Washington-Lee High School PTA Minutes - Monday, September 8, 2008
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The meeting was called to order at 7:30 pm.
INTRODUCTIONS (Phil Klingelhofer)
- All are asked to introduce themselves, identify their volunteer role (if any) on the PTA,
and name their children at Washington Lee
LAST MONTH’S MEETING MINUTES (Laura Brothers)
- Executive committee meeting so minutes were approved by executive committee
SCA PRESIDENT’S REPORT (Alan McQuinn)
- SCA meetings start tomorrow
- Freshmen elections start this week and run through next week
- Homecoming
o Friday, October 10: homecoming football game
o Saturday, October 11: homecoming dance; working on a theme for that
- Student Senate
o New this year
o Promote ideas from student body
o Student forum fostering communication
o Senator from each third period class
o Starting in November
o 76 Student senators
o Will meet first Thursday of each month
o Goals: refine integrity policies in handbook
o Student based initiatives to enhance school climate
o Forum for student-related issues
o Not policy forming; just a forum to show student perspective
o Four teachers will also participate
PRESIDENT’S REPORT (Phil Klingelhofer)
- Volunteers
o 60 people have signed up to be Committee Chairs or to serve on a committee
o Still need to fill some positions
Reflections
Science Fair Co-Chair
Staff Appreciate Co-Chair
Student of the Semester Co-Chair
Kenmore Middle School liaison
Boat Party help
Tax preparation
o Alice Kavanagh
Many thanks to her for her hard work
She’s doing a great job of getting volunteer list together
o Beth Swallow
Organized the breakfast to welcome the teachers back to school
Many thank you notes have been sent from the teachers saying how
nice it was and how much they appreciated it
o Bernadette Wolford
Organized the back to school packets
Had over 33 volunteers
Big thank you to Field Hockey players who showed up to help with that
o Amy Delery
Freshman Orientation breakfast
Had a committee of 7
Lots of enthusiasm
Great job
- School Bond
o At next month’s meeting, we’ll need to decide whether we’re supporting it
Need volunteers to help folks who are drumming up support
We have been major beneficiary of school bonds in the past so we want
to be supportive of others in need now since the community was so
supportive of us when we were working to improve our facility
o Fundraising
Phil has received notices of fundraising opportunities from area
restaurants (one diner and a pizza place)
If any clubs or organizations would like to see the literature on these
programs, please contact Phil
- PTA Leadership Training
o September 20
o Anyone interested in attending should speak to Phil to get more details
- Washington Lee bumper stickers for sale ($1) at PTA meetings
- 2007-2008 school directories are available to anyone who wants one (free)
- Call for questions (none)
TREASURER’S REPORT (Lisa Knox)
- Proposed Budget
o Fiscal Year started August 1
o Cash on hand $27,280 as of July 1
o Senior Activities Revenue is a line item to track donations that are solicited and
will be used exclusively for Senior Activities
o Budget Approved
PRINCIPAL’S REPORT (Gregg Robertson)
- School opening great success
- Enrollment
o Projected 1540; actual is 1621
o Lottery held last January to create 100 person waiting list
o Building capacity is 1600
o We did not go in to the waiting list for this year’s population
o Gregg doubts we will be accepting any transfers next year
o Q: Looking at the numbers, the ninth grade is so much larger than the other
classes; is this because this is a bubble class or will it shrink over the next 3
years so that when these freshmen are seniors, their class size will be the same
as the current senior class? A: Gregg says this is the largest freshmen class at
Washington Lee since he became principal 6 years ago so it’s probably a bubble
class; up until now, the enrollment pattern has been consistent the past 6
years
o Enrollment is up across the county due to more people moving in with school
age children
o There are about 45 transfer students and 60+ IB as freshmen
o Our new building is a big draw to students all over the county; once Yorktown
and Wakefield come on line, these numbers may even out a bit
- Advanced Course Participation
o New initiative this year starting with freshmen class this year
o Goal is to have every student in 9th grade complete at least one IB or AP class
before they graduate
- Parent class opportunities
o New initiative this year
o Classes are taught by Washington Lee faculty to Washington Lee parents
o Free of charge
o Right now, we are looking for parents who’d like to learn Spanish; maybe we
will offer a food or history class later in the year
o Flyer available from Gregg
- Senior Class Experience changes
o Become more focused on what students are working on
o Want to include volunteer opportunities as opposed to exclusively offering this
program through paid positions
o Last year we had over 100 students participate; we’d like to see more
- Back to School Night
o September 23, 7pm
o Report to child’s first period and go through all 8 periods
o
- Pick up and Drop off procedures
o Official spot from now until construction is finished is center of 15th Street
behind parking garage; students can cross garage and come across pedestrian
bridge from parking deck
o Drop off in the morning is ok out front
o Afternoon is a problem with people picking up in front of the school so will be
restricted to the 15th Street drop off area
- Cell Phones
o Student Advisory Board proposed cell phones be allowed for used during lunch
regardless of their location (Last year they were not allowed for use at any
time or location)
o Seems to be working well; seeing less use of cell phones during non-lunch hours
than used to see
- Construction Update
o October 13 PTA meeting will be an in-depth review of the construction status
o On schedule
o New gym, pool and auditorium are scheduled to open in July 2009
- Satisfaction survey
o Every couple of years, the school board sends out surveys to all teachers and to
random parents
o Sampling: all teachers and 1000 homes surveyed and around 600 came back and
800 students were surveyed by teacher (ed center selects teacher’s classes)
o Findings:
Faculty very happy with Washington Lee; high scores within county
Will focus to get that even higher
Kids feel welcome at school
Washington Lee students mostly reported they like to go to school
Teachers reported feeling supported at school
Survey reflects Washington Lee has very little bullying
Most feel that help is readily available
Strength at Washington Lee (kids will tell you this too) culturally
diverse and kids from all walks get along very well together
Students find teachers to be encouraging and counselors accessible
Survey shows all feel Washington Lee is a safe environment
Most were pleased with the variety and number of extracurricular
activity options
Communication between school and parents looks good
- Risky behavior survey
o Partnership for Family and Youth services will conduct that survey
o Data will be compiled at 6th grade and at 12th grade
o They are looking for volunteers to help look at survey results; if you are
interested send Gregg an email and he’ll forward it to the appropriate people
- Questions about activities:
o Q: Are kids over scheduled? A: band and sports can collide
o Q: How do kids sign up for new activities/extra-curriculars? A: notices posted
and included in morning announcements for meetings
COMMITTEE REPORTS- WINTER BAZAAR (Ruth Crawley and Renee Gorsky)
- Need 3 additional people to take on lots of planning and help for committee specific
tasks
- Will also need lots of help the day of the bazaar
- Email addresses for Renee and Ruth or you can send an email to
wl_bazaar_volunteer@live.com if you want to volunteer
- This is an arts and crafts bazaar; some of the sellers are outside vendors, some are
student groups
- Held the first Saturday in December
- Proceeds will go towards the expenses of Senior activities: picnic, caps and gowns, etc
COMMITTEE REPORTS- MEMBERSHIP (Kathleen Murray)
- Expecting about $4000 in memberships
- If anyone needs an envelope or membership forms, there are some in the back of the
room or contact Kathleen; email address on website
- Q: Where should my kid turn in PTA forms? A: front office
COMMITTEE REPORTS- Volunteers (Alice Kavanagh)
- In the process of compiling list of volunteer names and contact info and area of
interest from Back to School “Volunteer” form.
- Will send the list of names for each particular event to chairs of the events
COMMITTEE REPORTS- SCRIP (Kathy Reeder)
- Please link your grocery card to Washington Lee
- Contact me at kathleenreeder@comcast.net if you’d like to help with the scrip sales or
if you’d like to purchase scrip (delivery is available)
- Washington Lee gets 5% sales for scrip; this is a good fundraiser for us
COMMITTEE REPORTS- DIRECTORY (Sharon Kroger)
- Not reinventing wheel; the people who did it before had a great template so I am just
updating their files with the info from APS for this year’s population
- Each student and each faculty member gets one directory for free
- Additional copies will be on sale at Back to School night and in the front office and at
PTA meetings for $5 each
- Q: Can we add both parents (instead of just listing one parent as was noticed was the
format in last year’s directory) A: APS provides data to us so we will check to see if
both parents are part of the data and if so, if there’s room to print them both
COMMITTEE REPORTS- WEBSITE COORDINATOR (Brigitte Jones)
- Washington Lee changed website to a brand new one mandated by APS but website is
still being built out so we are a little behind
- If anyone has any ideas for things that should be added to the website, please let Phil
or Brigitte know
COMMITTEE REPORTS- LISTSERVE COORDINATOR (Sherry Evans)
- Trying to limit to one email per week unless something time-sensitive needs to go out
right away
- Website will have all notices if you delete something you need later
- Committee Chairs who want announcements to go out can send to Sherry
- E-group has about 550 addresses but it’s not as many as we want
- Please encourage your friends to sign up
COMMITTEE REPORTS- Senior Class Liaison (Hilary Philips)
- Senior listserve is setup
- Sign up sheet in back of room
- Information for joining will also be sent via the PTA Listserve
- Lots going on: deadlines, activities, etc: this is an avenue to communicate all these
things that parents need to be aware of
COMMITTEE REPORTS- ACI (Valerie Gamache)
- ACI has not met yet
- ACI is an advisory committee that meets monthly and makes recommendations to the
school board
- Will take input from any parents who may have concerns about a specific subject area
- If you have a special interest in a subject are, go on the ACI website and join the
reporting sub-committee
COMMITTEE REPORTS- Grants (Nancy Pilchen)
- Solicit grant requests from teacher community
- Always looking for more volunteers to help review grant requests and make
recommendations to the PTA as to what funding should be provided to which grant
requests
- Easy volunteer position: one day each semester is all that is required
- Contact Nancy if you’re interested in helping out
COMMITTEE REPORTS- Grants/”Gregg’s List” (Nancy Pilchen)
- This is a new thing we’re trying to set up
- It would be a website linking Teacher needs for supplies etc with Parent providers
- Need someone to volunteer to act as coordinator
COMMITTEE REPORTS- Family Network (Bill Browning)
- Committee members represent Washington Lee, Yorktown, Wakefield and H-B
Woodlawn
- Responsible for putting together variety of programs
- September 25, 7pm in Room 1B at Yorktown will be “Things We Wish We’d Known
about the College Search Process”
- Calendar of events can be found on website: http://www.familynetwork-
arlington.org/highschool.htm
- Other topics include:
o Teens and Alcohol
o Keeping Kids Safe Online
o Career Center Open House
o Parenting Hard-to-Manage Child
o Beach Week
o Finances for Teens
o Bullying
o ADHD
o College Athletics
o Many more
- If you’d like to participate or run a program or if you want to suggest a topic, please
feel free to contact Bill
COMMITTEE REPORTS- Fall Chat (Bill Browning)
- Will be held last week of September
- Similar to Summer Chat
- For Freshman parents to have a chance to ask questions and meet some of the
administrators and parents of upperclassmen
- Clair Moir is coordinating as Freshman Connection coordinator
BOOSTERS (Bertra McGann)
- First meeting Tuesday September 16th 7:30 in the commons; all are welcome and
encouraged to attend
- We will meet on alternating months during school year
- We encourage all parents and siblings to come to home games
- Weekly emails from the PTA should include game time information
MISCELLANEOUS ANNOUNCEMENTS (Phil Klingelhofer)
- Check out PTA bulletin board across from main office; many thanks to Sue Browning for
her meticulous work in putting it together for all of us
- If anyone would like to bring refreshments to the next PTA meeting, please let Phil
know
8:59 meeting adjourned.
SIGN IN SHEET Patty Gibson Kristi Berkland
Phil Klingelhofer Rolda Nedd David Benjamin
Nancy Pilchen Susan Ward Steven Kimmit
Bill Browning Kit Sibley Rebecca Mann
Lisa Knox Pam Spicer Ann Wilson
Jerilyn Levi Kathy Reeder Nadine Young
Laura Brothers Risa Browder Renee Gorsky
Susan Lefande Valerie Gamache Nonie Green
Sherry Evans Beth Moffett Powell Nancy Roddy
Nancy O’Doherty Gloria Orsini-Lugo Kathleen Murray
Sharon Kroger Luann Moy (Neel) Ellen Killalea
Abdullah Balleu Hilary Phillips Shelley Goode
Mary Sue Englund Lisa Ruane Vernetta Scott
Stuart Davis Tracy Brunette Carolyn Schmidt
Nancy Davis Allison Walker Suzanne Nicholson
Tom Wall Katie Lundstrom Larry Shearin
Bertra McGann Jim Fry Steve Heinzman
Alex Garcia John Swallow Liza Malakshaki
Alice Kavanagh Elizabeth Verling Marta Layseca
Jim Terpstra Robin O’Hara Amalio Escobar
Carolyn Carlson Sue DiFilippo Dina Copelman
Joy Jacobson Jan Kennedy Melissa Hinkson
Beth Perrow Bee Buergler