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Minutes of October 6, 2008

The meeting was opened by the PTACHC President, John Hannay at 7:37 pm.  The minutes from the 9/03/08 meeting were discussed, voted and approved.

BOE Report:  Ms. Patricia Gordon, Howard County Board of Education (BOE) attended the Maryland State BOE conference in Ocean City, Maryland.  Howard County has one of the largest BOE in the State and most BOE’s are suffering from the loss of revenue due to the current fiscal crisis in the nation.  The State BOE’s discussed High School Assessments (HSA).  This year will be the first that these required tests will count.  As of a week ago, Howard County had approximately 300 High School students who had not passed the HSA.  The State BOE is looking to make changes to the HSA. The State BOE does have Bridge Program  to allow seniors to work on to meet the State’s HSA requirements.  This would only be for seniors who had taken the HSA twice and had been unsuccessful.  It was also announced that Ms. Gordon was recently elected to the President of the Maryland Association of Board of Education.

BOE Representative: Ellen Giles spoke next, regarding redistricting.  There will be none for next school calendar year.  A committee will be formed in Spring, 2009 to consider redistricting in 2010.  Joel Galihue from the BOE presented the group with a flyer for information regarding this process.  Community, families and anyone interested in participating on the committee to be formed or to get more information should contact Mr. Galihue at 410-313-1554 or email Mr. Galihue at: boundary@hcpss.org.

Treasurer’s Report: Amy Rivera, PTACHC Treasurer discussed the budget carryover from last year.  Reserved funds are being accounted as a carryover to allow for the possibility that the PTA Council of Howard County may have to rent office space and currently the PTACHC has a part time administrator on staff.  She presented a resolution from the Board of Directors on this issue, in response to an action taken at the September 3, 2008 meeting.  That resolution recommended maintenance of the reserve fund at the current level, with investment in a secure interest-bearing vehicle from which interest can be earned to support programming.  John will talk with the Maryland PTA about our reserve and he will explore the funds possibility of these reserved funds being invested.

John Hannay discussed issues handled at the September 16 meeting of the Board of Directors.  This included developing strategies for ways to help local PTA’s, insurance for PTA’s, and after school programs.  Terry Chiu is the point person.   Terri Chiu is compiling suggestions and recommendations issues and welcomes community input.  She will also be working on the current guide after school guide and needs help with updating it.   If you would like to help Terri with this project, please email Jane Holcomb at PTACHC@gmail.com.

Committee Report

After Prom – Mary Ellen Creasy discussed what this committee is and how they operate.  This committee assists 12 high schools in 2 very important categories, (1) communication and (2) raising funds.  This committee has applied for grant funds from several local, large Companies, Nordstrom, Macy’s, B.J.’s, etc.      

Family Involvement - Nehemiah Spence talked about the upcoming coat drive.  There was a lot of discussion about the flyer and/or communication to local PTA’s.  Mr. Spence will be sending the flyer out the local schools shortly.

PTACHC Office Adm. – Jane Holcomb said PTA audits were due 10/01/08.  PTA’s should check to see if they have completed their audit and submit a copy to the PTACHC per MD PTA bylaws and the insurance policy.  Also a list was verbally given to delegates of whose bylaws are coming due for tri-annual review and whose PTAs have not files their PTA’s Personal Property Return which was due last April 15, 2008.

Talent Bank – Cindy Haller reported on the various policy reviews conducted by the BOE.  The BOE welcomes input from the Howard County parents via nominations from the PTA Council. The only requirement is that an individual be a PTA member.  Many policies are going to be reviewed, i.e., tobacco and penalties, closing of school, school calendar, royalties, employee discipline and bullying and harassment.  These are not inclusive but anyone interested in participating with the BOE on review of these and other policies should contact Cindy Haller.

John led a discussion about the school calendar.  The BOE is currently reviewing whether the Spring break should be shortened.  Break out groups discussed the pros and con’s and there were varying opinions.  There appeared to be no consensus toward either shortening the Spring Break, or keeping it as it has been.  The one observation that did emerge from the discussion was a desire to make the last few weeks of the school year (after various assessment tests have been administered) more academically productive for students.  Many attendees expressed frustration with what appears to be “busy work” with students that appears to have little relation to curriculum, and involves little new learning.

Continuing Business    The only issue to come before the Council was for members to vote for or against the recommendation from the Board of Directors to not increase funding for the After Prom committee (as had been moved at the previous meeting) and thereby reduce the Council’s reserve funds, but rather invest the reserve funds in a secure interest-bearing account with earnings directed toward programming.   After some discussion, the recommendation was approved by a show of hands.   After the resolution was passed, John committed to consulting with MD PTA about the issue of the size of the Council’s current reserve, and bringing the matter back to either the Board of Directors or the full Council for reconsideration, as warranted.

New Business – Help is needed for ARL and Homewood Schools, PTACHC encourages local PTA’s to help.  Representatives of each of these schools will be at the next Council meeting to give an overview of their needs.

The next Sharing session is 10/29/08.  There will be breakout sessions during this meeting to discuss various topics, i.e., Health and Wellness, After Prom, Priorities for PTA Council of Howard County, etc.  An Agenda and publicity will be forthcoming from PTACHC. 

The next monthly PTACHC meeting is scheduled for the second Monday of the month - November 10, 2008 @ 7:30.  The coat drive will begin at 7 pm.   Please mark your calendar as it is different than our usually scheduled Monday meetings. 

Meeting adjourned 9:37.   Minutes submitted by Mollie Shea, Corresponding Secretary