News

Whittier PTA Board Meeting

March 8, 2022

7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

ZOOM Meeting

Meeting ID: 864 5941 6022  Passcode: wildcats

ATTENDANCE 

1. Kristen Ramer Liang
2. Tina Lilley
3. Anna Hume
4. Kathleen Donahoe
5. Tricia Schalekamp
6. Renee Hartnett
7. Kate Scher
8. Kate Mathews
9. Kellie Pecoraro
10. Courtney Sievers
11. Megan Wildenradt
12. Leah Lansberry-Austin
13. Sara Lukas
14. Sandra Klay
15. Cindy Watters
16. Emma Kocher
17. Julia Liang

7:04    Meeting Called to Order, Approval of February Board Meeting Minutes

Kathleen motioned, Courtney seconded – Meeting minutes approved. (vote was at 8:46 pm)

Land Acknowledgement by Kristen Liang

7:05    Staff Update 

7:15    Principal Update

• Student Guest Speakers – Emma Kocher & Julia Liang
• EMMA – 5th Grade Celebration
  • 5th grade classes could take a day off to go to a park, have pizza & play games
  • Stay at school – all 3 classes could have different activities ie; movies, arts & crafts, games
  • Parks – salmon bay, carkeek, Kirke – going somewhere because then the other classes won’t be there
  • Emma is happy to be on an organizing committee
• JULIA – Bathrooms, Library – non-fiction books, Food Quality at Lunch
  • Bathrooms – toilets should have seat covers to be more sanitary (flushable covers)
  • Library – Doesn’t have a lot of diversity, especially about people. For example, people who helped make our community the way it is now.
    • (Cindy posed question:  How we could get more diverse books?) A:  School families could donate books about certain topics
  • School Lunches – The food should be better quality.
    • Half of the pasta wasn’t cooked in one of the lunches. Food is soggy and they don’t want to touch it. 

• (Cindy Question: How could we make the food better?)  A:  Food is in a freezer and heated up in a microwave… they should check it to make sure it’s fully cooked 
• Julia agreed to be on a Food Service Committee

• MASKING UPDATE
  • No update tonight, but she has a meeting tomorrow about masking. Her hunch/best guess  is that SPS will probably follow what other schools in the general area are doing with masks. 
  • Masks are included in the MOU (memorandum of understanding). Cindy doesn’t think it requires a vote, but she thinks that it is just agreement between leadership teams
• BUDGET – not great, not horrible
  • Down 1 homeroom teacher
  • She’s working on getting universal intervention support… She thinks it’s inequitable to not have the same support available to Whittier as other schools in this department. 
• SCHOOL
  • Prides of March – loosely organized but hoping it’ll be better next year
  • Cindy wants to support “safe conversations” Kids are picking up on current events… Russia/Ukraine, LGTBQ issues
  • Spirit Days – low barrier to participation, no purchases for these days, something you don’t really have to plan for – No heavy lifts! 
  • Door decorating at the end of the month! Parents will be able to help, but 80% of the door will be done by the kids. Doors will show who the classroom is as a community.

7:30    President’s Report – Kristen & Tina

• 3/15 Community Meeting (platform, presentation, member voting)
• Spring Fling Update – Sandra
  • Great committee, about 15 volunteers who are rocking & rolling
  • 5-9 pm, no kids – set-up/tear-down earlier/later than that window
  • We can use the blacktop and the gym – will be using it for 
  • Food Truck – Dantes – hot dogs, Veraci – Pizza
  • There will be drinking – out on the street. No alcohol on school premises
  • Games – Corn Hole, other outdoor games
  • Sandra has a permit – WA State liquor & cannabis board, will also get block party permit
    • Planning to let neighbors know that the event will be happening
  • Expenses – Minimal – trying to use things from school.. ie;  tables, canopies from family
  • Decor Team
  • Standing meeting 7-9 pm 
  • Special Guest DJ might be a possibility… 
  • Procurement – Elliott has been doing an amazing job. He’s contacted 88 businesses. Mix of printed emails, online forms too. 6 donations so far, but many more coming. 20 more in-person drops planned for this week.

• Virtual School Tours Update – Megan, Sara, Tricia
  • Good turnout for the virtual tours
• Room Rep Emails – Kate
  • Wants us to consolidate requests via her so we don’t overwhelm room reps

7:50    Treasurer’s Report – Renee

• Budget Update (February reports): Balance Sheet, Budget vs Actuals, Profit & Loss
• Budget Survey Update
  • 166 responses
  • Interest in funding staffing 89%
  • Funding equity initiatives 72%
    • People like specific
  • Funding various PTA initiatives priority in survey results
    • enrichment activities 
    • academic enrichment 
    • equity 
    • field trips 
    • community events
• Budget Committee Update
  • budget numbers from district are not good
• Staffing Grant Request for 2022/23
  • 2.5 PCP funded next year (vs 3 for this year)
  • staffing 90K – this keeps it so we retain staffing levels of reading specialists and PCP
  • Reading Interventionist serves a larger group of students than any homeroom teachers
  • Kathleen asked what happens if we don’t make fundraising numbers. Renee said fundraising forecasts are pretty conservative and that people want to know what they need to give.
  • Another comment was made that we need to continue/increase advocacy efforts to change the way things are funded… “BOTH/AND” re: Fundraising and Advocacy
• VOTE – Courtney motioned to put a $90K staffing grant up for approval at the Community Meeting; Kathleen seconded 

8:10    Nominating Committee Update – Leah

• Received responses from half of the board
• Still need more people to get involved
• Talked about bringing FACE (Family and Community Engagement) committee efforts back

8:20      Chair Reports

9:04    Meeting Adjourned

Social hour (if you are able to join) via Zoom

Reminder of Upcoming Dates:

3/15 Spring PTA Community Meeting

3/24 EDI Committee Meeting

4/11-4/15 Spring Break (NO SCHOOL)

4/19 Monthly PTA Board Meeting

7:00 pm via ZOOM

Meeting ID: 864 5941 6022

Passcode: wildcats

ATTENDANCE:

BOARD MEMBERS

1. Kristen Ramer Liang
2. Tina Lilley
3. Kate Scher
4. Megan Wildenradt
5. Kathleen Donahoe
6. Anna Hume
7. Kellie Pecoraro
8. Sara Lukas
9. Renee Hartnett
10. Tricia Schalekamp
11. Leah Lansberry Austin
12. Kate Mathews
13. Courtney Sievers

NON-BOARD

1. Cindy Watters
2. Susan Hernandez
3. Liz Young
4. Sandra Klay
5. Anjean Bosch
6. Erika Morales
7. Allison Parker
8. Erin Drury SCPTA 

7:00    Meeting Called to Order, Land Acknowledgement

7:10 Guest Speaker:  Erin Dury,  Seattle Council PTSA 

• Discussion on how SPS is funded, how our PTA dollars impact and affect the funding, and what all this means for your school and your PTA.
• 105 schools 
• 90 have PTA (Parent Teacher Association) or PTO (Parent Teacher Organization)
• PTAs advocate for the adequate funding of schools from governmental sources. They do not replace funds not supplied by governments.
• Fundraising is not the primary purpose of a PTA

Take Back Resolution (2019)  

• Fundraising exacerbates critical inequities in our system
• 2018-19 PTA fundraising numbers in Seattle
  • Per school $0 – $455, 561
  • Per student $0 – 1,394
• Seattle PTSA is supporting #TakeBackPTA

Cindy Watters pointed out that some schools get more LAP (discretionary) dollars per student than others and lots of PTA funding is making up for that to help students whose families  might be less financially stable than their “wealthy” neighborhoods. 

Tricia Schalekamp added via chat: Cindy’s comment (data from SPS site) 2021-2022 Lap Funding is $24,492 for Northgate & $12,816 for Whittier

PTA/PTO Revenue per student (‘18-’19)

• North $323
• Central $282
• West $286
• Southeast $67

Most fundraising happens in the North and West areas of SPS. Strong correlation between those areas and the historic redlining activities that happened.

SCPTSA looking for people who want to have a conversation with the Seattle Public Schools in the Take Back conversation & school funding policies.

Most fundraising happens in the North and West areas of SPS. Strong correlation between those areas and the historic redlining activities that happened.

https://www.seattleschools.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/6114.pdf

SE Coalition is still seeking funds… they may do an equal distribution of funds this year, or they may do more of a equity based distribution (ie; free/reduced lunch #s)

https://sites.google.com/view/southeast-seattle-schools-fund/

Tina asked what the $14K was used for… just to know what types of needs the SE schools have. Masks, library books, water bottles

You may contact Erin here if you would like more info/have questions.  erin.dury@scptsa.org

7:40 Presidents Update/Housekeeping (Kristen/Tina/Leah)

• Approval of January Board Meeting Minutes – passed
• PTA Community Meeting 3/15 – critical staffing budget requests and vote
• Nominating Committee Update (Leah) – 1st mtg this week, more updates next month

7:50    Principal & Staff Updates (Cindy)

• Budget Preview
  • Schools never have enough money
  • Enrollment projections – we think we will be down about 38 students – 80 – 5th graders moving on, 72 Kindergarteners projected to come, plus attrition
    • Megan asked if legislation passes to use 2019 enrollment numbers, if that will help us. Cindy said maybe because it might be used to cover for this year
  • We expect to get budget from the district on 2/28
  • COVID $ from government is paying for playground supervision, Katie Dahlen 
  • We are paying Nurse Marissa extra to help with contact tracing
  • Cindy offered to have a bigger conversation about budgeting if anyone is interested
  • Kathleen asked if we’ll get more COVID relief money next year. Cindy said we don’t know
    • Kate S added via chat: “ESSER III dollars currently end on 9/30/22 and there’s no public discussion of it renewing again that I’ve found”

Tina asked about BLT meeting… meeting just happened. Starting to discuss who is staying/leaving. Teachers are torn about PTA funding… they LOVE having a reading specialist (Ms Trilby) 

• Black Lives Matter Recap
  • Great week 
  • Cindy complimented the teachers – thoughtful & intentional, especially about BLM. They cultivate curiosity daily and are doing a great job!
  • Another bulletin board made by Ms Mayo to highlight BLM.
  • BLM week started in Seattle.
  • Lays the foundation for kids to be thinkers and future leaders/activists/voters/disrupters

• Prides of March Drive
  • Partner with Tent City 3 at Phinney Lutheran Church, sanctioned tent city – 
  • Starting 6th/7th of March
  • Each week is different theme with different grades helping to organize what we’re collecting and why
  • Student ambassadors to collect items 
  • She’d like to partner with PTA to collect items
  • Tying to virtues of compassion and kindness
  • She plans to build in some spirit days too
• Kristen brought up the book drive to diversify our library books – Cindy would like to still do it.

Kathleen asked for COVID update 

• LESS covid! Enough of a drop that we can resume vision/hearing screening
• District says 2/7 in-person audiences for secondary schools will be ok, so maybe in March we can resume singing indoors (with masks)

Susan thanked Cindy for getting the IA positions at Whittier

8:10    Treasurer’s Report

• Budget Update (January reports): Balance Sheet, Budget vs Actuals, Profit & Loss
• Budget Survey Update
• Budget Committee Update

$128K up $8K from Annual Give  

Biggest expense was $3K for IXL

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/WhittierPTA2022

8:30 Chair Reports

• Spring Fling (Sandra)
  • Meeting tomorrow night for Spring Fling
  • Procurement
• Membership – Silver Membership Award! 
  • 102% membership over last year
  • Achievement of the Silver Membership Award indicates your PTA has enrolled members equaling at least 105% of your PTA’s total membership last year. 

8:45    Meeting Adjourned

Social hour (if you are able to join) via Zoom

Reminder of Upcoming Dates:

2/8, 2/10 Virtual School Tours – 2/8 9am, 2/10 6:30pm

2/21 – 2/25 NO SCHOOL (Mid-Winter Break)

3/8 March PTA Board Meeting

3/15 March PTA Community Meeting