Meeting Minutes

PTSA President Mark van Krieken welcomed parents and staff to the first PTSA meeting of the 2007-2008 school year. Spanish translation was provided.

Announcements:

Former BHS teachers Molly Gales and Lisa Miller discussed the Classroom Matters tutoring program, which is open to all students. To learn more, students and parents can go to www.classroommatters.com.
Sahib-Amar Khalsa described the Writer Coach program at BHS. Coaching will begin in October and will be provided for CPA students twice monthly. More volunteers are needed, writing experience is not required; trainings take place in September. For more information go to www.writercoachconnection.org.
Mark recommended parents of incoming 9th grade students to encourage their kids to join one of the dozens of clubs at BHS or start a new one. This is a great way for students to meet other kids with similar interests and to make friends. Student Activities Coordinator Edith Jordan has a list of existing clubs.

PTSA Structure and Function:

There is now the equivalent of six small PTAs working in each of the six small schools. The school-wide PTSA’s new structure will now consist of the usual executive board and subcommittees, and a new extended board consisting of parent representatives from each of the six small schools and programs’ leadership teams and from several key school-wide committees: SGC, BSEP, Safety, BHSDG and BAF. The executive board and the extended board will meet three times a year – in October, January and April.

Kathryn Capps, the PTSA newsletter editor needs article writers and editors.

Martha Moses seeks volunteers to help with data input, updating staff information, and obtaining sponsorships for the BHS Directory. An organizational meeting for the Directory will be held Tuesday, September 18th at 7pm. For more information see the e-tree or call the school office. Other subcommittees are forming and additional committees can be formed as needed. The homework site also needs parent volunteers if it is going to succeed in the long-term. For those interested in volunteering (and who did not sign-up on the sign-up sheet, please contact PTSA President, Mark van Krieken at markvk4@comcast.net.

The PTSA subcommittee that was to have dealt with safety will now send interested parents to work with BHS’s Safety Committee, headed by BHS Dean of Students, Alejandro Ramos. The Safety Committee will review and come up with ways of dealing with a wide variety of safety issues, including alcohol and drug usage, bullying and violence, disaster preparedness and more. Dean Ramos seeks committee members from all school constituencies; these are not elected positions. For those who were not at the PTSA meeting who would like to participate, please contact Alejandro Ramos at aramos@berkeley.k12.ca.us. The next meeting will be Thursday, September 13, at 4pm in BHS room H104.

PTSA By-Laws and Officers:

The following changes to the PTSA by-laws were passed by voice vote at the meeting (9/11/07):

Hold PTSA elections in September instead of in the spring.
Reduce the number of PTSA Vice Presidents from three to a range of 0-3.
Eliminate the PTSA Parliamentarian role; the President will handle matters formerly handled by the Parliamentarian.
The new structure of an executive board, subcommittees and an extended board of school-wide parent representatives.

The following PTSA Board members were elected: Mark van Krieken, President; no one has volunteered to be Vice President; Betsy Bigelow-Teller, Secretary; Saida Hogan-Nassirrudden, Treasurer; Karen Nielsen, Historian; Matt Wong, Communication Subcommittee Representative; Leslie West, Student Representative; Irma Parker, Parent Center Representative.

Treasurer’s report: Outgoing PTSA Treasurer Matt Wong reported that the PTSA budget is currently $7,100. Projected expenses were $18,000 for the year. Most funds will be used for the newsletter. Although the PTSA will continue to pursue funds through memberships, the BHSDG leadership (see below) pledged to support the Newsletter and the PTSA as needed. The budget was passed by voice vote.

PTSA Membership: Mark van Krieken encouraged all attendees to join the PTSA and pay PTSA dues.

BHS Development Group (BHSDG): Susan Helmrich and Jenny Burroughs, Co-Directors, thanked everyone for their contributions to the non-profit BHSDG, which was formed in response to budget cuts in 1991 to raise money for a wide variety of BHS programs. The BHSDG raised $400,000 last year from 350 donors, and hopes that 100% of parents and staff will give to the fund this year. BHSDG meets monthly and gives grants to teachers, school clubs, and the PTSA, and is committed to distributing funds evenly throughout the school. Donations by credit card may be made on the BHSDG website.

Berkeley Athletic Fund (BAF): Mary Kay Murlas reported that 1,000 BHS students participate in 28 varsity sports, and many receive scholarships. BHS has the largest varsity sports program west of the Mississippi. The BAF was formed in response to budget cuts in 1985 and gives $30,000 per year just to keep athletic programs afloat at BHS. The all-volunteer BAF will meet next on Monday, September 24th at 7pm in the Athletic Director’s Office at BHS.

School Governance Council (SGC) Elections: Candidates for the School Governance Council were introduced and gave brief statements. Kathy Dervin withdrew from the election; Leslie Ann Fuchs was not present. Attendees voted for four representatives.

Berkeley Schools Excellence Project (BSEP) Committee Elections: BSEP candidates introduced themselves and gave brief statements. Allen King and Leah Wilson were not present; Mark van Krieken read their statements. Attendees voted for five representatives. PTSA Board members collected ballots.

PTSA meeting dates: Meetings are tentatively scheduled for October 4, 2007, January 10, 2008, and April 17, 2008, and will probably be held in the College and Career Center from 7pm-9pm.

School Governance Council Update: Carol Lashof gave a brief report on School Governance Council activities. Block scheduling is currently not on the agenda. The Council received an update on which BHS courses are approved by the University of California for A-G credit.

Update from Principal Jim Slemp:

Berkeley High is one of the best large urban high schools in the country and was rated #230 in the nation by Newsweek magazine.
The diverse student body is the school’s greatest strength.
The administration is working to shrink the achievement/equity gap to ensure that all students are involved, successful, and prepared to attend a 4-year college upon graduating if they so choose.
BHS has an excellent administrative team and 26 new teachers.
Principal Slemp encourages parent involvement in the school. Visitors to campus must check in at the office. If parents have concerns, they should first talk with the student and the teacher. He expects staff to respond to parent inquiries within 48 hours.
Registration and the start of school went very smoothly. Discipline referrals for the first 10 days were the lowest in 5 years.
Berkeley International High School had an extraordinary first year.
Student attendance will soon be available online, as will some grades.

Principal Slemp gave the following answers to questions from the audience:

There are 220 full-time and part-time teachers on staff.
Total student enrollment is currently 3,150, and is expected to decline slightly.
The administration tries to keep average class size to 28 or 29 students. Average class size in Academic Choice is 31-32. The administration is discussing this issue. A counselor has been added to the Academic Choice team.
The more radical form of block scheduling is off the table now; scheduling issues will have to be addressed to accommodate advisories. More information on scheduling is on the PTSA website, or parents can obtain the plan from Principal Slemp’s office.
The Homework Site is sponsored by the PTSA. Teachers are not required by contract to post to the site. Last year 25-30% of teachers posted to the site. Parents may encourage their students’ teachers to post to the site.
Student attendance rate is 92-93%, which is good by national standards. Dealing with truancy is the responsibility of the school and the family.
Parents who wish to support teachers and students in very large classes are encouraged to contact the teacher and ask how they can help.

Principal Slemp thanked parents for their involvement, support, and commitment to BHS students.

Mark van Krieken thanked attendees for coming and adjourned the meeting.