RHS HSA Meeting Minutes
Tuesday February 13, 2018
Attendees: Vicki Sharo, Susan Harrison, Jeanine Dawkins, Beth Clay, Whitney Klein, Pamela Lobosco, Jeff Nyhuis, Annette Testa, Lori Weil, Kathy Marshall, Shelia Brogan, Liz McCarthy, Kate Yates, Tom Gorman, Basil Pizzuto, Sandy Pires, Anna Salerno, Hannah Fogg, Tara Adams, Erin Mannion, Jenn Schnell, Hayley Gluck, Carrie Gondris, Annette Meinardi, Rebecca Rubenstein, Karin Boucher, Jan Lira, Sheila Jacobs
Call to Order: 7:36
Approval of January Minutes: motion made by Liz McCarthy, second by Kathy Marshall
Class Reports: (most reps were absent (sick))
2018 – Project Graduation Tara
Fashion Show event is for the entire community, not just a senior event
tickets $55 students adults start @ $80. Tickets are available on-line & hopefully in next week’s enews. In Teaneck.
If there are any junior parents here, we need student help at fashion show.
2020- sophomore class is still selling blanket jackets
2021 – save the date Parent Social 4/6 @ Park West
Student Liaisons:
Student council – spirt week, pep rally Thursday
ICHSA quarterfinal Acabellas & Maroon Men won 2nd & 3rd & won awards for Best Vocal Percussion & Best Choreography
Acabellas perform tomorrow
2 weeks ago ALPS wen on their annual cross country skiing trip
Soph class held semi-formal on 1/20
Boys & girls swimming are on to championship sectionals
Hockey – 1st playoff game tonight
Girls varsity bowling 2nd place finish in BCWCA County tournament
Boys varsity bowling was 2nd in Bergen County tournament
Fencing competed at the individual state qualifiers & Jack Price, Alec VanSickle, & Anika Tsapastaris qualified for states
Thursday students from AP Physics, Physics Engineering & Art are going to Switzerland. Will visit CERN, Einstein’s house & other physics related locations
Cambodia Project Update – Kathy Marshall
10th Anniversary of org event 3/8
There are clubs @ Orchard, GW, BF,RHS. Willard & Sommerville are building groups.
Every year groups of students, parents, admin, teacher take supplies to Cambodia.
3/8 event will be a Night of Cambodian culture & w/ teacher from college of Mt. St. Vincent
To be held at Library, there is info on facebook
Each school will be manning tables showing pics & videos
There will be Cambodian goods for sale
Nominating Committee: starting to pull together. Please contact Kathy if you want to participate and / or nominate.
Tom Gorman: past 2 nights working in Learning Commons. Changing to energy saving bulbs.
Spoke about students who will present; Jeff will introduce.
Brought up whether to change to open campus for freshmen? For 30 years no off-campus privileges. Started to discuss a few months ago. Would like feedback from parents as to their thoughts. With privilege comes responsibility. Something we are thinking about. If you have thoughts, share now or w/ reps. Policy started in 1990 when freshman started at HS instead of middle school. Currently freshmen get detention if they are caught leaving. One parent suggested start 1st semester not allowed & ease up 2nd. Another parent asked if students are getting in trouble when going off campus. One parent suggested allowing takes away the forbidden aspect.
Schedule changes – just met w/ faculty. Thorough memo coming out in next month or 2. Fine tuning w/ teachers. Don’t want to send out multiple memos. Schedule of school day will not change. Beginning, end, 45 minute lunch all stay the same. Leaning towards 50/80/50 minute periods. Will allow us to have more science classes, & have more balance. Running out of room & ways to balance schedule. For the most part, the schedule will look the same. We believe we will still have enrichment days. Every class will have 1 80 minute period every week. Parents asked if choir or orchestra could be a semester course? Parents want kids to get finance classes in. Offer stock market, Econ, consumerism, entrepreneurship over summer. Hard for freshmen to qualify for DECA. 8th graders can take entrepreneurship summer before 9th grade.
Jeff – brought 8 students up from Principal’s advisory group on Social Media. Freshmen thru seniors. Work on many different issues. Tonight talking about types of social media they use & why they use it.
Parents need to understand how to use, need to use. Very different from when parents were young.
Dan - grade 11, Alex – grade 11, Davis – grade 12, Mary - grade 10, Will - grade 12, Meryl - grade 11, Caroline – grade 9, Ruby - grade 9
Instagram – Mary showed basic format
Home, search & explore, suggested, activity, profile page
What is the draw? Get to see everyone’s life in a collection of photos. “Facebook for kids.” Can keep up w/ what people are doing real time. A way to document cool things you are doing. Jeff asked what are you looking for? Likes. Want to be tagged.
Unwritten rule to post no more than 1 thing per day. Post “special” things. Seniors posting getting into college.
Parent asked if pictures are disappearing like Snapchat?
RINSTA – “real” instagram
Post to impress others. Many organize feed to make pictures look good together.
Parent asked if boys using & girls use differently?
FINSTA:
Just closest friends
Sillier than real instagram
Basil – all issues school has are w/ FINSTA, not RINSTA
Student may only share w /10 or 15 but students can take pictures & share w/ others. Can record posted videos on your phone.
Snapchat: 3 basic screens
Send pics back & forth to 1 friend or 1 group
Keep streaks – how many days you & that person have snapchatted. Similar to texting.
Formatting – can filter & use stickers
My story – public story. 2 types. Normal everyone can see. And private w/ fewer friends.
Main goal of Snapchat – usually sending pictures, generally of food,friends, travel, selfies.
Snapchat is more having a conversation versus viewing posts. Regular snapschats disappear. Stories can last for 24 hours.
VSCO
Another photo sharing app. Aesthetically pleasing pics or quotes. Can post multiple times / day. Can use filters on pics. Don’t care that much about likes.
RHS has a lot of groups, clubs, & sports. Facebook is best for these groups. Share forms, pics, etc. seniors can join college groups.
Snapchat & instagram more real-time, instant.
Phones & Homework – Students fell if you put your phone down, you’re missing out. They use phone to do group projects but other texts pop in. Need balance between using it for good purposes but not being distracted.
Moment is a good phone monitoring app. It tracks how long you spend on your phone. Made Davis more mindful of how much time he’s spent on his phone.
Parent asked how students get news. Snapchat was first answer.
Get notifications from news apps.
None of the students tweet. One looks at periodically for real-time news.
Time crunch – some people will keep using social media just to see something new
Netflix uses tons of time.
Students are used to having noise all the time so have background noise to make hone in on one subject.
Many teacher alerts go to google classroom. Can get by w/out checking email.
Some teachers use google groups on email.
Kids don’t use email as much as text.
Juniors get emails from colleges.
Both teacher reps were sick.
Basil – sophomore semi-formal was big success w/ 285 students. Great night! Has inspired other classes
Jr / Sr dance 2/23. Not semi-formal. At RHS.
There is a freshmen dance coming up. More info will come out. Basil did not recall exact date.
Will be sending out a letter about it. Differences between rules at school vs Backwoods.
This is spirit week. Karaoke at lunch today.
Presentation coming up in March. 5,6,15,20. Very powerful for student body. Michael F. Doctorate in psychology + theater background. Seeing others through a different lens & you don’t know them until you really know them. He plays 6 stereotypical high school characters & weaves story between them. Will have staff view & debrief also. Power is in the conversation afterwards. Debriefing needs to be part of program.
Board of Ed – Shelia Brogan
Congrats to Jamboree. Raised $145k.
Beautiful new doors at RHS. All around building inside & out.
Negotiation started w/ teachers 2 weeks ago. 6/30/18 contract up.
Administration & superintendent have submitted budgets
State aid #s should be available by next week but new gov’t may delay.
Governor is making budget presentation 3/13. Once he makes announcement, 24 hours later we hear state aid. Then district submits proposal. Putting together w/ assumptions but #s are not final.
There is a new Commissioner of Education. Dr . Ahmet from Asbury Park not yet confirmed by state senate.
Transitional team on education. They are recommending full funding of school funding reform act.
State hasn’t fully funded since 2009 but not enough $ to really do it. Last year we did get additional $ so hopeful that will at least be flat.
Reassessing role of standardized testing. Reconsider reliance on state testing , prep. Reconsider weight in teacher evaluations. Recommend decoupling PARCC & graduation. Federal government still mandates standardized tests.
Safety & security officer position – created & filled by Mike Reinke
Multiple levels of police management experience. With the right training & oversight, parents, staff, & students part of safety. Started last Tuesday.
Treasurer’s Report: Vicki – nothing to update
Secretary’s Report: Susan – please sign in
P&D: Kate / Whitney – on 3/1 we will be sending friends of RHS letter. Raised$21k last year, this year hope for 25k. Have a wish list that will be explained in letter.
Adjourned: 9:04 PM