Teach
Boosters Club Board Meeting, November 7, 2014
Present: Kimberley
Wormley, Laura Cooper, Altee Vigil, Mike Berger, Robyn O’Leary, Melissa Keller,
Terrie Marshall, Teresa Larsen, Brian Olson, James McMillen and Donde Hubbley. Paige arrived later in the meeting.
Kimberley called
the meeting to order and asked people to review the many things that we have to
celebrate (see attached), such as exceeding our fundraising goals for all the
scheduled fundraisers so far this year.
The schedule of future Boosters meetings will be appended to these
minutes.
Next
was approval of past minutes: these were posted ahead of time on the Teach
school website. Melinda moved to accept
the minutes as amended; Kimberley seconded the motion which passed with all in
favor, none opposed or abstaining.
There
was then discussion of changing the Boosters board composition in order to be
in compliance with our bylaws. Laura
Cooper reviewed that the bylaws state that the board must be comprised of seven
members, one of whom must be a staff person appointed by the school
principal. At the May meeting, seven
board members were voted, in, but none were staff. Laura volunteered to continue as secretary
but step down as a board member, thereby making room for Mr. McMillen to
appoint a staff member. Kimberley moved
that Laura remain as secretary but vacate her space on the Boosters board, and James
McMillen appointed himself as staff representative. Melinda seconded this motion, which passed
with all present in favor, none opposed or abstaining.
Teresa
Larsen, library tech, was present. She asked
that the Boosters form a Battle of the Books committee. Robyn O’Leary identified herself as the chair
of this event. There was discussion of
the Battle event, with the following areas covered: Mr. McMillen requested that
it be more parent-driven than teacher-driven.
The library tech could assist by tracking student AR tests leading up to
the event. Teresa said she would help
individual classes stage mock battles in advance of the Battle so that students
know what to expect. Mr. McMillen will
check to see who the teacher rep is for this event (Mr. Crabb or Mrs. Robson). There was discussion of AR tests and if the
system is open; Teresa stated that it is indeed open until 3 pm M, Tu, W and
Friday. Melissa asked about Society of
Women Engineers students being involved and there was discussion of background
checks that the district requires (TB test and completion of volunteer
paperwork).
Teresa
Larsen gave the Boosters a purchase order that the district librarian had put
together for building the Teach reference library, and asked if Boosters would
like to help fund this purchase. ***ACTION
ITEM: Kimberley will check to see what has been spent of the Scholastic
credit.*** There was a discussion of how
best to utilize resources for purchasing reference materials, and the feeling
was that these tend to not be widely utilized in school libraries. Mr. McMillen said that one option would be to
use money to fund a device available in classrooms that would connect to online
resources with be appropriate filters. Teresa
brought up that students have e-books available for use, and all present said
that they would love a mini seminar in order to know how to do this. ****ACTION ITEM: One suggestion was for
Teresa to send home a sheet that explains how to connect with these books.**** Brian said that the amount of the proposed
purchase order is about $1064. Teresa explained
that when ordering books for the school library, the district approves purchases
and orders books through a particular website.
But there is also the option of Teresa ordering some books/materials
directly through Amazon or another vendor, and obtaining reimbursement through
the Boosters if the Boosters Club wishes to assist in this way.
The
Boosters will take the Scholastic proposed book order under consideration and
make a decision at the next meeting. Some
questions raised were: What do teachers feel they need based on their lesson
plans for the year? What books does
Teach actually have, all told (most are still boxed up since library shelving
is not yet in)? What is needed to help
with teaching the new science standards?
Mr. McMillen said that science specialists may be present at each school
site as early as next year to assist with science standards resources. The library shelving is coming later in
November. Robyn proposed that the
Boosters table the library discussion until the library is unpacked and the
staff can make their classroom needs known.
Paige
arrived at this point in the meeting.
Altee
Vigil and Erica Stewart are co-chairs of the Derby Days event. Altee said that they are moving ahead with
planning for the event. They want to
keep the theme but are searching for a new venue, as Teach has outgrown the
Café Roma space which has been generously given in the past by Vanessa and
Marco Rizzo. There was a brief review of the Derby Days event for those
unfamiliar with it. It is a fundraising
evening that is adults only, with a silent auction, as well as a mock “race”
between horses that are decorated by each class. Different venues were discussed: the SLO Country
Club ($2000 for venue, $50-60 plate), Elks Club ($800 for venue, $35 plate),
John Rourke’s new barn with a casino night (John would not charge for the
space, $2850 for AMS, a group that would run gaming tables, no sit-down dinner
but instead hors d’ouevres with caterer so cost will depend, approximately
$30/ticket). There was also discussion
of possibly using food truck/wineries/brewery to pour. *****ACTION ITEM: Altee will check
with John Rourke about his fire/liability coverage.***** There was discussion of how to help the
evening move so that people don’t get bored and leave prior to the silent
auction as had been observed by Altee at another event.
After
much discussion, all present felt that Derby Days being held at the Rourke Barn
was a great idea. Saturday, May 16th,
2015 was discussed as a date. Altee will
go ahead and move towards that goal, getting answers to questions about
liability, etc.
Paige
shared info on the Scrip program. She
has sent home additional paper order forms.
Brian is handling checks so that people do not have to go through the
Presto Pay process. There was discussion
about some of the reasons that this program is under-utilized such as people
using their “points” rewards credit cards and not wanting to pay ahead of time
as is the case for gift cards.
Mr.
McMillen then gave his principals’ report.
First item was the Gaga ball pit.
Jim Schimmer has made the pit and it is now stored between classrooms on
the Teach campus. Mr. McMillen would
like for the pit to be pulled out once a month or so, assembled on Monday and torn
down on Friday afternoon. He is hoping
Boosters could ask for volunteers via Face Book to do that so that the pit can
be better utilized.
Mr.
McMillen covered a new behavior system that is being implemented, due to
noticing that when he’s not on campus, there is a slight rise in playground “incidents.” The new system will consist of “positive”
slips and “refocus” slips. The positive
slips will get put into a container in the classroom and there will be drawings
during the month for spirit wear, etc. Refocus
slips will be filled out by teachers or the principal. (See the attached slip as an example.) Laura Cooper asked about having something
similar to the SLOCA practice of writing something about the character trait
they are studying on chalkboards around the SLOCA campus (i.e. how have you
demonstrated “Kindness” today?). ****ACTION
ITEM: Mr. McMillen will explore where a board like this could go. Donde pointed out that the student council
might take that on as a project for the year.****
There
was then discussion of the sound system that is currently being shared between
Teach and Bishops Peak. Mr. McMillen
said that he and Mr. Block have determined that this was a BP purchase. Bill Gaines has put together a “dream system”
proposal (attached to these minutes) for Teach.
There was discussion of renting rather than buying, which avoids the
problem of technology becoming quickly outdated. Bill Gaines has also rented BP/Teach in the
past. ****ACTION ITEM: Kimberley
said that Melinda and she talked about a friend who might be able to lend
equipment, possibly including lights.****
The talent show is coming up on January 29th and a sound
system will be needed for that, as well as for the 6th grade play. Robyn asked how sound/lighting is
traditionally funded at other school sites.
Mr. McMillen said that about $200 is what he could come up with in
district funding towards a system. Kimberley
asked if we could get by with rental of what we need for January, then form a parent
committee, get some proposals together, then make a formal motion and buy
equipment.
****ACTION
ITEM: Kimberley will set up a committee
to figure out the use of excess funds from previous years. One question the committee will address is
how large the rainy day fund needs to be.
Brian will help advise the committee.**** Mr. McMillen said that he would advise doing
short term rental of sound/lighting equipment for this year, and then put
together a prioritized list of sound/light items which he will get from Bill
Gaines. Once a system is decided upon,
if we can learn about it in advance, Donde will see if students could help run
the sound/lights.
Mr.
McMillen then discussed the passage of Measure D. Every site is supposed to form a facilities
committee that will help determine how that site’s little bit of Measure D
funds will get spent. At Teach, Mr.
McMillen has established that we need bell/intercom system. Other ideas are the “common area” for which Jim
Schimmer, among others, has been lobbying (trees, etc.). Mr. McMillen would like parent involvement
from Boosters to help with this facilities committee. ****ACTION ITEM: Kimberley and Mike said that they would both
be interested in serving, to help be good stewards of the funds being utilized.**** There was discussion of the lease with SLOCA
which runs for another 4 years.
Kimberley pointed out that Teach will be hosting the district ????
meeting on January 22nd, 2015.
There was discussion about having an opportunity to talk a bit about the
opportunities and challenges for the new Teach site. There was also discussion of where Teach is
in the hierarchy of Measure D funding (Mr. McMillen says that we are similar to
Sinshiemer in that this site was retrofitted at the same time about 13 years
ago).
Mr.
McMillen would like Teach to be a one-to-one school site (one student to one
electronic device). We were given money
to replace computers that are 8 years old or older. There are options with those funds. Some that were discussed were iPads or Google
Chrome notebooks. Apple apparently does
not furnish adequate tech support to school sites using Apple products, as Mr.
McMillen has found through firsthand experience. There is also a website that might be
utilized for funding such as Donors Choose (this is a site for private online
donation; teachers put what their needs are on the website and donors match
funds). There may be other
opportunities like private grant money, matching funds, etc., in order to make Teach
a one-to-one site by the end of the year.
****ACTION
ITEM: Donde will send Kimberley an email and Kim will send that to Kristen
Admundsen… ??????****
There being no
more time to continue the meeting and no other pressing business, Mr. McMillen
moved to adjourn the meeting. Brian
Olson seconded the motion with all present in favor, none opposed or abstaining.
Respectfully
submitted,
Laura Cooper,
secretary for Boosters
