Montgomery Blair High School PTSA

Minutes of PTSA Meeting --- October 17, 2006

Executive Committee Meeting Minutes

October 17, 2006
PTSA Meeting  

Present: Deborah Stoll, Debra Reed-Gillette, Bonnie Malkin, Melissa Yorks, Linda Willmott, Kevin Moose, Rosanne Hurwitz, Peggy Ottalini, Alan Barnett, Andrew Partin, Carol Smalls, Joe Espo, Sam Stokes Annie Ruhlin, Amy Wasserstrom, Elissa Lichtenstein, Karen Powers, Margaret Kahn, Sony Mallinoff, Nancy Newton, George Slenkovich, Diane Vidutis, Robert Myers, Kathy, Selvaggio, Jane Hodhy, Anne Metcalf, Eric Hysen, Patsy Hedrick, Barbara Tobias, Holly Stallworth, Beth Martin, Chris Simpson, Linda Simon, Nina Corvin, Phil Gainous, Linda Wanner, Cedric Boatman.

Facilitator: Deborah Stoll
Time Keeper: Dave Ottalini
Recorder: Debra Reed-Gillette

Deborah called the meeting to order 7:30 pm. She welcomed all in attendance. The ground rules were presented for later discussions after the business meeting. Cards on the table were for questions: Blue cards for ID, Pink cards for Edline/Pinnacle, and Yellow cards for any other questions/issues.

The PTSA Meeting minutes from the past month were approved as posted.

International Studies Presentation: Kevin Moose made a presentation for the International Studies Academy. He also introduced our Italian Exchange students and their teachers who visited Blair from Oct. 9 to the 19th from the Liceo Giodano Bruno High School in Rome, Italy. This exchange was organized through Blair's International Studies Academy. The principal of the school, 2 teachers, and 11 students were hosted by the Academy and Blair families. Please see the Silver Chips Article concerning their stay at http://silverchips.mbhs.edu/inside.php?sid=6884. Information on the International Studies Academy can be found at http://academies.mbhs.edu/intstudies_academy/index.shtml or by contacting Mr. Moose at Paul_K_Moose@mcpsmd.org.

Treasurer’s Report: Nancy is in the process of reviewing the budget and membership information and is splitting the actual membership money from the donations. A revised budget will be presented at the next month’s meeting. Anyone needing reimbursements should contact Nancy via email. A committee is needed to audit the PTSA books. Anyone wishing to volunteer should contact Nancy.

Principal’s Report: Mr. Gainous reported that all 9 th – 11 th graders will take the PSAT. Seniors will have a program concerning graduation, college applications, and after high school options.

Security/ID Policy: The revised/clarified ID policy is posted on the MBHS/PTSA website at: http://ptsa.mbhs.edu/files/IDPolicy_2006_2007.pdf.

Mr. Gainous reminded everyone that the ID policy is not new to Montgomery County or to Blair. Seneca Valley was one of the first schools in the county to have an ID policy, even prior to the county having an ID policy. ID’s were a requirement by the parents of having Blair built on this site as a means to identify the students quickly. The other requirement was having the site a closed site, not allowing students to leave campus during the day. This is because of the proximity to the beltway and the busy 4-corners intersections.

When the school was being reorganized into academies, lanyards for the academies were handed out to students during Blair Fair and other venues. Now that the majority of the students are organized around academies, it was decided to hand out the lanyards with the new color coded IDs, free to the students. Previously students were provided just a red piece of yarn and needed to provide their own lanyard to display their ID around their neck.

The clarified ID policy shows that the first offense is now counted AFTER the 2 nd temporary ID is issued in the quarter. Suspensions are excused absences and students will have an obligation to make up missed work.

IDs are not shown at the door because Blair does not have the capacity to check 3000+ IDs between 7:10 and 7:20 in the morning when the majority of students arrive at school. Neither he nor parents would tolerate the delays and students standing in lines to enter the school. However, some smaller schools in the county are now doing just that, and it would heighten security. Mr. Gainous does feel that the wearing of IDs does improve security within the school.

Mr. Cedric Boatman and Ms Wanner both presented instances where the IDs aided in identifying “outsiders” in the school, allowing those individuals to be apprehended by security officers within the school and dealt with. Several times per year this occurs.

It was agreed that better communications are needed and better communications would have alleviated the uproar over the ID policy. Issues with the new ID vendor exacerbated the issue as well, misprinting IDs and barcodes. Teachers, students, and staff were all confused about the policy, consequences, and the new IDs.

Mr. Gainous said the new ID policy was designed to improve on the old ID policy and to make the policy and its consequences more even and fair in their application. In addition, a major goal was to eliminate the large amount of obligations incurred by students in the past for IDs. In the past, regardless of where the ID was, a student was sent to purchase a new ID if found not wearing one. Now, a student does not have to purchase a new ID until after the 7 th temporary ID is issued to the student. IDs may now only be purchased by $5 cash, not as an obligation/charge to the student account.

Some parents indicated that the color coded IDs were divisive. Mr. Gainous does not feel that way. The color-coding was done in accordance with current research on the benefits of identifying with smaller learning communities. Although many students can find their own niche in a large school, some students need some place to “hang their hat” to find a sense of belonging. The color-coded IDs, lanyards, and academy t-shirts were all designed to help foster this group within a group identity for students to feel a sense of belonging. As for freshman being targeted because of their IDs/lanyards, Mr. Gainous said that “so called Freshman Hell Week” has been an issue since the old Blair. In fact, freshman hazing is a fraction of what it used to be on the Wayne Avenue site. He reiterated that he and his staff do not tolerate hazing or bullying of ANY kind and all perpetrators are dealt with swiftly and harshly.

Mr. Cedric Boatman said that a total of 25 bullying incidents have been identified since the beginning of the school year. 6 occurred during “Freshman Hell Week.” 3 were confirmed issues of bullying of freshman, and 3 were a result of a fight begun outside of school time, which came into the school.

Mr. Gainous wanted to thank Eric Hysen and the SGA for the wonderful Spirit Week, which was by far the best since Blair moved to its current site.

Edline/Pinnacle Discussion: Edline is an on-line grading/reporting system. Edline and Pinnacle work together. Last year 4 schools were piloted for Edline. These 4 schools recommended not moving forward and not adopting the systems because of computer glitches and other issues. The idea was to not “be first” and to allow the developers to get the bugs out of the system before adoption. MCPS made Edline/Pinnacle optional this year. Both the teachers thru the union FACC voted no and Mr. Gainous and his staff also voted no after Mr. Heidler reviewed the system. There are issues with capacity and other issues that would make it hard for Blair staff to use the system due to the large number of “singleton” classes at Blair and the sheer size of the student population. Blair gets the same capacity of other schools ½ its size on the servers. Technical support this year by Edline has been liberal because of the many issues experienced by staff at other schools. Edline/Pinnacle is on track, at this point, for being mandatory for all schools in the county next Fall.

One parent brought up the issue of hand written grade reports and no teacher contact. Mr. Gainous reminded parents that if they get no response from teachers within 48 hours, they should forward the email to the grade/academy administrator and Mr. Gainous.

Deborah Stoll thanked Mr. Gainous, Ms Wanner, and Mr. Boatman for all of the information provided. Parents were reminded to turn in any additional questions via the color coded cards.

MCCPTA: Linda Simon brought two issues to the table from MCCPTA. 1. SSL hours for the state are currently 75, but MCPS had a waiver thru 2002-2003 to keep it at 60. MCPS is requesting that the class of 2011 should be the first to be required to complete 75. The state says that the class of 2009 should be required to complete 75 hours. The membership voted to support the county request, with 2 against the request. 2. Health Techs are currently required to be at schools for 5 ½ hours per day at all schools. MCCPTA is requesting they be at schools ½ hour before and ½ hour after school. The vote by the membership was unanimous to support this request.

Citrus: The bulk mailing went out this week. There will also be 2 notices for orders in the Gazette. Currently we have $1500 in orders. Orders can be made online or via mail.

Volunteers: Beth Martin reported that El Golfo Night earned the PTSA $600.

Painless Fundraising: Carol Smalls reminded everyone present to use their rebates and buyers cards for Giant, Safeway, Snider’s, Target, Office Depot, etc.

Membership: Over 360 members have joined the PTSA. This is still only about 12% of the Blair families. Also, we usually have less than 25 attending meetings, which is less than 10% of the members. Those who joined the PTSA at the $50 level should plan on attending a PTSA meeting to obtain their t-shirt premium.

BSA: BSA is now a part of the Rec Department. A girl’s activity specialist is being brought in to develop more girl-oriented activities and draw in more girls to the program. Sports offerings will be modified each season. HSA prep and tutoring by 4 teachers will be offered during the academic support segment of the program. We are trying to push the school’s engagement and move the program design to include more academic support/help. There was very good press for the pre-NSL course offered this summer by the program for ESOL students. One issue that is happening is that the county council believes that because the Rec department runs it, that BSA is purely a Recreation program. The programs roots are academic support. The school and the PTSA need to be more involved in the program design to facilitate the academic focus. The BSA needs volunteers and tutors to help keep kids connected to school.

Announcement only List Serve: This list serve will be provided to give information from the MBHS PTSA, InfoFlow, Ms Platkey, volunteer requests, and other school related announcements only! Sign up via the PTSA website.

MiniGrants: 13 have already been received. $10,000 is available for the minigrants. Deadline is October 25.

Blair Foundation & Blair Alumni: They have asked for 10 projects that they can fund/mentor and there is potential for scholarships and grants in the future.

Pedestrian Safety: Clarity is needed for the student parking lot/bus lot as to whether or not parent pickup/drop off is allowed. There is currently no monitoring of this lot and several accidents/issues have occurred. In previous years, this lot was strictly monitored to prevent parent pickup drop off. Signage for the school is also an issue and this needs to be coordinated with the correct state/county contacts. Blair does not have any visible signage at the Colesville Road parking lot entrance or near the fire station.

Athletic Fields: Blair has a good opportunity to be the next field for installation. We need to advocate for it if we want the fields at Blair. True field renovation for natural turf would be upwards of $800,000. We need to contact the county council advocating for this for Blair.

SGA: The SGA Canned Food Drive will begin through 2 nd period classes. The food donated goes directly to families in the Blair community and school

The meeting was adjourned at 9:05 pm.

Dates to remember:

10/25 ESOL Parent Meeting

11/21 PTSA Exec Board 7:00 pm, Membership meeting 7:30 pm Media Center

12/4 PTSA Exec Board 7:30 pm Staff Dining Room

12/19 PTSA Membership meeting 7:30 pm Media Center