Wednesday, February 16, 2011
7-8 pm at Broadwater School
Regular HPMP Meeting began at 7:00 pm.
This meeting was rescheduled from the Feb. 7 th meeting that was cancelled due to weather.
Attendees: Co-President Diana Hammer, Co-President Marika Adamek, Treasurer Sarah Lawlor, Co-Secretary Alana Listoe, Broadwater Principal Sue Sweeney, Broadwater Teacher Jodi Delaney, Tony Napoletano (former student teacher at Broadwater and applying Autumn Johnstone’s job at Smith)
Co-President, Diana Hammer, began the meeting at 7:00 pm.
Welcome/Introductions
Diana opened the meeting with introductions of HPMP Officers and meeting participants.
Co- secretary Alana Listoe circulated the sign-in sheet.
Montessori Presentation
Intermediate Montessori teacher Jodi Delaney gave a presentation on work plans. It’s a tool to teach organization that all Montessori teachers use, although the format may be a bit different.
Students have a to-do list and a want-to-do list; some activities are done together, with the teacher and fellow students, and some independently, which helps teach time management. There is also a question about what the student did to be active and a space for family comments. Jodi says each child handles their work plan differently, which allows them to provide an active role.
Secretary Report
Tracie sent the minutes from the January 3, 2011 meeting to the classroom teachers; the teachers forwarded the minutes electronically to their students’ families. A motion was made and properly seconded to approve the minutes.
Treasurer’s Report
Sarah reported that we have a current balance of $20,503.35. We spent $44 for our annual post office box renewal and $15 for the filing of our Sec’y of State Annual Report.
Principals’ Report
There is a meeting planned on March 15 at the Red Atlas at 3:45 for all kindergarten through fifth grade teachers in the district who want to know more about Montessori. Sue says the idea is to provide them with information about the public program and answer questions.
The Montessori orientation is scheduled for April 14 and Diana and Alana agreed to be the board representations but all are welcome. April 28 is the lottery.
Lottery group meeting
Marika gave a brief report about the lottery meeting, and hopefully, Merry Fahrman will give an update at the next meeting.By invitation of principals, a group of teachers and parents from each school were asked to discuss the following issues. Merry took the recommendations of this group to the District.
1. Gender issue – it was recommended that the most equitable way to balance gender in the classrooms was to keep lottery as is and to create educational opportunities for parents and Kindergarten teachers to learn about the Montessori program.
2. Parent Attendance at Lottery drawing – recommended that the District can better communicate to parents that children should not attend the lottery drawing.
3. Use of a “#” – recommended that during the lottery drawing #’s should not be called out and that #’s should not be listed on District correspondence. However, #’s would be kept by Merry to confirm proper placement.
4. Sibling preference – again it was recommended that the most equitable way was to keep lottery as is. 5. Out of district students entering program over in-district students – recommended that the District be more diligent re: in-district students having preference over out-of-district students.”
Original Works
Denise Barber is coordinating this fundraising event for Central and Smith Schools and Julie Heller is for Broadwater. All orders will go home before spring break with items returning before Mother’s Day.
KidsWorks at the Holter
The date is set for Saturday, March 12 from 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. Sara Groves is the coordinator and a sign-up sheet was circulated for volunteers.
Future Directions of Montessori
The survey is ready to go and will end March 1. Teachers will send out e-mail reminders to families. Students in third through fifth grades will be asked to take it as will all Montessori parents.
We will post a summary of the results on our website and discuss them at our next meeting.
Spring Fundraiser
In the past we’ve sent out a mailing to help raise money – is this the most effective way?
Can we do the Verizon send a text deal? How about a table at the Real Food Store? Giving Tree at a few local stores? Donate $25, get a free insulated HPMP bag. Some fundraiser event with children involved? We’ll talk more at the next meeting about this.
Newsletter
We need to put out a newsletter recapping what we’ve done. Alana is happy to help with direction.
Teacher Training
We need to help all our teachers be fully certified in Montessori teaching. Joslyn Carney will continue her training this summer. Jodi Delaney will begin her online training (regardless of APETS) this summer. A proposal has been submitted (APETS) for a stipend for additional upper elementary Montessori certification. Currently, a stipend is in place for lower elementary Montessori certification, but not upper elementary certification. Jodi’s training materials have already been purchased by HPMP, therefore only an additional $1,000 is needed for her to complete the upper elementary training online. In addition, a new upper elementary teacher will be hired to replace Autumn Johnstone at Smith and may need training.
The next meeting is scheduled for Monday, March 7, 2011 at Broadwater School. We will talk about spring fundraising ideas, KidsWorks, Original Works, and the lottery.