PARENT TEACHER STUDENT ORGANIZATION (PTSO)
GENERAL MEETING - MINUTES
Date: Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Location: 3rd Floor Lecture Hall, Dr. Henry A. Wise, Jr. High School
Meeting was called to order at 7:05 pm with the following agenda items:
Updates:
South County HSC Meeting
Puma Points Program
Overcrowding Status
Puma Dads
Athletic report
Uniforms
New Items:
TOP/POP
Grade reporting/Alternate form of grade reporting
SchoolMax / iParent
Highlights of the meeting were:
Ms. Monica Goldson, Director of the High School Consortium and Dr. Ron Watson, Vice Chair of the Board of Education were in attendance.
The minutes from the General PTSO meeting on October 21, 2008 were read by the Recording Secretary Fatima Weaver. Ms. Matthews made a motion to accept the minutes as read. The motion was second and the minutes were accepted.
Ms. Patrice Gross read the Treasurer’s Report. Ms. Matthews made a motion to accept the report as read. The motion was second and the report was accepted.
Ms. Matthews discussed events of the South County HSC meeting, which included the Explorers program, gangs in schools, AYP and other parent concerns.
The Puma Points program was explained in great detail. Several questions were asked by parents for clarification as they seemed to think this was a good idea.
The High School Consortium sent over assistance for the overcrowding – letters were sent out and some withdrawals have been made. We are now at four lunches instead of five and an additional drop was installed in the senior lounge.
The Puma Dads October meeting was effective – Ms. Cunningham gave a brief overview. The December meeting will have two dads discuss being on the right side of the law. Ms. Cunningham expressed that, “we are thankful to see men in the building.”
Mr. King gave a report for fall sports as follows: Varsity Football were 8 and 3 the semi-final game versus Flowers is this Saturday, JV Football 10 and 0, Girls Soccer 9 and 3, Boys Soccer 0 and 12, Volleyball 2 and 10, JV Volleyball 6 and 5, the Golf team placed six out of seventeen teams in the county and Cross Country placed twentieth in the state.
Uniforms were discussed at great length. Ms. Matthews explained the changes that were made to the policy such as logos no larger than a quarter, timeframe to wear shorts, shoes mostly white, black or brown, etc. Questions were asked regarding black pants, logo availability at all participating vendors, shirts outside of bottoms, and enforcement. Information was also provided regarding the purchase of school sweatshirts and students being allowed to wear them as part of the uniform.
There was discussion of teachers reporting grades as several parents shared their appreciation for MyGradebook. Ms. Matthews mentioned that some teachers at Wise, not all, have purchased such mechanisms as MyGradebook and Snapgrades with their own money. Several parents had concerns that they were not receiving grades when requested. It was stated that, “If asked they have to give it to you.”
Ms. Matthews stated that SchoolMax is having problems and that we don’t know what’s going on with the iParent piece.
The president announced that the school board voted to close schools on Inauguration Day and it was highly encouraged that parents and students participate in the historical events if at all possible.
Open discussion with Mr. King:
Overcrowding - Mr. King stated that 118 letters were sent out to homes for verification of residence, 28 students were withdrawn and for the letters that were returned those students will be withdrawn.
Rezoning - A parent mentioned that revisions were made 3 or 4 times to the rezoning when Wise was originally planned.
Overcrowding - Mr. James Diggs (a parent) asked, “What can be done so that this does not happen next year and so on?”
Parent/teacher conferences - There were several concerns of the timing of conferences, if all teachers should be included in conferencing together, and
Grade change – How does a parent know that a grade has been changed? You should receive the goldenrod copy of the form.
SchoolMax – Mr. King thinks that the School system’s IT Department will have the parent piece to SchoolMax functional before the end of the year. A suggestion was made by several parents to use the weekly progress report that is available from the Guidance office.
Voicemail – Do all teachers have voicemail set up? Someone is working on it.
Community Service Hours – There was mention of service hours being displayed on the report card and a parent said that they were told that Guidance is so backed up and this wouldn’t be done until the spring.
Discipline in the classroom – A parent asked about discipline in the classroom and Mr. King stated that Mr. Hicks and Ms. Royer will be having workshops.
Winter Break – A parent asked will there be assignments during the winter break other than the packets?
Tutoring – Are teachers holding tutoring after school? Mr. King and the PTSO President to look into some options for after school tutoring.
Closing Comments
Dr. Ron Watson stood up and requested to say a few words – he stated, “HSA – look at where the students are that have taken the test.” He expressed that, “that he was happy to be here – when you see hundreds of e-mails there’s a need to see what’s going on.” In regards to rezoning, he has requested that all maps be moved out of private. In January, the process will start to do the whole district, it will be a big deal as he is hearing from different groups, “I don’t want those kids in my school.”
A parent asked, “Can the person that was sent over by the High School Consortium stay here to get all the kids out of here that should not be here – stay until they are all gone.”
A parent suggested that for community service hours you could have kids tutor other kids.
The president stated that there is a communication problem throughout the county. Dr. Watson responded by asking how do we get information down to parents of what’s going on in the county – find out from the Chamber of Commerce, County System and the Library. He also said, “Find out what’s working for others and do the same here.”
The meeting was adjourned at 8:42 pm.