PAC Minutes - Sept 14, 2004 - CATC Augusta/MSSM Videoconference

Present: Joe Siddiqui, Nate Gardner, Terrie Frisbie, Alice Chartrand, David Haines, Jane Karker, Paul Meyer, Nigel Calder

Healing from last year's tensions and moving forward:
Joe brought forward faculty concerns re last Jan Open House (which occurred in a blizzard): perception that volunteering parents presented the school in a bad light to prospective parents. Alice pointed out that there was no administrator to greet the parents and the role for volunteering parents was therefore awkward. Parents intention was to present the school's strengths but it was difficult not to be frank when asked directly about some of the concerns that were being worked on. Answers were placed in the context of how pleased we were to be working towards positive change with administration and how one of the strengths of the school was parental involvement. Apology made for any intended or unintended hurts.

Both Joe and Nate strongly encourage individual parents to call them with questions, comments and concerns. Suggestion made to Joe to have a call-in time when parents know he's likely to be available. Nate says to call anytime- best time to reach him is after 3:30 or on weekend. Joe continues to encourage us to email him w/ feedback on updating the web site (he'll pass on appropriate suggestions to his service learning students who are working on it).

Please send clippings re MSSM to service learning student:
Morgan Nuzzo
C/O Joe Siddiqui
95 High Street
Limestone, ME 04950

Anything and everything that would be useful for this project would be greatly appreciated.

Agreement to move forward together with enthusiasm for the school's future. Joe will create a link to connect MSSMPG to MSSM's web site. We will continue to run PAC minutes and MSSM Board of Trustee meeting reports by him for accuracy and feedback before placing them on our web. Our core group/exec committee minutes will continue to keep in mind our mission of promoting and supporting the school and being a bridge between parents and the school. At present we will not create a public chatline.

Joe will address parents at some point during Parent/Teacher Conf weekend in order to welcome parents and summarize the "state of the school". (perhaps briefly at the end of our Oct 9 annual meeting -after the meeting he'd be available for parent questions)

Summary of Sept bus stop discussions shared w/ Joe and he has already forwarded several ideas to Deb McGann. Overall tone was joy and appreciation for how well the school is working for our kids. Nate will look into getting 10 "MSSM banners for parents to gather under (help locate gathering and advertise the school to others) and says he might stop by to visit w/ a stop or two on his way down state for the next home weekend. To help promote the school it was suggested to take pictures of the gathering and send them to the newspapers. Helpful for local reps/bus greeters to have some MSSM literature to give to interested onlookers.

Other suggestions re recruiting prospectives: Joe to ask Deb to email the brochure for the upcoming Oct 10-11 Open House- Alice will send this to the PG membership so parents can share it w/ others/post at workplaces/give to local guidance counselors etc. Joe will get the info re Open House onto the web site.

Activities: Nate shared that he's focusing on planning activities Mid-Nov to Mid- Feb when the kids need it most, due to transition and budget. He would like help w/ getting sand, tropical doodads and overall help for a Caribbean Christmas celebration before finals. Jane will send him a catalogue and speak to him more about this. Alice lives on coast/access to sand.

Parents strongly urged follow-through on Common Ground Fair plans. Thanks to Claudia for organizing hike. Joe clarified that parents are unable to drive van/bus due to liability issues w/ limousine/loan service. However, parents can volunteer to stay behind and cover the dorm, including behind the desk (as confidential files are locked in Nate's private area). Nate is working on an exercise room that will be located in the LCS building with accessible hours.

Executive Director discretionary fund has $1000 per semester for student activities and Stan Marshall of the MSSM Foundation has offered to match this if dorm council or other mechanism for student decision making on the use of these funds is formed! A student representative will be attending the Oct 25 Board meeting to present a proposal on this.

Residential hall issues: chronic culture of late nights discussed. Nate is watching kids testing the limits on this, has been conversing with them and intends to continue to help them learn responsible habits. His goal is to help tthe students be prepared for college and take responsibility for themselves

Daily announcements: All parents expressed appreciation for easy access to daily announcements. They asked that more ot the activities (eg hike) be listed on this. Clarification that not all students/parents have signed publicity waiver so cannot post full names on web in daily announcements at this point.

Yearbook: Parents of students attending MSSM last year should know that '03-'04 yearbooks are still available and for sale!! They are extremely well done and a great memory of last year's friends and events!. Suggestion made that Deb bring copies to recruitment events. Jane (works in publishing) has offered to help research lower publishing costs for this year's cartulary(yearbook) which has lost money in past. Suggestion made to pre-sell next year's yearbooks at upcoming P/T weekend (and offer old ones for sale). Nate notes that RD's are supervising students use of two digital cameras (and donating their use) to capture fun events and friendship. Offer made to post pictures on the parent web site if no room on MSSM's web.

Comment made that new students need to be warned that cell phone charges at MSSM are expensive. *** Joe shared that several carriers (Verizon, Unicell., US cellular) have been responsive in the past to consumer calls pointing out that calls originated in US (LImestone) not Canada- and have canceled the charges (but need to be reminded monthly).***

College search:
Parents expressed appreciation for Norma including college info on the daily announcements.
Parental concern re structuring college application preparation in a way that they have more knowledge and frequent input/monitoring.
Asked that Norma work on an educational piece for parents for a timeline re college search/preparation w/ parent input (since sometimes it's hard to know what parents don't know already) and asked that this be put on web site when done. (Example: SATS spring Junior year if planning early decision,FAFSA info gathering late fall Sr. year, FAFSA filing early Jan, FAFS deadline, etc).

Asked that it be discussed w/ Cathy to include college essay writing in the senior english curriculum and that oversight of this be mandatory for students- and/or that a college essay workshop be retried (and be mandatory).

Discussed ways of advertising MSSM to colleges
Discussed improving caliber of visiting college recruiters- however it is difficult to get higher end colleges to travel to Limestone.
Parents will also list some resources on the MSSMPG web page.
Alumni college connections should be cultivated. Nate will be having Tom Giblin (Holy Cross grad and current Brown U fellow) visit to speak on MSSM's mission this Oct.- mandatory attendance for students. He would like to get a visiting alumnus monthly.

Nate is committed to finding a high caliber replacement for his position before he leaves next year (one hope would be an MSSM graduate) and his training his staff in expectations and MSSM culture and tradition.

The dorm has a new RD: Alissa Redmond!
Parents Group will send thank yours to the RD's thanking them for the great jobs they are doing.

Recruitment of prospective students makes or breaks the school. Students presently are engaged and happy and expected to attract and recruit friends/prospective visitors. Interview day is being moved up to mid-March in part to help estimate enrollment earlier.

Prospectives encouraged to apply even after deadlines. Joe and Nate are encouraging prospective students to come to MSSM, sit in on some classes and spend the night in the dorm, even at times other than official open houses.

Joe will follow through on suggestion for administrator contact/follow up w/ parents of first year students, especially those who were late admits, to assess how things are going.

Joe will give us an update on May term plans as in past student choices had to be made by end Oct. Some parents are interested in helping to create a May term offering eg Galapagos trip, coastal Maine sailing trip.

Agreement to meet as PAC monthly when able (next session tentatively scheduled in Augusta Mon Oct 25 in afternoon after MSSM Board mtg).