Washington High School PTA
Meeting Minutes
September 9, 2003
Vice President Tracy McPartland called the meeting to order at 9:05 a.m. and welcomed everyone. Fifty people were in attendance. Introductions were made. Dr. Plagman welcomed everyone and pointed out our new meeting location (Room 128). He explained the future plans for this new conference room at Washington . The room will eventually have a glass wall to the hallway and will be home to our school's original artwork, including the Grant Wood mural. Air conditioning will also be added.
Secretary The minutes of the May 14 meeting were approved as circulated.
Treasurer Tracy (reporting for Judy Baird) presented last month's activity report with budget comparison and the proposed budget for 2003-04. She explained that Judy has worked hard to
re-categorize some areas to make them easier to understand and explained where those changes are. Pam Westrom, Hospitality, requested that the budgeted expense for Conference Meals be adjusted up to its original figure due to out-of-pocket expenses that were not recorded. It was recommended that all expenses be noted for a more accurate account and that the committee make every effort to utilize volunteers' time and donations. The budget was adjusted, moving $150 from Special Requests to Conference Meals. A motion to accept the proposed budget was unanimously approved. Judy has requested that all PTA expenses be recorded on an expense form that can be found in the PTA mailbox in the main office.
Dr. Peggy Hardesty , Faculty Liaison and 9 th Grade Counselor, reported that Freshman orientation went very well. The freshman class photo is available to be ordered. Dr. Hardesty shared brochures about Academic Decathalon. If your student is interested you may contact Heather Adams, Chemistry.
Mr. Dave Coates , Director of Guidance and 10 th -12 th Grade Counselor, said PTA's College Planning night is scheduled for Sept. 29 at Kennedy High School this year (this event rotates between the 3 metro high schools). The information shared by the panel that evening will offer insight into the admissions process, and does not involve specific information about the 4 colleges sitting on the panel. Mr. Coates noted that the ITED tests this year will be spread over a two week period with one test given each day, hoping for even better performance. Juniors and seniors are encouraged to sign up with Mrs. Sibert for visits with college representatives as they come to WHS. To find out which colleges are scheduled to visit check the WHS website www.crwash.org or students can listen to announcements on Channel 3. The Kirkwood College Fair is the morning of Wed. Sept. 24. Iowa colleges are represented at the fair. Mr. Coates encouraged parents to have their kids expose themselves to this process. It is an excellent opportunity to talk with a number of representatives in a short time and get on their mailing lists. The ZAPS seminar coming up will be aimed at SAT/PSAT testing this fall. ACT testing takes place in the spring. The junior year is prime time to take these tests. Deadlines for registering for the ZAPS and the SAT/ACT tests can be found on the school calendar.
Dr. Ralph Plagman , Principal, stated the purpose of the PTA at WHS is to set and carry out the priorities of our school. One way we sell our priorities is via our display cases, academic and athletic. The athletic trophy cases have been upgraded over the past year with private donations. Dr. Plagman wants to continue to keep them up utilizing parent volunteers. Julie Ekland will organize the effort to periodically spruce them up. Dr. Plagman will be approaching the Booster Club to do the same for the athletic cases. Open House attendance was up from from last year. There was discussion about the organization of the evening's schedule. Dr. Plagman will check on the automated email/phone messages for future announcements. He addressed concerns about the long lunch lines and locker issues and will see that freshmen are assured of the safety in keeping things in lockers throughout the day. Dr. Plagman addressed concerns about heavy backpacks. He will be taking a survey of staff to determine the quantity of sets of textbooks in each class as well as books on CD Rom. He and the PTA board did ask the school board to make textbooks a priority. If your student still does not have his/her activity sticker it may be picked up in the office. Total enrollment at WHS is near 1600. There was a question about the bowling class that has been cut due to budget. It will be replaced with another class. One thing that has not been cut is security. Surveillance is better than ever. Please check out the new school website, www.crwash.org . It has been redone and reorganized by staff and students at Washington. It includes students' homework assignments, links to teachers, etc. There is also a link to this site from the district site. Dr. Plagman will remind teachers to make an effort to allow students in homeroom to hear the announcements each day.
Hospitality Pam Westrom and Sara Clark reported 300 students were served pizza, lemonade and cookies at freshman orientation. A sign up sheet was passed to volunteer to help with parent teacher conference meals. Contact Pam if you would like to help. westrom4@mchsi.com
Blue Chip Pam Johnson and Barb Protsch reported that the Blue Chip drive is off to a great start. There will be a secondary push in the near future, and the matching funds will come in the spring. Blue Chip is PTA's annual and only fundraiser for the year. Instead of selling merchandise, PTA simply requests contributions via a letter to parents followed up with several reminders during the year.
Membership Jan Baustian reported that membership is currently at 230 members.
Cookie Sales Nancy Sullivan-Jacobs and Sorina Abernathy explained that PTA holds 4 cookie sales events per school year in the foyer. A sign-up sheet was circulated for the first sale, Halloween cookies, on Oct. 28. There are 2 shifts of decorators: 7:30 9:30am and 9:30 11:30am. Contact them if you would like to help. iowacorn@aol.com or 1971gtx@mchsi.com
Health Education Ann Hoffman reported the following Health Ed sessions scheduled for the year: Nov 4,5,6 Freshman Sexual Health session during LA classes / Nov 10, 11 Sophomore Substance Abuse session with ASAC / Jan 13,14,15 Freshman Substance Abuse session / April 7 Senior Life After High School session. Ann asked if those in attendance would be interested in hearing these presentations or part of them at future PTA meetings.
Grounds Sue Winegarden asked Dr. Plagman to check with staff on requests for grounds. She also asked about the $700 that had been set aside last year for grounds beautification.
• Parade of Schools On Thursday, Oct 2, from 5:00 to 8:00pm, WHS and all Cedar Rapids Community Schools will be open for visitors to see the school improvements made with the $46 million bond issue. There will be a ribbon cutting at WHS at 6:30pm in the music addition.
• Communication Tracy explained the new flow of communication process that will be used by the PTA this year in the hopes that more people will be informed in a more efficient manner. Please contact Tracy if anyone would be interested in starting up a new committee for next year to enter PTA information into a database that could be used by all committees.
• The List Thank you to Julie Kottal for her hard work in putting together The List.
• Moms in Touch Prayer Group Jean Miller announced the group meets Wednesdays, 8:30 to 9:30am at Bethany Lutheran Church.
The meeting adjourned at 11:30 a.m.
LaNae Ceryanec, Secretary