Barton Hills Elementary 2015-2016 PTA

Executive Board Meeting Minutes

February 9, 2016

Members Present: Nicole Truelock, Kati Achterman, Meredith Weiss, Bob Gillett, Becky Pursley, April Smith, Melanie Gantt, Sean Moran, Janine Corn, Denny Biggs, Aaron Mitchamore, Liz McKay, Susan Chopra, Stacey Gardener

Nicole Truelock called the meeting to order at 6:36 pm.

Bob moved to approve and Sean to second the minutes.

ACPTA Report: The ACPTA met last week and toured O. Henry. They are looking for programs at elementary schools to support what is going on at O. Henry. The staff there want to cultivate a “culture of readers.” One suggestion was to create reading lists for each grade. The next meeting will be at Clint Small Middle School.

CAC: Marit sent a report from CAC.

Principal’s Report:

1) CAC: The state requires a new teacher evaluation system every few years, so the district has been working on it for several years. This will not be new for BHE staff because they have piloted the program for the past couple of years. BHE gave lots of feedback to the district this year. Student achievement will be part of a teacher’s evaluation, but on an entire school basis; every teacher will get the same value added score based on STAR scores. Four components will be used in the evaluation: instructional practice, professional growth, student growth and value-added score. This is known as the PPFT, or professional pathways for teachers.

2) Health Wellness Fair: The H&W Fair was last week and was amazing! It has really grown over the last couple of years and some tweaking will be done to accommodate this growth. Our No Place for Hate leadership team made a video at the fair where students asked questions to families about families. The No Place for Hate leadership team had already been to each classroom to ask what made a family. The video will be shown at a Monday assembly.

3) The AISD Discovery Dome is here this week. It is an inflatable planetarium. Every class will get to go through it and there are a variety of lessons from which teachers can choose.

4) Monday is parent conference day. Feb. 22 and 23 all 3-6 graders from BHE will go to Austin High for career development day and tour some of the parts of AHS. They will tour the culinary arts center, journalism, etc.

5) Neighborhood Park Association: The next big area to work on is the hill by the blacktop, mainly erosion control and puddling of water that occur around the blacktop. A plan has been drawn up, the city has approved it and they are hiring a contractor to create a type of amphitheater and allow the water to drain off around the blacktop. It will be a six to eight week project. There will be some time the area is fenced off. Must be done before April 8 (Track and Field Day) or cannot start until after April 15 (Kinder rodeo). They want to do this before it gets too hot for grass to grow. The district will provide water for temporary irrigation of new grass. There is a bench under the trees on the Briarcrest side so perhaps another one is not needed. Memorial benches cost $2200-2400 but a non-memorial bench may be less. BHE PTA needs to find out about liability issues through Texas PTA. If another bench would be installed, it would be a “city” bench, so perhaps they assume all liability.

6) Sidewalk: City Council passed a fund (1/4 cent tax) for improvements and the Barton Hills portion will be installing a sidewalk on the Homedale side of the school. Barton Hills drive has been identified as a prime street on which to calm traffic. The current proposal is to move all parking on one side and have all biking on one side.

Greenworks: Denny Biggs attended our meeting to report his vision of what Greenworks should do over the coming years. He would like to continue to plant blooming plants and stimulating displays for the kids and would like to increase the budget for the Greenworks. (Are classroom gardens in Greenworks budget? Some grades were asking for construction materials for additional garden space. Sometimes parents turn in receipts for the classroom gardens, sometimes not. He needs to know who really pays for everything.) Denny is proposing to take the money that is not utilized and roll it over to the next year so there is enough there to do major work, if needed. The whole front area needs trimming and pruning and will continue to need manpower to make it happen. Denny proposed a budget of $750-800 a year. Keep Austin Clean provides mulch, but one still has to pay for delivery which can be up to $100 per delivery.

Denny proposed making a list of projects to be completed to pass along year to year so there is continuity. Trees on campus should be evaluated as to their health. Keep Austin Beautiful may be a resource. AISD does the mowing and grounds maintenance and the city maintains the playground. The Barton Hills Community Park also helps some to help keep up the property. All of these roles are confusing. Denny would like to be on the Neighborhood Park committee to try and figure out all of these roles and duties.

The shed for the mosaic installation will be dismantled. It is from Parks and Recreation.

Committee Reports

Treasurer’s Report: Nothing has really changed from last meeting. Parties With a Purpose has opened more slots and they are selling quickly! The Barton Hills Garden Club gave us $100. It will be put toward Greenworks.

Finance Committee: The finance committee met last week. Grant committee will consist of: the principal, a teacher rep and a PTA rep, but there are still details to work out. This system was unanimous in committee and seems to be what the teachers really want. The grants could be used to work toward big items, or, if teachers are all applying for many of the same things, it should be a clue to the PTA that it should be a permanent budget item. For now the grants will be limited to teachers only. Supporting these teacher grants could become the focus of carnival. Another component to discuss is who makes the final approval? Should it be the three-person committee or the PTA Executive Committee?

Vote to begin grant proposal for carnival income: Nicole made motion to institute the grant program for teacher and staff members to spend extra income from carnival for 2016 (spring and fall). All approved. Finance committee meets next week to polish draft and then send out a final form to the PTA members. This can be announced at general assembly meeting on Feb. 26.

FUNRaising and Community Events committee: They will host pet parade on the Friday before spring break. Snow cones or something delicious will be served. Liz suggested these events have different start times so they are not all after school.

A parent talked to Nicole about installing lockers for 4-6th graders because their backpacks are heavy.

Jen Volk is hammering out details on school supplies.

There may be someone interested in taking over cultural arts when Susie Cobb leaves next year.

Liz is looking in robotics and programming after school programs but would like other ideas.

New Business:

Recess pilot program: A Ft. Worth school increased playground time to 1 hour/day (15 minutes four times a day) for kinder and first grade. Is there a way to implement something like that here? Our school has 30 minutes and teachers are encouraged to get kids outside if needed.

The March PTA meeting may have to be re-scheduled due to a meeting on March 8 at BHE to discuss the Barton Hills Drive re-design project.

The vacant positions for next year include parliamentarian and vice-president for sure. The Nominating Committee will be called for during the General Assembly meeting on February 26. A teacher will be on nominating committee.

Nicole would like the PTA to present a skit at the talent show on May 19.

Nicole would like the PTA to prepare an annual report that shows the community what was raised and how it was spent. The report should also include volunteer hours.

Becky thanked the PTA for the grant opportunity—the teachers are excited!

The meeting was adjourned at 8:25pm.