MSSM Parents Advisory Council

Sat Feb. 5, 8:30-9:30 Adelphia, Augusta

Present:
  MSSM Administration: Joe Siddiqui, Cathy Bowker, Norma O'Keefe, Deb McGann, Nate Gardner
  MSSM Board: Mike Edgecomb, (David McCarthy)
  MSSM student rep: Ben Lofton
  Alumni: Tom Giblin
  Parents: David Haines, Paul Meyer, Sylvia Lowry, Steven Powell, Alice Chartrand, Jane Karker, Grace Bussey, Tamra Bergeron

Executive Director Search:
Report from Jerry Pieh: we are entering the academic hiring cycle now. So far he has had contacts with 75 plus people with numbers growing steadily, expects to begin to have resumes and candidates in about two weeks, with evaluation of resumes this and next month, and interviews occurring in April. Target date for hire is 7/1. Advertising venues include: MSSM Website, National Consortium of Specialized Secondary Schools of Mathematics, Science and Technology, web listing of Educational Directions, the primary national list for private boarding schools, and the Isaacson, Miller web site. He will be in touch with many of the Consortium Schools and has also opened up contact with the New England private and boarding schools to see what might be available. His goal is to offer the school 4 or 5 good candidates to chose from. This has all come out of his time and pocket!! MSSM will be paying costs of transporting and hosting candidates for interviews.

Academic Quality and Diversity:
Discussion re need for student feedback on teacher performance and class offerings. Important to: maintain MSSM's vision of student empowerment, attract the bright students that MSSM expects, and help faculty grow. Cathy Bowker and David Haines (who has experience in this from Bates) will work on a simple format to be used for all classes which can be easily tabulated either by hand or computer. Suggestion that Tom Giblin and Ben Lofton have some input, to add the student/alumnus perspective. David Haines suggested that yearly faculty portfolios would add to the breadth of faculty assessment and enable them to show off some of their accomplishments.

Cathy will look into the current content of the Spanish course. Mike suggested that web cam courses might be used to supplement the current language course offerings. Cathy said that in the past ITV foreign language courses often presented a scheduling dilemma. Joe and Cathy said that they would communicate to the students that they may use the LCS Library and the UMPI Library.

Tom visited MSSM in December, including a few days in the residential hall. He was very concerned that students do not feel that they can bring concerns to the administration. All agreed that this needs to improve to meet MSSM's traditional vision of student empowerment.

Alumnus partnering:
Suggestion made to include some coordination of alumnus organization in Dean of Admissions job duties so as to keep continuity. Alumnus Katie McCarthy is stepping down from Alumni organizing and has sent out an email requesting a volunteer to replace her. Need to figure out how to fund this important effort. Some service learning students can help out with building and maintaining alumni contacts.

Yearbook:
Joe reports that the cartulary/yearbook is happening. Still some financial concerns, so it's very important that ALL INTERESTED PARENTS SEND THE BALANCE OF $35 DUE IN TO MSSM NOW. Please consider buying a copy to give to relatives.

Admissions:
Of 144 interested prospective students, 72 have attended an open house: 46 male and 26 female. Currently 26 are in the process of applying. In 2003 25 were in the process of applying in January. The downward trend of females inquiring and applying has been occurring for a few years and is not unique to MSSM. Suggestion made that Deb ask prospective parents for permission to have MSSM parents contact them. Deb will be returning to teaching next year. Her position as Dean of Admissions is being advertised on the MSSM web page and w/ educational recruitment agency. On the search committee are: Deb, alumnus/RD TC Nguyen, and faculty Heather Van Ligten and David Dougan.

Residential issues:
Cathy and Norma will be attending a conference in order to recruit faculty for next year. There will likely also be some people interested in the Dean of Residential Life Position at the conference. Each of these positions is posted w/ Carney-Sandoe (the educational recruitment agency used by MSSM) and on the MSSM web page. On the search committee for the Dean of Residential Life are: Joe, Nate, Vinal Wilcox, Pete Pedersen, and Nicole Davis (alumnus/RD). TC Nguyen is definitely interested in returning for the fall and will likely be a source of more RD applicants from friends and alumni.