CSCA Meeting – March 13, 2012

Meeting notes submitted by Janet Sleath

Present: Sam Star, Janet Sleath, Steve Havas, Pamela Pakker-Kozicki , Sandy Tennyson, Maureen Kostyack, Tom Wolf, Oksana Britsova, Paul Dieter & Aimee Bramble

Ten CSCA members present – twelve CSCA members are required for a quorum.

Meeting called to order at 6:39 PM

1. The School District previously projected a lower number of students for TCS for the 2012-2013 school year than for the current year, and Oksana was concerned that this might lead to a cut in the school budget which would, in turn, result in a downward spiral for TCS due to the need to cut classes, etc.. However, Oksana has been assured that that will not be the case as TCS is classed as an alternative school, and alternative schools have more flexibility than just going by the number of students. She has been told that TCS will always have 10 FTEs in terms of teaching staff. We currently have 11.2 FTE teachers. The projected number of students for next year indicates that TCS will need to cut one section of humanities, one section of integrated science and one class of Spanish. We will keep all the current electives. Ms. Storey, who is currently 0.6 FTE, will be let go. Ms. Zupke, who is full-time, is leaving and will be replaced by a part-time teacher. The current Wednesday schedule will be moved to Fridays to enable Wynn to be available for arts integration for all classes on that day. She will continue to teach graphic design, which is a CTE class. The counselor will remain at 0.8, although Oksana would prefer to have a full-time counselor. The actual enrollment for the 2012-2013 year may be higher, in which case Ms. Storey's position might be restored.

All the courses that are offered now will be offered next year, with the only questionable one being integrated science, which may be split into biology and physics. The school might offer another science class instead of AP Biology. Oksana indicated that the school will not need money from the CSCA to support teacher salaries but requested that the CSCA consider providing money to enable the school to have a full-time counselor, rather than the current 0.8 FTE position. Another possibility is for the CSCA to support more arts integration. This would need to be someone other than Wynn, as she not available to spend more time at the school. Margaret Chodos-Irvine would be a good person for this and has indicated that she is willing to stay for one more year. Oksana agreed to put together a brief proposal for approx. $20K of support from the CSCA, and the CSCA will hold a budget meeting to consider the amount of funds it can provide.

Oksana is on the school district committee that is planning distribution of an arts grant from the Wallace Foundation and is recommending that the money be spent on arts integrations specialists. There will probably be about $10K per school which may or may not come with strings attached.

2. Sam noted that Hale and Ingraham also don't have many people show to PTA meetings and that they raise approx. $60K from 1100 families. It was agreed that getting more parents involved in the CSCA may lead to more donations. Oksana indicated that increased parent involvement and/or communication with the school would be helpful and noted that last year she was able to meet with all the incoming 9th graders and their parents, but she wasn't able to do that this year. She feels that she's having to put out a lot of fires that could have been avoided if she had more information about incoming students at the beginning of the year. Oksana stated that increasing the counselor position to full time would allow the meetings with incoming students to take place. It would be helpful for TCS to have a good transition program for freshmen; possibilities for this to include more team building activities, paying teachers to come in August to meet incoming students, and student mentors.

3. The school is working on diversity issues and reaching out to minority students. Jon Greenberg is working on a diversity survey. Oksana noted that the students are very interested in diversity issues.

4. It was noted that some PTAs pay for volunteer coordinators and give them several different duties. Oksana indicated that it would be useful to have someone to act as a science liaison. It was suggested that we name five events for the next school year now and line up people to organize them. Oksana noted that morale in the school seems to be low at this time of year and that it would be nice to have some kind of event around this time.

5. It was suggested that we consider changing the day of week for some CSCA meetings as some people have regular commitments for specific evenings.

6. Treasurer's report - the CSCA forecast raising $30K through enrichment fees but has raised approx. $20K. On the other hand, general support donations (mainly regular donations through Network for Good) are much higher than forecasted.

We have budgeted for raising 7K at the Warehouse party/auction, and are hoping to raise more. The budget committee has discussed cutting the budget back in six areas, specifically $1-1.5K out of drama integration, $1K from the budgeted contribution to SSIA (SSIA shut down so we won't be making the contribution), approx. $500 from teacher appreciation (holiday lunch was all donated), $2K from mini-grants, $2.5K from homework club, and $1.5K from humanities enrichment. In total, this would save approx. $9K. Paul Dieter indicated that we may also be able to cut another $1K from senior events.

7. Planning for the fund-raising party is in full-swing. The planning committee has requested help on finding software to help with checking people in and out, keeping track of items that will be in auction and items that will be sold, creating bid forms etc. Aimee will find out how we were able to accept credit cards at least year's house parties. Steve offered to help set this up. The venue is Within Sodo, which is located near Sears. There will be finger foods provided by volunteers. The committee is going to send out a survey looking for more help with food, procuring small items, etc. There will be no cost for admission and there will be auction items for all different budgets. There will also be an "ask" as part of a 45 minute program. Oksana will speak, and potentially some students. The committee is considering having students donate art, crafts and services to sell, and there may be raffle. This is not a family event. Tom can send out a special blast about the auction. Pamela will distribute info on future auction meetings.

8. Steve proposed that we amend the standing rules at some point to reduce the number of members needed for a quorum to 8. However, we researched this further and found that WA State PTA guideline state that a minimum quorum must be at least ten dues-paying members.

9. The school gets more money for students who qualify for reduced lunch. TCS currently has approximately 40 students who have filled out the paperwork and qualified, but there are probably more students who could qualify. The follow-up phone calls that were made for the enrichment fees brought in about another $1K from about 15 families. TCS probably has a few families who are somewhat wealthy – it would be useful if we could get these families more involved with the school.

Meeting adjourned at 8:38 PM.