HPMP Meeting notes: Monday, January 3, 2011
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, Liz Stine, Jami Hansing, Broadwater Teacher Annie Tague

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 Tracie Kenyon circulated the sign-in sheet.

Announcements

No announcements tonight

Secretary Report

Tracie sent the minutes from the December 6, 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.

Treasurer’s Report

Sarah reported that we have a current balance of $20,562.35 after a welcome $400 donation was received and mileage for the Spokane trip was reimbursed.  Tracie will send a thank you for the donation.

Principals’ Report

•    Merry: There will be a meeting this coming Thursday at Central School to begin strategic discussions around some identified issues: gender balance in the Montessori classrooms, the lottery (number system and should parents attend).  The principals have invited two Montessori parents and one teacher from each of the respective schools.  The group will report back next month at the HPMP meeting.
•    Sue: The link from HPMP on Broadwater’s website isn’t working; Karen Lorenz will correct this soon.

Original Works

Denise Barber is coordinating this fundraising event and looking for classroom representatives.  Tracie Kenyon and Liz Stine volunteered to assist as classroom representatives; Julie Heller is the overall Original Works contact for Broadwater School and we still need classroom representatives for these Smith (Carney and Callahan classrooms) and Central (Johnson, Kenney, and Kempa classrooms).

KidsWorks at the Holter

The date is set for Saturday, March 12 from 10 a.m. – 3 p.m.  We are seeking a volunteer coordinator.

Future Directions of Montessori

Diana circulated the updated survey for review.  Julie Flynn and Erin Hunter will transfer the document to online format (Survey Monkey) linked from our website.  Hard copies will also be available at the schools. We will seek input from current Montessori parents, upper elementary students, teachers, and administrators.  Diana will ask for Dr. Messinger’s input prior to sending it out.  We hope to deploy the survey in January and discuss the results at the March 2011 meeting.

Website

Ginger Knaff added a letter to the Independent Record’s editor thanking restaurants, patrons, and the community for their support of LobsterFest.  Alana will check on running the letter in the I.R.  We will work on getting a current list of those businesses that contributed to LobsterFest up on our website.

Teacher Training

Autumn Johnstone has indicated her intent to resign effective the end of this school year; therefore, there will be an opening for an upper elementary teacher at Smith School starting Fall 2011.  Once she turns in an official letter of resignation, there will be an internal search, followed by an external search (if no internal candidate is found).  HPMP will be ready to assist with our policy and agreement outlining our role and expectations; we also hope to have a parent involved in the hiring process as we’ve done in the past.

We will miss Autumn and wish her well as she relocates to Missoula with her family.

The next meeting is scheduled for Monday, February 7, 2011 at Broadwater School.  Jodi Delaney (Broadwater’s upper elementary teacher) will provide a Montessori lesson.  We will discuss KidsWorks and Original Works.  Hope you can join us!