PTA Minutes

Breton Downs General Membership Meeting

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

1:00-2:30

Media Center

Welcome--Maria Allen

Approval of January 24, 2012 Minutes:  Courtney Moskal motioned to approve; Jennifer Coles seconded the motion. All in favor, motion passed.

Superintendent Report—Dr. Sara Shubel

·         2012-2013 Budget Communications: first three communications have been emailed out already. Fourth will be emailed out by end of week and will explain the compensation piece of the budget. Visit www.egrps.org for direct links to each of the communications.

·         District administrators spent time this week talking with state legislator, Peter MacGregor, who due to re-districting is now our representative.  They discussed how the current legislative issues impact EGR schools.

·         We should know early spring whether all day kindergarten will be implemented in EGR this fall 2012.

·         March 7, town hall meeting-come hear how our state representatives answer our questions on these tough legislative issues.

Principal Report--Caroline Cannon

·         MEAP test result reports go home this week.

·         Finishing up MAPS testing this week. Once all results are in,  student results will be sent home.

·         Thanked PTA and committee for winter carnival and silent auction.  Staff thanked PTA for support and mini grant awards.

·         Thanked Maria Allen and Kathy Oosse for the wonderful card that was signed by every student at Breton for principal appreciation week.

·         Courtney Moskal commended the staff for their enthusiastic participation in the silent auction with their creative “experience” donations.

·         Kyle Borst asked if/how new cut scores in the MEAP were reflected in the current results.  Caroline responded that there is not a huge change. Leadership committee is going through results now.  

·         Anne Grobel asked how the new scores should be compared to prior scores.  Caroline emphasized that the MEAP is just one piece of the student's academic progress. 

·         Discussion ensued about how the data, test questions are used to guide and adapt instruction. 

·         Assessments are important, but don’t ever show the entire picture. 

·         MEAP assessment results will provide an opportunity for districts to get funding back for increased performance in the next year, event though the MEAP test was never intended to be tied to dollars. 

·         Discussed NAPE’s (National Education Assessment Program) skewed coverage in media-it is a random selection of 3rd grade students in the state of MI-we don't get the results back, and the same group of students are not tested again. 

Special Presentations

EGR Schools Foundation--Amy Stuursma

Hurrah-March 17^th-starting to receive RSVPs. Two new features this year:

• Hurrah-pre-party open for anyone this year,:6-8:00pm, OST Building.        
• Texting campaign will officially kick off EGR Now! instead of a silent or live auction.  Donations texted will go to EGR NOW! fund.  The goal is to raise 15,000$ in text donations that night.

EGR NOW!

• Voluntary campaign to support the budget deficit- one of the largest deficits we have ever had. 
• Several important programs are at risk for being cut, such as but limited to, foreign language, art, PE. The complete list can be found in the EGR NOW! Pamphlet that was mailed out last week to every EGR and township resident. 
• The EGRSF has historically worked from their endowment.  A separate fund has been set up to raise as much money as possible that can then be given right back to the school system.
• Expecting a high percentage of support from the entire community, even households without school aged kids.  Our excellent schools directly impact our property values, so this budgetary crisis really affects everyone in EGR.
• 28,000.00 has already been raised. Texting option, online option, mail check or cash. Corporate/matching gifts are an option as the foundation is a 501c3 organiztion.
• What is the goal for how much each family should give?  The goal is to recoup some of the 300.00 per pupil cut that is proposed (900,000). If we get more, then we can recoup even more. Goal is to have every family contribute what they can, participation from everyone would be great.
• Donations are tax deductable.
• Checks Payable to either EGR NOW or EGRSF.
• Donations given can not be stretched over the year, as the money is needed in June for the upcoming budgetary year.
• Hoping to ride out these cuts and keep some vital programs in place.  If the cuts continue year after year, then we will just need to do educaiton differently-which is a whole different issue.

Leadership and Youth Development-- Stacy Trierwieler

• Founded in 1994.  June 2011, the director of the program was cut due to budgetary cuts. 
• Parents and students came together to bring back the program and changed the name to Leadership and Youth Development to emphasize the leadership aspect of the program.
• Offers leadership training and opportunities. Seeks to help youth build strong relationships and facilitate positive dialogue regarding peer pressure, bullying, and substance abuse. 
• Donations have kept this program around.
• Program always looking for more involvement and donations, there is a link on the HS webpage.
• Stacy presented DVD highlighting program.

Other Business:

Legislative Committee --Ann Grobel

• Cyber school bill--passed senate, now in second committee meeting in house, close to decision.  Concerned about cyber schools receiving money that should go to k-12 public schools. We are hoping for cyber schools to be monitiored closely if passed.
• All day Kindergarten recommendation will be presented March 12 to school board.
• Rumor in Lansing that the Kindergarten readiness date might be changed from Dec. 1 to Sept. 1.   This might occur as soon as this August-- would directly impact young 5 programs.
• Asking parents to look at all day Kindergarten now as a funding issue and contact legislators to voice concerns.
• Education Town Hall meeting--March 7th at 7:00-High School Little Auditorium.
• Rep MacGregor along with other legislators will be there to answer our questions regarding the changes to education they are proposing. 

Teacher/staff Report-Cinny Gould

• Congratulated PTA on Boogie and Auction
• Jacke Biurdick thanked us for reading
• Kindergarten and 1st grade thanks PTA for iPads and art gala
• Maria thanked teachers and staff for the wonderful job they do!

Safety Recognition-presented during lunch this time so they could be honored in front of their peers.  The safeties honored are:

• Ana Gehl
• Daniel Coles
• Luke Diehm
• Peter Grobel
• Cameron Hollen
• Emma Brinks
• Macy Oakes
• Tristan Reuban
• Lydia Reahms
• Maddie Fellows

Report from officers

President—Maria Allen

§  By-Laws-Michigan State PTA mandates that local PTA By-laws be reviewed and revised every 4 years.

·         Distributed copies of proposed by-laws revised by the PTA executive board.

§  Proposed by-laws with any further revisions will be voted on approval at March 20^th PTA general membership meeting.

§  Contact Maria Allen with any questions or concerns.

PTA Council Meeting

• Mr. Berents presented on Middle School happenings.
• Doug Jenkins presented One to One program.

Vice President—Allison White

• SAC report-Wealthy Elementarty School
• Principal Anthony Morey gave welcome and overview of Wealthy school.
• Kevin Philips gave budget update
• 580 participants  turned in  budget survey.

Next meeting March ?

Treasurer- Colleen Smith

• Current budget distributed for review
• 2 new things:
• boogie funds deposited, carnival made small profit
• mini grants and amounts funded listed.

Mini grant review on overhead

• PTA granted all 15,000.00 of budgeted funds after this last cycle.
• Next mini-grant review will be in May working with 2012/13 budget. In prior years, mini grant applications were accepted and reviewed throughout the year, this year, we set 3 dates to coincide with EGRSF grant cycle.

Assistant Treasurer—Ann Sheridan

• Getting numbers together on the various miscellaneous fundraisers.

Corresponding Secretary—Sue Keil

• Hand-made thank you book received from teachers and students for Brain Pop.
• Thank you received from Caroline Cannon for Principal Appreciation Week.
• Allison Peot thanked PTA for books for 3rd grade.
• Kids Food Basket sent nice thank you poster to Breton for our contribution.
• Lego Club-going very well. Still accepting donations and volunteers.
• Teacher appreciation Breakfast March 1st to thank teachers for their time in the auction items.

Committee Reports

• Nominating committee--no report.
• School Play-moving along nicely, formal rehearsals 3rd week of March. Saturday's performance moved to 11:00 so that families can go out to lunch after.
• Parents are encouraged to show their support of their students through placing a message space in the program.  Order forms distributed. 

Announcements

• Race to Nowhere: tonight, February 28^th.  Tickets are free, very powerful message presented in this film.
• Hearts of Gold Game: set for EGR/Christian game, Sept. 28th.  GR Christian has agreed to partner with East.  Looking to perhaps tie in the other sporting events ocurring that week, creating a Hearts of Gold week.
• Discussed how to inform more people of the Town Hall Meeting and encourage participation.  Decided to place a blurb at the top of the Breton Blast and perhaps even re-word in the subject line. Will place fliers around school.
• Boogie/Auction—Julie Kowalewski
• net $24,000-far exceeded goal.  Julie thanked students, staff and PTA, for everyone's help and enthusiasm in promoting the event. Sponsorship funds doubled from last year.  Maria thanked Julie, Rachel, Shelly and for doing such an amazing job with the events.

Meeting adjourned 2:25

Proposed February Minutes (DOC 64 KB)
Approved November 2011 Minutes (DOC 51 KB)
Approved September 2011 Minutes (PDF 108 KB)
Approved May 2011 Minutes (PDF 61 KB)

	pdf file: You need Adobe Acrobat Reader (version 7 or higher) to view this file. Download the free Adobe Acrobat Reader for PC or Macintosh.
	doc file: You need the Microsoft Word program, a free Microsoft Word viewer, or a program that can import Word files in order to view this file. To learn more about the free Microsoft Word Viewer, visit the Microsoft Word website.

Teacher Websites © 2012 Edline