Minutes-MarkKeppelHigh School Alliance General Meeting

Wednesday September 30, 2009

Aztec Cafeteria

Present: Jimmy Gin, Jesse Katz, Paul Cheung, Diana Zhou, Tracy Win, Diana Eguchi, Grace Love, Carla Bartlett, Johnny Thompson, Mike Donnelly, Karen Wallace, Joe Leon, Carol Tanita, Jennie Phan, Larry Liu, Mayor Mitchell Ng, Denise Tso, Diane Adams, Margaret Endo, Ivy Chin-Au, Crystal Hirose, Herbert Jew, Peter Lin, Christine Jew, Ross Anthony, Vanessa Yau, Rowena Yau, Candy Ho, Mary Ann Ragus, Sharon Woo.

1.0Call to order (Sharon Woo) - The meeting was called to order at 7:29 pm.

2.0Flag salute- lead by Christine Jew.

3.0Welcome (Sharon Woo)

Everyone was asked to introduce themselves. Sharon Woo told the membership about The Alliance’s history and purpose. She also discussed the new construction at Mark Keppel, how the Alliance helped to bring that about, and how it will improve the facilities at Keppel. She described the state of Mark Keppel’s buildings and furnishings when the Alliance was formed. She talked about the pictures of Keppel on the cover of Alliance’s 2001 fundraiser dinner brochure. The pictures show the poor conditions and furnishings of Keppel. She pointed out the timeline in the brochure that details the changes and events at Keppel.

4.0 Agenda additions/deletions/changes/adoption (Sharon Woo)- none

5.0Recording Secretary’s report (Diana Zhou)

Approval of Minutes: May 27, 2009- the minutes were reviewed. Changes to the last meetings’ minutes: 6.2 “obon” festival not “obi open” festival. Motion to approve the corrected minutes by Jimmy Gin. Seconded by Joe Leon. Motion passed.

6.0Student Reports

6.1Associated Student Body (ASB) Report (Christine Jew) – Christine Jew informed the membership about ASB’s upcoming events including Homecoming. She says that ASB has been working hard on the Homecoming show and dance. There is another dance on October 2nd. The theme will be Back to the Future. Christine also mentions that ASB has been negatively affected by construction. However, ASB has successfully worked around the construction.

6.2 National Honor Society (NHS) Report (Tracy Win) – Tracy informed the membership that the NHS advisors have a completed list of 59 new members. There will be a banquet for the new members on October 25th. Parents are welcome to attend. The dinner will be $25 a person.

7.0Public Comments

7.1Carla Bartlett mentioned that she is glad two new music classrooms are being built. She introduced Johnny Thompson for a presentation. Thompson is heading a new campaign about musical interest in students. Thompson began his presentation by describing his memorable experiences at Mark Keppel. He expresses enthusiasm in the improvements at the school since his time at Mark Keppel. He then introduces an advocacy group called Parents for Music and Arts (PMA) for music in the school system. The primary focus is on elementary schools. He offered to talk in person with any parents interested in PMA. He also offered parents a number to call if they have any questions.

8.0Treasury Report (Crystal Hirose)

Crystal Hirose announced that there is currently $43,000 in the bank. She also said the Alliance is short money from the fireworks since we haven’t received money from AEF for credit card sales made on their machine. This amount is about $5000-$7000. Also, she has about $2500 to deposit from registration donations. She also has to write check for about $1000 to the student bank for student groups that promoted the fireworks booth.

9.0 Corresponding Secretary Report (Vanessa Yau)

9.1a. Correspondents
Myra Jo Calderon thanks the Alliance for the donation of library books
Carla Bartlett thanks the Alliance for fieldtrip grants and past donations.
Grace Love thanks the Alliancefor CST prizes.

10.0Principal’s Report (Grace Love)
Ms. Love announced that the school’s API score is at 828. Each testing subgroup has improved tremendously. Love suggested that the improvement is because students take the test more seriously and put forth their best effort. She also said Alhambra District schools will have shorter Wednesdays. Collaboration meetings will be held on such days. These meetings areforteachers to meet and hone their skills. Also, collaboration meetings are an opportunity for AP/Honors teachers to work together.

10.2 No faculty report.

10.3 No athletics report.

10.4. PTSA Report (Cyndi Kitagawa)

Cyndi, PTSA president,was not present. Other key members were present togive a report.Margaret Endo reported that Grad Nite Committee is planning to sell items at Koi Krafters, have holiday cookie sales and possibly a dinner to fundraise for the event. In October, lunchtime registrations for Grad Nite will start. Grad Nite will be at Boomers.Sharon Woo encouraged parents to have their seniors become PTSA members so they can apply for 3 different PTA scholarships. Denise Tso announced an SAT bootcamp arranged with Catalyst Prepis $165. PTSA is also hosting several programs while partnering with NHS. These include the practice SAT/ACT/Subject tests, a personal statement workshop presented by a Berkley alumni group, and a UC/CSU presentation by a UCLA admissions officer and a CALStaterepas speakers. There is a list of private school presentations that can be found on the Mark Keppel website and this was put together by her co-1st VP, Garrett Hara. October 14 is the district college fair from 6-9 pm at San GabrielHigh School. Ivy asked if there will be reminder emails for these upcoming events and Denise confirmed that emails as well as telephone calls from the Mark Keppel telephone master will be sent out. She encourages people to join PTSA!

10.5 Fundraising Activities Committee Report

a. Fireworks- Sharon showed the members the “Alliance Donations to our Supporters” handout. A total of $1055.06 will be donated to the groups at Keppel. She also showed the letter at the bottom of the donations page listing all those that volunteered at the fireworks booth. She talked about the number of nights we needed a watchman. At the May meeting the watchman Tony Vuong was to earn $500 for 6 nights. We got the fireworks on Saturday and needed a watchman for 8 nights. We paid Tony $550 for 7 nights. Tony wasn’t available on the last night so a friend of Lisa Lum’s daughter was hired.

b. Donor Board- Sharondescribes where the 2 Alliance donor boards are located and explains the different donor levels and amounts. An alumni parent has been getting the donor plaques inscribed and putting them on the boards. We need to get a current parent to do this task. Sharon encourages Alliance members to spread the word about the donor board.

10.6 School Funding Committee Report

Sharon explains how funding of money works. The Alliance gets donations during student registration. These donations and money from the fireworks fundraiser are used to fund requests. Teachers fill out a form saying what they need and the committee decides on what is funded and for how much. Sharon does not know if The Alliance can fund anything this year since not all the money from the fireworks is in. Crystal Hirose said $10,000 can be funded. Motion to allocate $10,000 to staff and teachers was madeby Larry Liu and seconded by Jimmy Gin. Motion passed. There is discussion about what items teachers could request. Jimmy Gin makes a motion to say no to laptops requests.He feels that teachers may use it as their personal property not just classroom material. As well, he doesn’t know how to decide how to distribute a limited amount of laptops among a large staff. Carla Bartlett also mentioned that it is difficult to provide tech support for a large network of laptops. Grace Lovenoted that there is not enough money to tend to all technological needs. Larry Liu agreed with the current discussion: there is not enough to support the desire for laptops. He would like to add not allowing laptops to his first motion. Carol Tanita wished to add LCD projectors to the exclusion list. Jimmy Gin motioned to exclude PC laptops and LCD projectors. Sharon says LCDs are very useful and benefits the students. Discussion progresses in support for LCDs.Jimmy Gin amends his motion on the floor for excluding laptops only. Larry Liu seconded. Motion passed. Sharon will specify on the funding request forms that laptops will not be funded at this time.

10.7 Wish List Report

Elizabeth Lee, an alumni parent & original member of Alliance, donated dry erase markers, music stand, clips, white board, and binders.

Barbara Yamadera donated a cork board

Author Ross Anthony donated some books he wrote and will be giving a presentation to the English classes. He brought a laser printer that he would like to donate to the English department.

11.0 New Business

11.1 Student Lockers- SharonWoo said parents have expressed concern over the lack of student lockers. She asked Grace if the Alliance can form a committee to explore the locker situation & get estimates for lockers & repairs. Grace Love said that it is fine to get a committee formed about further exploring the locker situation.Sharon mentioned having talked previously with Michael Donnelly about the locker situation. Donnelly promises to find out how many broken lockers there are and contact facilities about the problem. Grace said facilities needs to approve anything that is to be done to the lockers.The number of students without lockers is not currently known. Candy Ho motions to investigate the locker situation. Motion isseconded by Jimmy Gin. Motion passed.

11.2 Company Store & other fundraisers

Karen Wallace talks about her company and how it can help Mark Keppel with trophies and fundraisers. She advocates a website with no operating cost that would donate 15%-20% of purchased item costs back to schools. Ms Love would like to set up a separate meeting to investigate this. Karen & Keppel groups who might use the website will be at the meeting. Karen will set up the website prior to the meeting & show how to use it at that meeting.

12.0 Unfinished Business-none

13.0 Alliance Board matters

We still need a parliamentarian

14.0 Adjournment 9:17pm

Next Meeting: Wednesday, October 28, 2009at 7:00 p.m. in the MKHS Aztec Cafeteria

Respectfully submitted by Diana Zhou, MKHS Alliance Recording Secretary