Parent Group Meeting Notes, 12/14/09

Attendees:
Bob Goudreau
Maria McCormack
Patti Drew
Jill Reynolds
Barbara Hicken


Agenda:
• Survey sent out to parents of students in grades 5-8 to ask how their children are doing in the new school configuration. The results of these will determine in part if the school continues with the reconfiguration in the coming years and the timing of when the 6th grade students move into the middle school.
• H1N1 re-scheduled this Thursday. Students under 10 will receive a second shot.
• In June of 2009, the School Board asked HCS to reduce budget by $250,000. There will be a community wide forum January so the school budget can be voted upon by March.
• In approaching this budget challenge, HCS carefully reviewed all budgetary items, with a long-term historical perspective. Budgetary components such as transportation, building and operations, support services, technology, outsourcing and fixed cost analysis were all considered in this challenge.
• While faced with this budgetary challenge, HCS also had to consider the VT School Quality Standards, state recommendations which address overall school climate and quality such as general class size, teacher staffing and special education staffing.
• This budgetary challenge will remain as the state continues to challenge schools across the state to tighten belts and review instructional spending.
• HCS is in the early stages of a multi-year re-configuration plan. The propsed shift will produce three-year continuums: K-2, 3-5, 6-8 teams across the school.
• While facing the School Board challenges as outlined above, HCS must also consider future Enrollment Projections 2008-2013. (Click here for report).
• Recently, the School Board and the state challenged HCS to achieve a 0% increase in the budget. In order to achieve this new objective, the school must creatively look at all the components of the school budget. Some Intervention Programs will be cut next year, such as the after school academic intervention programs which will now be integrated into the classrooms during the regular day. The school will also save $22,000 by combining one route next year. The school is also considering saving additional funds by combining CVU and HCS routes in the mornings. The school will also save money in Technology Hardware ($35,000.00). Conversion of heating system to natural gas gives the school an additional saving of $20,000.00/year.

HCS Photostory with music from the School Jazz Band

Make a Smilebox slideshow

December meeting agenda

AGENDA PARENT/TEACHER GROUP
DECEMBER 2009

MEETINGS: DECEMBER 14 6:30 PM - CAFETERIA & DECEMBER 15 8:30 AM - CAFETERIA
TOPICS
• FINAL REVIEW OF HCS PARENT GROUP BY-LAWS
• 2010 – 2011 BUDGET REDUCTION CONSIDERATIONS
• DISCUSSION OF FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS
• QUESTIONS
• JANUARY MEETINGS: 1/13/2010 @6:30 PM AND 1/14/2010 @ 8:30 am

Student Celebrations

Please click here to view Mrs McCormack's 3rd and 4th grade students' poetry interpretations using technology. Thank you.

Parent Meeting 11/12/09 and 11/13/09 combined minutes

Agenda:
Presentation on the HCS website
Thank You on the Bond Vote/Next Steps
Exploring the notion of how to vacate the wing in June for the contractor
Family School Community Survey Results/Action to Date/Next Steps
Draft of Parent Group-By-Laws – no responses to date
CSSU Science Committee Update
December Agenda will include topics under consideration for the $250,000.00 budget reduction

Attendees:
11/12/09
Bob Goudreau
Craig Amundsen
Michelle Stidsen
Sue Hoeppner
Maria McCormack
JessicaWilson
Jen Prue
Lisa Falcone
Jill Reynolds

11/13/09
Bob Goudreau
Corinna Stanley
Sue Hoeppner
Anne Thomas
Maureen Locker

Website - Jessica Wilson
Welcome to the new www.hcsvt.org
New website creates consistency across cssu platforms – Williston, Shelburne, Hinesburg – Charlotte not on platform at this point, CVU to stay on moodle/google.
We welcome input from parents and community members regarding content.
Vision: parent login for more secure items – pictures, forms
Students will ultimately be able to log in for assignments, updates
Shift from email to website posting
Other features: calendar! Currently for meetings, school items. Long term will be available for individuals to create personal calendar and merge specific content areas (Team X, Summit Team, Boys basketball) WOW!
Links to school board page, other resources within cssu.
Blogs - might have followers. No one is required to become a follower to visit website, stay updated.
We are working on classroom/team expectations with respect to website content.
School/Community page - Maria McCormack, Sue Hoeppner
Intro content: front page is a blog that includes meeting minutes, student celebrations, other fun “gadgets”. Sidebar link to wiki shows “let’s get involved.” Pages are works in progress. We are looking for input:

What do you like? What don’t you like?
What’s useful, effective? What’s not useful, effective?
Q. Can we implement means of parent/community input – public blog posts?
A. Not at this time. Options include email screened/monitored posts; external Front Porch Forum, list-serves. Requires further consideration.
Discussion about linking to Hinesburg historical society’s website and using as a resource.
Comments, questions about website should be directed to Jessica Wilson.

Thank you for bond vote - primary wing renovation!
Architectural drawings are preliminary only. Rough timeline:
Design phase complete by end of Feb, put out for bids March, select contractor in April.
Discussion about possibility to incorporate muti-purpose room in cafeteria design?
We are evaluating ways in which we may reorganize ourselves inside the building or outside the building to allow the contractors to start in early June. Work plan is very aggressive – so many factors can stall a construction project. Let’s start early in June and let’s be prepared for delays in September – just in case!! St. Jude’s church has a large facility - possible alternate location.

Results of Family-School Community Survey
click here for survey results

Overwhelming majority of respondents:
are participating in the school community to some extent
would like more communication at all levels
need more time in the day 
connect mostly with classroom teacher
Examples of how HCS is responding to input and addressing concerns raised:
Website, volunteer corner, monthly meetings.
Another survey will go out in the Spring to see how we’ve done.

Parent Group – Draft has gone out along with a request for written feedback. There has been no feedback to date. Is the expectation of parent involvement too high? Do we have the interest and commitment to even make it work? Let’s try it!
What is the focus of the new group? Sets the direction, priorities for the larger parent population, creates and organizes action based on the feedback from the larger group.
Still seems to be some confusion about this group. Discussion included moving forward with the by-laws in draft form – can be tweaked as needed.
Discussion about this group providing a liaison to other groups in town – scouts, churches, seniors, rec department, etc.

CSSU Science committee – Commitment towards collaboration of curriculum, resources, and assessments. (Math and Literacy programs have been addressed in the past.)
Look for similar exercise in Social Science down the road. SS is particularly challenging because the state has not agreed on common assessment.

December meetings will include budget reduction conversations - for next year and the coming years.
State Dept of Education has indicated that the revenues are down which may impact future funding.
Web site will include meeting dates, minutes and agenda topics.

Other thoughts:
Future topic will be reconfiguration – is 6-7-8 working? When can we move the remainder of 6 graders?
Teachers should continue to remind parents to check the website/team page/classroom.

Kindergarten Celebrates Flowers

Please take a few minutes to view this Photo Story of Kindergarten artwork.

Student Work Celebrations!

Please visit Mrs. McCormack's third and fourth grade scrapbook on the Native Americans. We hope you enjoy it!
Thanks for visiting.

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Meeting Notes 10/15/09

Nurse Shelley informing parent about the Flu Clinic on 10/31/09 and 12/4/09.
• Asking for parent volunteers with the logistics (managing the kids, observations after the shots, etc)
• It is important that parents know that if students refuse to be vaccinated they will get a card to take home to the parents for notification.
• Discussions of side effects; mild to severe.
• For additional information, parents are encouraged to contact the school, CDC or school administration.

Primary School Wing Renovation:
• Bond vote on 11/3/09
• Pre-vote meeting on 11/2/09, Music Room at HCS.
• Alert-Now will be used to remind school members and families.

Draft of Parent Group By-Laws:
• It is draft-form only (based upon models from other CSSU schools)
• Draft will be published in the Viking.
• Hope is that group will be organized in early January. Fluid model, sustainable.

Web-site update:
• November launching.
• Sustainable and make sure that the site is something that can be updated and current.

My Lunch Money:
• Positive parent feedback.

Budget Update:
• $250,000 reduction needed. School will discuss how these reductions can take place while maintaining high academic standards for all students. Administration views this as an opportunity to streamline systems to promote efficiency with resources.
• Enrollment for next year is flat (same number of kids as this year).
• State revenues also flat next year.
• Birth-rate projections forecast additional decline in population for HCS in the near future.

Welcome to our new HCS Parent/Community Blog!

We are very excited to reach out and connect with parents and community members through this new BLOG.
We invite you to check out our postings from the monthly school community meetings as well as our links to various resources related to the school.