Bryant PTSA Board Meeting Minutes – October 2019

Kathy Austin

Welcome / Approval of Last Meeting’s Minutes
The minutes from June’s general meeting were approved. Whitney Griesbach

PTSA Goals for 2019-2020
A brief review of the goals set by PTSA for the 2019-2020 school year. There will be a focus on inclusivity and transparency. Whitney Griesbach

Approval of 2019-2020 Budget Nick Barrett
Overview of 2019-2020 budget. Highlights:

  • $315,000 sources of cash (increase of $55k due to increased funds from Annual Campaign)
  • $300,000 in expenses (increase of $40k due to increase in , and $53,000 carryover and surplus

The budget was approved.
Bryant currently has an enrollment of 583 students.

Changes to Standing Rules

Standing rules had 2 minor changes:

  • Update to new board members (#23)
  • Changes to registration (#10-#11)

These will be updated on the website.

Principal’s Update Charmaine Marshall
The update was primarily focused on how Bryant will meet the needs for students across the spectrum, both those who need additional support and those who are advanced.

  • Completed hiring two new support staff, who are already providing assistance to students at both ends of the spectrum.
  • We’re looking to do more professional development for all teachers. As a neighborhood school, we want to meet the needs of all students, including those who are highly capable. So we need to be able to train our teachers to be able to support students across the spectrum. Students will be targeted for the support they need. There is some discussion at the district level around reintegrating HCC at neighborhood schools. We want to be able to provide that support now for the students here.
  • Our PTSA requests will be based on professional development and supplemental materials, especially around math instruction.
  • For SBA Test, 3rd grades (current 4th graders) in Math, 50% are exceeding. We are one of the higher performing schools in the area. With targeted support, we can bring up the 8% that are L1. Literacy is similar.
  • Achieving this will require a continued focus on these core skills: 1 hour for math, 1.5 hrs for literacy per day.
  • With the additional instructors and tutors we are helping students who are either struggling or need more advanced help.
  • Doing a new Multicultural Event in December—looking for 3-4 people for the steering committee

Committee Reports

  • Fundraising
    • Kicked off Annual Campaign yesterday.
    • Students getting a free recess for 100% participation (students AND teachers VERY excited)
    • Need sign ups to update percentages for the board
  • Membership
    • No updates
  • Volunteers
    • Still looking for Bryant Blast leadership
    • Reflections leadership has been found, but this will be their last year, so looking for a mentee who will then be able to take this on next year
    • Able to find enough parents for picture day, but will need more volunteers for retake day and class pictures. Also need someone to head this process. Free pictures/packages to parent helper.
    • Volunteer interest survey indicated interest by additional parents to volunteer.
  • Legislative
    • Election coming! Everyone should vote.
    • Leg Assembly is October 26/27. Let us know if you have an issue you want to communicate to the assembly, as they determine the agenda for the year.
    • New dates will be scheduled for meet and gree with State Senator David Frockt, and State Reps Gerry Pollet and Javier Valdez
  • Teacher Representative
    • New interventionists have started working with groups this week and they are really meeting the needs of those kids who are working with them, while also allowing increased focus for teachers with the rest of the students.
  • Communications
    • New rules for photographs/images. Trying to limit the number of images of children on social media as it’s difficult to control the distribution of those images.
    • Lots of emails for lots of different functions; trying to improve that workflow so it’s much easier to distribute information (and prevent them from being missed).
    • Global events calendar. We know the dates, but we also want to identify when that information needs to be distributed to the different channels.
  • Building Leadership Team (BLT) Update
    • Discussions around how different staff will be used
    • Discussions around new multicultural events

New Business

Community Engagement Update Clare Kealy

  • Mom’s Night Out was a success
  • • Boo Bash is coming!
    • 1 week from Friday
    • Trying to create a fall event (similar to the Bryant Blast in the spring) to foster community
  • Speakers also coming
  • Volunteer event with Green Seattle Day on Nov 2, 9am-12pm at Magnuson
  • Grade level community engagement has continued — $500 per grade for all-inclusive event. Doesn’t need to be in the spring.

Additional business

  • Additional business focused on different requests for more funding from the unallocated funds:
  • Request from Writer’s Celebration for a new embosser (“elementary” was spelled wrong on the current one). Cost is $100.06.
    • Approved
  • Need to follow up about art supplies. No vote.
  • Request for funds for Math Talk, a K-5 textbook to help with critical thinking around math. Would like to buy 10 additional copies so that we have 2 per grade level and for the interventionists to use. $600 for 10 additional copies.
    • Approved
  • Request for sub time to support a Data review with 3rd through 5th grade teachers to review math scope and sequence. ½ day subs for 2 days across 2 grades, for a total of 10 subs at $225 per day. Total cost of $2250. We want this interim data before we go into winter. This is a one-time ask, but we need a long-term plan for how to handle this in future years.
    • Approved
  • Request from PTSA for Quickbook subscription upgrade. This will allow us to keep track of all our funds, as this summer the Plus subscription changed to restrict the number of funds we can track. We need to go up to the advanced level of Quickbooks, which is $700 (for a new annual total of $1400). It would be a significantly harder job without it. Recommended by our CPA. We can also pursue some grants for the software and evaluate
    • Approved

Adjourn 8:30