MSSMPA Nov 12 Mtg Minutes

November 12 2005 MSSM Parent Association Meeting Minutes DRAFT

Attendees:
Alice Chartrand
David Haines
Cathy Hampton
Sylvia Lowrey
Gil & Griselda Marquez-Demassey
Gwen & Vince Shatto
Jerry & Jane Yurko
Meg & David Zellinger

Summary of Discussion items:

Notes from Walt Warner
Communication
Hub/ point parents – to be part of MSSM PA Steering Committee.
Enrollment, Public Relations & Media.
Brainstormed activities for students
Dates
Board Committee Meetings
Fundraising plan and request from Walt

Sylvia shared notes from her phone call with Walt Warner – she will follow up with him with our feedback.
1. Parent conferences in the spring: There will be a Parent’s Weekend Friday and Saturday April 14,15 – the same weekend as Prom. Format Walt proposed would not include conferences with all your student’s teachers; instead it would be an opportunity to talk with your student’s advisor.
  Benefits:
  1. Parents can pick up the students possibly saving bus costs
  2. Walt is working with the board to give a lunch that weekend and start an annual ceremony of recognition to give 2 awards: a distinguished Alumni and a distinguished service award.
  3. Parents helping with the prom will be there anyway – save a trip
2. Suggestions:
  1. If bus money is a concern, can conferences be moved to the end of April Break – parents can bring children back up…
  2. Can Parents who help with the prom do conferences before the break since they will be there and other parents meet for conferences after break
3. Concerns voiced:
  1. We’d like to give parents the opportunity to request meeting teacher conferences with specific teachers – Sylvia will see if that’s an option
  2. Saturday is the start of april break – families with other kids on public school schedule are leaving on vacations. They will get their student out early Sat. morning and have to leave.
  3. Prom conflicts –
    1. when would conferences be? Parents are busy decorating for the prom which takes all day Friday, starting right after breakfast. Plus, we want to provide parents to help with the Officers' Club this time because of how it went last time.
    2. What would parents be doing during the prom?
    3. we don’t want to dilute the big prom experience for the kids. Many students don’t want parents being there Prom weekend
  4. Prom night is Good Friday
4. MSSM Open House update:
  1. 27 families were enrolled in the October open house
  2. 37 families were enrolled for the November open house
  3. 3 were a result of Deb M’s efforts down south
  4. Next open houses are Jan and February
  5. There is tons of energy and the student’s are very open and welcoming to them
5. Video Gaming and sleep habit concerns. Walt reiterated that he is working with the students on this.
6. Drug use rumors. Walt said there are a few rumors that certain students are using drugs. He talked with them saying that their name has come up and that he is aware of the rumors. He told them he isn’t trying to catch them but they are on notice. He told them he will contact their parents about this. They denied using them. Walt left phone messages with parents asking them to call back – he had heard back from some parents yet.
  Parent Association response:
  1. We generally approve of the way Walt is handling the rumors. We will make the point that improved communication depends on all of us returning calls promptly.
  2. We request that Walt add the message to the students that there are services available and explain how they can take advantage of them if they self-identify (not get caught using) and request counseling services for drug/alcohol issues. Must be clear that a student, in doing so, WILL NOT GET IN TROUBLE and would be wise to request such help rather than need it and not get it. [Expulsion doesn't solve the problem of teen use of drugs and alcohol.]
  3. Hand book should be clear on the above points -what will happen if child found possessing Drugs. Also be clear of Child self identifies…
Communication
1. Do parents know how to get involved – is information being shared well?
  1. We have asked Walt’s secretary to get the email addresses updated and corrected. Many parents are not getting communications, not even daily announcements. Griselda will follow up and get updates/corrections from Linda. In the future when any Email changes, we need a single source (Walt’s secretary) to disseminate the email updates to everyone (including all parents). We can’t operate effectively without an updated email list. We will also add a bus stop column/field in the contact spreadsheet so it can be sorted by those groups.
2. Poor communication is a major complaint from parents. They don’t hear when there is a problem/question/issue; they don't get responses to emails, and they don't know who to call, especially during off hours. Some don't know who their student's RI is and have never met them, don't know their names or phone numbers. Don’t know who to call in emergency. Parents don’t know that room phones are shut off during study hours. Students have switched rooms and parents were not told (they found out by calling what WAS their child's phone and getting someone else). When Walt was out student was unclear on which adult was in charge. Wing meetings should tell students who’s on duty.
3. The handbook has clear information about expectations of students in the dorm (i.e. PDA) but it is not articulated to the students. We request that Walt use the handbook (post applicable sections, read them in dorm meetings as appropriate, use them for private meetings w/students, etc.) so everyone can literally be on the same page, everyone (parents, students, staff) gets the same information.
4. Some students have complained to parents that they don't like RI's bringing experiences with students in the classrooms to the dorms, or vise versa. Keep dorm and classroom experiences separated.
Hub/point parents – to be part of MSSM PA Steering Committee. There was a long discussion on how to get a parent from each bus stop to be representatives. We are actively working on establishing the Steering Committee.
1. Once we get one representative from each bus stop to commit, ask them to set up a meeting with their parents to get to know each other and give parents another avenue to share concerns and hear about volunteer opportunities.
2. It was suggested that Hub parents should hand out hard copies of e-mailed MSSM PA letters for those families that don’t have email.
Enrollment, Public Relations & Media.
1. Each bus stop may choose to host a January Blitz open house as a group, not just 3 open houses in the state (Lewiston, Portland, Camden?) Parental involvement is needed to ensure it’s arranged at least 3 weeks before hand and in a public place. Enlist the help of Alumni and students to attend to make it more attractive and interactive for prospective students.
2. Publicizing MSSM student successes. We are going to get Midge Vreeland and Norma O’keefe working together to have AP Scholar awards, National Merit, SAT scores, and any academic distinctions for the students sent out to local media and have a system set up so that type of info goes to Midge consistently. We’d like to start publicizing activities too such as the up coming play.
  Concerns:
  1. Midge will need to acquire the list that identifies which parents have consented to this.
  2. Some kids are humble about having this information publicized. We will let parents/students know we are doing this and point out the benefits that this is selling the student to prospective colleges and also selling MSSM to everyone in the state and beyond.
  3. There was some discussion on who should do this publicity work MSSM PA vs. the School - The suggestion was made to ask Midge if she would be okay with have a web site link for parents to send her info directly for the papers/radio. Another suggestion was to have the school do it (a link on the school web site instead) because Midge won’t always be part of the PA and some thought it should be the schools responsibility. We decided Midge could run with it though for now since she offered.
  4. want to do similar publicity for alumni--will be next phase
  5. We need to ask Deb McGann to send out list of places she will be as far out as she knows, so we can have the hub parent or another parent attend.
We brainstormed activities for students how to support existing activities like prom, graduation, the play, etc.
1. We talked about the possibility of doing something like a Mystery Weekend for the students again this year in Feb to alleviate cabin fever. Some ideas from last year were explained: web site gave clues and built up theme story line, held a treasure hunt, students could earn coins from teachers that could be used to purchase prizes, hold a coffee shop with music and drinks purchased with the coins earned, hold a dance etc.
  Concern:
  Do we have Mark as a point person to help coordinate this weekend?
2. We also talked about needing to start thinking about doing something for teachers during the holidays and doing a faculty appreciation day. Give Griselda any ideas you have and contact her if you want to get more involved.
3. Play – cast party was discussed – Griselda will start organizing.
Dates
1. Can we have Feb. 10-12 for mystery weekend? Second choice is Feb. 3-5
2. Find out when Midterms are
3. The play will be Dec 9th-10th
4. Find out when board meeting is –Jan 7th? 21st and send dates out to us.
Board Meetings. We’d like to ensure that we have MSSM Parent Association representation at three of the sub committee meetings: External affairs (Public Relations is part of this), Academic and Residential Life, and Board Development
1. Need to tell Mike Edgecombe and Walt that Griselda is our recommendation for Academic & residential Life, so that Mike can name her as a voting member
2. We need to get MSSMPA representative and Student representative agenda items on the agenda for each of the sub committee meetings.
3. Also an email list of the committee members and ownership of that committee needs to be communicated
4. Board Meeting for Finance Committee – ask Dale to represent or get substitute when she can’t attend. Alice suggested some back-ups for her: David Zellinger, David Haines, Sylvia
5. Parent Advisory Council meeting with Walt and executives before board meeting – formalize this time with agenda – explain to Walt that we want to keep this in place. Suggested agenda item: Academic Quality- foreign languages – what’s the plan for dealing with lack of quality?
Fundraising request from Walt. Walt would like all the Parents to raise $10-15k for student activities. He would like to have the money to put toward bus trips to cultural and artistic events for possible weekend trips to Portland etc
1. We voted on raising the $10-15k for student activities. Our goal is $20k and 100% participation from every MSSM family. Once we have a steering committee we need to get their buy-in on this too.
  Concerns:
  1. We need to tell the parents about this and get their agreement / commitment to this.
  2. We need to solicit Fundraising Expertise - Create a Fundraising chair and committee
  3. 100% participation – raise money not individually but by activities that encourage building community.
2. Donations will go into the MSSM PA fund of the MSSM Foundation and get requisitioned from us by the school as needed. We must be able to track as we go along and we must get frequent, accurate bookkeeping reports on progress toward our goal.
3. We will also be allowed to use the money for student activities that MSSM PA sponsors, such as the mystery weekend. (Budget TBD undetermined)
4. We need a detailed prioritized list from Walt of specific activities that he wants this money for--not general: trips to Bangor, Orono and Portland. Exactly what cultural and artistic events will they attend, why- what the purpose/benefits are, etc? We need this info for our appeal.
5. We need reports about each trip as it happens, leading up to it and afterward, how it went, what the students did/enjoyed/learned, etc.
6. Parents would like to be able to contribute with a stipulation that it go to a specified predetermined activity
7. Can we include Alumni too in raising the funds? If so, ask Walt for help with getting list of alumni contact info.
2005 11 12 meeting minutes1.doc