PTA Meeting Minutes 10.18.16

Campbell PTA Meeting
October 18, 2016
6:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.

Approximate # of Attendees:   25

1. Welcome and Vote: Nathan Zee, President

• Nathan introduced himself and then asked for nominations from the floor for the open PTA Executive Board position VP of Communications; no nominations offered from the floor
• Ms. Nesselrode presented the candidate, Barbara Martinez, for a vote to the group; motion seconded; motion to elect Barbara Martinez as new VP Communications passed unanimously.

 

1. Updates on behalf of Kelly Krug (VP of Programming): Nathan Zee, President

• Activities coming up this month:

• Crazy Sock Spirit Day (Socktober); kids wear “crazy” socks to school on Friday, 10/28, combined with a month-long sock drive for new socks to donate to a shelter; sock collection bin located in cafeteria; donations will be taken through November 1^st
• Outdoor Movie Night: scheduled for Friday, 10/21, but rain is forecasted; alternate rain date is Friday, 10/28, and the decision whether to postpone will be made Wednesday, so stay tuned for an update on potential weather-related postponement; please note the differences from last years’ Movie Night: this year it will be held outside, no pre-orders of food (food served will be: pizza, popcorn, snacks, and drinks; family special is $13 for a whole pizza, four drinks, and a popcorn); remember to bring blankets, chairs, etc.; playground will be closed after dark for safety; movie will be “Hotel Transylvania II”

 

III.   Turtle Tube: Ms. Nicole Johnson, 5^th Grade Teacher

• Last year several Campbell teachers attended a training about how to increase participation and get more families involved in school by expanding ways in which families can see what is happening in the community without having to be physically present at the school, initiative is called FACE: www.apsva.us/face/; website can be translated in to multiple languages to increase outreach
• Campbell’s FACE initiative is called “Turtle Tube” https://campbell.apsva.us/campbell-turtletube/
• First video has already been posted; it’s called “Growth Mindset”
• Future videos will be translated into Spanish so that they will be more accessible to the community
• Ms. Johnson will “tweet” about her videos, too
• Ms. Johnsons presented a survey to the PTA members present asking what we’d be most interested in seeing in the Turtle Tube videos
• Ms. Nesslerode highlighted that out of all APS schools, Campbell sent the largest delegation of teachers and staff to the training on community engagement (teachers from each looping grade, counselor, and specialist from both reading and math teams were present)

 

III.   Fundraising Updates: Kathy Cordon, VP Fundraising

• Fill-the-Pond Pledge Drive: a reminder flyer will go home again tomorrow, 10/19; remember that to receive incentives, you must make your pledge by 10/31
• Not yet at our goal of raising $5,000

• What do we do with this money? Author visits, Turtle Pond renovation, Turtle Tank rebuild, fund Field Trips, etc.
• This is our second largest fundraiser (largest is Wetlands Festival)
• Pledges can be made by cash, check, PayPal

• Questions from floor

• Q: Can you give individual targets, such as “if every family gave X amount, we’d reach our goal?” A: Yes, great suggestion, we will do that.

 

1. Treasurer’s Report: Jenny Morris, Treasurer

• As of 9/30, we’ve had $11,000 of income and $13,000 of expenses

• Included in income was about $1,060 of payments from Amazon so make sure to keep using that link! We’ve also been collecting for spirit wear which will be paid for soon. And we’ve had lots of membership dues paid.
• Included in expenses were the pond ($9,800) and turtle tank ($1,400). Other expenses included supplies for garden work day, fixing the bridge in the courtyard, the bunny cage, the upcoming author visit, and other various expenses.

• Open floor to Q & A:

• Q: Did we lose money on Yearbook last year? A: (Nathan Zee) PTA does not fund this; it’s a school expense. (Maureen Nesselrode) Not a concern, we break even.

• Motion to approve funding request $135 for reading chairs made by Ms. Drabyk and Ms. Ammons (18 chairs total, 9 for each class), Seconded, and Approved Unanimously

 

1. Latino Moms Report: Claudia Cuellar Ramirez, Representative

• Group attended large event at Kenmore Middle School (Cosechando Suenos) https://www.apsva.us/face/

• Over 500 families, staff, and community members attended event on 10/14
• Group represented Campbell ES with a handmade banner and matching t-shirts

• During future Thursday morning meetings, the group would like to meet with staff to discuss specific topics, such as tips on how to help children improve SOL scores
• Nathan Zee: we hope to expand this group beyond the Latino community, so that we’re working as one Campbell team to support our school and students
• Maureen Nesselrode: Latina Mothers group volunteered on school picture day, will assist with apple-tasting, assembling Thursday folders, etc.
• Meetings are held on Thursday mornings 7:45-8:45 am, meeting conducted in Spanish but Monica Castillo Burgos will be in attendance providing English translation; fathers are welcome

 

 

1. Writer’s Workshop: Maureen Nesselrode, Principal

• APS adopted the Teacher’s College Writer’s workshop as part of curriculum
• Goal of writer’s workshop is to increase stamina, choice & volume
• Structure of writing curriculum:

• Mini lessons (8-10 minutes), contains specific point on strategy
• Students have work in their folders
• Students break off to work on their writing individually
• Adults conference with individual students to coach them on their writing
• Reconvene at the end of the session and teacher debriefs the class

• Lessons from Teacher’s College are scripted, but Campbell teachers deviate from scripts based on their students
• Maureen Nesselrode walked through two examples of a workshop lesson, one from Kindergarten and one from the 5^th Grade curriculum

• Kindergarten: Maureen Nesselrode read attendees a passage as if she were the teacher and we the students; prompted us to break off into pairs to discuss what we’d write about based on prompt, then break to work independently on writing. Stamina: how does this lesson encourage it? Through choice; the students select topics that are of interest to them or that they have expertise in; volume is addressed because the students are working on creating a book rather than a short passage. In Kindergarten, the students differentiate for themselves: those who are at the level where they are not writing independently can draw pictures, and those who come in to K already writing are encouraged to write at their level.
• 5^th Grade: Maureen Nesselrode read an example of a prompt where students are asked to make a list of two or three locations that are special to them; teacher models her list (teacher sharing personal stories encourages students to share)l; the next day the teacher says they should to go back to their lists, teacher adds more things to her list and asks students to do the same; then prompts that today they will spend time sketching a map of their special places; teacher makes her sketch and shares a story about it; teacher asks students to mark and “X” on their maps and to pretend that there are buried stories hidden there, like treasure; students will refer back to their list and map as they develop their stories; 5^th graders may write multiple short stories a day, they will select the best ones and enter them into Google Docs

• Ms. Hill shared that her students are so excited to write, they shared their stories with another class through a mini-showcase
• Maureen Nesselrode: along the way, teachers are coaching their students to improve by persevering and taking pride in their work; younger students have two adults in class during this time (reading specialist and classroom teacher)
• Opened floor to Q & A:

• Q: How long is the writer’s workshop block? A: Grades K-3= 2 hours (1 hour reading, 1 hour writing); Grades 4-5=1.5 hours (45 mins. reading, 45 mins. writing)
• Q: Does this encompass different types of writing? A: Yes. Include poetry, informational, fiction, how-to, etc. units

 

VII. Reminders/Notices/New Business

• Nathan Zee: reminders

• Movie Night this Friday, 10/21 (weather permitting, rain date 10/28)
• “Socktober” crazy sock day and sock drive, 10/28
• Fill-the-Pond Pledge Drive incentives end 10/31
• Silver Diner Restaurant Night, 11/3
• Bake Sale on Election Day, 11/8

• New Business:

• Jessica Haney: looking for volunteers for apple tasting during lunchtime on 11/3, look for sign-up genius and sign up if you can help
• Maureen Nesselrode: If you have something thing that you want announced or promoted at Community Meeting, the team needs lead time; they meet on Mondays, so you need to let them know prior to their meeting when set the agenda for that week’s Community Meeting (Community Meeting is a schoolwide meeting held on Friday mornings at 8:05 am that celebrate learning; typically 3-4 items are showcased, such as music demonstrations, dance performances, by groups and individual students; all parents are welcome to attend)

 

VIII.         Closing, Nathan Zee, President

• Dial-In for meetings is not working; we’re looking to find a solution, but you must attend meetings in person to cast a vote (required by our bylaws)
• We will likely be serving less pizza at future meetings since we routinely have too much left over
• Topic to be discussed at next meeting: Title 1- What is it?