General Nash Elementary Home and School Meeting - Minutes
Wednesday November 11th, 2015 7pm
Nash Library
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The meeting was opened by President Laura Boquist. 17 people were in attendance.
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The October 2015 minutes were approved. Shannon Snyder made a motion to approve the minutes
and Amanda Laubach seconded.
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Upcoming Dates:
November
12 Mini Book Fair & Reading Night 6:30-8:30pm 16-20 American Education Week
20 Teacher Luncheon
24 Dining Night Out at Chili's
25-27 No School - Thanksgiving Break
December:
3-5 Holiday Shop
4 Spirit Day - Fashion Disaster Day
5 Breakfast with Frosty & Holiday Shop
14-18 Chick Fil A Dining Night Out
23 Holiday Sing-a-long (morning)
24-Jan 1 No School - Winter Break
Comments about the upcoming dates:
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- If you cannot make the Mini Book Fair and Reading Night, you can go to Harleysville Books (or
online) Friday 11/13 or Saturday 11/14 and have your purchase count towards the book fair. Make
sure you mention Nash. This events funds the library and the classroom libraries.
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- For American Education week attendance, please fill out the RSVP and return to school by
11/13/15
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- Flyers are coming out next week for the Dining Night out at Chili's. It runs from 11am - close and it
includes takeout.
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- There will be a silent auction at the Breakfast with Frosty. More details to come out on this.
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- There are several winter concerts in December which will be added to the Nash H&S calendar
shortly.
Drama Club - Angela Coleman from Theater Horizons attended to chat about the potential to bring a Drama Club to Nash. Theater Horizons is in their 11th year as a professional theater company out of Norristown. In addition to profession performances, their company also does theater education classes and they have done this as an after school club (one example being North Wales Elementary). The cost is $205 per student for 17-18 sessions, usually 1.5-2 hours in length. The output of the club is a full sized show, usually performed for the school. It would be for Grade 1-6 and they would match age groups. We could do multiple clubs, as they try to keep it to 12-20 students in each club, with 2 instructors each. Mr. Kuiken asked about the possibility to allow students to not join the club, but do smaller parts (like chorus, etc), as he thought there may be interest in this based on his experience with the 6th grade play. It takes about a week to get organized (draft up contract, hire teachers etc). There was interest in a club like this.
Teacher Representative - Mr. Kuiken
o Testing week at Nash - curriculum based assessment
o Conferences - The older grades are still doing conferences and they have done them at all hours. If you still need them, please reach out to your teachers
o Kudos were given to the new teachers - Jim Mahar (in for Mrs. Andreacchio) and Crystal Hunter (in for Mrs. Neuman)
Treasurer's Report - Susan Zima
o March A Thon - we raised $2,000 over our budget. The extra money may be used for Brain Pop.
o Brain Pop - board is reaching out to teachers on feedback on Brain Pop use. Teachers have been providing interesting, helpful feedback, which Laura will compile and share. Mr. Kuiken really likes it and used it for STAR time last year. Its $2,295 per school, but it's cheaper per school if it's bought district wide (and would include training). Several NP elementary schools already use it. Josie will research it at the district level.
Josie Charnock - North Penn School Board member
o State Budget has been stagnant - there is a proposal to increase sales tax to offset an increase in property tax. NP good until May/June with funds
o Back End Referendum - referendum that has been proposed that would require every districtincrease in budget to be approved by a vote. This would make it very hard for the school board to make decisions on a budget.
o PSSAs - more important to look at your results compared to the state, not compared to year over year. We are faring better than the state.
o Math Pathways - moving pre-algebra to 7th grade next year (pre-algebra currently in 8th grade)
It was brought up that the students that place into algebra in 7th grade need tutoring over the summer to prepare them for algebra. Since math placement is determined in February, a suggestion was made that maybe this gap may be addressed during the school year instead of the summer.
o 2016-2017 school calendar - this will be going to the SB Action committee for approval. The proposed start date is Tuesday August 30th and the end date Thursday June 8th. There are snow days built in.
o Advertising - There will be ads on the North Penn website. NP has brought in $20,000 in ads since the summer.
o AP Capstone - 2 year program run by the people that run the AP Programs, which will start next year. There are 2 programs - a seminar and a research one. It is a self directed learning program and there are pre-reqs and costs associated to it.
o Laura asked about the IronKnights triathlon to see if they could obtain corporate sponsors, as the team is getting pushback on using corporate sponsors. Josie is going to explore.
o Laura asked about charter schools. As of the meeting date, there were no new charter school applications (deadline is Nov 15th). There is 1 still out there with a potential future hearing.
New Business
o Volunteer Clearances update - there has been an update in the terminology regarding volunteer clearances. We are waiting for the school board approval and communication. Mr. Winkle will communicate after it's approved by the school board (although he hopes this communication happens from the district).
o OM Club- 37 kids have signed up, but space is limited to 32, forming 2 teams. Students whose papers were returned by the stated deadline were accepted. Ms. Catto and Amanda Laubach will be leading the groups.
o Shoparoo - a very easy fundraising app that people just need to take pictures of receipts from shopping. About 10 people from Nash have been participating and we have very easily earned $25 for Nash. Please reach out to Amanda Laubach or Tanya MacGregor if you would like to participate.
o Be The Match - this is an organization that helps run bone marrow donor drives. We will be pursuing this at a future H&S event. A local family has a son that has aplastic anemia and the only cure is a bone marrow transplant. Currently there are no matches on the bone marrow donor list for this child.
Principal's Report - Mr. Winkle
o Attended the Hatfield Elementary rededication - school district did a really great job
o Architect is coming to Nash analyze a few things (like leaky air in modulars)
o Fall Festivities were great - next year will think about doubling the time of the parade (maybe do 2 loops) and do an entire day worth of celebrations (was really hard to have parade, learning time and then parties)
o Conferences - teachers did a phenomenal job on conferences - they were here very early and very late to accommodate parents schedules
o Progress reports will be sent home at the end of December. Mr. Winkle is having a Q&A session with the teachers soon.
o There are 2 committees at the district level to help with 6th to 7th grade transitions. There is a general committee and a math committee. Mr. Winkle serves on a team that is working to improve parent communication. There are no deadlines for this, but many meetings have been taking place.
Previous Business
o March A Thon Recap - fabulous event - 2 thumbs up!!
o Coordinators Needed: Indoor Recess, Winter Carnival shadows
Coordinator Reports
o Painting with a Twist - very fun event, earned $180. Will be holding another one in the spring.
o Spiritwear coming - PJ pants, headbands, beanie hats, long sleeve tie died shirts.
o Breakfast with Frosty
Still looking for a frosty - suggestions were made
Breakfast will be supplied by Coffeehead and will be a make your own breakfast buffet. Hennings also provided discounts on additional food.
Open Forum Q & A
o A concern was brought up regarding hitting local companies multiple times for donation requests and suggested having a master list of donation requests. Cake walk and silent auction baskets are 2 big events that do this, but others request donations as well.
o A concern was brought up regarding the cancellation of the 6th grade play.
o A suggestion was made to hold a Veteran's Day breakfast and assembly next year.
Next Nash Home & School Meeting will be held Thursday, January 14th at 7pm.
Follow ups from Josie Charnock (sent to Laura Boquist):
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Corporate sponsorships for the IronKnights will be discussed at the January ECP meeting.
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Brain Pop at the school district level - NPSD already had Think Central that aligns with the Go Math and Journeys curriculum. The curriculum department has investigated Brain Pop previously and determined that the standards alignment is not as strong as other enrichment opportunities already available, so the district has not purchased it at this time.
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Middle School Math Curriculum questions -
o There was discussion at ECP about the fact that kids who enter Algebra in 7th don't get any Pre-Algebra prep. The conclusion was those kids who take Algebra in 7th grade already command an abstract understanding of Algebraic concepts that is fundamental to their success without actually needing formal instruction.
o Though all students can test for Algebra I, even instruction in the last month of 6th grade for only those students who are in the Challenge level math, would not suffice. At this level, certain fundamental concepts need to be taught and given the theoretical nature of Algebra coupled with the maturation needed, it would be unfair to students to compress all these ideas into a short period of time.
o We are looking to revise the criteria for students to be qualified for Algebra in 7th grade based on the new PSSA standards for both the test and scale.
o We are also looking to establish a new baseline using data from students who are doing well currently in 7th grade Algebra to determine the criteria for incoming middle school students.
o By starting Algebra I in 7th grade, student's math curriculum options subsequently become limited for each progressive year. By 11th grade they would need to enroll in Calculus for their third math credit at the high school. However, not every student either wants or needs this level of math, yet the student would be locked into this sequence unless he/she repeated a course.