SANTA MONICA HIGH SCHOOL PTSA
FINAL MINUTES OF ASSOCIATION MEETING March 23, 2004
Barnum Hall
The Samohi Course Catalogue has been mailed to all families. Please keep your catalogue in a safe place because they will be mailed only every other year.
Louise introduced Gretchen Goetz, chair of the Nominating Committee. Gretchen introduced the members that have been nominated for the Executive Board for the 2004-2005 year. She asked for any nominations from the floor, but there were no additional nominations. All members voted in favor of those nominees for the Executive Board with no opposing votes. The new board will take their positions in June.
Officers for the 2004-2005 Board are:
| Co-Presidents | Cheri Orgel, Karen Dickerson | |
| Executive VP | Louise Jaffe | |
| Communications Co-VPs | Gretchen Goetz, Maria Rodriguez | |
| Education Co-VPs | Debbie Mulvaney, Lauri Crane | |
| Organization VP | Janine Brownstone | |
| Health & Safety VP | Cynthia Cottam | |
| Co-Recording Secretary | Leslie Frischer, Amy Neiman | |
| Corresponding Secretary | Helene Phipps | |
| Treasurer | Chris Thornton | |
| Financial Secretary | Kim Eyler | |
| Auditor | Roshan Nozari | |
| Historian | Deb Love | |
| Parliamentarian | Amy Van Pelt |
Louise explained about the signature gathering drive to qualify the Excellent Public Schools Charter Amendment for the November 2004 ballot. Passage of the amendment would secure increased predictable, longterm funding from the City of Santa Monica to the School District. The amount of this contribution will only increase as the city budget increases. Each petition sheet can contain 1-4 signatures. We need 13,000 signatures for this to be added to the November ballot. This signature gathering effort has been endorsed by the California Teacher’s Association and the Santa Monica/Malibu PTA Council. On April 24 the PTA will sponsor a walk to gather signatures. More information can be obtained at www.excellentpublicschools.org. Co-President Cheri Orgel asked all members to sign up for the walk and to see the PTA resolution on the table in the front of Barnum Hall. The next PTSA Association meeting will be Tuesday, May 11,2004. She thanked all teachers, administrators and parents for attending tonight’s meeting.
Principal Dr. Ilene Straus introduced the House Principals and noted that her job would be impossible without these administrators. There are two meetings each month with the principals and teacher leaders. Included among the house principals is SteveCannell who is the interim “O” house principal. She also announced that she will be interviewing for a new house principal because “I” house principal Dr. Martin is retiring at the end of this school year. Parents, teachers and students will assist in the interview process. There is also an opening for the Athletic Director because Mike Griswold will be retiring. He will stay on staff for the next 1-2 years to provide some overlap. The Athletic Director position may include teaching 1-2 classes. She will be looking inside and out of the district to fill these positions. Notices of possible lay-offs were delivered to 34 people at Samohi, although she hopes she will not lose that many staff members. The City and school district are still working on their budgets which will affect the layoffs. The less senior staff members received the lay-off notices but she hopes they will stay around. We have completed the testing for the State Exit Exams and we have met the testing requirements. Students graduating in 2005 must pass the tests for graduation. The test for AP exams, the CAT-6 and Cal State tests will be conducted in May. During this time there will be double-block class time and the students will take the tests in the same classes with their regular teachers over a three week period. Registration for the AP exams ends this week. There is financial aid for students for the AP exam fees. There are many people on campus to provide help with this including the liaisons and administrators. Free tutoring is available four days per week. Some students go to their teacher but not to the drop-in tutoring. If the tutoring is not more widely used we may not continue this service next year.
Tonight is the annual Open House on campus. This is meant for the parents to have a view of what has been covered in the classes during the school year. If parents want individual conferences they should sign-up for one with any teacher, but not try to have a private conference tonight. We are only 7-8 months into redesign. The goal is to have as many 9th and 10th grade students in classes in their house as possible. If teachers share the same students, the overall experience will be better for the students. The randomness of the classes that are available make this very difficult. Dr. Straus thinks the advisors are getting to know the students much better.
Obligation notices will be sent home. This is especially important to seniors, because they cannot purchase anything related to graduation if the obligations are not met. Dr. Straus thanked all for attending this meeting and attending this year’s Open House.
The meeting was adjourned at 7:00 pm.
Respectfully submitted by,
Helene Phipps
Co-Recording Secretary