Montgomery Blair High School PTSA

Minutes of PTSA Board of Directors Meeting --- March , 2008

March 3, 2008

PTSA BoD Meeting

Present: Debra Reed-Gillette, Beth Martin, Rosanne Hurwitz, Carols Smalls, Jeanne Philbin, Dave Ottalini, Bob Gillette

Facilitator: Dave Ottalini
Time Keeper: Bob Gillette
Recorder: Debra Reed-Gillette

Dave called the meeting to order at 7:30 pm.

All members are reminded to CLEARLY print their name on the sign-in sheet for each meeting.

President's Report:  Dave discussed the upcoming BOE meet and greet for the cluster occurring on Thursday.  The current overriding issues that will be addressed for Blair will by the complexity of the current choice process, which appears to be the main concern at this time in the cluster area.  In addition, the discussion will be the HSAs and meeting AYP, the loss of classes and staff, the need for a black box theater for the capstone and research project presentations, and the ongoing need for crossing guards at the intersections near the school.  The April PTSA meeting will have to be moved or canceled as both PTSA President's, Mr. Williams, and Ms Wanner will all be with Beth receiving an award for Blair's volunteer program.  It was decided that the meeting will be canceled due to the fact this is the same week as Blair Fair & Silent Auction (April 18).  Tentatively the May meeting program was scheduled to be about Beach Week, however others were looking into different topics.

Volunteers:  Beth reported that over 300 volunteer hours were utilized for the wrestling tournament recently held at Blair.  Blair PTSA has won a $1000 award for their volunteer efforts, due to Beth's wonderful coordination and reporting efforts.  Beth, Dave, Bob, Mr. Williams, Ms Wanner, Ms Rodgers, and Ms. Platky will receive the award for the school on April 16.

Painless FundRaising:  Carol reported that the 2008 Sniders' receipts program has begun and she can collect them now!  She reminded everyone that all programs are being actively managed and are producing better than expected revenue.

Directory:   Debbie Reed-Gillette is investigating the option of posting the directory in the Blair only area of Edline with Mr. Hammond.  Mr. Williams has agreed to this in principle, but the PTSA will be unable to sell or advertise the directory and will not be able to offer it as a membership premium.  Given these constraints, the BoD decided that at least for this year, and unless a free option for printing was made available in the future, this was the best option.  All agreed that the expense of printing the directory was not a priority.

Nominating Committee:  Ann Collins has agreed to serve as the third member of the nominating committee.  Job descriptions are available in the hopes that the liaisons for the academies, CAP, and the magnet will be better utilized by the school next year.

Cluster News:  Currently there is legislation in Annapolis attempting to ban the HAS as a requirement for graduation.  It is estimated that 10-15% of Blair juniors will not graduate due to not having passed the HSAs.  At some schools in the state, this number reaches up to 40% of the junior class.    Additional issues for the cluster continue to be transportation issues in general and graffiti.  It was noted that there are currently only eight students in academic intervention in the BSA program.  This is being vastly underutilized.  It is anticipated as more students are targeted for HSA intervention that this will increase.  Blair is also asking for the possibility of additional tech classes at Blair that were lost when Blair moved to the new site, including the automotive shop, tech shop, and the student kitchen.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:45 pm.