Montgomery Blair High School PTSA

Minutes of PTSA Board of Directors Meeting --- September 1, 2009

Minutes for PTSA Board of Directos Meeting
September 1, 2009

In Attendance: See sign-in sheet (about 25 people).

1. Action and Follow-Up Items from Tonight's Meeting
   1. Finalize fundraising "Chair" - Robin and/or Charlie.  This person will coordinate the various fundraising activities to ensure they are working in tandem toward maximum impact and also explore new fundraising ideas (see below).  Pete will follow-up with this.  There are a number of good fundraising ideas below - need someone to follow through with them.
   2. Coordinate fundraising for Back To School Night - Fundraising Chair (and Pete?) - our golden opportunity to make-up our $10K deficit.  Special plea for mini-grants ($7K cut).  Need a plan to include: flyers, posters, PA system, people, etc.
   3. Revise PTSA registration form: Ellyn.  Need "success stories" about teachers who have received mini-grants.
   4. Posters for Back To School Night: Laurie Welch will coordinate this, to include photos, etc.
   5. Graduation Venue: The team responsible for this will continue researching, etc.  Details on various venues included below.


2. Update on day's events and recent school events:
   1. There was a fire (or at least smoke) in the school today.  School was evacuated.  Fire started in an A/C unit in a classroom.  Fire department eventually allowed everyone back into the school.
   2. CAP:
      • Anne Cullen is the new CAP Coordinator.
      • Has gotten some resources back: office; media tech person; administrative time.
   3. Magnet:
      • Board will vote on a new Coordinator at their next meeting.
      • Secretary has become the Registrar for the school.
   4. Social Studies:
      • Mr. Vlasicks left to go back to teaching.
   5. Executive Committee Process:
      • Topics appear on listserv
      • EC meets monthly - second Monday of the month
      • PTSA - third Tuesday of the month


3. Discussion of Issues:
   
   
   1. Graduation: 2010 and long-term solution
      1. Point people:
         • Kathleen Bryan
         • Charlie Garlow
         • Junior class needs to get involved, too
      
      
      2. Venue:
         • Question: How do we proceed?  Decision on which site, then supporting Darryl, then negotiating the contract, then raising the money.
           • Jeannie thinks that once we make a decision, we can get Chris Barkley's backing.
         • Survey was not definitive.  Comcast (too expensive - $30K by ourselves; if we can get a total of 3 schools, it would be about $13K for us), Convention Center, DAR (too small), Jericho (religious).  Vote split evenly.
           • Jericho had the largest plurality.  Most difficult to get through the "system".
         • Athletic field: $40K for a tent.  Not feasible.
         • Long-term: would like to find someplace where we can commit for several years.
         • COMCAST: other schools that are possible "partners"
           • Magruder
           • Sherwood
         • City of Jericho:
           • Someone read the letter of separation of church and state: this was not an intent to sue.
           • We have no ability to contract - must come through the County.  We have been told by Weast that we cannot graduate from there.
           • However, the last word from the Board of Ed was that we could graduate from Jericho.  The same year we were going to graduate from Jericho and Weast sent us (and paid) for Comcast.
         • DAR: since the graduating class is smaller, would it accommodate us?  Need to investigate.
         • "Extreme" option:
           • "Official" graduation at DAR and then have a "community" graduation at Jericho.  Families would celebrate at Jericho.
         • Follow-up, action steps: the folks researching this will continue the quest.
           • DC Convention Center
           • AU price
         
         
      3. Fundraising for graduation: will be determined based on the site.
   
   
   2. PTSA Fundraising
      1. Review of last year's budget:
         • We were down about $10K last year on a $50K budget
         • Everything was about the same except the silent auction: 1/3 less items donated and less money raised.
         • Membership last year: 492 members, $6,200, $5,200 in extra donations
         • Expenses:
           • Mini-grants: will need to cut $7,000. for now
           • After prom: $6K
           • Newsletter printing
           • Booster clubs.
         • Additional fundraising ideas:
           • Teacher who volunteered to do fundraising through sponsoring kids in athletic events, etc. (ask Walter about this - he knows the person)
           • A fundraising letter to parents: Tom Jacobsen did this at RTES so ask him more about it (it was successful)
           • Painless fundraising: who's in charge of this? Is this Robin?
      
      
      2. Fundraising Chair: someone to pull all the fundraising pieces together; oversee and coordinate the activities, budget, etc. This seems to be a critical position:
         • Robin Nicholson
         • Charlie Garlow as back-up if she can't do it
      
      
      3. Back To School Night is our "golden opportunity" to raise additional money ($10K shortfall)
         • Special plea for mini-grants in particular
         • Signage at PTSA booths advertising our needs
         • Announcements that go out via listserv: include information about joining the PTSA and extra fundraising we need to do
         • Have the announcement several times over the PA system
         • Get "testimonials" from teachers (have them at the booth?) about what mini-grants have done for them.
   
   
   3. Blair 75th Anniversary
      1. Activities and events (what are they and when are they)
      2. People/volunteers
      3. Planning
   
   
   4. Educational Quality and Equity in time of financial stress
      1. Resources for CAP
      2. Resources for the Magnet and Academy programs
      3. A conscious review of the intellectual contributions of our two magnet type programs to the school as a whole and their shadow academies, and the host of scheduling, and supplemental activities that help the school meet AYP, pass their HSAs, and generally benefit from the economic, ethnic and intellectual diversity that is the hallmark of the school.
   
   
   5. Capital improvement projects
      1. Money is tight but cheaper to do improvements
   
   
   6. Special PTA Programs
      1. Mary Pelz: 3 athletic-oriented programs
      2. Freshman networking night
      3. Timeline of what happens throughout the 4 years: this is a mystery to most incoming parents.
         • testing: PSAT, SAT, SAT2, AP classes
         • college prep