February 10, 2011

Attendees:

Kelly Bryant (ES Chair), Jane Davies (MS Chair), Jodee Reed, Nancy Shah, Sam Star, Dave Middleton, Suzanne Waller, Edith Fuchs, Lisa Dunn, Robin Lofstrom, Rolf Sonnerup, Renee Gersdorff-Duncan, David Innes, Margaret Clarissimeaux, Lance Adams, Carita Polin, David Somerville, Melanie Shelton, Caitlin Racey, Caleb Banta-Green, Katherine Ropp, Susan Motte, Keith McLaren, Zara Kublin, Jodi Russell, Beth Armitage, Hillary Leonard, Beth Boram, Jen Millen, Sarah Kopf, Michelle Pearson, Jessica Phillips, Megan Ratcliffe

Chair’s Report:

• April 9th retreat will discuss many topics, including PTO/PTA, a debriefing/discussion of Alternative Schools Coalition survey results, continuation of ongoing conversation regarding communication quality at Salmon Bay, plus a bonus topic (to be revealed at the March FOSB meeting).
• Open positions on FOSB for 2011-12 are:  Middle School Co-Chair, Elementary Treasurer, and Secretary.  Contact Kelly Bryant or Jane Davies for more information on any position.
• Both Volunteer Coordinator positions will be open next year.  Contact Kelly Bryant if you are interested in or have questions about the positions.
• Seeking volunteers to help with grant writing.
• Chairs dedicated time to discussing improving communication with classroom reps. Thoughts raised were:  

 - the role could serve to personalize important appeals and/or reminders on the level of parent-to-parent communications and ideally increase overall participation rates
 - make sure there is “quality and consistency” of expectations among volunteers serving as reps
 - avoid creating “overwhelming frequent” communications that would compete with teacher emails, Bulletin, etc.
 - ensure that the reps have a narrow “job focus,” i.e. that of communicator, and avoid multiple duties   

Overall, there was great support for the concept both as a way to increase connection to the school for parents and to improve communication.

Secretary’s Report:

• January minutes posted and passed.

Principal’s Report:

• Tours going well and she is pleased to see the children really stepping up to represent and support our school.
• WEP going well, even with difficulty of rainy weather at Snoqualmie.
• Math night is rescheduled and new date proposed is Monday, Feb 28th.
• In terms of bus transportation, as of today Salmon Bay is scheduled to receive the same services next year as this year (boundaries and eligibility remain the same), and our bell times are unaffected by district-level transportation policy changes.

Volunteer’s Report:

• Megan R:  Very busy with tours and tour planning including taking brochures to elementary schools and working on auction.
• Jessica P:  Very busy working on middle school tours and had good turn out so far.  Thank you to the parent who prepared the brochure!  WEP going well, but rain has caused early ski/board bus departures.

Treasurer’s Report:

• David Sommerville reported that budget committee is very active right now planning for delivery of budget back to FOSB.
• Tues, Feb 15th at 9:30am is meeting time for budget meeting with Jodee.  Jen Busch has been gathering input via a survey of parents and teachers.
• Reported on central PCTSA meeting and talked about $35 million dollar cut and also that council is trying to cut with minimal impact to teachers and classrooms. And will try to cut via transportation, maintenance and other central cuts where possible that sounded in synch with our discussions.
• WSS – weighted staffing standard change is that Salmon Bay will be weighted as a K-8, which helps our budget –we have often been treated as an elementary and not had full K-8 budget advantages we should have; so this is good news.  However, of course, cuts will affect all schools and we will see what the impact will be. 
• Feb 18th is when building budgets are given to principals.  Then there is roughly a four week process of reviewing the budgets.

Additional Reports:

• Alternative Education Committee:  Caleb has not heard new information, but will be starting the parent online survey Feb 28th and we will discuss results at the retreat.  There was discussion about how best to report back the information to the wider school audience.  Jane suggested that our annual meeting (May 12) might be a good time to present results.
• Legislative Chair: Zara Kublin is new legislative chair!  Yay!!!  Feb 21st is big march in Olympia to demonstrate support for SPS.  Go!!  It’s important to send a message to the state that we are not satisfied with current funding levels!
• Kelly reported:  Thorton Creek officially has a tie breaker for 6th grade entry, in addition to sibling and geozone and then lottery. 
• Budget:  Melanie reported for she and Connie – science has been dropped from strategic plan.  Science teachers are looking for support letters to put it back in.  There are support talks coming up to discuss this.  The high schools have been given money for science curriculum adoption (Chemistry, I think) and it is possible to view the curriculum at central offices. 
• Auction:  Edith, Auction chair is in the middle of procurement and is setting up teams to get all the pieces done.  They are really busy and procurements are coming in – we need lots more!!  Everyone send in your procurements and think of items that might be good at generating money.  Would be good to have a few more people following up on procurements from businesses.  Megan reported that another focus this year is to get more people to come to the auction.  So everyone, think now, think of grandparents and of asking people.  Email testimonials to Edith and Megan about what you’ve enjoyed to help communicate how our auction is a fun event!
• Fundraising:  Sarah reported that we are going to have an additional fundraiser, a jogathon of some kind later in the year as another source of funds. They have discussed April 29th as date for jogathon during PE. We would need parents to volunteer to support the event.  Jodee reminded that middle school funds raised would have to go to ASB, not to FOSB.  People thought April 29th was too close to the auction and the proposed date change is May 20th during bike to school push.
• Playground Committee: Lance Adams reported that the landscape architect (Johnson|Sutherland) will be presenting three design options based at the next community meeting on Feb 15th, 7-8:30 in the school library.  Fundraising options/grants are being explored. In early March there will be another community meeting and the committee should have a more solid plan/bid for playground designs.