MINUTES OF THE MCCPTA EXECUTIVE
BOARD MEETING
Thursday, January 5, 2006 at the
Carver Educational
ATTENDANCE:
Officers: Cindy Kerr, Victor Salazar, Juan
Johnson, Shirley Brandman, Liz Wheeler, Sharon St. Pierre
Area
Vice Presidents and Cluster Coordinators: Ellen Paul, Ted Willard, Jim Keenan, Phil Kaufman, Jane
deWinter, Lilo Mitz, Carley Lee, Kate Savage, Deborah Stevens Panzer, Steve Crowley, Carroll
Lovelace, Bob Braun, Rosanne Hurwitz,
Lilo Mitz, Janis Sartucci, Susie Scofield, Victoria Campbell Carter, Pam Moomau
Committee
Chairs: Kay Romero,
Marney Jacobs, Diane McHale, Meredith Walters, Neal Meyerson and Patti Twigg,
Tom Murphy, Anne Turner
Visitors: Darnell K. Daisey and Peter C.
Calhoun III, PTA members from
OPENNING
BUSINESS:
Call to
Order: MCCPTA
President Cindy Kerr called the meeting to order at 7:39 PM.
Agenda: Requested additions to the agenda were:
Meredith Walters to add a training committee date for spring training and Ted
Willard to share a curriculum committee update in writing. Rosanne Hurwitz
requested an update on the comment from the civic federation on the disposition
of
Meeting
Minutes: The December
1, 2005 executive board meeting minutes were distributed. Grammatical
corrections were made. The minutes were approved as corrected.
Treasurer’s
Report:
Juan
Johnson distributed the MCCPTA’s, Inc. Treasurer’s Report of November 23, 2005
through January 4, 2006, the Profit & Loss Budget vs. Actual report for
July 1, 2005 through January 4, 2006 , and a list of some MCCPTA committees
(gifted and talented; curriculum; special needs; high school and safety), general
and administrative , and community outreach expenses. This last list includes
all approved expenses that are included in the executive board minutes with the
exception of the legislative dinner expenses. A receipts list by local unit for
MCCPTA dues received beginning in July 2005 was distributed. Contact your local
school if it is not on the local unit dues received list. MCCPTA has about
$5,000 in the bank. Insurance bills went out in late September and Juan is
getting a lot back now. The insurance premiums due list includes those schools
who owe money. Please contact your locals re: payment. The audit update is much slower than Juan
anticipated, but it’s moving along. Hopefully, it will wrap up by end of the
month and next year should be smoother. The treasurer’s report will be filed
for audit.
OFFICERS’
REPORTS:
President: Cindy Kerr announced that as of
November 2005 she is now the Vice President for Councils of the MD PTA. National
PTA doesn’t see a conflict of interest in Cindy serving as both the state vice
president and our MCCPTA president. Cindy is appointing Sharon St. Pierre to
represent MCCPTA at the state board of directors meetings since Cindy can’t
vote for both positions that she holds. Sharon will remain as our
representative until the new president MCCPTA is elected.
Several
officers met with Larry Bowers for a dialogue about establishing a work group
on the organizational culture of respect that MCPS is currently using with its
unions. This probably wouldn’t cover the Board of Education. If you are
interested in serving on this work group, please let Cindy know.
Laura Steinberg,
from MCPS, contacted Cindy regarding record keeping - specifically the data
base for MCPS as it relates to military recruiting. Currently topic of military
recruiting at high schools has come to their attention because some school PTAs
are allowing directories to be used by recruiters. Cindy reviewed our recent directory use
background position and how we help our locals. Cluster coordinators should
contact their local high school PTA presidents to remind them that directories
can only be used by recruiters, or others, with the permission of the PTA
membership. Opting out of releasing your child’s name to recruiters can be done
following the outcry from NCLB clause. ROTC can recruit through the school
career centers. MCPS understands that we lose control of directory distribution
once they’re printed. Our offered language may preclude this practice of
directory distribution to recruiters, but it is a local PTA decision.
Cindy
continues to work on a middle school reform by working on parent involvement
and communication. She is the one of only two parents in the group who
participates, but she has been told that she’s not the “uninvolved” parent that
MCPS is looking for. They are trying to recruit an “uninvolved” parent.
Discussion of parental involvement followed her statements.
Officers
continue to meet with Board members and the county council. Valerie Ervin, in
her role as George Leventhal’s chief of staff, contacted Cindy regarding our
testimony before the county council. Because there was no time to come back to
MCCPTA for direction in two or three days, Cindy told her to keep it “status
quo”. The council continues to push for “helpful”
changes in our testimony and would like for it to be done over periods of time
rather than by clusters. Cindy pushed group testimony for stronger voices. We
will have to officially request how we want our CIP and Operating Budget testimony
to be given next year. No dates have been given to Victor for the county
council testimony, yet. Cindy will contact Valerie Ervin, in her role as chief
of staff, for dates.
Cindy met
with Valerie Ervin yesterday regarding background of her motion on school
reassignment requests. Board of Education member Valerie Ervin’s January 10,
2006 memorandum on school assignment requests given to us by George Margolies was
distributed tonight:
On December 13, 2005, I moved and Mr. Johnson seconded the
following resolution:
Resolved, That the Board of
Education schedule a discussion as to the desirability of
amending Policy FAA (Long-Range
Educational Facilities Planning) to consider
addressing extraordinary school
reassignment requests, absent a full-blown boundary
study, without being limited to
the regular CIP cycle.
Valerie
stated that, it’s simple there is no background on her motion. Our visitors
from Hampshire Greens will have comments to share. If the Board discussion
leads to action, we will have comments, opinions and positions. MCCPTA favors
public Board discussion. Discussion of
list serve comments from the community, including tonight’s visitors, was made
during the agenda item for CIP/Policy FAA Update/Valerie Ervin Motion.
Vice
President – Educational Issues:
Shirley
Brandman passed around a correspondence file. On behalf of committee chair
Alies Muskin, Shirley announced that the high school committee will have an
extended discussion meeting based upon a list of questions and concerns (e.g.
concept high school, smaller learning communities, graduation rates) on
February 4 from 9 to 1 PM. This will mean a substantial savings from the
original request of $1,000 for a conference. Shirley will ask Alies to submit a
revised request. Two committees, Parent Leadership and Curriculum, will meet on
January 11. Grading and Reporting will meet on January 25. Deborah
DeMille-Wagman stepped down as co-chair of the curriculum committee, but will
stay as cluster coordinator. Ted Willard is now the sole curriculum chair. Committee
chairs were asked to look at the operating budget and offer their input to Jane
de Winter.
Vice
President – Programs:
Sharon St.
Pierre has moved the start time for Shelly Johnson’s program on career
academies at the January Delegate Assembly to 6:30 PM based upon the action of
the delegates at the last assembly. We’ll monitor the attendance with the
earlier start time. February’s program was supposed to be diversity in the PTA,
but in discussing it with the officers it was decided to eliminate it in favor
of a total business meeting. March is a parent leadership program with Vicky
Strella. Depending upon attendance feedback, discussion and a decision by the
delegates the March program could be moved to start at 7 PM. A potential audit
concern is the requirement of PTAs to not just conduct business, but provide
information and prove how our monies are spent to serve the community.
Vice
President – Administration:
Victor
Salazar will be meeting this month with parents in Clarksburg to help them
start a PTA at the new high school. The operating budget testimony sheet was
circulated.
AGENDA
ITEMS:
Operating
Budget Update –
Operating
Budget chair Jane de Winter reported that the operating budget testimony writing
workshop will be held in the media center at Gaithersburg HS on Sat., Jan. 7
from 9:30 to 11:30 AM.
Jane de Winter made a motion to for a budget request of $100
for the operating budget committee to purchase refreshments for the operating
budget testimony workshop. It was seconded and passed by a voice vote.
Points of
reference and two or three themes will be developed at Saturday’s workshop for
our priorities. Questions for the county council members for the operating
budget forum on Monday night will also be collected, or you can give them to
Jane tonight or e-mail her later. She may consolidate/re-write questions.
Electronic copies of the results from the workshop will be posted for those who
can’t attend. The budget compact is on the website. Attending Monday night’s
forum will be: Sharon Cox, Charles Haughey, Beverly Swaim-Staley (for Doug
Duncan), Marshall Spatz, and seven county council members, excluding Perez and
Subin. Jane doesn’t know if Monday night’s forum will be televised. Following
the forum the MCCPTA budget compact will be voted on by delegates (with or
without changes or amendments) at 9 PM. Suggested changes may be sent to Jane
before the meeting, so she has an overhead ready. Marshall Spatz wants ideas
for how to spend the $2.6 allocated for high schools, middle school money, and
money for bullying/gang violence. Spatz also wants feedback on the fall strategic
plan community forums. MCPS and Board of Education ideas proposed include: cluster
coordinators attending assigned meetings; having only PTA leaders involved; and
only including “average” parents. Discussion followed on our role in the
forums, including the concept of the “average” parent, the timing of the fall
forums, the MCPS goal of the forums versus the community goals, potential
educational researchers/consultants as resources for input, role of the
facilitators in forums, and the suggestion that the Board listen and learn like
MCCPTA does during the summer months. Valerie Ervin is the new chair for the
research, so she oversees the forums.
Grading
and Reporting:
Shirley
Brandman did not have a copies of the motion from the last executive board
meeting regarding monitoring of grading and reporting, and feedback. She will
post it on the executive board listserv tomorrow. Grading and Reporting is not
on the agenda for the next Board of Education meeting, and Shirley doesn’t know
when it will be back on their agenda. MCPS has a FAQ list designed to clarify
homework and reassessment. The report
card roll out will realistically not be complete as first scheduled. The pilot
report card is questionable for the third through fifth grade for next year. First
and second grade report cards will not be fully implemented next year, and have
been pushed back for at least a year. The high school report card is about 10
years out. Originally report cards were to have been finished by 2009.
CIP/Policy
FAA Update/Valerie Ervin Motion:
Marney
Jacobs and Jim Keenan reported that the CIP testimony will probably be in
February, so it’s a quick turn around. We’d like for quad clusters to be
grouped for testimony time. A letter should be sent to the governor, to the
Montgomery County delegation and to other state legislators because we need the
state money to get what we need.
FAA-RA
workgroup MCCPTA Position Paper was distributed. The key point is that we
support the workgroup and the changes in language they drafted. Site size,
school capacity and enrollment, boundary studies and other facilities planning advisory
committees, and most importantly community involvement should be put back into
the policy. The due date for CIP cluster comments has been changed from July 1
to May 1 by request. Changes can still be made over the summer. Comments are
not tied to the master plan, but to what’s happening in your building instead. A
spring workshop will be held several weeks before comments are due. The next
meeting of the workgroup is Jan. 18. The position paper will be brought to the
delegate assembly on Jan. 24. Voting will be on Jan. 25. The MCCPTA report is
included in the report going to the superintendent at the Feb. 27 Board of
Education meeting. No dramatic changes were made by the workgroup. Public
testimony on the capital budget by quad cluster is included. There’s been discussion
with the civic federation on the definition of community with regard to
parents, staff and students as the primary stakeholders. Wherever possible Jim
and Marney have spelled out MCCPTA, area vice presidents, PTA presidents, and
whatever they can to define parent involvement. With the executive board
approval Jim and Marney will put the position paper out to the delegates for
them to take it back to their PTAs.
Discussion
was held on review by the policy committee since this is a regulation, and how
this review would be apparently contrary to what we were led to believe
regarding policy and regulation. Cindy suggested that we sit in on the policy
committee review. We would respond if necessary if the policy committee tries
to change anything without sending it back to the workgroup. Boundary committee
discussions would include area vice presidents, cluster coordinators or local PTA
presidents with the latter picking the participants. PTA has a role since MCPS
staff works with MCCPTA area vice presidents, cluster coordinators, or PTA
presidents to form a site selection advisory committee composed of MCPS staff,
PTA and appropriate local officials. Following discussion a request for
clarification will be made for, so we know who chooses participants for
boundary studies. Cindy Kerr will write it out. The draft can be read through
the link, so feedback can be given to Marney and Jim by Sunday. Monday it will
be sent out to the delegates.
Valerie
Ervin’s motion of Dec. 13, 2005 to the members of the Board of Education on
school reassignment requests was distributed. It reads:
Resolved, that the Board of Education schedule a discussion as to the
desirability of amending Policy FAA (Long-Range Educational Facilities
Planning) to consider addressing extraordinary school reassignment requests,
absent a full-blown boundary study, without being limited to the regular CIP
cycle.
Her motion
opens up discussion. A draft proposal letter from Cindy to the Board of
Education has been written by Jim and Marney dealing with this motion. Jim and
Marney would like to send the letter because discussion will be held on Jan.
10, although the likelihood of finalizing anything then is remote. We want the
opportunity to discuss what the Board come ups with. Our work on FAA should be
done by the end of January. Our stand on policy FAA is covered in the draft
letter, including inclusive communication, no reduction in testimony, parental
inclusion on boundary advisory committees and input on criteria, our strong recommendation
that “extraordinary” be defined carefully. The final suggestion is to look at
the FAA policy regulation and in particular the last paragraph in the
regulation because of its mention of unusual circumstances. Those people who
think they’re impacted by a boundary should have the opportunity to speak, not
only those that MCPS designates. The letter asks that MCCPTA be involved in any
conversation regarding school reassignment requests. This letter doesn’t
preclude the discussion of what is “extraordinary”. MCCPTA doesn’t historically
interfere with local boundary issues.
One visitor
from Hampshire Green was allowed to speak to the executive board about Valerie
Ervin’s motion. He expressed appreciation for its importance to MCCPTA, but was
concerned about our involvement. He is concerned that the PTA will be pitted
against the average parent and that this gives “ammunition” to some on the
Board to wait. Based on the previous boundary study, he doesn’t agree with our
key bullets, and thinks our “uninformed” letter is a barrier to a solution. The
community has been working on this policy since 1997, so they want the policy
worked on before the regulation.
Cindy Kerr
asked us to look at Ervin’s resolution as it is and the suggestions in this
letter and address that for their overriding impact on the county not just for
this particular issue for this community. Discussion included: state levels of
appeal, further development for extraordinary circumstances under point C in
the policy FAA draft, boundary changes without parent participation, agreement
with the workgroup, but questioning if the policy is working, precedence,
policy versus practice, a need for clearer communication to parents about what
a boundary study involves, “islands”, and our premature committal in a letter
before we know what the board discussion and decision will be.
Cindy Kerr
summarized that points A, B and C are acceptable, but point D is not, so it the
consensus seems to be that it should be removed. The delegates need to weigh in
on this. So, the letter should say while we applaud the idea of opening up
discussion, these are some of the concerns we’d like to see included in the
discussion, and if there are any actions that will result from this discussion
we want to be allowed the opportunity to come back and be involved in the
action. The workgroup wants to make sure that extraordinary is narrowly
defined. The general belief is that the current way raising some questions, so we
should go back and look at criteria used in boundary studies. We need to be
careful of political maneuvering and stay neutral, while still having an
opinion. The last paragraph will be done and we’ll put in a different
conclusion and closing. Discussion on point A concluded that it should be
included to be respectful to the workgroup.
Ted Willard made a motion that the executive board sends a
letter to the Board of Education in response to the Valerie Ervin motion. It
was seconded. It passed on a standing vote.
Jim Keenan made a motion that the executive board to send
the proposed letter to the Board of Education as written through “C”, eliminating
point D and the last paragraph; concluding that we be included in any
discussion and any action that is a result of this discussion; allowing us to
do any editing, and to send the letter out to the executive board prior to it
being sent. It was seconded. It passed
on a standing vote.
Wordsmithing
will be done with the CIP committee chairs. Jim Keenan will check with Joe
Lavorgna for clarifications.
Carver
Facility: The issue
of the Carver facility being considered for use by Montgomery College as
discussed by the Education subcommittee of the county council was discussed.
Mike Subin talked to Cindy at the superintendent’s operating budget
presentation. MCCPTA’s immediate reaction was what about Rock Terrace and the
impact on children. Cindy will meet with Mike Subin again next week. We will
delay more discussion until we have more information that will be brought to
the next executive board meeting by Cindy, the CIP chairs, and the cluster
involved. (The mayor of Rockville has invited the cluster to meet with him.) We
all will remind people discussing the issue of the unique program at Rock
Terrace HS.
List
Serves:
Patti Twigg
distributed her master tally from the ballot on listserve issues that was taken
at the last delegate assembly. Patti Twigg said the executive board has complete
control over the executive board list serve rules, and guidelines. Recent
discussion has indicated that the executive board listserve is not being
utilized as it was meant to be. It was to be used for discussion in between
meetings, and discussions were not to be forwarded to other places. Efficiency,
not secrecy was intended. Everything on the executive listserve is for the
executive board use for meetings.
Ted Willard made a motion that if you are a member of the
executive board list serve and you forward information that has been shared on
the executive board list serve for action at an upcoming meeting to the
delegates list serve, or any other list serve, that you will be warned once
through e-mail from the moderator, with a copy to the president, that this is
unacceptable; and if happens a second time you will be removed from the
executive board list serve. It was seconded. It passed by a standing vote.
Commentary
and analysis should be the focus of the executive board listserve, even though opinions
are there, too. Questions were raised about items intended to be forwarded by
request. This motion applies to unsolicited forwarding. A statement of
clarification, “This is for discussion, commentary and analysis by the
executive board for action to be shared at the executive board that will result
in action that will then be shared with the delegates” will be added. Patti
suggested it might be easier to put shared items on the bulletin. An idea against
the motion is that all listserves have no confidentiality after a posting is
made. E-mail warnings will come from the moderator with a copy to the
president. Everyone can post to the executive board, but usually it is used by
officers and committee chairs. Look for executive board use only in the subject
line and don’t forward it. Forwarding of summaries will be left to the
professional judgment of the moderator.
Patti
researched Juan Johnson’s motion from last month’s meeting. It should work, but
people who read on the web will have to make a separate message.
Juan Johnson made a motion that we make the changes to the
executive board list serve serves so that a “reply” is sent to the sender only,
and “reply to all” is sent to the sender and all of the executive board. The motion was seconded. It passed on a
standing vote.
NEC
Naming Committee (Abrams
motion):
Phil
Kaufman said that last July the naming process for a new school was changed
from the process in the regulations including the timing, the members of the
committee, and who would run it. Steve Abrams gave a single name, Roscoe Nix, (a
living person) for the committee to consider. The cluster coordinators in the
consortium wrote letters of objection this summer to the Board of Education.
Phil drafted a letter for the MCCPTA executive board to send to the Board of
Education since then naming committee didn’t follow policy. The naming
committee was formed by the principal and the community superintendent and
included members from Burnt Mills and Cresthaven, as well as Phil. Next week the
naming committee will recommend Brookview Park as the name. Steve Abrams has
gotten feedback from county council members to suggest that he make a
resolution for the Board of Education to put names forward by just changing the
policy to be able to do it. This is up for discussion at the January 10 Board
of Education meeting. The draft letter has incorporated these concepts to say
that we’re concerned about what’s happening, we want the Board to be respectful
of local community preferences and we oppose any changes to the naming policy
that would eliminate community involvement.
Phil Kaufman made a motion that the executive board to send his
letter to the Board of Education. It was seconded. Diane McHale made an amendment
to the motion to specifically take out the name of Roscoe Nix to make it more
general statement. The amendment was seconded and passed on a voice vote. The
motion was passed on a voice vote.
Discussion
included that the issue isn’t this name, but process that was used to choose
it.
Academic
Ineligibility Policy:
Shirley
Brandman said that the Board originally announced that comments were due on the
academic ineligibility policy on Jan. 26 for Board action on Feb. 14, but the
mailed letter said comments were due Jan. 11. The Jan. 11 date was an error.
Since voting at the delegate meeting would be on Jan. 24, and the policy
committee is meeting on Jan. 12, the executive board needs to make a statement
to the Board before their policy committee meeting. The delegate assembly would
be able to vote before Board action is taken.
Shirley Brandman made a motion that the executive board submits
comments to the Board of Education encouraging them not to drop the academic standards
of eligibility, but allowing for increased flexibility as proposed by the
minority report for students who in good faith seek to pursue academic
supports, so they’re not automatically eliminated from their extracurricular
activity. It was seconded. It passed on a voice vote.
Discussion
points included: it will be brought to
the delegates but, it’s not assured that the delegates will approve it; the
policy committee needs to consider the minority report; no recommendation on a
pilot program; academic supports should be offered for all, not just athletes; not
advocating lowering GPA standards; extracurricular activities (other than
athletics) with and without academic eligibility as a threshold; high school list
of activities and clubs with and without academic eligibility; MCCPTA would
like this generic list; stipended positions equity; principals fear of lowering
of standards below 2.0 GPA; Shirley will send a summary of the main points from
the minority report leaving out time frame reference due to no consensus;
extracurriculars as way of holding onto students; every school should have some
extracurriculars that are not academically eligible linked; tie between
academic supports and participation; special needs students; and the message we
send to students.
COMMITTEE
REPORTS:
Training:
Training
chair Meredith Walters proposed Wed., June 7 as the date for spring training.
Gifted
and Talented:
Diane
McHale gave an update about the annual application process for third graders to
apply to fourth and fifth grade programs. In past years, the schools invited (with
some guidelines from MCPS) some third graders to apply, but this year MCPS sent
a letter of application to every third grader’s family with the result being
fewer applications. The deadline was extended and locals were told to do more
outreach. The issue is that these are competitive programs and MCPS can’t keep
changing the deadline. Does this have more of an affect on children from low
income or bilingual families? Diane will bring back more information.
Curriculum:
Ted Willard
distributed a resolution from the curriculum committee. The committee will meet
on Jan. 11. This resolution will be brought to the delegate assembly to take
back to their locals.
ADJOURNMENT:
The meeting was adjourned at 10:02 PM.