SPA: Meeting and Agenda Minutes

Tucson Country Day School SPA Meeting Minutes
January 9, 2012 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm
Welcome & Introductions
Joyce Chapman called the meeting to order.

Principal’s Report

The first day back was a champion day and went very well. Special thanks to the Expectations Committee for helping make the day a success and to the middle school teachers that made bracelets for the entire student body.

The diaper drive was a success. We collected roughly 6,000 diapers which is up about 2,000 from what we collected last year. Great job!

We are in the process of benchmarking this week. We are showing improvement in middle school, namely in math. Kudos middle school!

We will be officially changing from Spiral Universe back to P-tree on January 16. There were irreconcilable differences with Spiral Universe, thus the change. P-tree is the program that tracks attendance and we were able to get the grading system at no additional cost. Parents will need new sign on information. There will be more updates as we get them.

The state of Arizona was awarded a grant for ‘Race to the Top’. It is $200,000 million to public and charter schools. This will be allocated dependent on charter or public status and the number of students. It will be equitable across the board.

Pre-registration has begun for our current students, siblings, and staff students. The forms have gone out and are due by January 20th. Open enrollment will begin February 1st.
The middle school achievement assembly has been moved to Friday, January 13 due to the benchmarking.

There will be a staff meeting Thursday morning at 7:20 and we could use some volunteers to cover playground supervision from 7:15-8:30. One of the things being discussed at this meeting will be the staff surveys and the current parent survey that is out. If you haven’t completed the survey, please do so and send it in.

There are plans for a math lab in the works. It will be in the MPR. The purpose of this math lab will be to assist students struggling with their math skills. There are currently 10 computers and we are in the process of choosing the students for the program. These students will have one on one help with a math coach and a new program that is delivered via youtube. This program is free of charge and consists of an entire curriculum. For more information visit www.khanacademy.org.

Old Business
There was no old business to discuss.

New Business
Spell-A-Thon (Joyce Chapman) – The test is this Friday and will be the only test the students will take this week. The words that the students will be tested on will go to the teachers tomorrow. There was an issue with 4th grade giving out a list of 25 of the 30 words they will be tested on. Joyce and Susan will look into this because it would be an unfair advantage if they already knew which words would be on the test. We are in desperate need of test graders. As of right now, we only have 3 volunteers. We like to let the kids know as soon as possible how they’ve done and if we don’t get any more volunteers the board members will be taking home tests to grade over the weekend.

Penny Wars (Angie Bhalla & Michelle Mixer) – The dates have been set. The wars will take place March 7th – 16th. Promotions will begin right after the spell a thon. Start collecting those pennies! Winning and losing grades will get an eegee party.

Time Change for next meeting (Joyce Chapman) – It was requested at a previous meeting that we try changing the time of the meetings to accommodate a larger population. By a vote the next meeting will be at 6:30. This is a trial run to see if we, in fact, have higher attendance.

Treasurer’s Report
There was no report as Susan was not in attendance.

Committee Reports
 Birthdays – everything is running smoothly
 Library – It’s up and running and the kids are loving it.
 Donations – Letters are available on-line for anyone interested in collecting or donating
items for SPA events
 Restaurants – Brian is working on this. He has been trying to get in contact with someone from Chipotle with no luck. Culver’s was mentioned as a possibility. They do school fundraisers. There will also be another McTeacher night. McDonalds is also doing a fundraiser for three schools and we are one of them. We will get a portion of the proceeds for the entire day which, coincidentally, happens to be our McTeacher night.
 Skate Country – Our skate country nights haven’t been doing so well. There were barely 50 students at the last one and we didn’t even get a check.
 Uniform Recycling – This has gotten out of hand. It needs to be in the hands of someone that can give it a lot of attention. The possibility of giving this to one of the student groups was discussed. Joyce will get back to us.

Announcements / Questions
Are you interested in joining the SPA board? We have two positions that are coming up for re- election this year; Vice President and Treasurer. If you are interested, please contact Laura Newsom.

The next SPA meeting will be February 13 at 6:30 and the next Board meeting will be January 10 at 10:00.

Meeting adjourned at 6:45 pm.