Wednesday, June 3, 2020

Minutes from 5/28/20 Meeting

HiCap Parents Council Meeting
via Zoom with Newly Elected Reps
May 28, 2020

7:00 pm – 9:00 pm


  1. June 4, 10 am – 12 pm is next meeting with school district

  2. Austina intro and discuss Agenda

  3. Vote on appointing Stephanie Corrigan for the Bothell regional elementary rep position

    1. Brief discussion about Stephanie

    2. Nominated by Myriam Juritz

    3. Seconded by Jennifer Spanton

    4. Does new council or old council vote?

      1. Bylaws are not clear, so the suggestion is both.

      2. New members should sign bylaws before being allowed to vote though

      3. Final decision – last action of outgoing board

    5. Vote: 10 in favor. 0 opposed. 0 abstaining.

  4. Approve meeting minutes

    1. Bonnie summary: Steven took meeting minutes, Bonnie emailed all minutes and got some edit suggestions. Edits were implemented by Steven and minutes were posted to the website by Bonnie.

    2. Discussion about whether people were explicitly identified within the minutes for what they said. But not many people are identified. Also no non-public information was included in minutes.

    3. Motion to approve minutes by Bonnie Plottner and seconded by Myriam Juritz.

    4. 10 in favor. 0 opposed. 0 abstaining.

  5. Norms & Bylaws

    1. Do not lose your temper.

    2. Be positive and helpful.

    3. If someone contacts you, make sure they get an answer, either directly or by referring the question to the rest of the council.

    4. Expectation that you will not miss more than 2 meetings per year.

    5. Meetings with district are not the place to deal with personal HiCap issues about your children. 

    6. Q – Once live meetings resume, can we continue to include people via Zoom? A – That is probably up to Amity.

    7. Sign bylaws electronically via PollEv.com for new and returning members

  6. Roll Call and introductions of each rep

    1. Canyon Creek – Carson

    2. Hollywood Hill – Liz (not online)

    3. Kokanee – Qing

    4. Lockwood – Gavin

    5. Moorlands – Veronica

    6. Ruby Bridges – Sean

    7. Sunrise – Orna

    8. Fernwood – Yongqian

    9. Inglemoor regional rep – Hillarie

    10. Woodinville regional rep – Audrey

    11. North Creek regional rep – Sreeni

    12. Bothell regional rep – Stephanie

    13. Canyon Park Middle – Jennifer

    14. North Shore Middle School – Anja

    15. Skyview Middle – Jennifer

    16. Timbercrest – Terri

    17. Liota – Karen (not online)

    18. Kenmore Middle School – no rep

    19. North Creek High School – Lauren

    20. Bothell High School – Myriam

    21. Woodinville High School – Austina

    22. Inglemoor High School – Brenae (not online)

    23. Alternative Learning Environments - Jasmine

  7. Financial Overview by Lauren

    1. Spreadsheet of financials from April 2019 thru May 2020

    2. Survey Gizmo = $38.02 per month

    3. MailChimp = $66.23 per month (up from $55.20)

    4. Other expenses: SOS Filing, GameDay, GoDaddy domain, Name badges

    5. Deposits: Donations, Game Day, Donation from Bear Creek PTA

    6. Website is hosted on BlogSpot for free

    7. Current Balance: $1279.09

    8. GameDay Revenue = $1219.57. Expenses = $469.11. Net = $750.46.

  8. Jasmine proposal -- Bear Creek PTA suggested requesting donations for HiCap from each PTA that hosts EAP and AAP

    1. Discussion about whether to reach out to all PTAs or just PTAs at EAP schools.

    2. Not all PTAs are aware of the service provided by the HiCap Parent Council. Good way to introduce Council to PTAs.

    3. Jasmine volunteered to write the letter that can be sent to PTAs.

    4. Bonnie suggested asking EAP PTAs to add an EAP liaison position to the PTA

  9. Elections

    1. Current

      1. President – Austina

      2. Vice President – Jennifer

      3. Secretary – Steven and Bonnie

      4. Treasurer – Lauren

    2. New Election

      1. President – Austina  & Orna (14 in favor. 0 opposed. 0 abstaining.)

      2. Vice President – Jennifer (14 in favor. 0 opposed. 0 abstaining.)

      3. Secretary – John (14 in favor. 0 opposed. 0 abstaining.)

      4. Treasurer – Lauren & Anja (14 in favor. 0 opposed. 0 abstaining.)

    3. President responsibilities 

      1. Organizing meetings

      2. Making agenda

      3. Keeping order

      4. Having relationship with Amity

      5. Meeting with Amity as needed

      6. Keeping on top of everything

      7. Filing SOS forms

  10. Orientation for new reps

    1. Vision

    2. Mission - Advocate, educate, build community, collaborate and provide resources

    3. 501(c)3 nonprofit organization

    4. Overview – meet with district, run events, summer events, represent HiCap Parent Council when necessary such as PTA meetings or welcome nights

    5. Most meetings with the district during the day

    6. Some parent-only meetings at night

    7. Need to update website with headshot of new reps

    8. Warning that some emails from outlook.com email address get treated as junk/spam

  11. What should be the priorities for this coming year?

    1. Suggestion that if we do anything that requires money, then fundraising is important

    2. Over the summer, how to help new EAP and HiCap families feel comfortable with their new school

      1. Ambassador option for kids from existing schools to talk to new kids

      2. Grade-specific meetups so groups are smaller

      3. Penpals – North Creek has set up penpals between individual kids

      4. Worth revisiting for middle schools too, especially for 6th graders and those coming from Bear Creek

      5. Will principals forward Zoom invites and other messages to new students? They usually will.

      6. Most EAP schools have had Zoom meetings with the principals. Intent is for all schools to do that.

    3. 2E kids – Push forward more information to teachers about 2E kids learning in online spaces

    4. Working toward a curriculum for HiCap for single-subject qualifiers

      1. Includes elementary, middle and high school

      2. Constant ongoing issue

      3. Amity is working on this

      4. Slow progress. Very slow.

    5. Curriculum for writing

      1. There is no HiCap curriculum for writing

      2. Students are expected to write at a high level

    6. Facebook Chat – Many parents say their child Is not getting HICap services via online learning

    7. District is planning to implement parent survey which asks parents whether they are happy with post-HiCap learning online compared to pre-pandemic

    8. Concerns about whether online learning is meeting EAP needs like normal school did

  12. Accomplishments this year

    1. Testing timeline

    2. Improved communications

    3. Teacher training

    4. Parent panels for new EAP students

    5. Documentation for high school registration

    6. Continue watching middle school registration forms to make sure challenge program does not disappear

  13. Overview about standard meeting with school district and the format

  14. Decision made to hold off on ordering name tags given lack of physical meetings in the short term?

  15. Q – How much interaction does the Council have with individual teachers? A – Basically none.

  16. Council often finds out information before teachers do and often before the general public. Amity often shares information or asks for feedback at meetings, but requests that it not be shared publicly ahead of time.

  17. Jasmine - Can anyone make a letterhead design or logo? Steven volunteered his daughter to create a logo.

  18. Q – How does testing work if school is online? A – They did algebra readiness testing online this year, which was successful.

  19. Q – Will they test everyone this year? A – They will probably continue what they did this year, which is test everyone in K & 1, parents who request it.