HiCap Parent
Council Transition Meeting
June 6, 2023
6:00 pm – 8:00
pm
Via Zoom
1.
Vote for appointed reps that
did not self-nominate for the election.
a.
Will do introductions after
elections so newly elected/appointed reps can join the meeting first.
b.
Outgoing reps are not permitted
to vote, just new reps.
c.
Attendees who are attending on
behalf of an elected rep cannot vote.
d.
First time there are 2 people
who volunteered for the same position after the election. Council needs to
choose between them. Discussion about the
candidates for East Ridge. (Explicitly not documented to protect privacy.)
e.
Bylaws do not permit sharing a
position.
f.
Council co-presidents do not
get to vote
g.
Appointed positions are only
for 1 year. (Elected positions are 2 years.)
h.
East Ridge election winner: Julienne Martin-Vegue was elected over Nikki Bray.
i.
Canyon Park rep – Faustine Wilkey
j.
Bothell HS rep – Terra Droney
k.
Members at Large: Lyn Trier, Terri Kashi and Nikki Bray.
(Bylaws allow a maximum of 4 at-large members.)
2.
Introductions
a.
Beginning with Austina and Carson
b.
Introductions of everyone based on order they appear in
Austina’s Zoom
c.
Election of new officers: President, VP, Treasurer &
Secretary
3.
How we work with the district
a.
No screaming or running out of the room if you disagree with
district decisions. This was tested last month with the newly announced changes
to EAP.
b.
Ok to leave room peacefully and re-enter when calm.
c.
Carson will contact members who did not attend tonight’s
meeting to ensure they are aware before next week’s meeting with the district.
d.
WHY? District stops listening if you start screaming or are
being disrespectful.
e.
Council has no power to make decisions, but district will
often give Council information before being publicly released, and sometimes solicits
Council feedback before making decisions.
4.
Elections for Board positions
a.
Description of each role by each officer
·
Carson as president
·
VP description by Carson
·
Lyn Trier as treasurer
·
Steven as secretary
b.
President – No self-nominations other than Carson. Austina
is willing to be co-president or hand it off to Carson. Carson is willing to go
solo. Elisa nominated both Carson and Austina as co-presidents.
·
Discussion about whether there should be co-presidents,
whether Austina should be VP or whether someone new should take over to learn
the role given that Austina will be transitioning out of NSD in general.
·
Carson is elected unanimously with no objections.
c.
Vice President
·
Liz Paruchuru nominated Austina as VP. Austina declines
nomination.
·
According to Carson, Ashley Watts is willing to be VP, but
could not be there tonight because of a last-minute PTA meeting at Canyon Creek
about the new EAP model. Austina officially nominates Ashley.
·
Unanimous vote with no objections for Ashley.
d.
Treasurer
·
Carson nominates Lyn Trier.
·
No other nominations.
·
Unanimous vote with no objections for Lyn.
e.
Secretary
·
No self-nominations. Cannot move forward without one though.
·
Sriraj Rajaram is volunteering himself, but his wife is the
actual rep. But he needs to be an official member of the Council. He could be
appointed as an at-large member first, which would work.
·
Question about whether Council has ever had a couple serving
on the Council. (No, but not really any contested or controversial votes
anyway.) And whether at-large members have same voting privileges. (Yes.)
·
Sriraj was elected as a member-at-large with no objections,
and then elected as secretary.
5.
Quick overview of what to expect at next week’s meeting with
the school district
a.
Amity and maybe some other NSD employees will be there
b.
About 1 hour of updates from Amity about which schools are
implementing the new model, professional development, etc.
c.
Time at the end for questions
6.
EAP Playdates
a.
Vanessa Greek at NSD would prefer that Ashley be the point
person for coordinating EAP playdates this summer, primarily about reserving
playgrounds.
b.
Goal is to get the proposed dates to Ashley by Friday.
c.
Not necessary for middle and high school because they have
WEB day and students are not as interested anyway.
d.
We now have insurance, which was a problem last summer.
e.
Have also had playdates for feeder patterns in addition to
EAP. Great for single-subject qualifiers since they are not readily obvious
within a class.
f.
Task for elementary reps to come up with a summer event(s)
that makes sense. Can be different for each school. Playdates used to be for
kids forced to switch schools, but many EAP kids no longer switch schools. If
huge school with lots of EAP classes, could be better to have separate events
by grade.
g.
How do we find out who to invite? We do not , but we send
the events to the school district and they will notify affected families.
h.
Most families prefer events at the school playground so they
can check out the new school.
i.
Thoughts about how to do elementary events:
·
Arrowhead is inclusive. Would love to host a large event for
the entire school.
·
Suggestions for bingo cards to force you to speak with other
kids and find people so you can check each box. Otter pops, often as a reward
for completing the bingo card.
·
Council has posters and easels. Not a huge budget, $25 or
less. Otters pops are worthwhile. Names tags are highly recommended for both
students and parents.
·
You do not need to run it all yourself. You can find other
parents to help, especially if there are multiple playdates. You do not need to
be at each one.
·
Can publicize via PTA email. Council will send a single
email to the mailing list once all dates are scheduled.
·
Otter pops will not freeze overnight, so give them at least
2 nights. And do not just put the box in the freezer since center pops will not
freeze. And bring scissors to open them. Baby wipes are also good for sticky
hands.
7.
Back-to-school Fair
a.
At Pop-Keeney field on August 10, 4:30 – 5:30 pm
b.
NSD will send invite to Council in a few days.
c.
Will need 3-4 people to work the booth and answer questions
for people, especially K-1 parents.
8.
Hot Topics on the minds of Council reps
a.
Are there any initiatives or priorities that the Council has
been working so that new members can get acquainted on those topics and help
with the advocacy?
·
Recurring issue: single-subject qualifying kids get screwed
every year
·
Professional development
·
Writing as a skill
·
Getting all high schools on the same page and talking to
each other, especially a common course catalog.
·
With changes to Algebra I and II, not a good way to handle
skipping Algebra in 6th grade without essentially repeating work
from 5th grade in EAP.
b.
Carson has been pulling together resources and documenting
knowledge like playdate docs, etc.
c.
Council is a volunteer organization, so nothing gets done
unless someone volunteers. So if something is important to you, step up and get
it done!
d.
Is the meeting with Amity next week the proper forum to
raise parent comments, concerns, feedback, etc.? YES.
e.
One insurance requirement is that someone who does not have
access to the accounts look over the books each month and sign off on the
statements. So Lyn Trier will be asking someone at each meeting to do so.
9.
Myriam is running for school board!
10. Question about new EAP
model
a.
What is the feeling about feedback from kids going thru the
new model?
b.
Austina is working on a survey about the new model.
Hopefully we can capture that feedback. District will likely be sending out the
survey to every 2nd and 3rd grader both this year and
next year to provide comparisons.
c.
Current 2nd graders in EAP going back to their
home school for 3rd grade are a unique test case since they will
experience both models.
d.
Is new model working for ELA and in general? Does it meet
their social-emotional needs?
e.
Austina’s 3 big requests for Amity in the new model:
·
Clear plan for professional development for all affected
teachers
·
A firm plan for how ELA will work
·
Capturing data to measure whether this new model works
f.
District knows this is an experiment and may not work, or
may need to be adjusted. It is expected that adjustments will be necessary.
g.
It is possible that experience for GenEd students will go
down because having HiCap kids in your class may be discouraging instead of inspiring.
h.
This plan does solve some core problems, especially about
keeping kids in their home schools and providing interaction between HiCap and
GenEd kids. But there are many concerns.
i.
Ask each school – will the teachers be required to attend
training, all of them? Only principals can require the training. Not Amity,
although NSD superintendent could, but has not yet. Each building has to make a
commitment about the training, and make it required, not optional.
j.
Concern that parents are not necessarily informed about the
issues and the changes, and whether their child is affected.
k.
Terra Droney: Superintendent Tolley is not at the point
where he feels he can require specific PD. But he believes some PD has to come
from district level, some has to come from building level, and some has to be
based on the teacher’s individual needs. At the beginning of the year, there is
a lot of training for new teachers. Don’t want to overwhelm them with too much
too soon.
l.
Mandatory training is a bargaining issue with the teacher’s
union. They have historically pushed back against mandatory training.
m.
Council could present their opinion to the NSD Board, but it
is not clear that the members of the Council have a unified opinion on the
matter at this point.
