The Maine School of Science and Mathematics Parents Advisory Committee met from 11 am to noon on Saturday, April 9 at the school in Limestone, Maine.
Present: President David Haines, Vice President Dale Gordon, Treasurer Sylvia Lowry; Trustees: Mike Edgecomb, Ben Lofton, Bill Shields, Joe Siddiqui; Academic Dean Cathy Bowker, Dean of Admissions Deb McGann; Alumni Tom Giblin ‘99, Allison Wood ‘01
1. Faculty evaluation: Cathy reported that she met with each teacher in the fall to set goals and will have a follow-up conference with each at the end of this academic year. This year the Bates College course evaluation form will be administered to students after they have completed their final examinations.
2. Concerns about academic quality in foreign languages: Cathy said she is working on this. She has also resolved a grading dispute between a student and instructor.
3. Mike reported that Representative Rosaire Paradis from Frenchville has presented a bill to instruct the Department of Education to undertake a plan for the Maine School of Languages. The bill will be heard April 11. Mike will attend after he receives the support of the MSSM Board. He saw no reason why the plan couldn’t recommend use of the current classrooms and facilities at MSSM.
4. Alumni Association: Nicole Davis, an alumna and Residential Director, is helping with this. Katie McCarthy, ’98, has the list of alumni, who will be invited to graduation. There will be an off-campus breakfast for them graduation morning. There are several underground alumni bulletin boards, but it would better to bring them under one Web site.
5. Host families: The program is still developing, but is coming along with Dale’s help. Trustee David King is tapping into his connections with the Rotary and with his church. Mr. Nick Patterson, art teacher at Limestone Community School, is working to involve the Limestone Masons.
6. Dean of Residential Life search: Joe has interviewed one exciting candidate and will interview another in two days. He is considering how to include the new Executive Director, Walt Warner, in the search.
7. Deb likes the idea of asking current parents to contact and answer questions for prospective parents. Perhaps the Parents Group could find a parent who could help orient new parents by giving advice about banking, motels, restaurants, etc.
8. We discussed how to assure that both parents in a divided family can be involved with the school. Deb distributed parent forms that will be modified to make it clearer that both legal guardians must sign before a student may attend. There already is a form parents can use to ask that the school send all mailings to separate addresses.
9. David reported that Karen Dolan and Terrie Frisbee will be at the school on Friday, April 15 for the MSSM Parents Group-sponsored Faculty and Staff Appreciation Day.
10. We discussed further details of how the Parents Group can support parents of incoming students. There were three ideas:
(a) In the packet of materials that the Dean of Admissions sends to prospective students there could be a consent form for parents to sign that will allow current parents to contact them directly about MSSM.
(b) The Parents Group could compile a list of current parents whose names and contact information would be sent to prospective parents by the Dean of Admissions.
(c) The Interview Day information sessions held by the Parents Group on March 19 were helpful, so the Parents Group will try to have a representative at the May 7 Interview Day.
11. David asked for reactions to Mystery Weekend March 18-19. Tom said he heard the students enjoyed it, but noted that the gift certificates we awarded for pizza at Adelines are no longer good because Adelines has closed.
12. Some parents have been unable to meet with adjunct faculty on Parents Weekend in October. Cathy said she will try again to be sure they are in attendance. She will provide a more extensive orientation program for adjunct faculty, who often have trouble integrating with the day-to-day doings at the school. In some cases adjunct faculty didn’t submit mid-term grades for students. We requested that in the future parents be able to request meetings with specific adjunct faculty on Parents Weekend.
13. Refund policies: The school has a policy for how much room and board money will be refunded to parents of students who withdraw, but it is not in the student handbook. That will be taken care of. The Board of Trustees will consider establishing a policy for refunds to parents of students who are expelled from the school.
14. Joe reported that the school has hired the band the Rock Dox for the night before graduation from 8:30-midnight. Their Web site is http://www.gigmasters.com/Rock/RockDox/ . David suggested that because the parents will be in town that night, perhaps they should be involved in a program with the kids, however Tom expressed reservations, since the night has personal meaning for the students.
15. College counseling. We discussed the importance of connecting MSSM students to MSSM alumni at schools where they are applying for admission.