Sept. 16 Meeting Notes

In attendance: Allegra Miller, Diane Barber, Kelli Brown, Frank Twarog, Alesia Depot, Carla Wuthrich, Kate Dodge, Ali Douglas, Tracy Monniere, Nancy Wood, Traci Jensen, Tanya Jones, Aubrey Jones, Kerry Lake, Jen Bradford, Kim Hopwood, Michael Bullock, Sue Marino, Neal Mauer, Lisa Ayer, Marsi Foster, Doug Stewart, Kate Petersen

Upcoming Events:

• Sept. 18:  3-4 Curriculum Night
• Sept. 19:  Fundraiser Assembly 2:00 pm
• Sept. 22-Oct. 8: Catalog Fundraiser
• Sept. 24:  Picture Day
• Oct. 9: Pre-K -2 Open House & Spaghetti Dinner 5-7 pm
• Oct. 18: Pumpkin Sale at CVU
• Oct. 19: Pumpkin Sale at HCS
• Oct. 24: Box Tops Fall Raffle Turn-in Deadline (winners announced Oct. 30)
• Oct 24: Fall Grant Applications Due
• Oct. 29: Unified Arts Open House (5:00-6:00) and Harvest Dinner (6:00-7:00)
• Nov. 4: Next PiE Mtg.-Grants
• School House Savings Program – Tuesdays 

2014-2015 Focus Areas:

Community Building: building on what we already have planned and adding some new ideas: open house, harvest dinner (contact: Susan Lepple), hike, etc.; volunteering, community events, communicating

Parent Education: Habits of the mind, “Helping” w/ homework, cyberbullying & other bullying, Duct Tape Parenting (other schools too?), developmental expectations and how relate to anxiety, school safety & procedures, curriculum

Special Projects: natural playground (contact: Tanya Jones), garden, directory

Suggestions:

Like mingle time, start later?

Everyone has a skill set, everyone can do what they can do, but need participation. 

Info:

Description of 4-Winds, parents teach science, trainings & book can learn from, K-4, great way to be involved.  Looking for a coordinator. 

Consent for Release of Registry of Information all need for volunteering unless overnight field trip or working one on one with child.  Fill out form and send with child or give to Deb Lavalette.  No cost associated.  If done before, can check list with Deb to make sure still on list. 

PiE Website, Facebook Page, Hinesburg Record, Viking, Front Porch Forum.

Survey for HCS Directory is happening, question whether hard copy or electronic, vote on Facebook.

Help needed:

·       Writer for Hinesburg Record
4-Winds Coordinator
Harvest Dinner (community event, ticket sales before)
Calendar for staff appreciation
Christmas Secret Santa involvement for PIE
Lots of ways to get involved

Sept. 26, 2014 – HCS Staff/Parent Mingle - Brainstorm list of ideas

Community Building:

• K-8 UA Curr. Night/Harvest Dinner
• Win tickets to Aladdin
• Win free lunch meals @ HCS
• K-2 Open House/Spag. Dinner
• Pancake Breakfast & Baskets
• Hike & Picnic
• Jog-a-thon
• International Dinner
• Art Show 
• Day at North Beach
• Hike up Mt. Philo
• Family Dance K-4
• Apple Festival
• HCS Night at Lake Monsters
• Float in Parade 
• Take Family photos @ events and put in albums
• FitPath 

Parent Education:

• Helping with homework
• Internet Safety
• Parenting on Track
• Coffee with the Principals
• Curriculum Nights
• Cultural Awareness
• Let's Grow Kids VT
• Anxiety

June 2 Meeting Notes

In attendance:

Allegra Miller, Jeff O’Hara, Tanya Jones, Jim Goldsmith, Carla Wuthrich, Frank Twarog, Kate Dodge, Kelli Brown, Kim Gordon, Ali Karmosky   

Year in Review:

See handout provided.

Survey Results:

Survey results shared and summarized.

Elections:

Kate Dodge, Alyssa Lasher and Ali Karmosky are stepping down as their roles as co-chairs and secretary respectively.
After much conversation the following slate was proposed and agreed upon for the 2014-2015 PiE leadership team:

• Jim Goldsmith : Treasurer
• Chair : Carla Wuthrich
• Secretary: Kim Gordon

A slightly larger planning or leadership team will also help the approved officers, but the role and frequency of how often this group will meet will continue to evolve.

Calendar Updates:

July 9^th Meet, greet, and play for incoming kindergartners.

Monday August 25^th Ice Cream social

Hopes and Dreams for the upcoming school year:

• Bi-monthly principal coffee talks or ways to engage with parents
• Establishing a year long calendar and finding leaders to support specific events (i.e. pancake breakfast, fall dinner, etc)
• Less PiE “meetings” and more “mixers”, community events, and educational events for parents/community.
• Potential for grade levels to “host” specific annual, fundraising events. It may be challenging to create this culture but with support, it can help with sustainability.
• Do more reach-out efforts through Facebook.
• Potential PR slogan of “I am PiE” (everyone is PiE)

May 5 Meeting Notes

In attendance: Kristin Miskavage, Stacy Riley, Jennifer Lundquist, Tanya Jones, Jeff O’Hara, Jim Goldsmith, Allegra Miller, Heidi Bouchard, Barb Galgon, Nancy Wood, Kate Dodge, Doug Stewart.

Co-Principal’s Presentation: Placement Process and School Safety

Placement Process – K-4 (Allegra Miller)

Main goal is to create heterogenous classes.  Many factors to balance including gender, personalities, learning partners.  Teachers recommend groupings, many meetings take place with teams including Unified Arts, Special Educators and Allegra. The process is starting this week after school and will continue through early June.  Any retention decisions happen at this time.

Teacher and parent requests are not feasible to honor, they don’t help toward the overall goal.  Family continuity also does not really factor into placement because it’s not equitable for new families.  There will be a Move Up day on June 12 where students have a chance to visit their new classroom and see their new classmates.

Placement Process – 5-8 (Jeff O’Hara)

The middle school works a little differently.  This is the first year that parent input has not been solicited for 5^th graders moving up, mostly because we know your student by now, but also because middle school students will have all the teachers.  The rest of the process (group meetings, lots of input) mirrors the elementary school.  Currently the plan is to shift a teacher to the middle school team of teachers so there will be three groupings of students.  Each group will stay together as they travel through the subjects, instead of mixing up like they’re doing this year in 5^th grade.

In K-4 there may be some moving around of teachers but at this time there are no open teacher slots to be filled.  One K teacher will move to 1^st grade.  There’ll be one reduction in staff.

School Safety

Safety is a top priority and gets a lot of attention in all corners of the building.  Students are familiar with at least 4 types of drills, one of which is an evacuation drill (what we called a Fire Drill back in olden times). There are monthly drills and safety meetings that include Hinesburg Fire and Police members.  All our doors in the main bldg.. have been upgraded to be able to be locked from the inside without a key. Drills are announced over the PA system.

HCS has a back up generator, which is on a timer.  Power outages can occur, students are kept at school so long as HCS has water, at least a few hours.  We also have installed surveillance cameras at school.

Discussion about locking the front and side doors during Part II after school programs.  The office is not currently staffed to buzz parents in after 4:30.  At that point, our school bldg.. becomes a public, community building.  Still struggling with how to solve this problem so Part II students/parents feel safe but the bldg.. doesn’t feel like a jail.  CCS has a locked door with a doorbell right near the entrance to where Part II takes place.

Principal’s Report

• Volunteers from NRG helped with mulching around the property
• Great turn out for spring sports
• New artwork in the cafeteria
• $3,700 raised for the American Heart Association through Jump Rope for Heart
• Science NECAPs are coming up for 4^th and 8^th graders
• 5 UVM seniors will be student-teaching here next fall
• Completed Math Best Practice Studios
• School Action Plan is in development, including Math, Literacy, School Climate & Wellness, Social Studies and Science.  Expect to see a survey in the fall.
• Professional Development classes are ongoing for the staff
• Theatre program changes: next year there will be a grade 4-5 fall production and a grade 6-8 spring production.  This is mostly due to high participation rates across the board. Both are school sanctioned and budgeted programs. The 3^rd grade rainforest production will be deepened with more help from the Music Dept.

PiE Committee Reports

Staff Appreciation Week: lots of exciting opportunities to thank teachers and staff are planned all week.  Sign up to help here: www.SignUpGenius.com/go/10C0D45A9AA2AA02-staff1

Fundraising Update

Hinesburgh Public House Dinner: Tuesday May 6.  $20 price fixe dinner, half the proceeds will support PiE’s efforts to add some natural play elements to our playground

Lake Monsters Game Tickets: Packets are due on Friday May 9.  HCS Night at the Ball park is Saturday, June 21^st.  If that date doesn’t work for your family, you can exchange the tix. For another home game.  Instructions are in your packet.

Hike for HCS Day at the Russell Trails: Sunday, June 1 from 11:00-1:00 come hike the Russell Trails (meet at the backstop at Lyman field) and enjoy a scavenger hunt and potluck picnic at the HCS Playground afterward for only $5.

Box Tops and Labels for Education - Due May 28th for fun raffle prizes.  For every 10 clipped, your child gets an entry into the raffle.

Enrichment

Carla Wuthrich is working on a one-day “Design & Build” after school program for grades 4-8 in boat building (and sinking).  Date is Wed. May 28^th after school.  Look for announcement in the Viking.

Other

PiE has designed a quick survey for parents and teachers – looking for input on how to improve.  Here’s the link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1bIIMdLrvpJfRY7mt60yTVzus7S8mlyHK2ZAEe3YQbqw/viewform?usp=send_form

Leadership of PIE next year

Kate Dodge and Alyssa Lasher will both step down as Co-Chairs of PiE next year, and Ali Douglas will step down as Secretary - so there are lots of opportunities to get involved and help steer the PiE ship into the future!  Email Kate for more info.

Upcoming Events

• May 9 – Grades 5-6 Dance 3:00 to 5:00 pm
• May 28 – 2^nd grade Aesop’s Fables and Design & Build after school
• May 28 – Box Tops/Labels for Education Due
• June 2 – 6:00pm – Last PiE meeting of the year – “End of year Wrap Up”
• June 3 – 7:00pm – 5/6 Chorus, Beginner & Intermediate Band
• June 4 – 7:00pm -7/8 Chorus, Jazz Band & Advanced Band
• June 6 – Field Day – K-5
• June 6 – All Library books are due back to the Library 
• June 12 – Move Up Day (1:00-2:00) and 8^th grade graduation
• June 13 – Is the last day of school for students for K-7 

Next meeting is Monday, June 2 at 6:00pm in the Flex Space.

April 7th Meeting Notes

Attendees:

Kate Dodge, Allegra Miller, Jeff O’Hara, Jessica Wilson, Jim Goldsmith, Aimee Frost, Tanya Jones, Ali Douglas, Kristin Miskavage, Carla Wuthrich, Heidi Bouchard, Alyssa Lasher, Paul Rocheleau.

Digital Literacy

Presented by Jessica Wilson

Click HERE to download Jessica’s PowerPoint presentation

• Next year (2014-2015), the 7^th and 8^th graders will use ChromeBooks; 6^th grade will use iPads in the classroom.  HCS is working to transition from desktop computers to ChromeBooks as they are much cheaper than iPads.  The SBAC will be administered by ChromeBook in 2015.
• HCS is a Google school; documents are all done using Google Docs and e-mail is supported by Google.

PIE Updates

Principal’s Report:

• Kindergarten registration was at the end of March; currently 51 students will be coming to HCS next year. PIE presentation and 8^th grade discussions were highlights to each parent orientation.
• The Viking is now LIVE (you can click on links directly now!)
• Newton’s Laws of Motion Toy Fair just completed in 5^th grade and was a success.
• Bernie Sanders wrote letters to the Essential Skills middle school students who helped build the shelves for the new police station.
• Girls on the Run began; there are about 30 girls ages 3-5 practicing this spring. Way to go! 

Spring Grant Application Review and Discussion:

• Paul Rocheleau gave us a demonstration of a Crankie (combines music with art work by cranking long pieces of paper through a viewing machine).  He is looking for a grant to hire Pete Sutherland to teach/write songs to go along with music and to build a Crankie for this year’s presentation. ($650)
• Corinna Stanley asked for $759 to help pay for the annual subscription for BookFlix. This is an online resource through Scholastic Books that offers students the opportunity to read books on screen with illustrations – both fiction and nonfiction. All books have an audio component so students can hear the book read to them as they read aloud. This is something used by pre-K through 3^rd grades, but can be used by older students who benefit from additional reading support.
• Kelsey Dahlin (HCS social worker) requested $1,000 for scholarships to summer camps for families of limited financial means. This sparked a larger conversation about Shelburne’s Angel Fund and our desire to help fund this type of thing more often and more regularly through PiE.  More to come on this topic.
• Stephanie Konowitz requested $500+ to update the school’s thermometer probes for middle school science classes. In order for our current probes to work with the new chrome books (or anything other than our old laptops) she will need to buy 8 new devices (called the Labquest 2) to attach to the old devices. This will cost $330 per device. PiE decided to follow up to get more information because we’re not sure these purchases are the smartest route to take considering plans for new technology upgrades next year.
• Jess Wilson requested $325 for new headphones for the computer lab. This request was originally funneled through HCS to be covered by next year’s budget, but the group decided to fund it through PiE.

Spring Grant Decisions

• As a group, it was decided to fully fund the grants as proposed by Paul, Corinna, Kelsey, and Jessica.  PIE will talk with Stephanie to ask more questions.  In total $2,734 was agreed upon, with a contingency amount leftover for Stephanie’s request.

Committee Reports

• Staff Appreciation week is the week of May 5^th. A preliminary note went out to gather ideas and work connections for treats are still being sought.
• Here’s one Sign Up Genius for one of the projects, with more information and ways to participate coming!  www.SignUpGenius.com/go/10C0A48A5AE292-mayteacher/861388.

GARDEN UPDATE

• Thanks to Dan Opton and the Shelburne/Charlotte Rotary Club we’ll be building a garden shed this spring, mostly with donated materials from NRG and RK Miles, among others
• Beginning this week, with the support of the garden program the second grade will be using planting and growing to accentuate their curriculum. They are looking forward to bringing the bridges math program alive while growing comparison plants to measure. They will also be referring to the garden beds to learn more about fractions - imagine dividing the beds into certain fraction to accommodate different types of vegetables and make the best use of space. We all need these planning skills!
• The Essential Ed. students in the middle school are very excited about working in the gardens. Their initial brainstorms included growing seedlings in the great window in their classroom, planting the grown plants in the garden, planting pumpkins, helping with garden set up, and helping in the blueberry beds. This is the first year of middle school involvement!
• We will have roughly 200 kids planting seeds and sampling garden related foods on April 18th 8:30-2:00 in the flex space. We need help to make this run smoothly and not exhaust the coordinators!
• We are working with the café to grow fresh food for the students when they return in the fall.
• We will be working with the Part2 program to grow nourishing foods to enhance their lunches and snacks. They will have a special guest for about 2 weeks who will be working with them in the garden to teach them how to make delicious and nutritious foods from harvest to table!
• Want to be involved? There is always a need for help from Seed and Sample day forward. Our helpers DO NOT have to have gardening experience! We want your enthusiasm, willingness to learn, and the extra hands available to help the students learn the many life-long skills that garden brings.
• Can you help plant seedlings on April 18th (8:00-1:30).  Please sign up here: www.SignUpGenius.com/go/9040A4AADAA2C7-seed2

Fundraising

• Lake Monsters tickets on sale!  Watch your child’s homework folder/backpack.  HCS Night at the Ball Park is Saturday, June 21^st but if that date doesn’t work for you, you can easily exchange your tickets for another home game.
• Tuesday, May 6th, mark your calendar to Dine Out at the Hinesburg Public House. Money raised through this Community Meal will go toward adding some natural playground elements to our school playground [maybe a big sandbox?  Who knows!]
• Box Tops and Labels for Education - keep clipping and sending in - but please take a moment and clip on the dotted line, it saves us a ton of time (thanks)
• Were you the winning bidder on one of our baskets at the Basket Auction in March? If you are willing, please hang onto your basket and send it in next year, we can save money and use it again.  THANKS.
• SAVE THE DATE - Sunday, June 1 - beginning at 10:00am - Hike for HCS!  Come walk on the Russell Trails and enjoy festivities afterward.  Details to come.

Leadership of PIE next year

• Kate Dodge and Alyssa Lasher will both step down as Co-Chairs of PiE next year, and Ali Douglas will step down as Secretary - so there are lots of opportunities to get involved and help steer the PiE ship into the future!  Email Kate for more info.

Next PIE Meeting is May 5, 2014 at 6 pm.
Presenters will be Jeff O’Hara and Allegra Miller talking about School Safety and the Placement Process.