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Issaquah High School
PTSA General
Membership Meeting
April 22, 2005
The meeting was called to order at 9:33 a.m. by Mary Lou Pauly in the IHS
library.
Secretary’s Report:
The minutes were accepted as corrected for the March General Membership
Meeting.
Treasurer’s Report:
Mary Lou Pauly reported that cash on hand as of 3-28-05 was $41,021.35.
President’s Report:
Acknowledgements:
Nancy Campi acknowledged Karen May for all her recent budget work; Deed
Chase for all her work on awards; Susan Balkman for organizing and
delivering WASL snacks; and everyone who stepped up to do PTSA jobs for next
year, especially Mary Lou & Jiff as co-presidents.
Housekeeping:
There are continuous updates on the website for Parent Ed. programs.
Sue Burke needs volunteers for the ISF Phone-a-Thon for May 9, 10, and 11.
Council Report:
Issaquah Highlands Elementary will open in the fall 2006. A new middle
school for the district is being discussed.
DAT (District Advisory
Team):
Marianne Kersten reported that the Healthy Youth Survey results are out.
Also, 1134 parents took the DAT survey re: student learning improvement
calendar, along with 75% of teachers. There is a link on the website for
it.
Principal’s Report:
Paula Phelps reported about the bomb threat on April 18th. The
evacuation was necessary due to police orders. A note was left in the same
boys’ bathroom as the last bomb threat. Students must now sign in an out of
their classrooms and only 2 sets of bathrooms are open on campus. A message
from Paula was read to each classroom. A reward is in place and some
information is coming forward about the 1st bomb threat. Staff
is very supportive. Staff and kids have been very cooperative. The school
is working with the police. Cameras are only in the parking lot, main
hallway, gym and commons and have not been effective in monitoring any
activity that may be occurring in the bathrooms. Work is being done to
improve cameras. Each event has resulted in significant expenses, including
5 bomb sniffing dogs, street closures, etc.
The WASL testing is going fine.
Paula reported that the staffing projections for next year have been
calculated. This year there are 57.4 FTE certified staff; next year there
will be 45. Ratio for students to staff will remain at 26:1. Support staff
for this year is 73.5 hours/day; next year it will be 63. These reductions
are related to the opening of the Freshman Campus.
One of Paula’s goals is to have students get next year’s class schedule in
June.
A
student computer hacker seriously breached the school’s and the district’s
computer databases. Everything had to be shut down and code was rewritten.
It is still unclear if there is enough security in place to prevent future
tampering. The student has been charged with a felony and significant
monetary charges.
There have been recent suicides at Bellevue, Newport and Mercer Island High
Schools. IHS counselors will initiate a school-wide response if a death is
of someone well known at our school. In other cases, there will be
individual counseling of students who know the deceased student, as in the
case of the recent suicides.
The system to let parents access student progress
online was discussed. Paula doesn’t think it will be ready by fall. The
process is very technically complicated and cumbersome. The district is
dedicated to it as a priority.
Issaquah, Skyline and Liberty High schools are all hiring new athletic
directors for fall. There are significant changes in salary, number of days
(220) and hours (8 hr/day). Applications closed yesterday. All three
schools are meeting next week to interview the 15 applicants. A certified
person is preferred. Eight people from each school will be interviewing
each applicant, including 3 coaches, parents, principal.
Staff Report:
Shannon Ellis reported that teachers are looking forward to WASL & AP being
finished. AP Testing is May 2-11. Report cards for 3rd quarter
are coming in the mail today. There is a very small number of deficiency
reports this time. Graduation is June 20th at 2 p.m. in Key
Arena. The location was chosen by the students. Summer school information
is now available on the website. The scores from the New SAT have been
received; verbal scores have gone up, math has stayed about the same and
essay scores are “all over the map.”
Site Council Report:
Thereasa Robinson reported that there was no meeting this week. Nancy Campi
reported that applications for parent reps for next year’s site council are
being passed around.
Legislation Report:
Deborah Parsons reported that the school board has not gotten much input yet
from parents about the parent access system. In Olympia the School Funding
Simple Majority Bill has died, but it will be the first thing on the agenda
for next year.
VP Reports:
Volunteers:
Susan Balkman reported that 24 AP test proctors are needed May 2-11. Also,
more money is need for WASL snacks for next week. The request to approve
the extra charges was approved.
Committee Reports:
Awards:
Deed Chase reported that the Outstanding Educator recipients will be
announced at the May 11th Staff Meeting.
Staff Appreciation:
Barb Cowen reported that Staff Appreciation Week is May 2-6. Donations of
food for Tuesday and Friday are needed.
ACT/SAT Update:
Jiff Searing reported that 120 kids took the recently completed winter
session of prep classes. The spring session has started. The last Mock SAT
test is this Sat. The experiment with Kaplan teaching classes has gone
well. There has been no “hard sell” from Kaplan. The price for prep
classes may be lower next year.
Website:
Susan Hegedus reported that today is the deadline for the May 1st
update and May 13th is the deadline for the June 1st
update. She is meeting with Dawn Moorehouse in June re: website
improvements and changes. She is taking suggestions now.
Unfinished Business:
Mary Lou passed around form for suggestions to improve special funding
requests. There were no requests this month.
New Business:
Nancy Campi passed around the Joint Operating Agreement for the freshman
campus. Motion: Thereasa Robinson moved to accept the agreement as
written. Jiff Searing seconded. There was no discussion. Motion passed.
Standing Rules:
Nancy Campi reviewed the changes in the PTSA Standing Rules. The changes
are mostly needed due to the addition of the freshman campus. The proposed
rule changes were passed around and discussed. A few wording changed were
made. Motion: Lorry Primrose moved to accept the Standing Rules as
modified. Susan Balkman seconded. Motion passed.
Election of 05/06
Officers:
Nominating Committee member Lori Anderson presented the 2005-6 IHS PTSA
Officer Slate. Nancy Campi asked for further nominations from the floor for
each office. There were no further nominations. Motion: Margie Gerrity
moved to adopt the slate as presented. Linda Frye seconded. Motion passed
by the 17 members present.
Meeting adjourned at 11:23 a.m.
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