PTG Meeting Minutes

Tuesday, November 13, 2007:

 

 

Endowment Fund Update:

§         The current Lapham-Marquette Endowment balance is $48,394.  We have raised $14,705 towards the Madison Community Foundation Challenge.  By meeting the grant challenge fully, will be getting the $3,750 matching grant.

§         Also received an anonymous $10,000 donation – thank you!  Looks like we will hit $50,000 by end of school year, which means the grant total will be increasing for next year.

§         Refer to PTG website for information regarding the endowment initiative: (http://lapham-marquette-ptg.org/endowment.htm).

 

 

Round-table issue identification:

Attendees were asked to introduce themselves and offer any suggestions they feel the PTG should address:

§         Diversity of representation in parent community/ptg outreach

§         Safety at the Williamson-Thorton intersection

§         Determine/define roles for class reps

§         Keeping schools open

§         Maintaining working relationships with neighborhood associations

§         PTG should better define how parents can get involved/volunteer with schools/In the classrooms

§         Discuss school testing/parents opting out of testing – how does that work?

§         Looking at PTG for source of information: direct instruction policy/balanced literacy

§         How are teachers handling increased classroom numbers (resulting from loss of SAGE)?

§         Report on how Affiliated Alternative students are integrating in Lapham building?  More about incident that happened with Affiliated Alternatives, which brought police officers into Lapham?  Is this a sustainable relationship?

§         Create forum within PTG to serve as link between all meetings that are happening district wide?  ideal to have action out of PTG group

§         Any idea of effects of budget cuts from last year?

§         How does broad picture advocacy come down to the classroom level?  How to help frame issues from state-city-district levels to understand funding?  Best way to advocate for our classrooms?

 

 

PTG Listserve Demo:

§         Please check out PTG website! http://lapham-marquette-ptg.org/

§         Demo discussing the links; working through the site to show what’s there

§         Consider signing-up to the listserve to receive school/ptg/issue updates

§         2 places to signup: 1) signup for the listserve; 2) will also need to “register” for the discussion board

§         Directions are included on PTG website; email for additional help signing up.

 

 

Advocacy Update:

§         Thursday, November 15 will be hearing at the Capitol on the Pope-Roberts/Breske Resolution demanding school finance reform.  Please consider attending/keeping informed.

§         Asked whether there is interest in bringing ABC Madison to a PTG meeting to discuss school refinancing; (yes there is interest – will work on this for future meeting)

§         ABC Madison (All the Best for Children – abcmadisonschools@yahoo.com): started out of public information sessions held last spring; organized to become a group that meets monthly; they are largely in line with WI Alliance for Excellent Schools (www.excellentschools.org)

§         Michael Hertting: at this time, we are not hearing the administration talking about changing L/M pairing for next year

 

 

Fundraising Update:

§         2 fundraisers completed successfully; Innisbrook raised ~$4,000; Wisconsin Homegrown raised ~$3600; both slightly exceeded goals

§         Pickup for Wisconsin Homegrown will be December 4 at Lapham

§         Directory is currently at printer; when that goes home, will also include “direct appeal” letter

§         Still considering/trying to coordinate “sports exchange” fundraiser – hope to have in before winter break

§         Just Coffee is on track; raised $300 in October

 

 

Principal Reports:

Andrea Kreft - Marquette

§         Cirque de Soleil stopped by unexpectedly today and performed on playground

§         More changes with WEE Start; construction started ~3 weeks ago; temporary delay waiting for construction changes

§         Been some shifting of spaces with SAPAR and some other programs; making sure all kids are serviced and that the changes are beneficial to all

§         Grade level teachers are headed out for half-day math instruction; professional development based on intermediate math notebook

§         Discussions with staff on goals/funding for next year

§         Teachers-kids working through testing

§         Code red drill – kids did super job

 

Anne Fischer-Affiliated Alternatives

§         In middle of testing for 8th and 10th grade kids; enrollment will be at quarter 35 to 42 (mostly with anticipation of daycare opening in December)

§         Construction needed to change some for licensing; this is a community based daycare with SAPAR – filled first with SAPAR; then with those in community; Anne has references for any community members interested in infant care

§         Dates for completed construction not definite; new fenced in area out front required as licensing

§         Regarding the incident at Lapham: staff felt the incident could have escalated therefore called police as backup; was between kids with special needs; student with no impulse control in verbal confrontation with another student; staff member stepped in and was confronted by student; staff member transported to urgent care via ambulance; everyone responded as they should have

§         Please call either Anne or Michael for additional information/concerns.

§         There were many questions about the incident; will consider devoting time next meeting to a discussion regarding how is this integration working for Affiliated Alternatives and for Lapham/Marquette kids?

 

Michael Hertting-Lapham

§         Windy City Players presented their “Cinderella play”

§         Shared UNICEF results, which were impressive (exact amounts forthcoming)

§         December Holiday Luncheon is coming up; will be including the Affiliated Alternatives kids with this.  The luncheon will be Monday, December 10 with staggered times depending on classes; still looking for volunteers

§         Looking for parent feedback on K/1 Sage setup

§         Biggest difference in increased class size?  Teachers have a hard time getting to know each kid as well

§         Code red drill coming up; will let parents know ahead of time.

 

 

Prioritization of Issues – Tonya Delborne

Issues identified earlier in meeting were prioritized and came out as follows:

 

Issues for the PTG to address:

  1. Advocacy Action

-          staying ahead of keeping our schools open

-          maintaining open communication with neighborhood associations

  1. Diversity of representation of the PTG

-          who we represent and ways to increase parent participation in the schools

  1. The safety of children crossing the street at Williamson and Thornton before and after school
  2. Determine a roll for classroom representatives
  3. Get information on balanced literacy and direct instruction policy
  4. Testing (No Child Left Behind) – making a coordinated response
  5. Learning more about the effects of the budget cuts

-          how are teachers managing increased class sizes

-          how are the Affiliated Alternatives integrating into Lapham and Marquette

 

At the next meeting, we will break into groups by issue and come up with problem statements and two action steps on each issue to move forward.