Minutes -November 17th 2009/January 19th 2010/Feb 23rd 2010

November 17th 2009

6:30pm Community room at MCCPS.

Recap:

Announcements:-

Charter PTO received $75 from the E Cloth sales. Maria Peterson will be contacted to set up E Cloth sales during Exhibition: perhaps we can find alumni to 'man the booth'.

Mary McRae offered upcoming Nutcracker performance tickets with MCCPS PTO 

receiving a $2 profit for each ticket sold.

Action Plan:-

December 4th from 1-3:15 pm, the PTO is sponsoring a Community Service Day. We will have 4 or 5 speakers for the first 45 minutes (Patty Forster for My Brothers Table, Raw Arts, Cradles To Crayons, Hope for Creativity) for 5-10 minutes each. In the second segment, we will split the students into 10-12 different project stations to work on a community service project. We will need about 20 adult volunteers.

January 19th 2010

6:30pm community room at MCCPS

Recap:

The meeting focused on the options and transitions to high school. Katie Sullivan (8th grade Math Specialist), Jed O'Connor (special education director) and Michael Houlihan (school guidance counselor) were all on hand to explain the process, testing procedures and options available. Specifically Katie encouraged the students to get all test dates down, visit the schools of interest, perhaps shadow for a day and to request the Teacher recommendations required as soon as possible. Be sure all teacher evaluation packets are funneled through Eileen Perry and NOT given directly to any teacher. Private schools may also have an extra entrance exam. If you are going on to the high school in your town you will need to register. Your eighth grade team will explain all this in detail.

Katie suggests that during the summer, all incoming eighth graders keep working on ALEKS to keep their math skills sharp for the high school tests held in october/november.

Of special note, Katie Sullivan and Kay O'Dwyer offer a 10 week evening course to help the 8th grade student prepare for the High School placement test. This usually starts the 2nd week in september and runs through November at a cost of $200. Katie also encourages the studentsto look for sample test prep information on the web, searching "test prep review" (www.testprepreview.com/hspt_practice.htm)

February 23rd 2010

6:30 pm MCCPS community room

Recap:

The majority of the meeting was a discussion of the May "Teacher Appreciation Week", including the Teacher  Luncheon scheduled for May 12th at 12:30pm which will be the focus of the March 23rd PTO meeting. A number of ideas are on the table, including requesting that the classroom liasons attend the meeting to help brainstorm gift ideas, menus suggestions, catering possibility, themes and volunteer efforts needed, to be continued....

Outdoor Classroom- The weather is slowly improving and we look forward to opening up the outdoor space ASAP! We are also looking for ideas for summer maintenance (mowing, weeds, etc). Sue Ballou will define the need specifically and perhaps each grade level could be responsible for different weeks during the summer? Perhaps this could qualify as a community requirement for students? Norma Ross to check with Mike Ruth. Also discussed- having the coffee/dessert portion of the Teacher luncheon outside in "Natures Classroom".

Family Fun Event- We're looking for suggestions. On the table- Amesbury sports park, salem cinema, movie in the MCCPS gym, roller or ice skating.

Gift Book Program- Grace Bernstein has offered to help with this ongoing project. Thank You Grace!

Notes- Grade level teacher wish lists need updating. Norma Ross to solicit grade level liasons for help updating teacher requests and Norma Ross will personally solicit wishes from the support staff. Perhaps we could hold a "Recycle/Swap" for wish list needs during Teacher Appreciation Week?