Cleveland High School PTA Meeting Minutes

Location: Zoom video conference

Date: Wednesday, January 27, 2021

Time: 7:00 pm

Board in Attendance

Board Members: Amy Lewin, Kristin Sherwood, Victoria Allen, Janet Morgan, Ilka Bailey, Chris O’Connor, Melissa Toledo, Rosemary Breger, Leslie Kossoff, JJ Heldmann

Guests: Principal JoAnn Wadkins, Dan Mason, Nicole Chaves, Eilidh Lowery, Jenny Opsahl, Josh Piper, Amy Gannon

Agenda Items

Call to Order

Meeting called to order by Amy Lewin at 7:02 pm

Principal’s Report 

• The end of the first semester is a busy time at CHS and Principal Wadkins reported that there will be messaging around grades coming out shortly. The grades that are being released shortly will show up on students’ transcripts, factor into GPAs, and indicate whether students have earned credit or not. Because there are still students that are struggling to connect via CDL (Comprehensive Distance Learning), there are two marks that may appear on report cards that may be unfamiliar to families. Rather than giving a student an F, some teachers may be issuing a NG (No Grade) or INC (Incomplete). These marks indicate that the teacher does not have enough work from the student to accurately assess their progress to date. A multi-pronged credit recovery plan is being worked on to help students convert these into letter grades to earn credit.
  
• CDL will continue in the second semester, but a plan is in process to also introduce LIPI (Limited In-Person Instruction). LIPI is not designed to replace CDL, but is an additional means to provide additional support to students who are not currently engaging with school successfully. LIPI will not interfere with synchronous CDL classes and will be offered in the afternoons. Staff is currently identifying students who will benefit from LIPI and hope to bring small groups into the building in the near future. Extensive safety protocols are being established. The hope is to expand LIPI to additional groups and enrichment activities after the initial launch. Athletic practices on the field continue with strict limitations, and we may start to see some non-contact sports competitions happen in February.
• December’s CHS Gives Back was highly successful and directly helped many of our community’s families. An all-school assembly is being planned to celebrate that effort.
  
• JJ Heldmann asked if computer science was going to be added back to the curriculum. Principal Wadkins said that a survey had been conducted to assess students’ interest in CTE programs and there was more interest in business classes than computer science. However, she is interested in finding a teacher with a vision who can propose a computer science program that can be a part of the curriculum going forward. She also noted that CTE teachers do not have to be licensed teachers, so anyone qualified who might be interested in teaching computer science should contact her and she can help work with them to get the necessary CTE endorsement.
  
• Melissa Toledo asked if all staff be fully vaccinated before the kids go back to in-person learning. Principal Wadkins replied that they can not require employees to get the vaccine but they will all be offered the opportunity.
  
• Kristin Sherwood asked a follow up question concerning LIPI. She wanted to know if it will change the teaching responsibilities at all for the teachers who volunteer to take part in LIPI. Principal Wadkins said that it will not and that they will also get some extra pay for the work. There will not be extra planning and grading involved, as it’s more about helping students engage in their current classes, not about providing extra work for them. Chris O’Connor wondered if there might be funds available to help incentivise and encourage students to come in for LIPI, such as providing lunch from Burgerville or the like, as just opening the doors does not mean they’re going to show up after months of not engaging. Principal Wadkins agreed that it’s important to show that LIPI is not punitive but meant to be supportive.

Board Business

• President's Report

• Year End Appeal/CHS Gives Back update

• The PTA did two direct mailings at the end of 2020 in conjunction with the Foundation. Many thanks are due to Melissa Toledo for her hard work on the design and execution of the postcards. Amy is pleased to share we received just over $2,300 from that appeal and that the Foundation raised just over $15,000. The CHS Give Back campaign raised just over $5,000 for the PTA to use to help support students and families in our school community.

• February meeting plans

• The original plan for a January 20 panel discussion was postponed to February. Janet is still working on creating a program that will allow parents of current students and recent graduates to share their experiences and things that they have learned as their students have gone through CHS, such as what IB is all about, early graduation options, dual enrollment, social challenges, etc. Kristin, Victoria, Leslie and Melissa are all interested in helping shape the meeting to be held on February 17.  

• Fiscal Sponsorship updates

• The PTA has a history of being a fiscal sponsor for a number of parent-led CHS “Friends'' groups over the years. The Friends of Cleveland Bands grew to the point that it became its own non-profit, and the Friends of Cleveland Choirs and the Pigmice robotics team remain under the fiscal sponsorship of the PTA. The Friends of Cleveland Theater was established three years ago to sustain the program through a transition period at the school. Now that the program is in a more stable position, the decision has been made to close the FOCT group and all funds raised to date have been transferred to the school for use by the theater department.

• Secretary’s Report

The December meeting minutes were distributed electronically as linked during the meeting, and were approved as written.

• Treasurer’s Report

The most recent Treasurer's Report will be circulated to the Board via email.

New Business

• Amy is pleased to report that Nicole Chaves and Dan Mason answered the recruiting call for treasurers. There is a plan to bring them on as Co-Treasurers with Victoria remaining on as Assistant Treasurer to aid in the transition. Dan introduced himself and said that his son is a 9th grader and he is excited to join the PTA. He has a background in financial management and a business degree, and he likes working with numbers and people. Ensuring that education resources are delivered to students is important to him. Nicole is also the parent of a 9th grader who loves everything that CHS has to offer. She has an extensive background in volunteer work and a passion for crunching numbers, so the role seemed like a natural fit for her.
  
  Amy reminded all board members that the Oregon PTA has rules and training for officers and there are protocols in place for financial transactions. The transition plan was reviewed and a vote was held to approve the addition of Nicole Chaves and Dan Mason as new board members. Welcome and thank you, Nicole and Dan!
  
• Rosemary Breger provided an update on the second round of teacher grants. She started with a big thank you to Victoria, Melissa and Leslie for meeting to review teacher grants. The PTA budgeted $15,000 to fund teacher grants this school year. As of October, $5,899.98 of that total has been distributed. In January, the Teacher Grant Committee reviewed and recommended eight grant requests totaling $7,609.37. This includes funding for TI-84 rechargeable calculators for the math department, a literature app for German students, Chinese language books, art supplies, theatre masks, acceleration sensors for physics, a cricut machine and vinyl for leadership and ukuleles for the new singer/songwriter class. These requests have also been reviewed and approved by Ms. Wadkins. If all requests are funded, our funding total for the year would be $13,509.35 and there would be $1,490.65 remaining in case an urgent need arose.  A motion was made to approve the funding for these eight requests and passed unanimously.

• An update on Senior Party planning was provided by Kristin Sherwood and Ilka Bailey. They have been talking with Jan Watt and are looking into an outdoor location and ways of making the event as celebratory as possible while following all safety protocols. Amy will work on figuring out the budget for the event and will follow up via email.
  
• Melissa Toledo gave an update on the teacher care packages that were discussed at a prior meeting. She has come up with a group of CHS branded items to distribute to teachers that will cost approximately $1,700 to produce. A distribution plan still needs to be figured out with the administration. Victoria will look at the budget to assess any possible funding flexibilities and Amy will talk to Principal Wadkins about the possibility of using some of the budgeted principal’s discretionary funds to cover the costs. A request for a motion for approval will be conducted in the near future via email as allowed by our Standing Rules.

• Amy reported that the Foundation has reached out to say they are moving forward with a virtual spring fundraising event and would like to know if the PTA would like to partner with them. A number of board members expressed that they thought it was a good idea that benefits everybody, and several members said they are willing to help.
  
• Amy noted that she had some programming opportunities to discuss but in the interest of time, she would send them out for discussion via email.

Motions

• A motion to approve the addition of Nicole Chaves and Dan Mason to the board as Co-Treasurers, and to keep Victoria Allen on as Assistant Treasurer was made by Kristin Sherwood. The motion was seconded by Ilka Bailey. A vote was held and passed with eight in favor.
• A motion to approve the Teacher Grant Committee’s recommendation of funding for $7609.37 was made by Victoria, and seconded by Kristin. There was no further discussion, and the motion was approved unanimously.

Notes

Wednesday, February 17, 7:00 p.m. (Conference call via Zoom)

Adjourned at 8:40pm

Minutes Approved:

March 17, 2021