FACES of Nottingham
Families, Alumni, Community, Educators and Students
Nottingham High School’s Parent/Family-Teacher-Student-Organization
F.A.C.E.S. of Nottingham 11-14-12 Business Meeting Minutes
In Attendance: David Maynard, principal; Linda Burns, staff; parentsDudley Breed, Karina Davis-Corr, Paul Harvey, Valerie Luzadis, Lisa Neville, Carolyn Senft, Molly Voorheis; community members Stephanie Bartling, Barry Lentz, Phil Stone
The purpose of this meeting is to conduct the business of FACES of Nottingham. If you have a concern or compliment about another issue that you wish to share with school staff please approach them or use district email or phone contact information available on the district website. If your concern is not addressed to your satisfaction please feel free to contact us, your FACES co-leaders; we are always available for 15 minutes after any scheduled FACES meeting and by phone or email; Paul Harvey, 432-1914,, Tanika Jones-Cole, and Lisa Neville, 476-5176,
FACES Treasurer’s Report 11/14/2012For period August 29, 2012-November 14, 2012
CURRENT BALANCE 13,090.72
Reserved Amounts:
- Grounds Keepers fund2,175.00
- Mini-Grants fund1,107.00
Anticipated Payments:
- Pen & Trophy (Wall of Fame) -700.00
Transactions August 29-November 14
PaymentsWard Sales (FACES t-shirts) 858.96
Victory Sign (sign repair) 585.00
Wall of Fame (various vendors)3,651.55
Tops Markets (gift cards)4,769.00
Bank Fee 40.00
DepositsGraduation DVD 90.00
T-Shirts 170.00
Wall of Fame7,545.00
Tops gift card sales5,020.00
Mini-grant donations1,107.00
Grounds Keepers donations2,175.00
AVAILABLE FUNDS November 14, 20129,108.72
Alumni Information Update
- The Wall of Fame Dinner is an annual alumni event held to honor graduates of Nottingham High School. Proceeds from the dinner benefit FACES (Nottingham’s PTSO.) The Wall of Fame committee calls for nominations, program and dinner. Plaques are added to the school’s main hallway honoring each award winner. The Wall of Fame is linked to the Nottingham Alumni Connection at This year the Wall of Fame profit for FACES will be approximately $3800.
- The Nottingham Connection is an annual newsletter mailed to about 4,000 people. The coordinating group meets about 7 times annually. Each newsletter edition includes a fundraising appeal usually raising about $4,000 from which the coordinating group makes awards to teachers who apply for grants. People currently working on this effort include Grace Flusche, Marilyn Zaelon, Peg Kraemer and Adam Glaus. The group’s website is
- Alumni from Nottingham’s class of 1961 are funding a two-year pilot project to use iPad tablets in afterschool tutoring and test preparation at the Phoenix center, part of the Hillside Scholarship-Work Connection. Hillside serves 120 students across all grade levels at Nottingham. They target students that have traditionally underperformed, with the goal of supporting high school success, graduation and college success. Tutoring and mentorship are provided. Four staff from Hillside monitor students at Nottingham, their caseload is 30 students per Hillside staff person.Learn more about iPads at Hillside;
COMMUNITY AND COMMUNICATION
School Newspaper – English Language Learners program staff and students at Nottingham are publishing a newspaper with the first issue to be released in December. The community is invited to submit contributions; deadline for December issue is 11/20/12. Submit content to
FACES Website – Molly Voorheis- The site will be up in December with a school calendar, links to many important resources and a paypal button for donations
FACES has purchased one video monitorthat will be installed in cafeteria. The district is in the process of ordering and installing this system.
Linda Burns and students are making hallway posters to advertise school events and initiatives.
Robo-calls are being used to communicate with families, contact the school if you have not received calls about half days and other school events.
Nottingham High School Groundskeepers– Dudley Breed – 60 people (family, alumni, community, educators and students) worked together Sunday 11/11/12 to plant 22 decorative and shade trees along the entry drive to the school and along Meadowbrook on the school grounds. $2,200 in donations was raised via low-key donation requests to cover the cost of the trees. Two groups at ESF, Landscape Architecture and Society of American Foresters, may be good groups to reach out to support future groundskeeping efforts. Stephanie Bartling is leading a broader fundraising effort to fund plantings this spring.
Non-Profit Status: It is time to complete the process for FACES to become a 501(c)3non-profit organization. This will allow donors to claim a tax deduction and allow FACES to seek more grants. Barry Lentz and Stephanie Bartling will work with interested people to ensure that the by-laws meet tax-exempt standards and will bring them to FACES for ratification to enable the tax-exempt application process.
Credit Union- David Maynard announced that a “soft opening” will take place this year, as the Nottingham office of the Syracuse Cooperative Federal Credit Union credit union takes shape, with a “hard opening” next year
Coffee Houses - Linda Burns – The first Coffee House was held in the Large Group Instruction Room (LGIR) on October 30th. 50 guests enjoyed the performance of student musical, vocal and spoken word performers and had a great time at the Ham Jam. November 27 is the next coffee house also planned for the LGIR. December coffee house will take place at LeMoyne Plaza.
Bulldog Run – Linda Burns – April 27th 2013 – Join the community for a 5K run/walk along the Jade Necklace of Meadowbrook, beginning and ending on Nottingham High School grounds. The planning group will look into selling annual flowers as a fundraiser and hosting a cookout or other celebration after the 5K race. The developing credit union has agreed to sponsor race shirts. Adult race entry fee until Feb 27, 2013is $17; Feb 28-April 6 is $21; April 7 to race day is $25. Student fee is $10. Look to register and pay this fee through the soon to be unveiled FACES website.
ADVOCACY
Notes from the School Leadership Team (SLT) meeting October 25, 2012
V. A. Luzadis, F.A.C.E.S. representative
Analytic Writing - The topic was raised by Principal Maynard, supported by a recent article on the topic from Atlantic magazine (Tyre, P. “The Writing Revolution.” Atlantic Monthly. October 2012). The idea is to improve writing skills of students by including more and more effective writing efforts throughout the academic experience. The group discussed ways to implement writing across all disciplines. Ideas included possibly visiting the school mentioned in the Atlantic article or another place that has made this work, bringing in others who have had success. Mr. Maynard asked the Professional Development Committee to look further into how to do this and bring ideas back to the full group.
Unit Plan Feedback – Administrators have collected unit plans from teachers. A handout with ideas to guide what would be in the plans and how administrators review them was discussed. Issues of the timing of reviews and the type of feedback were discussed. The teachers’ contract specifies that they must show evidence of planning but apparently it does not specifically reference any review of such evidence. The group discussed the need for administrators to provide feedback (not evaluation), especially if key items were missing in the plans. Some changes to the handout were suggested, related to timing and flow of turning in plans and their review.
School/District Data – Regents scores of all SCSD High Schools were shared. The group indicated a need to look at the following patterns:
- Math (% passing scores drops between Algebra, Geometry and Algebra 2/Trigonometry
- US History scores v. Global History – Global is much lower.
The group agreed to get the rest of the data (absolute number, instead of percentage, of students taking each, disaggregated by group, and relationship between when students took course and took the exam). Content area groups will meet November 6 to look at interim exam results.
Committee Reports –
- Discipline committee - will hold elections soon
- Technology Committee – The committee provided Mr. Maynard with suggestions for use of the remaining $75,000 from last year’s grant: suggested item included laptops in pods for each academy and additional smart boards
- Leadership Management Team – met this week, agenda was the quality of staff bathrooms
Other Business
- Room use on weekends - anyone with permit to use classrooms on weekend should email and notify Nottingham staff
- Publicity – teachers can go directly to Post Standard after approval from Mr. Maynard
- Suggestion – create a Building Newsletter, perhaps a page from each academy? This would need a champion to move it along. No one volunteered at that time.
Superintendent’s Parent CouncilMonthly Update-- Tanika Jones-Cole and Kiki White– no report
Advocacy for Appropriate Graduation Rate Measuresfor students receiving special education services and/or English Language Learners who are newcomers to this country. Parents Carolyn Senft and Lisa Neville are meeting with district staff to collect data to determine if there is a need for advocacy for more appropriate services and graduation rate measures for these student groups who comprise 40% of Nottingham’s student body.
Those present tonight have agreed to a proposal to hold FACES next Business Meeting at the Center for New Americans to welcome families to our meeting who live on the north side and speak languages other than English. Linda Burns will contact the Center for New Americans to ask if this is possible and to arrange the meeting and interpreters for families who do not speak English.
FUNDING REQUESTS
Request for funding of teacher mini-grants -- Molly Voorheis on behalf of Nottingham Staff
Mini-Grant program has run since 2006. Dedicated donations have not covered requests for the past four years and FACES has covered the balance. This year families donated $1,100, teachers have made requests totaling $4,331.34. A motion to approve up to $3,000 (including the $1,100 collected in dedicated donations) for mini-grant expenditures was made. Molly and David are given the discretion to make final decisions about funding. They will explore options to apply for School Improvement Grant (SIG) funding where mini grant requests meet the common core standards and qualify for SIG funds and will provide teachers with the mechanism to apply for them.Barry made the proposal and Molly seconded. The group approved. The award letter will indicate that receipts will need to be submitted for reimbursement within 30 days of the award to be funded.
Request for funding of color printer – Linda Burns
A motion to approve up to $300 to purchase a color printer and ink cartridgeswas made by Molly, seconded byPhil. The printer will be used for FACES purposes and will be housed with Linda Burns in the school Library. Future ink cartridges will be funded as needed with the submission of receipts. The group voted to approve the expenditure.
NOVEMBER DATES
Tuesday, November 13 Alfred State noon
Wednesday, November 14 University of New Haven 10:15
FACES business meeting6:30 pm
Thursday, November 15 Utica College 10:45 am
Half Day – Students dismissed at 11:15
Teacher Conferences
Friday, November 16 As You Like It 7:30$5
Saturday, November 17 As You Like It 7:30 $5
Sunday, November 18 As You Like It 2:30 $5
Wed-Fri, November 21-23 Thanksgiving Break
Monday, November 26 Keuka College 9 am
Tuesday, November 27 Nottingham Coffeehouse LGIR 6-8 pm
Adjournment - 8:41pm motion made by Valerie Luzadis