Parent Connection Meeting
Dec 11
WAMCS Parent Connection - Meeting Notes
December 11, 2007
Parents Present:
Kevin Briquelet Miller, Anne Michelsen, Monica John, Ellen Kemnitz, Leslie Keeffe, Kevin Keeffe, Tara Luce, Lisa Bennett
Committee Reports:
Parent Education – Ginny Erdman gave her report via telephone to Lisa Bennett. Ginny and Rachelle Melms have met a couple of times and have come up with four ideas that they’d like to develop:
- Brown Bag Lunch/Breakfast – a relaxed atmosphere where parents can discuss issues regarding the school
- Education about WAMCS itself – how the charter is structured etc. They will talk with Kurt Weyers and Nell Anderson when developing this information.
- Scope & Sequence of Curriculum – what is covered in a 1st, 2nd, 3rd…graders curriculum
- Meet the Materials events – familiarize parents with the Montessori materials, how they’re used, the philosophy behind them, etc.
These ideas are in the development stages. Ginny & Rachelle invite anyone interested in helping them on this to contact them.
Volunteer Coordination – Collette Kunz gave her report via telephone to Lisa. Collette checked with Nancy Keener and Nancy seems to have the volunteer information well organized. Collette will be the contact person if anyone needs help in finding volunteers for activities.
Fundraising – Anne Michelsen
Anne met with Martina Strehlow to discuss fundraising activities. They decided to put off any official activities until January. Anne will look into existing programs at grocery stores etc. that are easy to set up. After 1st of the year they will look at more formal fundraising opportunities. We talked about developing fundraising projects that are in keeping with the Montessori philosophy, i.e. a plant sale vs. candy bar sale.
Anne will contact the guides and Kurt to get an idea of exactly what we need to raise money for. We talked about needing some money for our parent group in order to buy copy paper, babysitting services for our meetings and possibly for refreshments at events.
Website – no report from Marcus Nelson
Lisa Bennett clarified that the website Marcus will create would not replace the site that Sarah Yoho has created and maintains. Sarah loves taking care of that site and wants to continue doing that.
Social Events – Tara Luce
Game Night went great! The room was full and everyone had a great time. The kids didn’t want to leave. All participants wanted to have one every month. Tara will plan one for Jan. & Feb because these tend to be quiet months and people will have new games from the holidays. She will look into the best space to use because we could quickly out grow room 155 (before/after school room)
We talked about planning a Spring Event that would celebrate the end of the school year. After some discussion it was decided to get a committee together in Jan. or Feb. to start the planning for this. This is a big event so Tara will need a larger committee to do all that is needed.
Ellen Kemnitz reported that she has found out that it should be no problem to get a Federal Tax ID#. She is looking into exactly what else we need to set up a simple accounting system and checking account.
Name Change -The group discussed the possibility of changing our name from MAP (Montessori Association of Parents) to Parent Connection. MAP has turned out to be a bit cumbersome to explain to people. Parent Connection seems easier to say and use. It is descriptive of our purpose, to be one of the ways parents can connect with their children’s school.
Emailing service – Zina Harrington, a parent at Rib Mountain Montessori and a friend of Marcus Nelson’s, has offered to be our emailing person. This is her business and she is offering her services free of charge. She has the list of email addresses so if anyone needs to send information about Parent Connection meetings, events, etc. they can send the information to her and she will create a nice looking page and send it out. The emails announcing tonight’s meeting were created by her. She makes them look great, very professional. This way we have one person with the email list. All she asks is that we give her a 3 -5 day lead time.
We will still send all information in student’s Communication folders also. This will ensure that everyone gets all of the information.
Next Meeting – Tuesday, January 8th 2008, 6-7pm
