Bryant PTSA Board Meeting Minutes – September 2019

Kathy Austin
  • Welcome and PTSA Goals for 2019-2020
    • Overview of meeting schedule
    • Highlighting goals for the year, Whitney Griesbach / Ann Sonnen
      • How can we make PTSA more approachable and accessible
      • How we can improve the transitioning of roles: creating more of a process to transition roles, onboarding materials, etc. in order to alleviate fears of joining
      • More of a partnership with the building
      • Increased transparency of board
  • Approval of Last Meeting’s Minutes, Whitney Griesbach
    • Minutes approved
  • PTSA Insurance Review, Nick Barrett
    • Reviewed existing insurance certificate
    • We can renew October 1st (Chess club has an event the first week in December, and they need insurance certificate)
    • Can we have an insurance certificate that goes longer than 12 months (e.g. 15?) so it ends at the end of the school year?
      • This will be looked in to
    • PTSA can’t sponsor ongoing sporting events offsite due to insurance coverage
  • Treasurer’s Annual Re-cap Report, Nick Barrett
    • Annual recap
      • Generated $211k (primary sources are annual campaign, auction, and blast)
      • $219k available for 2019-2020
      • 2/3 supplements curriculum at Bryant (grants to SPS) + additional programs and reserve
  • Presentation of 2019-2020 Budget
    • $315k, $193k for curriculum based activities/grant positions (64% of budget)
      • Most of the increases due to now having to pay benefits for instructional support (actual hours have decreased in some cases)
      • Bumped unallocated funds to $10k, as it was in previous years
      • Added a new line item for previous years’ expenses to handle late reimbursements
    • Changes between this year’s and last year’s budgets
      • Decreased funding for field trips and classroom needs from $26 to $22. Decreased substitute time from 2.5 to 2 days
      • Reduced Community Volunteer Coordinator role to 17 hrs/week and reduced stipend
      • Increased instructional support by contract rate and added .5 FTE math support
    • Will vote on budget at next meeting
  • School Supplies Review 2018, Whitney Griesbach (Sara Fenzl not present)
    • Supplies cost $19k, raised $22k, also raised $5,500 for school in need. 88% of parents have paid (518 students).
    • Overall a big success—one teacher said “It’s awesome”
    • If we have excess, it will roll into next year’s school supplies or additional supplies during the year
  • Principal’s Update, Charmaine Marshall
    • School off to a great start
    • Numbers continue to look good, higher than projections: 583 total.
      • District undercounted enrollment going into the year
      • Once this new number becomes official, we will optimistically be able to add support
        • Add .5 PE hours. For example, currently .5 PE, and optimistic we’ll move it to 1
        • Add 1 new teacher. Will hopefully allow us to support other classes (but not add a new 1st or 2nd grade class)
    • Slow rollout of Schoology across the school
      • Teacher newsletters will all be sent via new tool
      • This use will hopefully increase over time
    • Goal is to make Bryant a welcoming environment
      • Multicultural event that will replace Winterfest this winter
      • Thanksgiving-time family feast event
      • Informational session for second-language parents this fall and spring
      • Considering adding a second curriculum night in the spring
      • Adding additional country flags for the gym—if you don’t see countries you want to be represented, reach out
      • Added welcome signs to all the doors to help make it more inclusive
    • Asks:
      • $2000 budget request from art teacher
        • Discussion of role of PTSA to fund programs
        • Would have liked to have this ask in budget process at end of last year
        • This is a district supported role, which traditionally have supplies supplied by district
          • We do provide supplies for artist in residence
        • Whitney: let’s see the final numbers for supplies, and if we do have additional funds we could use them to support this.
        • In the future this should be added up front
      • $2000 Principal line item: provide additional opportunities (e.g. a student that needs additional attention, or teacher conferences)
        • Partial increase for literacy teacher. $1280.
  • Committee Reports
    • Fundraising
      • Spring survey about what families were interested in
        • 15% response rate
        • 3/4 satisfied with fundraising
        • 1/2 want more visibility into use of funds
        • Teaching support ranked #1, tutoring and academic support #2, social and emotional support #3, and then #4 arts and culture (distant 4th)
        • 3/4 said they would contribute to playground but wanted improvements to the field
        • 1/2 wanted us to do more for other schools, 1/2 wanted more done for their kids
          • We should continue to provide opportunities to give to other schools
          • These conversations mirror those on the PTSA
      • Annual campaign
        • Discussion over what to do for prizes
    • Membership
      • New system, and some PTSA board members need to update their membership (board members must be members, anyone who handles cash must also be a member for insurance purposes)
      • 215 paid members, 87 student members
    • Volunteers
      • 54 responses to volunteer interest survey. Will send to different category chairs
      • Looking for mentors, Reflections the only one without volunteers
        • Bryant Blast position also open
      • New family orientation on 10/1, one in morning and one in evening
    • Legislative
      • Olivia, youth organizing for Global Climate Strike, presented information about the student-led strike on Friday 9/20
      • Detailed information about legislative updates will be on FB
        • Needs a separate page on the site
    • Teacher Representative
      • No update
    • Communications
      • Working on simplifying communications

New Business

  • Art Docent Program, Nicholas Eve
    • Volunteer program where Bryant parents come into class 1x month and teach about art
    • Program is making some changes this year
      • Goals: increasing consistency of content and its delivery
      • New curriculum, with same programs across the school
      • New trainings for each unit (in person and online trainings being developed)
      • Improve coverage across all the classes (previously a wide range of involvement across the classes)
      • Changing from hero model of art history to studio model, with an emphasis on fundamental art lessons
      • Increased amount of activity and discussion
      • Will collect lots of feedback and data to understand what is/isn’t working
      • Phase 1 of a 2 phase project. Phase 1 every student gets some education. Phase 2 (next year) will focus on different pathways per grade
    • PTSA can help in the following ways:
    • Fund artist notebooks (unlined): ~$0.89/unit
    • Mirrors (for self portraits—approx 1 class worth in art docent closet)
    • Battery operated lights (~$50)
    • Viewfinder (helps frame drawing). $40 for transparencies
    • We already have $1000 in art docent budget
  • Additional new business, Whitney Griesbach
    • There was a vote over email to approve funding new soccer goals
  • Presentation of New Standing Rules, Whitney Griesbach
    • Will vote in October

Adjourn 9:25pm