Jackson High School PTSA 7.3.95

PTSA General Membership Meeting – February 11, 2015

Call to Order: PTSA President Denise Constantineau called the Jackson High School PTSA General Meeting to order at 7:06pm in the school career center.

Attendance: QUORUM MET - President Denise Constantineau, VP Membership Meggin Podnar, VP Ways and Means Angela Steck, Treasurer Michelle Nims, Co-Secretary Brandi Lind, Email Administrator Lori Taylor, JLC Liaison Linda Pazevic, Newsletter Publisher Kathryn Lee, Student Representative Sarah Christopher, and Principal Dave Peters. Also present was general member Laura Gothro.

Approval of Minutes: The minutes from the January 14, 2015 General meeting were reviewed. Minutes were accepted as written.

Treasurer’s Report: Michelle

  • Financial Statements: Michelle reviewed the January 2015 financial report. Income this month included $0.02 in interest and $160.00 from SAT class. Expenses this were $271.85 towards Staff Appreciation. There were $67.15 left in unallocated funds added to the balance as income. The financial report will be filed for audit with total current assets of $31,107.60. There were no claims made to the PTSA insurance this month and the financial books were available for review at this meeting.
  • Mid-Year Financial Review: The financial review has been completed. The review committee has requested that a beginning balance and ending balance be listed on financial reports moving forward. Michelle has already modified the reports to include that information.
  • Banking: The Bank of America accounts were closed today after confirmation that future Escrip deposits will be made into the Chase account. All PTSA monies are now being held in the Chase accounts.
  • Corporate Matching: A corporate matching check in the amount of $300 was received today and will be reflected as income on the February financial report.

Principal Report: Dave

  • The “State of the School Review” was completed last week and Dave reports that it went very well. Some of the newer teachers at Jackson were asked to present portions of the review because they have so many new and exciting curriculums to showcase. Feedback was reported as being very positive.
  • School accreditation occurs every 6 years. Jackson is currently three years in and at the midway point in the process. The school may solicit feedback from PTSA members and other parents as to how things are going from the parent perspective.
  • There was a staff meeting today that allowed staff the opportunity to take the new Smarter Balance Assessments using Chromebooks with the goal of helping to decrease teacher anxiety with the new testing system, allow them the opportunity to predict and troubleshoot potential problems students may encounter and to become familiar with the tools and tasks required on the test.
  • Celebrations: Dave announced that senior Leah Shin has been awarded the Prudential Presidential Scholarship in the amount of $1000 and a trip to Washington DC. Leah was the only student in the state of Washington to receive this honor this year. 102 students in total were chosen and 12 of those will receive a $5000 scholarship. Additionally, Sarah Williams was chosen as Counselor of the Year by the Washington State Counselor’s Association. During a recent United Way Campaign, participation from staff members was up 50% and there was a total of $9000 donated from JHS to United Way.
  • Pre-registration for next year is coming soon. On February 23rd, students will watch a video on the registration process which will take place online. The video will also be available on the JHS website for parents to view. Following the video, students will discuss the registration process in their 5th period classes. Registration will take place at home via the Home Access Center. For students who don’t have internet access at home, computers will be available at school during lunches. Jackson staff will be at Heatherwood and Gateway Middle schools on March 23rd and 24th to register incoming freshmen. The district is predicting 595 incoming freshmen at Jackson for this fall. The 8th grade family night at Jackson will be held on March 13th.

Staff Report: Susan Brown was unable to make the meeting, but emailed all board members with her reports from staff members for this month. Those emails will be attached with the minutes for this meeting.

Old Business:

A. Spring School and Classroom Grants: 11 grant requests were submitted by staff members. The grant requests were reviewed and discussed with the following results:

  • Hutt and Barnes – New Spinner Pro+ bikes

MOTION: Michelle Nims motioned to grant up to $2000 for the purchase of two new stationary bikes. Motion seconded. Motion passed.

  • Anderson and Iverson – Repair of stationary bikes

MOTION: Michelle Nims motioned to grant up to $1000 for the repair of school stationary bikes. Motion seconded. Motion passed.

  • Cundy and Jennings – Creating functional independence

MOTION: Michelle Nims motioned to grant up to $500.75 for the purchase of the learning materials outlined in the grant request. Motion seconded. Motion passed.

JHS PTSA Meeting Minutes 2.11.15 - page 2 of 3

  • Smith – Glass Kiln

MOTION: Meggin Podnar motioned to fund up to $3000 for the purchase of a glass kiln. Motion seconded. Motion passed.

  • Strom and Sperry – Waiting room chairs

MOTION: Michelle Nims motioned not to grant funds towards the purchase of new chairs. Motion seconded. Motion passed.

  • Long – Custodian uniforms

MOTION: Michelle Nims motioned not to grant funds towards the purchase of custodial uniforms. Motion seconded. Motion passed.

  • Powell – French scholastic books

MOTION: Kathryn Lee motioned to grant up to $150 for the purchase of the requested French paperback books. Motion seconded. Motion passed.

  • Organ – Upper level French novels

MOTION: Sarah Christopher motioned to grant up to $280 for the purchase of upper level French novels. Motion seconded. Motion passed.

  • Friedenson – Improving Spanish proficiency through reading

MOTION: Brandi Lind motioned to fund up to $395.66 for the purchase of teaching materials outlined in the grant. Motion seconded. Motion passed.

  • Thompson – Senor Wooly

MOTION: Meggin Podnar motioned to grant up to $267.05 for the purchase of the Senor Wooly subscription outlined in the grant. Motion seconded. Motion passed.

  • Hutt – Adaptive P.E./P.E. Mentor Project

MOTION: Michelle Nims motioned to grant up to $1500 for the purchase equipment as outlined in the grant request. Motion seconded. Motion passed.

B. Reallocation of Funds: It was determined that the total amount of the grants that the board wanted to grant exceeded the remaining budgeted amount of $7686.44 by $1407.02. The general consensus was to use unallocated funds to fund the grants as indicated above. MOTION: Michelle Nims motioned to reallocate $1407.02 from the Unallocated Funds to the School and Classroom Grants. Motion seconded. Motion passed.

C. Update on Change to Board: Denise Constantineau reported that after additional unsuccessful attempts to make contact with Co-VP of Membership Thuy Hudson and Co-Secretary Tammy Botham, they have been officially removed as Executive Board members for the 2014-15 school year. This information has been relayed to the WSPTA.

D. Nominating Committee: Denise Constantineau, Michelle Nims and Angela Steck are willing to continue in their current roles for the next school year. The positions of secretary and VP membership are open for next year. Brandi Lind expressed interested in VP of membership. Brandi Lind and Linda Pazevic volunteered at the meeting to serve on the Nominating committee. Erin Havens also volunteered prior to the meeting to serve on the Nominating committee. MOTION: Michelle Nims motioned to accept Brandi Lind, Linda Pazevic and Erin Havens as the Nominating Committee. Motion seconded. Motion passed.

Student Report: Sarah Christopher

  • The ASB senate met on Thursday, January 29th.
  • Open campus forms are due Friday. Open campus is available only to juniors and seniors. Coach Nick will be handing out passes on February 18th and 19th only. Applications are available on the Student Scoop board.
  • Care Week is the 2nd-6th of March. The school will have a guest speaker come to talk about love, caring, respect and anti-bullying.
  • There will be a spring Tolo dance. The date is not yet determined, but will be held in March or April.
  • There are three new clubs at Jackson. Orchestra Club, Game Club and the JNN video club which will be replacing the current Stiqayu newspaper. (There will be a senior edition of the Stiqayu released before graduation.)
  • Glacier Peak won the canned food contest in December. JHS students collected over 20,000 cans.
  • Mr. Anderson’s class won the door decorating contest and has earned a pizza party.
  • ASB elections are coming up soon.
  • Mr. JHS Beauty pageant 2015 forms are due March 6th.
  • 40% of the proceeds from the Staff Talent Show will go to the senior class. The three other classes will each receive 20% of the profits. Invitations are being given to teachers now.
  • Challenge Day was held in December. Part of the agreement the school made when bringing in the Challenge Day program was to create a “Random Acts of Kindness” club to continue to support the mission of Challenge Day. The members will meet twice a week.
  • Literacy of Love will be holding a World Gala at the end of May. Six countries will be represented with food, dancing etc. There will be a school supplies drive at the gala.
  • The junior class is holding a Father Daughter Dance on Friday. It has a princess theme and is for elementary school-age girls and their fathers.

JHS PTSA Meeting Minutes 2.11.15 - page 3 of 3

New Business:

A. Goals Review: Membership is up 100 members from last year which exceeds our goal of 50 new members. Pass the Hat donations are $5660.50 which is less than the goal of $9500 this year. We have met or are on schedule to meet all the other communication and enrichment goals for this school year.

B. Focus Day: Denise Constantineau and Michelle Nims attended Focus Day this year along with a couple of general membership PTSA members. There were over 500 individuals who attended which was a better turn out than in previous years. They met with Representatives Hans Dunshee and Mark Harmsworth while they were in Olympia. Governor Jay Inslee also met with some of the individuals who attended Focus Day.

C. Advocacy: Denise Constantineau encouraged members to go to the Washington State PTA website to sign up for “Action Alerts” about pending legislation or issues that pertain to education.

D. Communications: Please CC Denise if sending any correspondence on behalf of the PTSA.

E. PTA Awards: Denise has a binder with PTA awards information. There are a total of five awards that can be offered, even if they aren’t awarded. In addition to the usual Outstanding Educator, Golden Acorn and Outstanding Advocate awards, we can also offer an Honorary Life and Outstanding Student Advocate awards. Denise is working on creating the nomination forms for this year and will make them available to board members by email this week for review. The final form will be placed in this month’s Wolf Tracks and in staff mail boxes.

Committee Reports:

Wolf Tracks Newsletter: Kathryn reported that Wednesday, February 18th is the submission deadline for the March Wolf Tracks edition which will be available March 1st.

Staff Appreciation: Denise reported that a lunch was held today with the Mardi Gras theme and everything went well. Susan Brown thanked the PTSA for a great lunch via Denise.

Ways and Means: Angela Steck reported that she will be contacting everyone who sponsored the planner last year or placed an ad. If anyone knows of a business that might like to sponsor the planner, please let Angela know. Angela reported that our current planner provider is now offering an app to go along with the planner. Angela hopes to have more information available about an app at our next meeting.

Membership: Meggin Podnar reported that she has placed membership forms in the mailboxes of staff members who have not yet joined PTSA. Currently only about 40% of JHS staff have joined. To date, none of the para-educators have joined. There are currently 448 members.

JLC: Linda Pazevic reported there has not been a JLC meeting since the last PTSA meeting, therefore there is not an update at this time.

Scholarship: Angela Steck has met with the scholarship team from last year. They are looking at changing the criteria for grading/reviewing scholarship applications so that financial need isn’t always weighted as strongly in the decision-making process.

Reflections: No report.

Announcements:

  • Coffee with the Principal will next be held on March 4th.
  • The next general membership PTSA meeting will be on March 11th at 7pm in the Career Center.

Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned by Denise Constantineau at 9:36pm.

Minutes submitted by Brandi Lind, Secretary