BPO Meeting Minutes 3/3/08

Call to order – 7:00 pm.

Attendees - Sue Lin, Sherrie Jewett, Kimberly Moses, Mark Aikawa, Jamie Pehanick, Pam Rafanelli, Michael Brady, Tina Coleman, Joe Loduca, Deidre Brodeur Coen, Julie Valdez, Lisa Joyce, Sandy Rappaport, Leslie Estrada, Jennifer Cavenaugh, Laura Katter, Michelle Turner, Jonathan Ring, Amal Smith

Lois B. Rawlings Inspirational Award – Chuck Chakravartula

Chuck Chakravartula is a former school board member whose grown children went through Piedmont schools. He now serves on the board of the Lois Blair Rawlings Foundation. The foundation was started by Ken Rawlings in memory of his mother who was a teacher all her life. This award to honor those, in the Piedmont education community, who demonstrate exceptional ability to inspire, motivate & encourage Piedmont youth – anyone in the community, teachers, city employees, etc. can be nominated. Ms. Pam Raffanelli was a recipient of this award a few years ago.

Chuck stated that the foundation wants you to nominate people and it is a simple process to complete the form. Forms are available at city offices, school offices, call Maureen Rhodin at 547-5640 or the East Bay Community Foundation at 208-0804. The forms can be faxed in to the foundation. The deadline for nominations is Monday, March 31. The award announcements will be made mid-April. The recipient receives $5,000 in two parts. $2500 is to keep and $2500 is donated, on the recipient’s behalf, to a non-profit of their choosing that has been approved by the Lois Blair Rawlings Foundation Board.

Secretary’s Report – February 11 meeting minutes were approved.

Principal Report – Julie Valdez

March 18 new student registration starts at the community center. Online registration is available but you still need to bring some paperwork on March 18.

There is lots of Beach Revue activity going on now and the playground is a buzz with the kids talking about it. It is a great community feel and Ms. Valdez is looking forward to seeing it.

BPO volunteer position nomination process is going on and thank you for supporting the school and for nominating people.

Teachers are busy preparing for conferences. They are assessing and analyzing students to prepare for it. Ms. Rafanelli said this is her favorite conference of the year because there is still a lot time left to work on things and it is very goal oriented.

Ms. Estrada, 1st grade teacher said that preparing for the conferences is a lot of effort and pressure but the results are very rewarding. She enjoys the conference time & learns more about the student based on the parents comments and questions too.

Fourth grade writing test starts this week. It is a sealed test until it begins. There are two state scorers who can give up to 8 points for each student. There is a parent report of this test’s results and it is on the STAR report. They don’t know what the test is until it is opened but likely will be something the 4th graders emphasize at that level. It might be a comprehension piece that they are asked questions about and have summarize. The test can take as long as they want and could be all day. It will start at about 9:45 and most 80+% of the children finish by noon & the rest will have a quiet comfortable room available after lunch to complete it. Brenda Wallace, an outside consultant, has been working with Beach in the Lucy Calkins Program for teaching people how to write. Fourth grade is very challenging because it involves conceptual ideas, small motor skills, and editing work.

Ms. Rafanelli, 2nd grade teacher, added that everything the teachers do is based on state standards and it takes a lot to prepare for STAR testing – every day incorporates it. Grades 2nd-5th participate in STAR testing.

There was a question and discussion on what is the philosophy on sharing the scores of these types of tests with the students themselves. Ms. Valdez said it is up to each family but personally considered it unnecessary pressure on elementary school children to have a number score. They know what they are good at and what they need to improve on.

Stephanie Manalo-LeClair was hired as an aide in the 5th grade class and is also an After School Enrichment (ASE) teacher.

Ms Sawicki’s 4th grade room’s Smart Board is ready to demo at next April BPO meeting.

Math Curriculum Review and Change – Jamie Adams at the district level is directing this effort (she is also the Millennium School Principal). There has been more communication between grade levels and schools than ever and it is a good process. Last week, Sarah Kingston led the curriculum committee in a sample math problem that illustrated teaching to different levels of math in the same classroom and in this case using the same math problem. Table groups worked on the problem and it helped highlight the characteristics of a rich math experience. Learners of different levels worked on the same problem.

A parent asked if Ms. Valdez was still accepting donations. Yes. Ms. Valdez is bicycling 104 miles this weekend for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. The Beach community has been really generous. There is a Beach Kindergartener who just completed chemotherapy and Ms. Valdez’s father in-law died from Leukemia so this is a way to honor him. She is also riding for a Beach parent who is undergoing a bone marrow transplant this month.

One parent noted that on March 11, please light a candle & think about this parent in support of a bone marrow transplant procedure on that date.

President’s Report – Sue Lin

Beach Revue ticket price was raised to fund some unexpected sound needs this year. Next year, the Beach Revue committee can evaluate need and reset the price.

A motion was approved to purchase a gift for Kim Rhody as part of honoring her as this is her last year as producer.

Online registration this fall will benefit the BPO with information organized and available from the new district system. Communication and emails will be available via this new registration and process. Assoc. Parent Clubs of Piedmont membership form, BPO membership form, volunteer form, and room parent forms have been submitted to the developers to be included in the system. There will still be a paper version of the summer mailer available in the office and available on certain dates near the end of summer and before school starts in the fall. This will be a transition year and the goal is to move towards a paper-less process.

Last year was the first year of online registration for middle & high schools. There were some problems with the support group (PRAISE, CHIME, PAINTS, etc) registrations. They topped out on donations so there was a limit in the system and then it would not take additional donations so parents were unable to donate and join support groups.

David Roth is the contact for the online elementary school process. Laura Katter suggested that pay to & mailing address be put at the top of the online forms to avoid losing donations for those that prefer to pay by check.

Save our Schools campaign – the Piedmont community has sent 600 letters to government officials. Sue is Beach’s representative so is looking for ways to create awareness and increase participation. For those interested, Sue and volunteers will be passing out information to people in line for the Beach Revue show.

Treasurer’s Report – Amal Smith

Amal Smith presented the BPO budget income statement & balance sheet and explained new balance sheet line items. She purchased a new CD for a better rate and explained the breakout of retained earnings for future curriculum support.

Committee Reports

CHIME – Jonathan Ring is the Beach Parent CHIME committee member. There was some confusion at the Feb. BPO meeting about a music department request and possibly other funding sources for it so Jonathan came to clarify the process. CHIME supports music programs. Last spring’s Tri-School fundraiser “Spring Fling” Fund an Item was held at the event and earmarked for the music program. $4,030 was raised for Beach’s music department. The music program is a district-wide run program and so the CHIME president coordinated the music teachers from the elementary schools to identify their most pressing needs. Jonathan Ring clarified what the requested amount is for – instruments and clinic service. These are things that CHIME has funded in the past so that is how CHIME got involved in helping with this process. For example, the district cut the 4th grade program several years ago & CHIME was able to save itThe music teachers need to fund a clinician/music teacher to do small clinic work ($650) and purchase instruments. Beach is behind the other Piedmont schools in their program this year and the clinic work is needed to catch up. Beach is behind because of the music teacher rotation days and so many Beach days land on minimum days and Monday work/holiday days. This schedule has been in place for a number of years and that is another issue that Ms. Valdez is taking up to ensure equitable music instruction time at Beach. There was some concern over BPO paying for staff ($650) and is there ongoing need for it. CHIME typically funds clinicians and these requests come in as grant requests from the music teachers to CHIME. The music teachers’ needs for Beach were presented to BPO to be filled by the Spring Fling money and so they did not submit grant requests to CHIME for these needs and CHIME is making decisions on their grant requests received tonight. Ms. Valdez had an earlier concern for the baritone (mini-tuba) request as that is a huge instrument and concern about need, expense and storing it. The list of needs was updated to move the baritone to a lower priority and not part of this request. The additional instruments are needed primarily because kids are trying instruments in the 4th grade rotations & can’t cover all needs & need process to be more efficient due to timing of this year. Also, on any given year, 5th graders need to pick and work on one instrument and the music department would like to provide some options because the interest for a particular instrument fluctuates between the years.The motion to fund this Music request of $4141 (including the $650) was approved. But the $650 is a one-time deal. The rest of the request is for instruments: 6 trumpets $2,934, 6 trumpet mouth pieces $112, 6 trombone mouth pieces $112, tax $333 = $4,141

Additional requests needed in future – 1 baritone $1650, 5 trumpet $2445, 6 king trombones $2970, 3 violins $1550

Nominating Committee – Joe Loduca. There is good progress in filling BPO volunteer positions for next year but still lots of opportunities. For example, the important Tri- School Spring Auction, that raised $65,000 for Beach, needs volunteers. If you have an interest & are would like to join a committee, please let Joe Loduca know & he will find something to meet your needs & time available. You don’t need to be a committee chair. There are lots of opportunities to meet parents & people outside of the Beach parent community too. You can nominate someone (& remain anonymous) or yourself just contact JOE LODUCA.

Hot Lunch – Kimberly Moses. Kimberly is starting the discussion to improve the hot lunch program and free up volunteer hours for other needs next year. She presented two options: One would be to keep Friday Hot Lunch as it is and the other is to change to Revolution Foods. She will open it up for a school wide discussion by posting a Pros and Cons sheet on the BPO website this week and attaching it to the next Wednesday News and requesting comments.

There will be a tasting of Revolution Foods on April 7th and survey of the whole school after that. The survey will ask people to choose between the current program or to try Revolution Foods. There will be additional questions to help define BPO goals and objectives. For example, rank the priority of affordability, earth friendliness, number of days offered, and nutritional value. Also, do you think BPO should be using this as a fundraiser if we move to an outside service? Currently, it provides between $7K and $10K+ a year to the BPO budget that includes curriculum support expenses. With the survey results, the BPO meeting attendees will vote on it at the May BPO meeting. .There was a question on what other schools do about hot lunch programs. Ms. Valdez said that other school districts run hot lunch programs at a district level (typically large districts) but critical to have central kitchens, professional chefs, transportation, site coordinators, etc. Health codes are important and also districts contract the whole thing out. Pros & Cons and background information is being compiled and put on the www.beachparents.org website VERY SOON!!!

For now, Hot Lunch Fridays continue to be volunteer run so call or email Kimberly to help as they can use help on most Fridays between 11:30am-1pm.

Parent Education – Michelle Turner for Margaret Ovenden April 2 is a Children’s Environmental Health event including indoor air quality. Details are online at www.beachparents.org. It will be a very informative night with demonstrations, how to read & interpret cleaning product labels & plastic information. This event will be hosted at Beach school. There are also volunteer opportunities for sound, supplies, photography, set up, clean-up and PowerPoint presentation technical support for the presenters.

Green Committee – Michelle Turner for Margaret Ovenden May 8th is multi-school event and an electronic flyer is going out very soon.

Meeting adjourned 9:40 pm

BPO Meeting Agenda – March 3rd 2008, 7:00pm (updated)

Beach Parent Organization

Agenda

Monday, March 3, 2008

Multipurpose Room, Beach School

 

Call to Order and Introductions 7:00 pm

Lois B. Rawlings Inspirational Award                Chuck Chakravartula

Secretary’s Report                                                       Sherrie Jewett

Principal’s Message                                                      Julie Valdez

BPO President’s Report                                               Sue Lin            

BPO Treasurer’s Report                                               Amal Smith

Committee Reports

            CHIME                                                            Jonathan Ring

Nominating Committee                         Joe Loduca

Hot Lunch                                                        Kimberly Moses

Parent Education                                              Margaret Ovenden

Green Committee                                             Margaret Ovenden

 
Adjourn at 9:00 pm

 

BPO Meeting Minutes 2/11/08

Call to order – 7:30 pm.

Attendees – Sue Lin, Kimberely Moses, Carolina Klockow, Michael Brady, Anne Marshall, Joe Loduca, Margaret Ovenden, Michelle Tume, Lupe Dryburgh, Julie Valdez, Robert Houser, Eliza Chin, Angela Hom, Jean Jarvis, Teresa Stricker

Piedmont Unified School District (PUSD) Budget Update – Michael Brady

Michael Brady, Assistant Superintendent, presented the interim finance report as of December 2077. This report is a multi-year General Fund Budget for 2007-08 and projected budgets for two future years. The current year presents a balanced budget but the State has put forward a budget that causes a crisis for our PUSD budget. But the district is not asking for more money. They will take the rest of the year to carefully analyze the budget. There are a lot of uncertainties in the projected numbers.

There is a 3% reserve required and that is met this year; however, in 2008-09 and 2009-10 there is a potential shortfall. The state is cutting so impacts are throughout all California local school districts.

The shortfall amount for the two future years is $1.7 million and PUSD is focusing their attention on that amount. Part of that can be met by a potential increase in parcel tax of 5%. There are also retirements and a few teachers reduced due to a reduced number of students in the district.

Currently, assuming the parcel tax increase and employee/teacher attrition, the $1.7 million need can be reduced to $700,000 (that amount equates to 8.5 teachers). The district has time and is analyzing the situation. But, the District is the only one, that Mr. Brady knows of, who is NOT going to deliver pink slips in March. Lay off notices would have to go out March 15 for teachers. Temporary teachers don’t have to be notified then so the district has some time & those notices could go out by the end of the school year. Classified employees are typically given a forty-five day notice.

There was a question on could we hold a special fundraising campaign for this difference so that we don’t risk losing programs or teachers. Mr. Brady informed us that the District is not asking for an additional giving campaign or changes to parent club budgets. They are not asking for anything at this point as the budget situation is just for our information. But, the district is asking for continued support at the current amount of $200 per student.

Alameda County reviews the school district budgets and it must be able to see reserves so the district may ask, in the future, to point to parent club reserves to help meet this requirement as a “qualified” budget. The current year is a “certified” budget and this means the district is able to meet their obligations and reserves with their own budget but next year it may be a qualified budget to maintain their reserves and credit standing with the county.

All districts in the state are planning some kind of pink slip distribution for March 15th. Piedmont is not going to do that and has time to analyze the budget and options for future years.

Secretary’s Report – January 7 meeting minutes were approved.

Treasurer’s Report – Sue Lin for Amal Smith

P&L as of Feb 10 was presented but not much activity this month.

President’s Report – Sue Lin

There is a BPO Budget committee consisting of Joe Loduca, Sue Lin, Amal Smith, Eddie Ngo, and Ms Valdez. They have met a couple of times. They are gathering information so will be asking committees for current status and projections for next year after their Monday Feb 25th meeting. They are discussing priorities with Ms. Valdez and then will present to BPO for further discussion.

Save our Schools – Is a campaign that you can help with very little time. It is about sending a message to legislators about our need to know how much money we have because 88% of budget is personnel. This is a simple campaign to participate in and you can just send an email with canned information. There are events and a press conference that you can drop in & volunteer. Monday is a press conference with eighteen superintendents from Alameda County. More information is being sent from Megan & room parents.

Associated Parents Clubs of Piedmont is asking parent clubs to raise their dues from $50 to $60 and raise the cost of additional directories from $10 to $15. This increase is being requested to help fund the online registration project. The online system will allow parent clubs to collect for committees, hot lunch fees, and memberships and the cost of processing credit card fees online needs to be covered.

Motion approved for APCP membership ($60) and directory ($15) increases.

The summer mailer forms will be online. Registration for school Kindergarten & new students will be online. March 18 is the official registration date for next fall elementary schools. There will still be some paper forms for people who do not have computer access.

The Spring Fling fund an item (Spring 2007) for Beach raised $4,030. CHIMES, for the music department, has asked for a baritone, 3 trumpets, and mouthpieces for $4,283. They would also really like to have more trumpets, trombones and violins. But this discussion and approval was postponed because Michael Brady is knowledgeable about another state grant for music so no motion was necessary tonight.

There have been many requests by committee members to provide their reports earlier in the BPO meetings. There was a brief discussion and attendees agreed that an earlier start time would not impact attendance in a negative way.

Motion to move monthly BPO meeting to start at 7pm was approved. The March 3rd meeting will start at 7pm.

Principal Report – Julie Valdez

Ms. Valdez gave an update on the math specialist increase in time and how that time is being used. The Math Specialist is spending two full days with small group instruction including Olympiads. The third day is used to coach others on differentiated instruction and lesson delivery, assembling resources, and analyzing different assessment tools. The specialist will also be collaborating with math specialists at other schools & visiting other schools to find out about other successful methods.

On Feb 28 3:30-5pm the curriculum committee is meeting and the topic is middle school math curriculum.

In the hall, in front of Ms. Valdez’s office, is a sampling of math curriculum to be implemented in late spring or early fall. They requested five preliminary publishers’ materials and will have presentations on their programs. Parents are welcome to take a look at the material. It is quite a process to look at & review these materials. If you have any questions, please ask Ms. Valdez. Teachers are very good at analyzing this material and Ms. Valdez completely trusts this process.

Math Solutions (Marlyn Burns) professional facilitators are also providing input. Math Solutions is a professional development program. The teachers have observed teaching at each grade level. This was an Education Foundation supported program.

The American Heart Association Jump Rope campaign at Beach School raised $3,500. It has been a positive impact school wide and further reaching than the event day and continues on and off the playground. A quick walk or ride through the neighborhoods view kids jumping outside with the jump ropes funded by the BPO for the campaign. Possibly, consider it a budgeted item for next year.

There are two aide positions open. Emily Hogue has been filling Ms. Sawicki’s 4th grade aide position. There is a 5th grade aide position open too (due to a move to Oregon) so will be interviewing for a replacement. Let people know about it!

The Smart Board (an electronic whiteboard with computer interface and touch capability) in 4th grade Ms. Sawicki’s classroom is almost fully installed. This was funded by the Piedmont Educational Foundation. Please look in Room 10 in about a month to see it in action.

Committee Reports

• Piedmont Educational Foundation – Lupe Dryburgh. A grant written by Stephanie Griffin for the Smart Board is such a well written grant request that have been using it as a model for the elementary schools. The endowment fund has a goal of $5 million goal with the hopes of being able to generate $250,000 per year to give to the District; currently the fund stands at $3.7.The foundation also provides grants and typically has a fall and spring grant cycle. The Piedmont School District Superintendent has asked the foundation to not have this spring request cycle due to the budget crisis. They will continue the professional development funding for teachers. This is not something that is typical for other districts and the teachers are very appreciative of it.

• The foundation is working on things to help communicate better what the foundation is and what it does:

o There are liasons at each school

o They will put more articles and letters out and they now have a web site www.piedmontedfoundation.org

o Explain grant projects like Beach’s garden and solar panels because other schools are not taking full advantage of it.

o Mailings – there was a November mailing to entire community (4000 households) bringing in over $100,000 to the Foundation Fund (for grants) and over $41,000 for the Endowment.

• Piedmont Appreciating Diversity – Angela Hom. Cultures week is April 7-11 and it’s objective is to provide a school supported enrichment experience to celebrate diversity of various world cultures. The focus for the planned week is Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). This Diversity Committee is requesting $1,000 from BPO to help cover the expenses. This event is also going on at Wildwood & Havens and their parent boards approved their amounts which are prorated based on number of students. There was a question on why it is costing so much. There are more activities planned this year – workshops, assemblies, music, food and donating maps to the library.

Motion approved to fund the request for this year. But we need evaluate for next year and especially from teachers’ point of view if this is too much activity for a week and impact on planned delivered curriculum.

• Parent Education – Margaret Ovenden. Children’s Environmental Contaminants will be at the Beach auditorium on April 2 from 7-8:45pm. We want speakers to focus on things that are concrete and actionable and not have parents leave feeling hopeless. Margaret also discussed another event hosted by the Beach Goes Green committee that is in it’s planning phase for early May. It will include a Green School’s Initiative slide show. Anyone interested in joining the green committee, just contact Margaret.

• Nominating Committee – Joe Loduca. We still have open spots for next year’s board. There was an early start and that has been helpful. The list of positions is online at www.beachparents.org and we will publicize again via room parents or Megan.

• Hot Lunch – Kimberly Moses. There is an estimated $10,000 profit for this year. The Hot Lunch committee is looking at improvements for next year and even another food service option Revolution food service in Emeryville. Improvements are looking at streamlining the process & better food. There have been some improvements this year but could do better next year too. We need help for bagel day this year and there is only one more left!!! Contact Kimberly if you can help!

• Beach Dad’s – Bob Houser discussed the results of the Winter Jazz event. The intent of the community event was not fund-raising but they did net approximately $1000. They also tried to limit disposable serving ware. They event raised $500 for the Christopher Rodrigues fund through CD sales and bar tips. There are plans for an May 3 Camp Augusta work weekend to rebuild a small building. The group plans to invite Wildwood & Havens Dads’ clubs. The Beach Dad’s Club next meeting is March 4. And they will also participate in the 2nd annual softball game against the Wildwood Dad’s Club in the spring.

• Teacher appreciation committee – Bob Houser also gave a status for Marianna Caponigro. The committee has purchased bowls and spoons so no disposable material is used. Ms. Valdez commented that amazing food has been set up for teachers on minimum days & special days. The teachers discussed a way to say thank you so possibly will have something of a volunteer appreciation event too.

Candidates

• City Council – Dean Barbieri is up for re-election. He has lived in Piedmont for 27 years and has kids in college. Dean presented recent accomplishments of the current City Council including the garbage contract that was renegotiated.

• City Council – Margaret Fujioka. Margaret is running to make a difference in this town. She wants to give back to the community and this is a next step for her. There are so many important things coming up for this town such as the Civic Center Master plan & it is important to work towards consensus on it and the many other issues that come to city council. Margaret values education and there are so many overlapping issues with the city & schools so looking forward to working with school board. She also noted the importance of having a representative who is a woman and to have a woman’s vote on the council. It’s an important role model for our daughters. Campaigning is very important because there are three people running for two positions. Margaret explained her work experience as an Oakland City attorney and her volunteer experiences as they relate to this council position.

• City Council – Ryan Gilbert spoke at the Jan 7 BPO meeting.

• School Board – Martha Jones. Martha was on the BPO board for years. She has lived in Piedmont since 1985. She is an economist & has worked with the curriculum council. She is stepping up her involvement. She did see problems with the middle & high schools ability to meet the needs of each student. She has the skills & time now to help them do it. Ph.d educational finance.

• School Board President – June Monarch. June is running for re-election and has her profile posted on www.smartvoter.org that is hosted by League of Women Voters. Her goal is to promote enthusiasm for learning & especially life-long learning and to see K-12 fully funded throughout the state not just in Piedmont. She is heading up the effort of volunteers in the letter writing campaign and would like you to participate as a voice from Piedmont and send 3 letters to Gov & Senator & to your friends. She wants work towards providing safe & well maintained facilities. She invests a lot of time in meetings and is a liaison on 8-10 committees. She is a stay at home board member. Every week she reviews communications packets from the superintendent & schools to prepare for her duties.

Meeting adjourned 9:40 pm