Office Manager

Cathy Lilja

Phone 301-460-0224

Fax 301-460-0225

Visit our web site

www.us.net/mccpta

Can you believe that that the first quarter is already over and that report cards have been received? It is a bittersweet time for me – I am finally going to “graduate” and leave not only MCPS behind but also MCCPTA. My youngest son will graduate and I will no longer have children in the school system – I feel that this year is flying by and it will soon be time to send my baby off to college! I look forward to continuing my advocacy work on the state level as my belief in PTA and all that it does for the children is as strong today as it was 15 years ago when I began.

Here is some information about our upcoming Delegates Assembly scheduled for Tuesday, November 22, 2005: I am excited to inform you that we will have a brief presentation by Maryland Senator Ruben and Delegate Barclay about the upcoming 2006 legislative session in Annapolis. We look forward to hearing their presentation and using the information they share in developing our legislative platform. Our Vice President for Legislation – Ms. Jinhee Wilde and her legislative co-chairs – Mr. Tom Murphy and Ms. Suzanne Weiss will be working on their recommendations for the MCCPTA legislative platform and will be presenting to you at our upcoming January Delegates Assembly. Please contact them if you have any questions or suggestions about their work.

We had planned to have a brief presentation by the directors of Hands on Science and FLES (Foreign Language in Elementary Schools) at our October assembly, but because of the amount of business that we had on our agenda, we delayed their presentation until this month. These are wonderful programs offered through MCCPTA – we are excited to hear from their directors and to share news about these programs with our delegates.

At our October delegates assembly our Gifted and Talented Committee presented a resolution recommending the establishment of a new up county magnet high school. This resolution will be presented for action at Tuesday's Delegate Assembly. I have attached another copy to my letter for your convenience. Please come to the meeting prepared to take action on this proposal.

Also at our October meeting the delegates instructed us to bring back language in a resolution restricting use of local directories to PTA business. Attached please find the draft proposal for your consideration. There will be opportunity at the meeting for you to make changes to the language and to decide if this proposal captures the position suggested at the last meeting.

Delegates voted at or October meeting to add a May Delegates Assembly. We were instructed to bring back a date for the May meeting. We are proposing that the meeting be held on May 30, 2005 – we will vote on accepting that date at the meeting. We will also bring a proposal to you to change the start time of our Delegate Assemblies from 7:30 pm to 7:00 pm.

The reasoning behind this suggestion is to allow for adequate time to conduct the business of our organization while allowing delegates to get out of the meetings earlier. During those months where we have a program in advance of our business, it will allow for the program to be completed earlier and the business meeting to start on time. Your input and vote will be solicited on this proposal as well. We will also ask for your approval of the Delegates protocol that you will find attached to this letter. We believe that these protocols will help facilitate the meetings of our delegates.

Ms. Shirley Brandman will present a report on our Advocacy Priorities. We thank you for your input and voting at our past two assemblies. We will find out what the results were of your votes and we will discuss next steps. We will continue to use these priorities in our advocacy.

At our last meeting you were given a survey about protocols for the delegates list serve. You will be given ballots at the meeting allowing you to weigh in with your opinions as we try to make the Delegates List Serve work for everyone.

Ms. Jane DeWinter, the chair of the Operating Budget committee will be reporting on the MCCPTA Operating Budget Compact. We look forward to beginning our advocacy on this very important topic.

We will get updates from our Health Committee (Tracy Fox), Safety Committee (Pam Moomau), Middle School Committee (Juan Johnson), CIP Committee (Marney Jacobs/Jim Keenan) and our Grading and Reporting committee (Shirley Brandman).

Ms. Shirley Brandman will report to our assembly on the MCPS Academic Ineligibility Work Group and their minority report to the Board of Education regarding the Academic Eligibility policy.

I would like to encourage every delegate to sign up for our Electronic Bulletin and our Delegates list serve. We will be sending out all important information for upcoming meetings electronically on the bulletin, we will send a copy electronically to every president and ask that they share with their

elected delegates and we will mail a hard copy using the MCPS pony system. The MCPS pony is an interoffice delivery system that will deliver our President’s newsletter in an interoffice envelope to the local school office. Please check your PTA mailbox for important MCCPTA correspondence. We will not be sending the President’s letter by US mail this year in an attempt to curb our postage expenses. We believe that we are making every attempt to get all important information to you electronically as well as using hard copies sent to your local schools. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Attached please find your county dues payment voucher. Dues were payable on November 1, 2005 in the amount of $0.75 per member. Please make your check payable to the MCCPTA and mail to 15101 Bauer Drive, Rockville, MD 20853 or you may pony mail to MCCPTA, North Lake Center. Also please be aware that this payment is in addition to the payment you will make to the State/National PTA Level (you should have received another voucher sent directly from the State office for that payment). Once the MCCPTA office receives your payment, MCCPTA delegate voting cards will be mailed to your PTA President so that your school may participate and vote in any upcoming delegate assemblies. Therefore, your timely compliance in paying your dues is very important.

I look forward to seeing everyone at our November Delegates Assembly. As always we will help any delegate introduce any new business that they deem important. Please remember that the MCCPTA Executive Board are your elected representatives and that we are here to serve you and to speak as one voice for every child. Don’t forget that there is no December Delegates assembly. Please enjoy the holiday season with your families – we will be back on schedule in January.

Cindy