October 8, 2009 Minutes
Attendees:
Jane Davies (Chair), Michelle Ota (Vice Principal), Jonathan Castrodale, Caleb Banta-Green, Lance King, Rosemary Daszkiewicz, Edith Fuchs, Randy Doak, Anna McAllister, Brian Williamson, Jen Busch, Michelle Chamberlain, Kelly Bryant, Caitlin Racey, Jodi Russell, Ed Vesneske Jr., Jen Millen, Drew Derby, Linda Illman, David Innes, Beth Armitage, Sally Massa, Lisa Dunn, Alexandra Immel, Susan Motte, Marlene Koltin, John Shaw, Megan Ratcliffe, Robin Lofstrom
Chair’s Report:
- Board Positions filled. Director positions open – 7 positions, have voting rights. Michelle volunteered.
- Will post general agenda and people can bring copy if they like. Agenda will stay roughly the same all year – committee reports etc.
- October 13th auction meeting at Caitlin Racey’s house. So, everyone procure!
- MOTION PRESENTED and PASSED!: Jane, Marlene and Megan will draft letter in support of Thorton Creek as feeder school, will run by Jodee – see discussion below for more details.
- MOTION PRESENTED and PASSED!: Motion presented and passed to raise the funds from 550 to 850 for Health.
Secretary’s Report:
- Approved September meeting minutes
- Next FOSB meeting is November 12, 2009
Legislative Liason’s Report on Assignment Plan:
- Kelly Bryant put together an excellent and informative document of impact on Salmon Bay (full document is at end of minutes). The plan is approved, even though the map is being worked out. The map is going to be adjusted again sometime in the next week and may impact Ballard High School map.
- Plan is intended to support needs of all kids well and minimize transportation to allow predictable assignment and feeder programs for families within an area, so there isn’t as much uncertainty for families regarding where their kids will go to school.
- Wednesday October 14, is public comment meeting at Ballard High School and there are several others listed in the Salmon Bay Bulletin as well as other meetings listed on the Seattle Public Schools website.
- There is a big concern over High School assignment and was discussion around this. Each high school will have 10% slots saved for preference, so people may be able to still choose outside of assignment and get the school.
- There was a lot of discussion over trying to support Thorton Creek as a feeder school and could we hold a position as a parent body or as fosb to support the status of Thorton Creek as a feeder school. There was also discussion that people would like an Option high school, but there is some dissension over a k-12 solution, so we may continue with a letter that is just a k-8 solution to support a predictable path for alternative schools.
- MOTION PRESENTED and PASSED!: Jane, Marlene and Megan will draft letter in support of Thorton Creek as feeder school, will run by Jodee
Vice Principal’s Report:
- IA Interviews – teaching interviews for Special Ed Assistant
- Just finished interviews and have candidate they want to recommend for hiring and will present to SPS to hire on Monday.
Volunteer Coordinator’s Report:
- Directory is just about done and will be delivered in about three weeks.
- After school programs have started.
- Enrichment forms will go out to families in next week.
- There is an enrichment fee discussion about raising enrichment amounts to cover actual enrichment fees. There was concern over raising the fee and Sally mentioned that costs have really increased. We would need to either reduce expenses, increase fees, or get funds from elsewhere (maybe fosb funds). There was discussion over raising scholarship amounts if the fees are raised. Jane mentioned that we do have a lot of money, so we could cover the extra costs. Jane brought up that if the classes are doing more in classes that cause the need for the increased enrichment, then people may think it’s worth it. Brian brought up that raising the enrichment fee and stating how much is for camp vs other enrichment helped people understand the needs/purpose of the fees.
- We are noticing a higher scholarship need for camps this year.
Budget Report:
- Jane reported that we have a lot of cash and had meetings with staff about what they would like to do with the cash. This may be a year where people may not spend/donate as much money, so we will be cautious about spending and wait for the Spring to determine recommended spending. Some thoughts were chairs, stage, professional development, tutoring, many thoughts, great, …
Direct Giving Chair Report:
- Thinking of fish ladder to track direct giving, and could have little fishes on ladder tracking goal and fundraising. It starts November 1st and continues through the rest of the year. It is not as much a focus during the auction and then is focused on again later.
- David Innes is looking into online giving account option for people to login and donate via PayPal.
Diversity Chair Report:
- Ed has diversity committee and interested people meeting coming up at Café Keffa (15thNW and 70th St) this Sunday, Oct 11, 3:30. The meeting is open to anyone who’d like to come.
- There is a diversity focus school meeting coming up discussing the inclusion model and it’s benefits. The event is October 22nd at the school. Roughly 20% of students in the public schools have some type of special needs and it’s really a good opportunity to learn more about each other. There has been good discussion about how it benefits every kid to have these kids in the classroom vs. the inclusion program. This is a great opportunity for parents to learn more and understand our whole community better.
Website Chair Report:
- David loves working on the website! People are starting to get accounts and David is teaching people how to use the accounts to post items on the website directly. He is going to create a HOW TO list for people to use.
- Each teacher will get mailing list by class, which will be nice for teachers.
- If you have question about website how it is organized etc, David is the person to talk to.
- If you want to post something on the website contact Megan or Jessica.
- David is working out a plan for posting content.
Health Chair Report:
- Caleb is working on a modest proposal around H1N1 and wants to simply raise awareness around hand washing. He would like to offer hand sanitizers to all teachers. Would like couple hundred dollars to cover costs of hand sanitizers.
- He has a couple posters he could distribute.
- There is a Nurse/Medical Supplies budget, which has been used to give the nurse band aides etc. and we are thinking of raising the budget to 850 from 550, so there is extra money for Caleb to use for Health committee on top of what the nurse needs. Motion presented and passed to raise the funds from 550 to 850 for Nurse/Medical Supplies budget.
- On the safety front, we need to restock bars and several other items in the emergency kits for the school . The committee will figure out the costs and present to fosb for approval based on the actual costs. Rosemary brought up that there are 2 cases of sanitary supplies in the basement that need to be added to the Earth Quake kits.
BLT Report:
- Rosemary Daszkiewicz added a lot to the student assignment plan discussion, but did not have more to report via BLT.
PIE Report:
- Julie Metzger coming November 5th focus on elementary schoolers.
- Planning to have her come again in March for middle school topic – maybe dress related.
- Also planning Blue Highway Games Night as a fun night and fundraiser.
Announcements:
- Fair trade Fair and Pancake Breakfast – community gathering event that’s fun and raises money for bridges to understanding. 8th grade girls .
- Book fair first weekend in December
Garden Committee Report:
- Work parties coming up – it’s all in the bulletin, but there’s a work party this Saturday, October 10th, come on out! – and putting together a butterfly garden.
Volunteer Openings:
- 7 Director positions
- After school program coordinator still open, even though Megan is launching program
Student Assignment Plan’s impact on Salmon Bay and families
By Kelly Bryant
Known features of SAP:
- North end HS boundaries will be revised; first iteration due next week
- Implementation to begin 2010-11 for grades K, 6 and 9
- As an option school, Salmon Bay will enroll based upon sibling and lottery tiebreakers
- Option schools lose feeder patterns once SAP is approved. Thornton Creek K-5 will no longer feed to our middle school
- Transportation svcs. offered for students living within the Whitman attendance area, plus students living within a linked attendance area (linked because the attendance area contains no option school)
- Once boundaries are approved, District staff will begin work on Transition Plan
As-yet unknown features of SAP:
- Transition Plan priorities: Geographic Zone tiebreaker creation, sibling grandfathering, middle school and HS transportation bugaboos (reliance on Metro for transport vs. Metro’s cost, service cutbacks, and route safety for minors)
- When these individual Transition pieces will be implemented
- How the 10% of Open Choice seats at HS level will be determined: Class size? Functional capacity? Geographic Zone (perhaps--didn’t hear zone mentioned in relation to HS specifically)? Other? Combination?
Hunches based on SPS information:
- Hamilton MS attendance area will be linked to Salmon Bay for assumed student draw and transportation eligibility purposes
- Geographic zone will be created for inclusion as a second tie breaker for enrollment purposes; will be created close to school campus to give neighbors a better chance to attend.
- North end HS boundaries are undecided. Board member comments and requests for data, combined with upcoming public comment, indicates changes to come
Philosophical issues for Salmon Bay:
- Without Option feeder patterns and with a move to deliver services “closer to home”, our middle school will lose both the predictable education philosophy of Thornton Creek families and the socio-economic diversity of citywide draw.
- District acknowledge SAP’s lack of predictability and avenues for cooperation among option schools. How to coalesce the existing system of alternative/option campuses was determined to be an educational/curriculum issue, thus falling outside the scope of SAP.
- Option schools were glossed over for this particular District project. In terms of the losses to our school created by the trend to deliver services closer to home, do we as FOSB want to ‘take a hit for the team’ or more vigorously defend and protect our unique program and advocate for alignment opportunities with other option schools? Hmmmmm....
