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Issaquah High School
PTSA General Membership
Meeting
November 12, 2004
The
meeting was called to order at 9:40 a.m. by President Mary Lou Pauly in the
IHS library.
Secretary’s Report:
The
minutes were accepted as written for the October General Membership Meeting.
Treasurer’s Report:
Karen
May reported that PTSA tax forms had been filed. Cash on hand as of
10/27/04 was $33,926.52.
President’s Report:
Nancy
Campi acknowledged Karen May for all her work as treasurer so far this year;
Lori Anderson and Nancy Kamitsuka for their work on the directories; and
Jiff Searing for his work on the Mock SAT and PSAT prep classes.
Susan
Balkman and Sue Burke would like all committee chairs to get their list of
volunteer names. Committee chairs should call and acknowledge volunteers
for signing up, and provide details about their specific activity, even if
it is later in the year.
Issaquah Schools Foundation raised $167,000 at the luncheon Oct. 21st.
The
December Board Meeting will be held at Principal Paula Phelps’ home. It
will be a potluck breakfast.
Principal’s Report:
Paula
Phelps thanked the PTSA membership for allowing the principal and assistant
principals to go to the ISF luncheon.
There
have been some recent staff changes: Nancy Ewart, the principal’s secretary
will now be Mike Gallagher’s secretary for the 9th grade campus;
Nancy Taylor, formerly the bookkeeper, has taken Nancy Ewart’s position as
principal’s secretary; and Bob Rupp, athletic director, is leaving. There
have been 9 people expressing interest in the athletic director position so
far. The district is reassessing the job description and the job will be
posted in about 2 weeks.
IHS
Students are running a clothing drive until Nov. 17th.
Other
news:
1.
Four students and an advisor attended training for a new, student initiated
club called “Students Opposing Suicide.” A group from LHS will join with
IHS for a parent education night. Marsha Fritz, Parent Ed. Committee Chair,
is coordinating.
2.
Eight students and an advisor went to a RAP conference against prejudice.
This is also a student initiated project. Paula will provide additional
information on this at a later date.
Paula
and the staff are looking at drug-alcohol training programs that could be
incorporated into staff training. Last week an advisor from Lakeside-Milam
Recovery Center came to a staff meeting and spoke on various drugs that
students might be abusing, and the recognition signs. The district is also
compiling a list of all drug and alcohol training currently provided for
grades K-12, to assess if there are any gaps in the program that need to be
addressed.
Paula
reminded the membership that skip days are not officially sanctioned by the
school and will be counted as unexcused absences.
Paula
reported that 44 new students have started since the first day of school.
Classes are getting bigger and there has been a big impact. Paula is
compiling information to review with the district.
High
School Planning Night is scheduled for February 3rd. This is an
information night for 9th, 10th and 11th
grade families. This is earlier than previous years due to the 9th
grade campus and staff changes to be made by Spring Break. A session will
be added to the planning night called “Honors, Advanced and AP Classes” to
inform parents about expectations for and advantages of these types of
classes. There will also be a planning night for 8th graders at
each middle school this same week.
Homecoming Week was very positive.
The
new sound system in the gym, partially funded by PTSA, is due to be
installed in December.
Paula
attended a Booster Club meeting last week. She talked about a coordinated
PTSA and Booster Club meeting to discuss common priorities, funding, and
goals as a parent community.
Paula
also mentioned that staff members have been staying after all evening school
activities until all students are picked up, parents are encouraged to pick
up their students as soon after events end as possible.
Staff Report:
Shannon Ellis reported that the drug and alcohol training was well received
at the staff meeting.
Counselors and the career center are in the throngs of college
applications. There have been more college reps and student turnouts to
meet with these reps than any years in the past.
A
question arose about if there has ever been a parent college information
meeting and/or any after school meetings for students with college reps.
Shannon reported that counselors visit all junior and senior classrooms 6-7
times a year. Also, there will be a financial aid meeting for parents on
December 7th. There is no college planning meeting for parents
planned at this time. In the past they were not well attended. College
reps want to come during school hours not after school. Shannon will bring
up these questions to the career center. Also there is a link on the
website regarding the college application process and resources.
Site Council Report:
Marsha
Fritz and Nancy Campi reported that a form can be filled out for questions
about Site Council and anyone can come to their meetings.
Legislative Report:
Deb
Parsons reported that she attended the legislative assembly last month. The
assembly included a debate on PTSA lobbying priorities. A pamphlet was
passed around with the priorities selected. February 17th is
“Focus Day” and anyone can go to Olympia to meet legislators in person.
Vice President and Committee Reports:
Fundraising:
Nancy
Campi reported for Marianne Kersten that there will be a mailing for a
second round of Pass the Hat contributions to membership that did not
contribute in the fall.
Volunteers:
Susan
Balkman reported that the volunteer turnout for Homecoming was very good.
Jo-Ellen Smith reported that there will be a Quarterly Student Awards
Breakfast on Dec.2nd and 4-5 volunteers are needed from 6:30-9:00 a.m. Once
a quarter, teachers are sent a form to nominate students for these awards.
They are a surprise for many students and a lot of the recipients may not
usually get recognized in other scholastic or athletic recognition programs.
Parents of the recipients are invited.
9th
Grade Campus:
There
are monthly updates on the website. 8th grade families recently
got an email about this. No decisions have been made about transportation
for sports. There will be daily transportation after school from the 9th
grade campus to the high schools.
Newsletter:
November 12th is the deadline for the December newsletter. Dec.
6th is the deadline for the January newsletter.
SAT/ACT:
Jiff
Searing reported that there has been a lot of interest and participation in
these tests. Applications are on the school website starting in December.
The ACT practice test and SAT prep course and practice test are being
offered. Information will be on the website and in the Issaquah Press.
Financial aid is being offered for the readiness course. Jiff has met with
the teachers to give them this information. A discussion took place about
if we should keep open the prep classes registration to Skyline and
Liberty. They do not offer these classes. There will be one in winter and
one in spring. The deadline for the winter class is Jan. 29th.
It was suggested to have one deadline for IHS and then open it to the other
schools.
Special Services:
Jiff
Searing reported that he has developed a flyer to go out in the mail to all
IEP students’ parents to join an email group. The emails will have tons of
information for Special Ed parents. There are confidentiality issues to
solve before this happens.
Scholarship:
Peggy
Wiggam and Mary Lou Pauly reported that they are working on revising the
application and selection process looking for students for PTSA
scholarships. There are four $500 scholarships. We currently make about
$3500 from SAT readiness classes. Sometime in the future we will discuss if
this money will be used for these scholarships or be put back into general
PTSA funds.
Parent Ed:
Marsha
Fritz reported that Nov. 15th at 7:00 p.m. at Skyline High, there
will be training for parents on drug, alcohol and substance abuse awareness.
Linda
Frye and Marsha Fritz participated in a district-wide committee for drug,
alcohol and substance abuse issues. They are planning a parent training,
probably on Feb. 8th at IMS with a national speaker on the
subject.
On
December 15th in the Eagle Room at City Hall, there will be a Services
Committee meeting on moving the skate park. There has been a lot of drug
use and drug dealing happening there.
Humanitarian:
Danielle Tilden reported that she met with the Key Club to fill out gift
tags for the Giving Tree for Friends of Youth. She may go back to Key Club
to have them and other interested kids help make fleece scarves for needy
people.
New
Business:
Mary
Lou Pauly reported that the Issy Applause Cards have been reintroduced. A
teacher can fill out a card complimenting a student and the card gets mailed
to them.
An
elected PTSA Nominating Committee will be needed by December.
There
will be no guest speaker today.
The
meeting was adjourned at 11:08 a.m. The next meeting will be December 10th
at Paula Phelps’ home.
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