Venice Elementary School Advisory Committee

Minutes of meeting October 10, 2002

Members Present:

Amy Baker                               Bev Berstling                  Jeff Callan                      Linda Daniels     Kristen Dougherty

Kathy Dean                             Kristen Dougherty                               Debi Hammett                  Angela Holleran

Jan Molin                                 Marie Naple                       Colleen Pazderski                 Jackie Ramsay

Jill Woodward                          Heather Williams                    Jason Katz                         Brenda Symons

 

 

Opening and welcome by Amy Baker. There were corrections to last month's minutes by Marie Naple and Bev Berstling.

 

A+ Money: Venice Elementary will receive approximately $60,000 for achieving status as an A+ school.  Amy Dumas was present, as a representative of SDMT.  She presented three suggested options from that committee:

 

v       100% of the money would go to last year's staff

v       The money would be distributed on a sliding scale as follows:  $1000 to teachers; $500 to aides; $200 to custodian staff; $100 to part-time employees and the balance to SAC

v       $300 to every instructional class for this year and the balance ($620) to all staff on the payroll last year

 

The money was originally intended as teacher bonuses and discussions can sometimes become very emotional.  It was discussed that all staff from last year should benefit but students that helped make this a reality should be given something also.  The discussion was that, for example, last year's fourth graders really helped make the grade so as fifth graders they should see some of the benefit.  However, there are several new teachers and some that have left VES.  Therefore, the $300 per classroom would be used for the students' benefit and the balance of the money would go to last year's staff.  Brenda Symons reported that she had attended another SAC meeting that was very emotional and commended our school for achieving an amiable agreement. 

 

It was moved by Amy Dumas and seconded by Bev Berstling that we accept Option #3.  Motion passed.

 

Business Partner Chairperson: Colleen Pazderski has agreed to chair this important position.  On the subject of the upcoming Silent Auction and business partners, the discussion surrounded whether we needed to have every business contributing something to the auction sign an agreement.   It was agreed that only those businesses giving a donation of $100 or more or those businesses that would be willing to provide support for the whole year needed to sign an agreement.  For Five Star purposes, we must show growth in our Business Partners.

 

Grandparents Day: The discussion centered on timing and whether to tie into the garage sale or not.  It was noted that we take two days, one for K-2 and the other for 3-5.  The date will be January 23 &24 with the garage sale on the 25th.  Marie Naple agreed to chair this event and to work with Nancy MacDonald (who has the database list used last year) and Sue Giselle who has done our invitations in the past.

 

PALS:  Thank you to everyone who attended.  Amy Baker and Colleen Pazderski gave a brief outline on the SAC and Business Partner sessions.

 

Donuts for Dads: Kathy Dean requested that we have more advance planning so we would not be as hectic next year.  Some of the points to deal with for next year are: be specific about times (we had Dads show up as we were cleaning up and some stayed well passed the time allotted); a better way to manage the visitor passes; perhaps parking. All in all it was an well-attended and fun event.

 

School Uniforms: The question of continuing to have school uniforms started the discussion.  Some have parents voiced the opinion that we should have made the uniforms mandatory rather than voluntary.  As a permanent Principal is not in place, we must table this discussion/decision until one has been assigned (interview are thought to begin November 6th). 

 

Uniforms brought up other issues with the school dress code.  We are having problems with many students not following the VES School Dress Code as well as teachers who are not enforcing it.  If a staff member sees a student out of dress code, they are to send them to the clinic to obtain proper attire.  The staff must be proactive in this area even though they may "take some heat".  It was also mentioned that this was another good reason to have uniforms: they look great.  There was some discussion on Spirit Days as it related to uniforms and other VES shirts.  Spirit Days needs to be more consistent.  Perhaps we need to provide stickers for the kindergarten to help them remember.  It was decided that this too must be tabled until a permanent Principal is in place.  Bev Berstling will, however, bring up at the next SDMT meeting that a dress code memo should be sent home with a reminder that we do have uniforms as an option.

 

Concerns were brought up about parents without visitor passes.  Ms. Daniels mentioned that it is unsafe for any person to be on campus without a visitor's pass.  Parents are coming to the classrooms to pick up their children because that is the way it has been done in the past.  But this is unsafe.  It was suggested that the parent pickup line causes this behavior.  A suggestion was made to have parents purchase a laminated visitor's pass for a nominal fee (say $1 or $2) and that parents would, perhaps, be more willing to wear these badges instead of having to go to get the stickers from the office.  Staff would have to help enforce parents' wearing the badges.  Ms. Daniels thought this was a good idea and will suggest it for North Port but we will have to wait for our permanent Principal.

 

K-2 Math Night: It was nice to see so many parents doing things with their children.  Expect to see more of this kind of event.  For example: Fifth Grade Reading FCAT on October 24th.

 

Project Read: Ms. Daniels and Bev Berstling reported on the success of the meeting to introduce the ESE parents to the new reading program.  The parents of 16 of the students came and hopefully will spread the word about this exciting program.

 

Meeting was adjourned.

Our next meeting is November 14th, 8:00a.m. in the media center

Submitted by:

Debi Hammett