Since that meeting, I have been hard at work meeting with as many folks as possible. Jeff Warner, Communications Director for the District; Rex Reeder, Athletic Director; Middle School PTO leadership and of course, our high school leadership - Scott Stewart and Ric Stranges. Everyone has been so welcoming and generous with their time and information. I've quickly learned THERE IS A LOT TO DO. Of course, it hasn't been all work - I did get to enjoy a casual lunch with former PTO leadership to learn from the best veterans in town.
After meeting with so many people and thinking about how the PTO can best serve the school community, I've come up with three areas of focus: Communty Building, Program Support, and of course, Fundraising. Each of these areas has lots of opportunity for you to get involved on a regular basis or just once. I hope you will find something that sparks your fancy and you'll volunteer some time for our great schools!
I've decided to attend Board of Education meetings (BOE) as a way of keeping myself informed of what's going on district-wide, so I can report on that at PTO meetings...I plan to report as much as I can both at the meetings, here and on the facebook group. Speaking of which, if you've not joined the NAHS PTO Facebook Group - Please do!
So - for my first blog post, I thought I'd give a brief summary of the BOE meeting for those of you who couldn't be there. Not counting BOE members there were only about 5 parents attending so that would mean there were probably about 3,000 of you who couldn't attend! Maybe next time, right?
Well, the meeting was interesting with lots of information shared by many in the district. Dr. Castle reported that New Albany will be featured in an upconing issue of Newsweek - one of the nation's top 100 districts!!! That comes with the other great news that the Middle School will be recognized on Thursday as a top middle school in the nation. Congratulations Andy Culp! What a feather in his cap along with his intrepid Assistant Principal, Jamie Lusher. They will be honored in Washington, D.C. on Thursday and receive their honor along with the other schools noted for this achievement. Of course, there was the requisite financial information about the upcoming PI which will expire in December of 2009. Currently, this PI provides $1.6 million dollars of revenue to the district that can be spent on items with lasting value of 5+ years (busses, technology, books, capital improvements etc). The district is exploring three options with respect to this - renew it at the current rate of 1.72 mills, replace it at the 2.0 mills rate, or allow it to expire. The first option will mean no new taxes, the second will mean a higher valuation, and the third option means a tax break or reduction. The Board will reconvene the finance committee to discuss this further before they actually decide how or if this will appear on the ballot. I'm sure we'll be reading about this one in the paper!!! Of course I had some questions myself - what are the current budgeted epxenditures in this category? What would it mean if this expired? and How would the district be impacted without this money? Hopefully, these questions can be answered in the course of the next few weeks. The BOE will be making a decision soon on which strategic planning firm will be hired (you can see their proposals on the district's website). Our outstanding athletes of the season were recognized (track, lacrosse, tennis) as were our outstanding graduates (NAHS students were admitted to all ivy leagues schools - more accurately a FEW NAHS students were admitted to ALL the schools to which they applied, including multiple ivy leagues!) Regardless CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL OUR GREAT STUDENTS!There are some exciting things going on across the district for students - K-5 students can participate in summer reading and writing programs and for 2nd through 8th graders can attend "summer bridge" programs for students who can benefit from additional learning opportunities and intervention. The High School is also offering some credit recovery opportunities for students who failed or had difficulties this past year. It's a huge benefit to our students to be able to offer these programs here. Firstly, students attending summer programs on campus here are assured of the same high quality learning opportunities as they experience during the year, secondly, we are able to waive fees for these students if they stay in the district. Not only are the students learning on campus but our teachers are doing so as well. Teachers are participating in some online courses, smart board course, a Central Ohio Technology Summit and opportunities to learn how to enhance the curriculum with technology. Exciting changes were made to the College Counseling website as well - check it out - it looks great. If you've not had a chance to meet our college counselor, Jeff Stahlman, you should take a minute to stop by and say hello - he's a treasure to our district.New Albany For Kids (http://www.newalbanyforkids.org/) presented the results of their recent forum (May 19th). They gave an extensive presentation (you can find it on their website) but shared some key findings. Basically, 5 themes emerged from their evening forum: Educational Excellence (parents want to know what it is, how is it defined, how do we attain it and how do we measure it); Innovative Curriculum (curriculum should have breadth and depth, what do kids need to know? how is it delivered? is it consistent from building to building, grade to grade, teacher to teacher); Leadership and Vision (we need to return to civil and respectful discourse, re-establish trust with the administration and board, encourage a willingnes to volunteer - YES!) Facilities and Space Planning (pretty self-explanatory) and finally, Collaboration and Accomplishment (use resources productively, use community resourses, and partner as appropriate). It was a great presentation (I guess I'm partial because I'm friends with Ted Bernard and Laura Kohler). NAFK plans on holding future discussion forums so if you're interested in sharing your opinion, check out their website for more information.As the BOE moved into the business portion of its meeting the hour turned late and I had to run, but I did stay to see the new teachers' contracts approved (intervention specialists, elementary school teachers, a MS guidance teacher, and two high school teachers were hired). The regular business was conducted (and you can see what this was by visiting the BOE link on the school website) Aside from a brief discussion about school fees the meeting was pretty uneventful. Board Member Mike Klein was the loan dissenting vote on the approval of a school fee increase. Apparently, he philosophically opposes charging school fees. I'm not sure why, but if you have questions, you should definately ask him! I hear he has quite a following on twitter....
As the summer gets underway the PTO Executive Board (Bonnie Abramowitz, Susie Hirsh, and Marlene Donaldson and I) will be planning for the upcoming school year. As I mentioned above, there is a lot of work to do and many committees that will need your help.
Save the Date for the Supply Sale on August 24/25th (Teresa Denis and Peg Roberts will need volunteers to help), The Teacher Grant Committee chaired by Sue Carter will also need members, the PTO provides dinner to teachers during conferences and breakfast during teacher appreciation week, we help with the Eagle Pride breakfast, we'll be coordinating with the middle school on parent education, and of course there is always fundraising. I've got some great ideas that we'll be talking about in the coming weeks. Look for a PTO tailgate before a fall game, a Thursday night at the Rusty Bucket as well as a continuation of Coffee and Conversation at the high school.
That's all for now. Remember, I'm interested in hearing from you - comment on the blog, send me an email, post on facebook or better yet, give me a call and we can get together for coffee.
Until next time....
0 comments:
Post a Comment