President Lisa Kauffman called the meeting to order at 5:45pm.Free dinner available for all attending.Board Officers present: Lina Spalding-Ramsay, Amanda Kleidermacher, Deanna Christensen, Bruce Barham, and Mary Porges.
Agenda item #1– Welcome – Lisa Kauffman
-Lisa introduced 2009-2010 Ada Merritt PTA officers – Lina Spalding-Ramsay, VP Membership, Amanda Kleidermacher, VP Fundraising, Bruce Barham, VP Communications, Tim Orrange, Treasurer (unable to attend meeting), Deanna Christensen, Corresponding Secretary, and Mary Porges, Recording Secretary.
-Distributed copies of agenda, budget, handout regarding cash on hand, membership forms, and raffle tickets sold
-Reviewed purpose of PTA – Promote children’s welfare, raise standards, closer relation between school-family-teachers.
-Reviewed PTA’s propose this year – encourage all parents to get involved, increased communication on what is going on in school, we are a commuter and high performance school, provide funds for programs & teacher needs, support PYP/MYP program, focus on science and math, support art & music program, clubs
-Reviewed last spring’s PTA survey – International Food Festival, Earth Day, Festa Junina, Teacher Appreciation Week and Book Fairs ranked the highest. About a 10% response rate.Lowest ranking initiatives may not be known by parents (teacher grant process for example) or not affect many grades (5th Grade Mad Science Presentations).
-Introduced Committee Chairs – Special Events – Nely Martinez, Room Parents – Monica Duran (needs middle school room parents), Butterfly Garden – Jackie Roch & Sarah Messiah, need chairs for Middle School, Black History, Brazilian Culture, Spanish Culture, Scientist and Advocacy Committees.
-Reviewed cash on hand handout - $13,700+ as of beginning of September
-Goal is to break even, if any money carried over it has a specific objective, we carried less surplus money over from last year vs. the year before, and some events will fund themselves – Black History Month, Butterfly Garden, 8th and 5th Grade activities.
-Fundraisers – Catalog, school reading, and new Friday T-shirt sales
-Changes on the expense side – more money allocated to student activities.
-Carolyn asked why Green Committee budget was cut to $1,800.Decreased because expense of bags and t-shirts have already been paid.
-Courtyard renovation - $9,000 allocated from last year, County still performing assessment regarding erosion problem, filled some areas with sand, may need to build retaining walls to hold run off, drains being evaluated, may create some hard surfaces with pavers.
-Media Center has an inadequate number of higher level books.
-Several teacher grants awarded, i.e. $2,000 for art supplies last year.
-Club money is new - $1,500.
-Security expense has increased – we shared cost with school last year, this year we will pick up the cost of $10,000 for 1 hour in the morning and 1 hour during afternoon pickup on the 3rd Street side of the school.Many parents are violating drop off and pick up rules.Dania Gorriz asked if lower cost security options have been looked at, Principal Garcia has a concern that if the security is not a police officer than tickets cannot be issued and authority is not the same.
-Increase to student awards line – this year will have 8th Grade awards.
-Increase to capital items – will purchase 4 hand sanitizer dispensers, showed example of devise at a cost of $1,000 each
-Anticipate more catalog sales and uniform sales vs. last year.
-Smart Boards – Discussion regarding the potential purchasing of smart boards with money left over or not spent on courtyard renovation.Gala funds were designated for courtyard renovation and possible purchase of smart boards if monies were left over.School currently has 8 smart boards and 2 portable ones.Jackie Roch asked administration if we can get 4 smart boards from County now that we have a middle school component.With cuts administration id doubtful such a request would be granted.Judy Schechter motioned to reallocate $6,000 towards purchase of smart boards taking $2,000 from student awards and $4,000 from teacher grants.Carolyn West seconded motion and motion was denied (4 for to 18 against was the vote).Principal Garcia concerned about taking money from student awards given that 8th Grade awards are new this year.Principal Garcia also informed the group that it takes 4 to 8 weeks for installation, purchasing about 2 to 4 weeks.Joan Silverstein motioned for the purchase of 1 smart board - $3,000 – and the source of money to be determined and if there is surplus money after courtyard renovation a 2nd smart board would be purchased. Judy Schechter seconded motion.Motion denied by a 14 to 21 vote.Dania Gorriz made a motion to purchase $3,000 smart board and money to come from teacher grants, Manny Segarra seconded but motion was denied by 7 to 21 vote.
-Ms. Padierne requested that the teacher grant process be made easier.
-Ms. Sonia Garcia expressed a need for more lap tops and projectors and will come up with a concrete request.
-Lisa discovered a mistake in the budget.Jackie Roach made a motion to reallocate $1,500 from clubs and $1,500 from teacher grants to go to cultural assemblies as expenses of $3,000.Seconded by Nely Martinez and motion approved by 24 to 2 vote.
-If a parent has an idea, contact, or resources that can benefit the school please contact administration.
-Budget was approved by 31 to 0 votes.
Agenda item # 3 – School Updates – Principal Garcia
-Ada Merritt has excelled academically.One student from 5th Grade Portuguese Programs selected from all Dade County to represent school at superintendent meeting and at the end of session recognized.
-Ada Merritt will be going through MYP authorization next few weeks.October 26th will the IB visit for evaluation of 6th, 7th, and 8th Grades.
-Dr. Schechter will conduct an H1N1 seminar tomorrow.
-Middle school being dismissed in front area.
-Budgetary affects – cuts but needs met, adjustments to after care, media clerk, we receive additional money because we are a magnet school.
-New science middle school teacher needs $8,000 to create new lab.There are 12 new teachers in middle school.
-Accents in Portuguese language have changed – follow the way Portugal spells – new books and text needed.Just purchased 6th, 7th and 8th grade books for $8,600+.
-School starts at 8:30am. Breakfast free for all students, progress reports coming, peanut free school, parents need to be cleared for field trips, we have 700+ students.
-If anyone has a parent portal issues please send a note to Mr. Almonte.
-Clubs – teacher needs to let administration know if they have a passion for a club.School will sponsor for a year with $600.
-Park across the street will go through construction in January 2010.City of Miami constructing a PE shelter and securing the park.
-High school fair will be held.
-IS and IE will start October 5th.
-First tour is October 20th, by January 15th must apply.FCAT and Science Fair workshops will be held in October.
-Fcat results from last year scored with 2nd highest in County in science, 96% in writing.Excellent results overall.
-Membership campaign overview – bulletin in main office outlines campaign.All on Board with the PTA theme.First class with 100% membership will get a make your own sundae party.18 teachers have signed up, talk it up.Can pay on-line with pay pal.
