Welcome: Nicole Kazenske, PTO Co-President
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Brown International Academy PTO Meeting Notes September 9, 2010
Welcome: Nicole Kazenske, PTO co-president The meeting was called to order. All were welcomed to the meeting. The purpose of the PTO was stated as follows: The purpose of the PTO is to promote the welfare of the children of Brown International Academy and to promote effective communication and understanding among the parents, teachers and school staff. The PTO will assist in attaining the highest level of education and welfare of the entire student body of Brown through cooperative efforts of the faculty and staff, the Denver School District community and the PTO.
Carrie Nelson, ECE teacher, was introduced as the staff liaison for the PTO. Thank you, Carrie!
The purpose of the meeting is to hear from each Brown PTO committee and encourage parents/guardians of Brown students to join a committee and/or volunteer to help with a committee’s goal or projects.
Principally Speaking: Suzanne Loughran, Principal
Maureen Hogan, the new assistant principal, was introduced. Maureen has worked for DPS for over twenty years. For the last two years, she worked with many schools as a facilitator for the Response to Intervention model district-wide. Suzanne is pleased to have Maureen at Brown.
Brown’s student population is growing. Last spring there were 462 students and currently there are 497 students. The class sizes are very large in all grade levels, but especially in primary. There were 10 new students in Kindergarten, but DPS only counts those students as ½. DPS granted an additional teacher for 4th grade because of the increase in population.
Suzanne applied for class size relief. The request is due September 16. Brown will be competing with other DPS for the class size relief funding. She is requesting a teacher for 3rd grade and 1 primary teacher for 1st and 2nd grade to share. Paraprofessional hiring will be determined after the district determines the hiring or not hiring of additional teacher for class size relief.
Suzanne is already planning ahead for next school year. She is having discussions with her supervisor about looking for an alternative placement for the special education program at Brown, moving the program would allow for more classroom space.
A parent asked a question about the number of choice vs. neighborhood students at Brown. Suzanne said she would have to find that information. She said she does not accept choice students if a grade level is above a class size of 25 with a goal of only 3 sections at every grade level. There may not be any choice granted for next year including Kindergarten. All are invited to attend the CSC meetings. These meetings discuss issues such as staffing, budget, test results and the School Improvement Plan. The meetings are open, but only the members are allowed to vote. The names of the CSC team will be put in the October school newsletter. The first meeting will be Thursday, Sept 16th from 4-5:30. Child care is not provided.
Count Day is October 1st. Please make sure your child attends school that day! Funding is granted on number of students attending.
PTO Overview: Nicole There are exciting changes at Brown. There has been an influx of new parents. Now is the perfect opportunity for PTO to be more collaborative! If you have a question or suggestion here are the important people to contact:
Classroom Grant program - Holly Denton
After School Club - Hi Howard -
Volunteer Coordinator: Lauren Wolf [email protected]> Fundraising: Rebecca Caldwell Heather Berg was introduced as the PTO co-president. She will be shadowing Nicole and sharing the president responsibility this school year. Other PTO members were introduced: Janel Highfill as treasurer and Hilary Thornham as secretary. Overview from Groups in Attendance Classroom Grant Program: Holly Denton Holly is looking for people to join her in forming a Classroom Grant Program. This committee will finish up the work on the donorchoose.org program and develop a simple process for teachers to request funds for their classrooms. Please contact Holly if you are interested in developing a plan to get money into the classrooms. [email protected] Thank you Janel and Chris for the work on the Donorschoose.org program. PTO donated funds and grade levels and specials teachers had $200 to spend. Here are the projects for each grade level: ECE- costumes for dramatic play Kindergarten- compost kit 1st- Literacy center kits 2nd- Digital cameras 3rd-One year subscription to weekly reader 4th- Leveled book sets 5th- Time of Kids magazines Thank you to El Camino for the $1000 to buy pens used in classrooms on the Promethean Boards (Interactive White Boards). The students are so excited about this technology in the classroom! Garden Committee: Tina Daily Brown has a community garden outside of the cafeteria. There are 8 plots. Three plots are for the school. As part of Colorado Proud Day the cafeteria prepared an incredible bean and beef burrito with green chilies as well as calabasitas from scratch. The third grade students helped to harvest some of the produce for Colorado Proud Day and helped make salsa. Root Down chefs Daniel & Justin chopped and mixed the whole wheat pasta salad in the cafeteria. Kids had an opportunity to eat raw and fresh veggies including carrots, cherry tomatoes and broccoli. On Friday September 24 there will be a Harvest Moon Festival and Youth Farmer’s Market. Look for more information soon. There will be fundraisers in the future to expand the garden. The garden will expand to include herb beds and fruit trees. There is a lot of theft from the garden so a fence will also have to be added. The garden committee is working with Denver Urban Gardens and the School Garden to Cafeteria Program. Wellness Committee Support Person: Gina O’ Brian To show appreciation to the teachers, the wellness committee gave each teacher a basket with non candy rewards for students. The basket included an article with research that indicated that students are motivated by non candy rewards such as extra recess, stickers or lunch with the teacher more than food related rewards. Brown has a good relationship with DPS Food Services. After the success of the Brown salad bar last year, 75 more schools have a salad bar this year and there is an increase in the lunches made from scratch. Brown lost the funding for the Fruit Basket program for this school year. PTO is raising money to pay for the fruit basket program one day per week. DPS Food Services will allow students to pay for the fruit at cost. Brown is very close to being eligible for the School Challenge Award. This is a national award looking at healthy schools. Brown has many pieces in place to qualify for this award. The only aspect missing is 45 minutes of physical activity per week. If you are interested in learning more, please contact Gina. Wellness Committee: Karen Sorenson This is Karen’s last year at Brown. She is looking for a co-committee chair person to shadow her and take over leadership of the wellness committee. A grant writer is needed for this committee. Contact Karen if interested [email protected] . Fundraising Committee: Rebecca Caldwell This committee is looking for members. If you like to plan parties, have fun raising money or have ideas for fundraisers, contact Rebecca [email protected]. There are fundraising opportunities to plan in the future such as Red Trolley Night and Casino Night. Sign up for a Target Red Card and 5% will go to Brown. Communications Committee: Chris Wood Thank you to Barbara Farley for her hard work on the website. Thank you to Basha Cohen for her work on “What’s it Like?” documents Thank you to Keely Scott and Jen Gauerke for their work for the Highlands Street Fair. The Campaign for the Yahoo group is going well. There were 140 members on January 1 and now there are 263. Please sign up for the Brown Yahoo group. You may email Chris at [email protected] or call/text her at 720-855-8483. The goal of the communications committee is to work on internal communication and external recruitment. The external recruitment will continue, but more focus will be given to internal communication. The committee is looking several people including a new webmaster to replace Barbara Farley (She wants to volunteer in other ways.) a person to develop a separate fundraising web page to add to the website a person to write the PTO newsletter a person to organize the November Open House. If you are interested contact Chris at [email protected] or call/text her at 720-855-8483. Before and After School Program: Hi Howard The program will begin the second week of October. There is no funding from the Lights on After School program. Parents are the only ones in charge of the program. There must also be a paid teacher on site. The program is in need of 4 snack distributors. The shift is for ½ hour one day per week. Tina Daily is in charge of the snack distributors if you are interested. The program will be asking for a $25 contribution for those able to pay. Look for registration packets in the next few weeks. Volunteering at Brown: Lauren Wolf Please contact Lauren at [email protected] if you are interested in volunteering! She will be organizing all of the volunteers for the school year. Her mission is to offer a variety of volunteer opportunities to as many people as possible in an easy and convenient way. A new volunteer list is being assembled. If you volunteered in the past, you may not be on the list. Please submit your name to ensure that you are on the list. Please remember to fill out a background check at the front office. You must have a background check completed before you may work directly with children. Housekeeping/One Hit Wonders: Nicole Fall Festival will be October 27 from 4-6PM. This is a classroom related event. Please contact your child’s classroom teacher to ask how you can help. Check out the Lost and Found outside of the computer lab. All visitors must sign in at the front office. Please do not enter the building through the cafeteria. Brown will be hosting a coat drive this fall. Celeste Richardson will be in charge. More information to follow. Volunteer Recognition: Nicole Tina Daily was recognized as an outstanding volunteer for the Brown. Thanks for all you do, Tina! Upcoming Events: Friday, September 17 and Monday September 20 No School Friday, September 24 Harvest Moon Festival 3:30-5:30pm Wednesday, September 29 Brown Day at Red Trolley 7am-9pm Friday, October 1 October Count Day Wednesday, October 6 PTO Meeting 6:30pm Wednesday, October 27 Fall Festival Thursday, October 28 and Friday, October 29 No School Hilary Thornham, PTO secretary, recorded meeting notes