January 21, 2010

PTA Meeting

www.clairelilienthal.org

Attending:

Jim Thirtyacre, David Bass, Jordan Hymowitz, John Olden, Nancy Sur, Meserve Platt, MJ Call

William Hack: Administrative representative

Meeting called to order at 6:30pm

Minutes from November shown on board. Jordan Hymowitz motioned to pass minutes, MJ Call seconded, approved unanimously.

PRESIDENT’S REPORT

• Notified PTA of upcoming meeting to discuss budget issues

• Noted big turnover on key volunteers next year – quilting, Book Fair

• Introduced idea of a “Fun Run” fundraiser. Alamo raises $60K each year on it. Ms. Hadley has offered to help take the reins. Can bring in people from outside community. May want to drop Holiday Sales fundraiser (QSP) in lieu of this.

• Will be a February, an April and May PTA Meeting.

ADMINISTRATOR’S REPORT – William Hack

• At midpoint of year. Solid results thus far. Using Balanced Scorecard as benchmark.

• Working on differentiating for GATE and other programs.

• Camp EdMo donating programs for teachers to use as thanks for allowing use of Madison campus over the summer. Will be at GATE night on March 11.

• Applying for grant for Visual Thinking program – how children learn through art.

• Prof Development Day on Jan 29 – Everyday Math is focus

• All middle school teachers on School Loop now. Working on way to have it accessible to all parents.

•Appreciation Walls still in place

• Madison Campus has all new floors in public areas. Scott has new floors in Auditorium.

•The cuts State is forcing District to make are the largest in history. Have identified some areas that are being considered before cutting site budgets. Meeting with Carlos Garcia on Jan 26.

-Minimal Summer School

-Transport (busses)

-Sabbaticals

-Freezing step increases

-Furloughs

•Productive meetings with faculty on Outdoor Ed planning

-Discussing more student involvement in fund raising

-Raising costs in lower grades

-General consensus among staff, but no final decisions yet

-Thanked Jordan for providing spreadsheet on $ for OE

-One more meeting where parents, faculty can discuss OE – date will be announced in Newsletter – a plan will be presented at that time

•PTA can cover personnel funding – we give it to the District and requisition it back out ($73K average total with benefits). District has total say over who is hired. Not even necessarily a way to save a specific existing teacher. More senior people may be moved into any particular space.

• In full swing with arts education. Invited everyone to attend Fiorello, program from SF ArtsEd – several CL students in the show.

TREASURER’S REPORT – David Bass

•Have gotten additional PTA Membership donations – up to approx $127K

•Well ahead of plan due to PTA Membership, Holiday sales, Poker Night, Green Zebra successes

•First half of year, approx $163K income

•Tight cash flow until Auction funds come in

•Need to address the issue of families not covering all of OE costs, particularly in the 7^th and 8^th grades.

-Ms. Gormley addressed issue of bringing consistency to how funds are raised from class to class, and how costs and fund-raising are communicated to parents

AUCTION REPORT – MJ Call and Cynthia Hogan

• Auction is March 13 – Donations are about at normal level for this time of year

• 180 donations to date – mostly from business. Far fewer restaurants have given than in past years.

• Some parent donations

• About $20K worth of donations plus 20 quilts

• IT team is working – Auction Tracker database system will be online in days

• Advertiser/Underwriting team – looking for corporate or business underwriters to help cover costs

• Invitations – Terry Beaugars has re-designed Auction logo

• Cynthia offered the opportunity for parents to underwrite portions of the cost of the event itself.

• MJ will post the master list of donors so that people can see where they should focus their solicitation efforts.

• MJ will add a “How You Can Help” page to the website

• Need more large donations from 4^th grade down parents – many of the bigger donations of vacation houses, etc. are graduating soon

• Cynthia is seeking a more multi-cultural event this year. To that end, she is working on having materials translated to Korean and Spanish. Also asking families to donate 100 hors d’oeuvres reflecting family cultural backgrounds. Asked for greater outreach with KIP program to involve KIP families more in Auction prep. Jim suggested Cecilia Kim as liaison.

• Ticket prices are $50/person, same as last year.

GSY REPORT – Bolivar Puyol and Jim Fong

• This Saturday is Garden work day. Load of gravel coming.

• 3^rd and 4^th grade classes have been using the garden. Discussions about how to reach in and get more participation in higher grades.

• $6600 left from bond fund – need to decide as a community how to use that – invited input.

• Water catchment program under development.

• Looking for grant to do shade program. Mr. Hack noted that we need to show that we have sun safety programs as part of curriculum. In the process of being created. Looking for a dermatologist sponsor.

• Fundraiser at Sloat Garden center – 10% of purchases back to school. School with most funds gets 20% back in purchases at Sloat and some garden education provided by Sloat. Suggestion to hand flyers out beyond CL immediate community.

• Mr. Delwiche said the middle school kids like to come up with their own projects, and haven’t figured out how to fit into the ongoing garden development. His classes are beginning to use it, but probably won’t fully utilize it this year. Will incorporate garden-related projects into planning for Science Fair next year.

•Asked if ok to post gardening items for sale on GSY page of website. Yes.

• Shared video showing community involvement in GSY development.

NEW BUSINESS

• Request for a keyboard for Madison campus, for $800. Will come out of Arts budget.

• Lost several computers to a break-in in one of the bungalows. Need to insure iMac computers that are in classrooms. An additional $560/year requested. Jim Thirtyacre moved to fund. Jordan seconded. Passed unanimously.

• Ms. Saunders introduced a Comedy Night fundraiser for the Hope Flight Foundation, inviting parents, teachers to attend on Jan 26 at 7:30pm at the Make-Out Room, 3225 22^nd St, SF, for a $15 donation at the door.

Jordan Hymowitz moved to adjourn. Jim Thirtyacre seconded. Meeting adjourned at 8:35.