement Matters Award)
Nominations of Parent: Susan Donsky, Tammy King, Roni Septoff, Ginger Twombly, Tina Valazquaz.
Parent nomination vote will be tonight and by email to Tea West (teaspot2@yahoo.com), PTA President by Wednesday, January 18th. Please participate in the vote. All of these nominated parents have put many volunteer hours into bettering our school. Please email Tea West as soon as possible with your vote.
Spirit Wear: Tea spoke with Karen Kahn Spirit Wear Coordinator and the next order will go out in March. A spirit wear sale happened twice in November and December. Tea will check with Karen regarding making the spirit wear available online.
Direct Appeal: RPMS has bought 5+ cameras last year with PTA money. Cameras are functioning and providing greater coverage for inside the building. Thank you to the PTA for this donation.
Box Tops: New students have joined the Box Top club which meets once/month. Last year we raised $430 from box top money. The goal this year is to raise $800. The next deadline is 1st week of March and that check will be mailed to school before school lets out in June. Several drop-off locations: TAP class (preferred) or in front office.
Concession Stand Fundraiser: Roni Septoff came up with the good idea to start selling food at a concession stand at the basketball games. i.e. Candy, potato chips, water, juice box. Will sell everything for $1. Tea West volunteering to spearhead this additional fundraiser.
Black History Month Dinner, Feb 23rd, 6:30-9pm at RPMS Cafeteria. Open to all and there will be a guest speaker, Dr. Bell. Live student band and no charge at the door. We expect about 200+ parents, children, and teachers.
International Night, Thurs, May 3rd at6:30pm. Parents bring a cooked dish from their family’s native country. Information about this event will go out by mid-March.
Projects for 8th Grade Legacy: table until next month’s PTA meeting. Ideas: something to help celebrate 20th anniversary of RPMS.
Treasurer’s Report: will be published as a separate attachment
Next PTA MEETING: March 13th, 7pm
Meeting Adjourned 8:30pm
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Rosa Parks Middle School PTA Meeting
November 8, 2011, 7pm
Attendees: Tea West, Mrs. Redmond Jones, Maureen Dymond, Nancy Hull, Cindy Keating, Linda Silverstein.
Reading of Last Months minutes: Question about the how to have the Bylaws presented and voted on in time for the March 9th deadline. Without a December PTA meeting, can’t present new bylaws and vote both at the January meeting. Tea will refer questions to newly formed Bylaw Committee. Tea is considering presenting the Bylaw DRAFT through email sometime in December. Cindy Keating is also reviewing and will contact ByLaw Committee with additions.
Principals Report:
- Red Ribbon week presenter was fantastic. Very well received by parents.
- Spirit Week fun. Prizes for participating coming out this week.
- Dance: low attendance 125. Breakeven number was 100 so SGA didn’t lose money on the event. Perhaps publicity could have been better. Next dance is in mid-December and will have some “glow” items to sell. Perhaps we can put a student run steering committee together to investigate reasons why. DJ could have done more contests as well at the dance. Dr. Jones thinking about a student survey to be handled by SGA.
- Community service project with area local schools (public and private) to collect toys for MGH and possibly Children’s Pediatric Ward. Collection will be after holidays, Jan-Feb. This will be a student run project.
- Student/Teacher Conferences this Thursday afternoon and Friday afternoon. By invitation only, but if you want a conference, please contact the teacher personally.
- Report cards mailed Thursday.
- Book Fair in RPMS Library the week of November 14th. Leah Kielsohn is Coordinator. No evening hours although it will be open to students during lunch. Tea to ask Leah to publicize Book Fair and its hours on the Yahoo ListServ.
- School Improvement meeting next week, Thurs, Nov. 17th 3-4pm. All parents invited. MSA focused and RPMS making adequate yearly progress. This group meet quarterly.
- Superindent’s Listen and Learn Seminar for Sherwood Cluster, November 21st, 7pm at Sherwood HS. Childcare is available.
- Field Trip for 8th graders, Smithsonian, November 22nd.
- Outdoor Ed for A team Nov 28-30, B team is Nov 30-Dec 2.
- Winter Orchestra Concert, 7pm December 6th
- Winter Band Concert, 7-8:30, December 7th.
- Interims mailed for Q2, December 14th
- Winter Dance, 7-9pm on December 16. PTA sponsored.
Treasurer’s Report: P&L attached. Money came from Spirit Wear sales and School Store. Minor reimbursements this past month for paper. 449 memberships sold. Membership is higher this year. Treasurer will work on separating out Direct Appeal money from Membership money on P&L.
MCCPTA Report: voted on a MCCPTA Legislative Platform 2011-2012. Attached. Unanimous vote with 6 Ayes.
Box Tops: Ms. Davis TAP class had the most students that sent in Box Tops and their prize is a Doughnut party, $180 dollars collected from Box Tops.
Spirit Wear Purchases: Karen Kahn is the Coordinator and you can contact her with questions. Also, Tea will ask Karen to give an update on the RPMS Yahoo group. We discussed the possibility of a new vendor, local mom, who will be invited to the PTA meeting in January.
Project Rosa’s Hope: is an idea to collect food, toys, and clothing for the community during holiday season. Problem is that RPMS and Olney area schools are also doing a project in January (see Principal Report). The two community service projects are too similar and would confuse the donators. Group decided to nix the Project Rosa’s Hope this year and readdress it next year. We also don’t want to interfere with good works done by Project Change.
Dessert Social for the January PTA meeting.
8th Grade Legacy Project: we tabled it until January PTA meeting
No Selling Fundraisers: looking for ideas on what to sell or collect that will bring in PTA dollars without selling products. Giant, Target, Harris Teeter, Campbell Soup Labels, Capri Sun are programs that give money back to school. Idea was to compile these ideas and hand out package to parents at Back To School night and on the Yahoo group.
PTA Meeting Awareness: no electronic sign that displays PTA information. Should use Yahoo group to advertise the PTA Meetings.
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RPMS PTA Meeting Minutes 10/11/11, 7:00pm
(sign in: 17 members, Principal)
• No Minutes from last meeting (August) to approve
• October budget was approved
• Furniture came in that was purchased for Media Center and staff training lounge
• Membership: Sue Strosnider
Directory distribution last week of October
50 extra’s printed
30 extra membership cards this year. Maureen to order more cards
• Principal’s Report
• By Laws: Appointed committee; Tina V, Maureen Ponci,. Cindy Keating
• October 27th: Training for Bylaw Update. Tea will attend
• Scheduling:
February 23rd Black History Meeting
International Night is May 3rd
• 8th grade legacy discussion. Quilts, Benches, more to come…
• Staff Committee gearing up for 20th Year Anniversary. Will run all year long next year.
• PTA Meeting Dates: Sept, Oct, Nov, Jan, Mar, May
• Coordinating a service project with local private schools. Dr. Jones working with this.
• May 11th: Career Expo Date.
• Voting of Resolutions from Delegate
• Meeting Adjourned 8:30pm.