Montgomery Blair High School PTSA

Minutes of PTSA Meeting --- June 7, 2006

Executive Committee Meeting Minutes

PTSA Minutes

June 7, 2006

Attendance: Deborah Stoll, Margaret Khan, Peggy Ottalini, Dave Ottalini,Debra Reed-Gillette, Eric Hysen, Beth Martin, Carolyn Lichtenstein, Diana V, Linda Willmott, Miriam Szapiro, Carmen Dupree, Sonni Mallinoff, Phil Gainous, Linda Wanner, Fran Rothstein, Sarah Wolk, Sara Rosen, Margaret Khan

The meeting was called to order at 7:36 pm

President Deborah Stoll welcomed everyone to the last PTSA meeting of the year, and made an amendment to the agenda to add new SGA president Eric Hysen as a speaker this evening.

Retiring President’s Remarks: Fran Rothstein remarked (not in rhyme) that her most heartfelt thoughts are included in the last addition of the Blazer. Please read her letter (posted below). She remarked that it was a wonderful experience that she did for her daughter. She also enjoyed working with Mr. Gainous and Ms Wanner. She is especially proud of the work done on her goals for the school: continuing and ongoing improvements in communications, outreach, and student achievement. Although communications continues to need improvement, it has moved forward. Con Quista was a wonderful outreach effort that brought to light significant barriers and resulted in the purchase of the translation equipment. She would still like to see an NAACP parent council active at the school. The ILT is very open to working with parents; however, more planning needs to occur to build these important relationships with the staff. Having a publicity chair and corresponding secretary in the PTSA would help. Student achievement has been given a BOOST with the ongoing discussion surrounding eligibility. A wonderful outcome has been the BSA program. It is hoped that academics will continue to be emphasized. Thank you to Mary Abe for successfully organizing staff appreciation that has helped to improve relationships within the school. The PTSA needs to work to build business partnerships and to improve Blair’s reputation in the community.

May Minutes: The minutes of the May PTSA meeting were posted to the web. They were accepted as posted.

SGA: Incoming SGA president Eric Hysen has served on the ILT and is looking forward to working with the PTSA. He thanked Margaret for her commitment this year to being student rep and a job well done. Margaret will be taking over the SGA Food and Blood drives and will be replaced by Jennifer. Eric would like the SGA and the PTSA to coordinate their efforts for mentoring and other common goals.

Principal’s Report:  Mr. Gainous thanked Fran for her support over the years and he appreciated her ability to point out the “warts” in the school, but also her ability to find solutions to smooth those warts over. Fran has a wonderful ability to help us all see the trees for the forest and has helped to make the administration more responsive. “Fran we will miss you. You helped to get us a lot of resources from central office.” Mr. Gainous congratulated the After Prom Committee for another job well done. One of the security guards commented to Mr. Gainous that no other After Prom ever compares to Blair’s, and he works many of them.

      With regards to the stadium situation and Park and Planning, Mr. Gainous has just attended a 3 hour meeting with Park and Planning, regarding the Memorial Garden. The Garden and stone were erected without the proper permits and have also been situated in such a way that Park and Planning cannot move any of their county equipment out of the fence, preventing them from cutting grass, etc. in most of the area. The Memorial Garden is to be a memorial for any student who passes away while in attendance at Blair. The coach is providing an alternative site plan for approval to the business manager for the appropriate permits.

      The relationship with Park and Planning is not good. They are trying to work out the scheduling issues. The discussion with Park and Planning also included the topic of usage and maintenance of the Blair fields. Because of the poor surface, nothing will grow on the field, regardless of the care that is given to it. The surface is hard clay with no top soil. Park and Planning will not put the money in to dig out all of the clay and replace it with topsoil. Usage is an issue with the field by both the Blair community and Park and Planning. Neither group is allowing the site to rest, as is needed for properly maintained fields. Park and Planning admitted that although Montgomery County residents are supposed to account for greater than 50% of the usage, this is not the case. The permit money is supposed to go for maintenance, but it does not come close to the costs.

      In response to parent questions about why Park and Planning was the best option, Mr. Gainous responded that Park and Planning initially gave excellent service to the fields when full time staff was stationed here. However, due to budget cuts, there is no longer full time staff at Blair. However, Mr. Gainous feels that having Park and Planning continuing the partnership is better than ICB and MCPS, which will not provide any maintenance toward the fields. Mr. Gainous feels that regular meetings with Park and Planning need to be reestablished so that issues like the softball playoffs does not recur.

Committee Reports: 

Pedestrian Safety: Deborah gave the report for Sam and Sally. Montgomery County has a new safety coordinator, Matt Green. Sam and Sally Stokes have submitted a plan that includes new signage, student education, and possibly fencing. They would like to work with the SGA on the education piece. MCSP transportation department looked over the plan for student drop off today. There are still concerns about using the lanes that the buses also use.

Silent Auction: The Silent Auction was wonderful, despite the poor attendance. We are examining why attendance was so poor. It is thought it may do better as a winter event in future years and also perhaps it should be separated from the Blair Fair and Mr/Ms Blazer contest. Fund raising coordination seems to be an issue, with many fund raising events happening very close together. There is a need for better coordination.

AED’s: The Helgesen’s have volunteered to purchase an AED for Blair, however in order to get an AED all regulations must be followed. Blair will require 6-8 AED’s, not including the portables, with ongoing testing and training. Blair must wait until MCPS sets the regulations as to how this should be implemented. The state approved the requirement for AED’s in schools, but did not provide funding for their purchase, the training, or the testing.

After Prom: After Prom was again very successful. A full count of the number of students served was requested and that information will be acquired. Will Ramsey has done it for 3 years. This is an enormous undertaking, and we need a chair for next year. Better communication was needed however about the extension of the prom to coincide with the start of After Prom. Many students did not know and had their limos picking them up at midnight, prior to the crowning of the Prom King/Queen.

Membership: There are too few PTSA members, a direct result of only doing the membership drive during Back to School Night, where the accident prevented many from attending. Brainstorming provided ideas, such as providing membership forms to those groups who get PTSA funding, like BEBOPS, BSA, Gang Summit, etc. The mini-grant program can be used as a promotional tool to show parents what the PTSA does. Perhaps advertising it more would increase membership. Additionally, the use of the RoboDialer to remind families to return the forms would be helpful, as would on-line registration. Barry Johnson has done research on on-line membership money collection and is providing a report about what he found. The PTSA would like to increase CAP and Magnet parent memberships, because even if they live too far away to make the meetings, the membership dues can be used to provide needed funds for activities benefiting the school. 

Counseling/Advisory:  Juniors are reminded to see the counselors and to meet the deadlines in their TrailBlazer packets. The RoboDialer should be used to remind 11^th grade parents about the packets and the deadlines as well. In addition, all parents should expect a phone call from the RoboDialer about the June 14^th deadline for course changes.

Choral Boosters: Thanks the PTSA for their generous donation. The Choir was able to attend the Heritage Festival with the Bands. Blair WON! 

Treasurer’s Report:  Sonni reported that although the reconciliation has not yet been done, it appears that the PTSA has not had to dip into savings this year with about $10,000 remaining in the account. The formal report will be posted. Approximately $17,000 in savings remains, despite the very aggressive budget for this past year.

Old Business: 

Graduation Venue: Alternative graduation venue choice is still being researched. It is unlikely that MCPS will use the Comcast center due to price. Unlike Prince Georges who holds all graduations there, MCSP would not do that. The issue is not covering the signage at Jericho, but the one symbol high up on the wall of the venue (which most in attendance did not notice). Mr. Gainous pointed out that we use churches all the time for non-church functions, such as AP testing and the SHARP program. Also, churches use the schools to have church functions. It is not understood the issue raised by America United as the school is definitely NOT using the building for a religious function. It was asked if Jamie Raskin could perhaps research the legal issue of using this venue, and if the SGA could send letters of support, when needed to the board. Things must happen soon, as contracts for graduation venues will be let within the next month.

Communications Issues:  A communications plan will be worked on this summer. The PTSA will be working on coordinating better among various committees and the staff. It was suggested that the PTSA purchase enclosed bulletin boards with the allocated infrastructure budget to post calendars and planned events so that all groups could better coordinate things like fund raisers.

Water Fountain: The water fountain was purchased, and installation planned, however, it is not here or installed. Follow-up by appropriate parties is occurring to find out where the water fountain has gone.

 New Business:

Planning for Next Year:  Everyone is reminded that ICB forms coming due for building use. The PTSA will continue to meet the 3^rd Tuesday of each month with the executive board meeting 15 minutes prior to the meetings. Every other month their will also be a full executive board meeting. Possible programming topics for next year: SGA/Student led interest programs, Jazz and Choral groups, Internet Safety, Sleep and Teenagers, Teenage Health. July and August dates for board meetings will be posted. The budget meeting in July will be the preliminary budged so that the final budget can be agreed upon in August. The PTSA will then vote on the final budget at the September meeting. If your group needs to be a line item on the budget, please let the PTSA know. Some line items: ILT, faculty, HSAs, Awards, etc.

Announcements: This is the last PTSA meeting of the year. 

Honors: The following retiring officers and members were presented with certificates and tokens of appreciation: Fran Rothstein, Sara Rosen, Sonni Mallinoff, Will Ramsey.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:55 pm.

Submitted by Debra Reed-Gillette, recording secretary