HPMP Meeting notes: Monday, December 6, 2010
7-8 pm at Broadwater School

Regular HPMP Meeting began at 7:00 pm.

Attendees: Co-President Diana Hammer, Co-President Marika Adamek, Treasurer Sarah Lawlor, Co-Secretary Alana Listoe, Co-Secretary Tracie Kenyon, Central Principal Merry Fahrman, Broadwater Principal Sue Sweeney, Smith Principal Pam Wright, Leigh Fahlquist, Liz Stine, Angie Woodmansey; Teachers: Deb Johnson, Shannon Callahan, Annie Tague, Jodi Delaney,Joslyn Carney, student teacher Michelle Metzger

Co-President, Marika Adamek, began the meeting at 7:00 pm.

Welcome/Introductions

Marika opened the meeting with introductions of HPMP Officers and meeting participants.

Secretary Alana Listoe circulated the sign-in sheet.

Montessori Lesson – Recap of the HPMP-sponsored trip to Spokane

HPMP sponsored a trip for Helena area Montessori teachers to Spokane in October.  The purpose of the trip was to visit another Montessori classroom setting in a public school system.  Here are the observations from the attendees:

• Trip reaffirmed our classroom setting
• It offered an opportunity to meet with other teachers
• They shared similar stories and struggles with Montessori in a traditional educational setting
• Spokane offered imaginative curriculum
• Washington Montessori classrooms do not have the same testing requirements even though they are in the public school system
• Spokane teachers are AMI certified – Helena teachers are primarily AMS certified
• Their rooms are set up similarly to ours; however they have much larger class sizes (more students and no assistant teachers)
• They offer a monthly Parent Education Night (our teachers were able to attend in October, it was a condensed lesson on the Montessori Great Lessons)
• They have a nice observation form (Marika will forward it to Merry so we can glean ideas to create one for spring parent visits)
• Their public school community is not as accepting of Montessori
• They sometimes place children with behavioral challenges into the Montessori program
• Spokane uses the terms “lower” and “upper” when referring to their program
• Montessori students in Spokane do not take a scheduled recess
• They sometimes place children for the first time into the Montessori program in the 5^th or 6^th grades which teachers expressed some concern

 

The teachers expressed their appreciation to HPMP for sponsoring the trip.

Announcements

No announcements tonight

Secretary Report

Alana sent the minutes from the October 25, 2010 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.

Principals’ Report

Merry, Sue, and Pam greeted the group and thanked them for their attendance. Merry and Pam confirmed that they have a link to the HPMP website from their websites.  Sue will add a Montessori page/link to Broadwater’s website.

Lobsterfest Final Report

Sarah reported that the 2010 Lobsterfest netted a profit of $3,468.19

• 639 lobsters sold (compared to 636 last year)
• 171 steaks sold (compared to 100 last year)
• 27 tote bags sold (still have an inventory of 78 for future sales)
• PayPal expenses were $391.92
• Advertising cost $680

 

Diana reported that both Delta Airlines and Atwoods were really helpful in getting the lobsters flown into Helena (a first in recent years).  She also thanked Lewis & Clark Brewing Company for keeping the lobsters in their cooler overnight.  We had great volunteers and photo opportunities.  The committee met and will pass along ideas and suggestions for next year’s event.  There were no restaurant calls made the evening of the event.

Treasurer’s Report

Our present balance is $20,214.85

Festival of Trees

Perri May coordinated this event.  There were several trees decorated by Montessori classrooms – all of the Smith classrooms received awards!  It was suggested that next year all Helena-area Montessori classrooms decorate one large tree.

Website

Ginger Knaff has offered to be the website coordinator – she and Marika met with Luke Duran (website designer) for training.  Check it out at www.helenamontessori.org

Original Works

Denise Barber is coordinating this fundraising event coming up spring 2011.  Both Central and Smith Parent Councils are coordinating with HPMP for this event. The Broadwater Parent Council will meet next week to decide if they will work together on this fundraiser.

KidsWorks at the Holter

We are still waiting to hear about the date and need a volunteer coordinator.

Future Directions of Montessori

A draft of a survey was handed out at the meeting (it is available on the website).  This survey will be sent to parents of current Montessori students; current Montessori students grades 3-5 will be asked to participate.

There was discussion about the audience for the survey, the survey medium, verbiage, and incentives.  Diana, Marika, Pam, and Merry recently met with Dr. Bruce Messinger to discuss the survey and obtain his feedback.

We are still open for feedback – please contact Diana or Marika.

We are hoping to deploy the survey in January 2011 and need to obtain both email and home addresses for current students (Tracie will contact the principals for this information).

 

The next meeting is scheduled for Monday, January 3, 2011 at Broadwater School.