Montgomery Blair High School PTSA

Minutes of PTSA Meeting --- May 16, 2006

Executive Committee Meeting Minutes

The meeting was called to order at 7:30 by Fran Rothstein. 
Time keeper, Deborah Stoll.  Minutes, Sara Rosen

Beth Martin moved that we accept the minutes as admitted to the listserv.
Bonnie Malkin seconded and it was passed unanimously.

Treasurer's Report Sonni Malinoff

1.  Right now the treasurer has $13,000 in checks to make out that include line items that haven't been used.  Parent Outreach and Community Outreach has not claimed any money for this fiscal year.
2.  The Silent Auction brought in $8,264 after expenses.   It was suggested that Betsy have a committee debriefing to discuss how the auction went and make suggestions for next year.

Mr. Gainous
1.  This time of year seniors are feeling exuberant and sometimes will not act wisely or safely.  In the past seniors have done things that they thought were fun or funny and it ended tragically. One year 7 kids piled
into a car.  6 kids refused and the one student ended up dead.  Mr. Gainous followed the e-mails in regard to the student who drove irresponsibly in the parking lot.  These are the kinds of things that can end up in sorrow so talk to your seniors about safety.

PTSA Elections

The Slate of Officers are as follows:
President:  Deborah Stoll
1st Vice President (defacto co-president):  David Ottalini
Academic Vice President:  Bonnie Malkin
Administrative Vice President:  Ron McClain
Treasurer:  Nancy Newton
Secretary:  Debbie Gillette
Cluster Rep:  Ray Scanell
No nominations were made from the floor
Ray Scanell moved that the slate be accepted in its entirety. 
Barbara Tobias seconded the motion.  The motion was passed unanimously.

Committee Chairpeople:
Staff Appreciation:  Joanne King and Barbara Shuttleworth
After Prom:  Open
Membership:  Berta Castro, George Slenkovich, Carolyn Lichtenstein
Mini Grants:  Linda Kahn and Gail Peck
NAACP Rep:  Open (Yvette Butler will recruit from Blair)
Latino Outreach:  Open
Special Needs Chair:  Open
Fundraising coordinator:  Open
Calendar Coordinator:  Open
Volunteer Coordinator:  Beth Martin
El Golfo:  Beth Martin
MCCPTA Rep:  Open
Citrus:  Open (Chris Simpson is available to train someone)
Newsletter:  Carol Lindemann and Barbara Tobias
Pedestrian Safety:  Sam and Sally Stokes
Silent Auction:  Betsy Scroggs
Directory:  Jo Peng
Listserv and Website:  Barry Johnson
Passive fundraising:  Carol Smalls
Counseling:  Miriam Szapiro, Ann Kaiser
Publicity:  Open

Presentation by Pamela Leith, Staff Development for Academies at Blair
Purpose:  Share info and gather feedback

Research has shown that small learning communities result in relationships with adults, connection to the school, relevance, and vigor which brings success to students.

History of the Academies

In 2003, serious discussions took place in regard to the smaller learning communities.  Research was looked at.  In 2005 MCPS gathered ideas and reorganized.  In February 2006, the schools started asking themselves what were the academies actually going to look like.  In April, 2006 Blair's administration asked for more staff involvement and in May a first draft of the reorganization was formulated.  The decision was to set up the hierarchy around the academies instead of departments.

2006-07

All students will be organized around the academies. During 9th grade there will be 2 counselors and assistant principal working with the students in 5 teams.  Each team will have common planning time to talk about the students and the curriculum.  The Connections curriculum will include discussions about all the academies offered at Blair as well as careers and a course plan.  In the Spring the students will select an academy for their sophomore year.

During the sophomore year they will be assigned an academy vice principal, lead teacher and a counselor.  If a student feels they want to change academies, they can do so at the end of the academic year.  Within each academy there will be course choices and there will be a basic introductory academy course.

During the junior year, the students will have more electives within their academy if they have already taken the basics.  Furthermore they will have elective choices outside their own chosen academy.

The senior year will look more or less like the junior year with electives.

Anyone who has further questions can contact Pamela Leif

Committee Reports

Pedestrian Safety--Sam Stokes
Morning drop off is still being considered by the central office of MCPS. Matthew Green of Montgomery County is being consulted about pedestrian issues along route 29 and University Boulevard.

Cluster Rep-Ray Scanell
CIP comments need to be in by June 1st.  The Operating Budget needs to be in the MCCPTA office by June 1st.

Counseling Advisory
Trailblazer packets will be coming home via students soon.  These are the college guide to how to apply to college.

Athletic Boosters
It is still timely to send Parks and Planning a letter in support of Blair being the first school to have artificial turf.  Since Parks and Planning does a poor job of maintaining the fields now, will they maintain the artificial turf any better?

Blazer
There is still time to get reports in.

Academic Vice President
The committee met with the YMCA and they will need money to help with this program.  They will need $90,000.00 for a half time position at the school and a full time position at the Y.  The goal will not only be to pair up mentors with students but to link families to services.

AED machine
The Helgeson family has offered to give Blair a AED machine.  Before this can happen MCPS needs to address how they will meet the requirements of the new law.  To be affective a machine needs to be within 5 minutes of any place in the building.

Old and New Business

Planning for Next Year
Programming--possible topics--Internet Safety including my space accounts, Teenagers and Sleep  If you have any ideas please contact Deborah Stoll or David Ottalini

Announcements
Distinguished Service to Public Education Award--does anyone want to take this on?
Venue Choice Committee to change where graduation is?  Miriam Szapiro volunteered to get involved

June 7th is the next PTSA meeting which is on a Wednesday

The meeting was adjourned at 9:02