PTA Meeting Minutes: 10.11.2016

Buckman Arts Focus Elementary
PTA Community Meeting Minutes
October 11, 2016
6:00- 8:00 PM
Buckman Cafetorium

6:00-6:30 The first 30 minutes were set aside for pizza and social time

Meeting called to order at 6:30 by Wendy Marich

Introduction of 2016/2017 Board Members Wendy Marich, Sarah Suby, Chamian Creagle, Hillary Woodard, Margaret Speth

Please check out the murals on the upper playground created by Buckman neighbor, Clutch. He volunteers his time to beautify the school. More public art to come.
PTA, in conjunction with Mr. Simmons, will be working to repaint the upper playground lines and map.
Thank you to Ms. Rudnick for all of her hard work in the library to expand programming.
Diane of SUN requested that we communicate the following SUN announcements
- Season of Sharing will take place in December. If you or any Buckman families you know have a need for gifts around the holiday times, please contact Diane to find out more about the program and/or to apply.
- 4th and 5th grade basketball sign ups are happening now
- November 3rd, there is a Spaghetti Dinner planned
- November 15th, with the help of Wendy Crozier, Literacy Night is happening at the school. Theme is Carnival of Words. Contact Wendy Crozier to get involved.
Room Parents — our teachers need you! Please check in with your teacher about being a room parent for your child’s classroom, or email Nicole Edner zannnalee@yahoo.com
We are looking for new PTA Board members for next year. We’d love to show you the ropes this year to make the transition next year easier. Let us know if you’re interested now. Email pta@buckmanelementary.org

Review and vote to approve minutes of April 2016 PTA Meeting – Margaret Speth

Meeting minutes were reviewed. Angela Kirkman made a motion to approve the minutes. Cheryl Lapsley seconded the motion. Minutes approved unanimously.

Standing Rules for the 2016/2017 school year will remain the same as last year. We reviewed these rules. Krista Hofmeister made a motion to approve the Standing Rules. Cara Althoff seconded the motion. Standing Rules approved unanimously.

Hillary reviewed the budget for the 2016/2017 school year highlighting a few of the larger expenditures to explain what they were for.
Hillary proposed the necessary action of adding a line item to the budget to pay for an expenditure (6 ipads for the school) that was approved during last school year’s budget cycle. The actual purchase of the ipads did not take place before last budget year ended. And so the proposal was made to add a line item to this years budget to cover this cost – to be called “Reimbursement of Approved Funds from 2015/2016”. Angela Kirkham made a motion to approve the line item. Krista Hofmeister seconded. Approved unanimously.

Art Show and Sell – Michelle Cacka
Foundation – Frances Kappes – Please consider automatic monthly donations and the Foundation is in need of someone to head up apparel sales
SCRIP, Chinook Books, Amazon and Fred Meyer rewards

Two representatives presented their argument in favor of Measure 97 which would close the corporate tax loophole and provide a much needed influx of cash to education and some social services.

Facilities
- Water – water dispensers are being used successfully throughout the school. No more single use bottles. Keep sending your kid to school with their own water bottle.
- Buckman Pool – Susan explained the status of the pool due to peeling lead paint, asbestos and the need to relocate the HVAC systems to a different part of the building. Estimates for this repair work is around $350-450K. Friends Of Buckman Pool are pursuing grant money to fund this expense and while they are searching for $$, the pool remains filled with water to keep it limping along. It is unclear at this time if the Friends Of Buckman Pool will be able to come up with the necessary funds.
- Traffic Patterns – With the shift of stop sign at 16th and Pine from 16th Street to Pine street, there’s has been an increase in speeding down 16th right in front of the school. Susan is meeting with Safer Routes folks to see what can be done to slow traffic around the school

School Data –
- Enrollment is at 465 and the school is comprised of 50% neighborhood and 50% transfer.
- Susan reviewed Smarter Balanced Test results from the previous year. Inconclusive due to students opting out and the fact that the test has still not been proven valid.

New This Year
- Focus On Literacy – keep an eye out for Literacy Night
- Bear Hugs, First Wednesday Assemblies, Student Leadership, School Song
- Students now have two recesses instead of one.
- PBIS – this is the new behavioral program currently in place.

Enrollment numbers should stay stable to growing in the coming years. There is some room to add lottery slots for the older grades but there is no priority placed on trying to get enrollment above 500 because although it would result in more FTE’s for the school, it would also mean class sizes that are too big. In order for Buckman to pay for all FTEs next year, Measure 97 must pass. The upcoming school budget was based on 97 passing and if it doesn’t, there’s potential for the school to be in a funding crisis. Oye.

PE requirements are shifting. 10 years ago there was legislation passed that said all PPS schools must provide 150 minutes of ‘intentionally and sequentially taught movement’. The state gave the schools 10 years to get to this point. Buckman has used time spent doing run/walk, dance, music class and classroom teacher led activities to meet these requirements. It is unclear whether the district will continue to accept the Buckman way of PE or if they will demand Susan hire a dedicated PE teacher. This is another expense that would make it problematic to pay for our arts teachers in the coming years.

Is anyone still reading this…..?

Dates to Remember:

October 18 — Movie Night & Nostrana Dines Out

October 26 — Foundation Pub Night, Green Dragon 7pm, Green Dragon

October 30 – Bowl-o-ween at Grand Central Bowl from 11am – 1 pm. Wear your costumes!

November 9 & 10 — Used Book Sale in the cafetorium during teacher conferences

November 18 — Grandparents/Special Friends Day