Montgomery Blair High School PTSA
Minutes of PTSA Executive Committee Meeting --- August 29, 2006
August 29, 2006
PTSA Executive Board Meeting
Present: Debra Reed-Gillette, Deborah Stoll, Dave Ottalini, Barry Johnson , Djakaria Sangare, George Slenkovich, Sonya Mallinoff, Elissa Lichtenstein, Linda Willmott, Carol Smalls, Gail Peck, Bonnie Malkin, Diana Vidutis, Rosemary Hodges, Nancy Newton, Barbara Tobias, Linda Simon, Beth Martin, Ron McClain, Anne Kaiser, Miriam Szapiro, Ray Scannell
Facilitator: Dave Ottalini
Time Keeper: Deborah Stoll
Recorder: Debra Reed-GilletteDave called the meeting to order at 7:35 pm . Deborah welcomed all present and adjustments to the agenda were made.
Meeting Minutes for the July 31 Exec Board meeting will be emailed for approval.
Any group, such as membership, needing tables for Back to School Night needs to send an email to AP Pat Hurley to request tables.
Community Superintendent: Deborah and Dave met with Heath Morrison, the new community superintendent. He said that the BOE would meet on 8/30 to approve an interim backpack flyer policy. All members must attend and the vote must be unanimous to pass. An interesting note is that No Child Left Behind mandates that Boy Scouts have access within the schools. The community superintendent and other schools were very interested about Blair’s 9th grade only day at the beginning of the school year. He also listened as they presented the issues with Blair and the graduation venue.
Budget: The Executive Board was presented with a Draft Budget that will be presented by Nancy/Sonni at the 1st PTSA meeting on September 19. The Draft Budget was approved by the executive board with corrections noted: A new line item for grants will be added; we will eliminate the Chamber of Commerce membership; we will add as receipts approximately $1200 total from Snider’s ($500) and eScrip ($700) programs; the contingency line item was increased to $500; we eliminated line item 33 (Community Activities); we moved $2000 to the physical infrastructure line item (discussion below).
Water Fountain: The PTSA had provided funds to Blair to install a water fountain outside for use of those in athletics. The water fountain has not yet been installed. Individuals had earmarked donations for this purpose. If the water fountain will not be installed, Blair must return the money to the PTSA and the PTSA may have to contact donors to see if they want their money returned. Any funds not utilized for the water fountain, will be placed back in the physical infrastructure line item. Dave and Deborah will meet with the financial manager to see what the progress is and draw up a new agreement with a timeline and deadlines for either installing the water fountain, or returning the money.
Scholarship: The S. Perry Scholarship still needs to be awarded. We have money earmarked for this.
Program Planning: If any member is interested in a topic for meetings, please volunteer to coordinate the topic with the presenter. Topics suggested are:
September: Academies Presentation
March: Sophomore/Junior parent meeting for college planning
December: Choral/Instrumental presentation – to be coordinated by Linda Willmott
Internet Safety: Tina Hudak
Drinking: Ron McClain/Marc Fisher and discussion of safe houses program a possibility
BlairSportsAcademy
Gang Involvement presentation by the task force: Requested by the Latino parents. Of concern is that there is an increase in the number of African students joining gangs
Follow-up on Academies in the Spring
Back to School Night: September 7, at 7:00 pm . Reminder is to arrive no later than 6:30 for musical presentations and for parking. Membership will provide T-shirts at the $50 joining level, Season passes for sports at the $250 level, Season passes for cultural events at the $100 level. These passes are at no cost to us, the school donates them to the PTSA. Membership will need 12-15 individuals to staff the membership tables. We will need cash boxes, translators, and the ability to sign up individuals to the list serve.
On-Line Payments: Barry Johnson presented multiple options for the PTSA to receive donations, and membership dues. As a 501c3 organization, we can use Network for Good to allow members, alumni, etc to make donations on-line to the PTSA. The PTSA Exec Board approved for Barry to provide the link to the PTSA webpage. Acteva allows a per event registration. An event costs $100 and can be for several months. Barry will set up the membership event to run from August – May or June of each year. We will pay for the $100 out of the Organizational Expenses budget item and try it for one year to see how it works. The PTSA Exec Board approved for Barry to set this up and add the link to the PTSA membership area. Information about the joiners will be able to be imported into a membership database.
Graduation Venue: Miriam wrote to the BOE after their rejection of the graduation venue proposal. The firm of Winston and Strawn are interested in taking us on as a pro-bono client and has provided several possibility scenarios in discussions with Miriam. They would provide the BOE with 2 alternatives and would promise to defend Blair/PTSA and the BOE if a legal suit was filed. It is also possible to get a court decision for a declaratory statement. At this point, the PTSA will treat the graduation venue issue as a longer-term issue as movement would have to occur quickly for any changes for the 2006/2007 graduating class.
Athletic Fields: Jim Funk has submitted the Fall athletic event schedule to Park & Planning for the master calendar for the fields. This should help with planning for maintenance as it can be performed only if you know when the fields are at “rest.” Field renovation is the responsibility of MCPS as it is seen as a capital improvement. The base for the fields is very bad (fill) from the school construction. We need to be the second site of artificial turf being installed by Park & Planning. A better Memorandum needs created to clearly spell out schedules for maintenance and improvements (renovation) .
Athletic Contract: The new athletic contract has been distributed for Fall sports participants. A small section has been added with more severe consequences for students caught in violation of the contract.
Blair Sports Academy: This is now fully under the control of the rec department and is being run by Mr. Segura with Mr. Short the Blair contact. Marc Grossman has been lobbying for increased academic support. He should go through Mr. Gainous and Mr. Short to ensure that it is going through the correct channels.
Mini-Grants: Mini-grant recipients are to be required to present something to the PTSA about their use of the grant money. Preferred is a presentation at the Silent Auction/Blair Fair. More follow-up is needed with grant recipients to make sure they use their money in a timely manner, or the money is returned to the PTSA.
Counseling Advisory: A Jr/Sr Parent Meeting is scheduled for September 26. There is already one issue with schools with rolling admissions deadlines for small colleges that fill early.
Blair After Prom and a Blair NAACP rep are still needed! RECRUIT!
El Golfo: Beth Martin will schedule an El Golfo night for either October 18 or 25. She will coordinate this with El Golfo.
BLAZER: A few of the dates may be moved to an earlier publication date – April?. It will remain at 12 pages with 1 page being translated for important dates/events. September 15 is the deadline for the October issue.
Reminder: BTSN Thursday, September 7 at 7pm
Next PTSA Meeting Tuesday September 19 in the MediaCenter
Exec at 7pm, General Meeting at 7:30 pm