SES PTA Meeting

Wednesday April 15, 7pm

SCES Media Room

Introduction
 Isabel Estrada, PTA President not able to attend meeting due to illness
 Introductions and Review of Agenda

Meeting Minutes
The March meeting minutes are moved and approved.

Treasurer Report
 Good participation in the membership campaign
 No response on IRS refund request to date
 No official requests for staff fund to date
 Net income for year is down to $900 but the budget projected to dip into reserve
by $8,000

Principal’s Report
StaffingSCES has vacancies (3) to fill for 5th grade, kindergarten and
reading/math
English teaching position cut in French ImmersionThe three principals of
Immersion elementary schools have met with representatives of MCPS to
discuss how they could solve the loss of positions in a consistent way. No
good solution so far.
10 year anniversaryMs. Swift is trying to meet with Event Coordinator
Jennnifer Lage to discuss the 10 year anniversary planning.
FundraisingExploring sale of a $10 pre-paid services card as a fundraising
alternative to the cookie dough. The school would receive 20% of proceeds
and use funds to renovate the gym. Ms. Swift requests feedback and is
advised to vet the vendors, provide a longer timeline for sales, consider a
common goal for PTA fundraising.
HealthFollow-up on encouraging kids to drink plain milk at the cafeteria and
question about whether there are good practices that can be offered with the
school health fair coming up?
 Ground MaintenanceDifficulty to keep boundary areas clean because it isn’t
clear who the responsibility falls to and the grounds are hard to access.
Follow-up needed with beautification committee.

Boundary Study
Bruce Hawkins and Laura Foradori report that the Boundary Advisory Committee
(BAC) has received 3 sets of options for redrawing the boundaries of SCES, ESSES,
TPES, & PBES and needs the PTA to weigh in on the options or request that another
option be presented. They indicted that Takoma Park Middle School will reject the
options based on overcrowding at their school, that they believe will result from the
boundary change, and will ask for new options at the next BAC meeting. They also
shared that:
 Two meetings have been held to explain the options to parents and the
community, one at SCES and one at the Takoma Park Recreation Center.
 As a result of the boundary changes decreasing the census at SCES,
SCES will reduce academy classes to 1-2 classes per grade. We want to avoid
having only one class as it doesn’t allow for differential instruction.
 A position paper is being drafted by Chris Lage and Stacey Palosky. It
includes 2 requests:
1. Restoration of a full time math and science position
2. Two classes per grade
Parents discussed the implications of lower school and class numbers and reliability
of county projections. Ms. Swift confirmed that resources are allocated by
student/head and although the county cannot guarantee the accuracy of enrollment
projections they are usually pretty accurate. Concern was voiced that if we had low
enrollment, the county would prefer one class up to a maximum of 28 kids rather than
creating two small classes. A suggestion was made to request feedback on
experience of another small school like Seven Locks.
Parents asked about the feedback forms that were collected after the community
meetings to assess parents’ positions on the boundary options available. Laura
indicated that the forms are still being analyzed but should ensure that all
communities are heard. Nevertheless it seems that many families residing in Takoma
Park, that are currently part of the SCES boundary, and will likely be moved to
TPES/PBES as part of this boundary redrawing process, strongly support an option
that would keep these students with the rest of Takoma Park students and articulate
to TPMS (Option 1B).

Parents agree to that more options should be requested at the next BAC meeting on
4/22. Since the Academy census would go down to 180 students if option 1A or 1B
were selected, they want to request a new option that would add students from
contiguous areas to the current SCES boundaries in order to increase the Academy
census and avoid the risk of having 1 class per grade.

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Events
 Jenn Lage announces that the 4th grade social has been moved from
the 24th April to May 15th. An announcement will appear in the PTA newsletter.
 SCES’s 10 year anniversary will be kicked off with the end of year
celebration. Students will be asked to participate in a t-shirt design during art
class. A calendar will be also produced with art-work and sold to raise funds.
 The 5th grade graduation committee will reach out to room parents on
organizing the event.
 Rob Gronda is organizing a French dinner for school families. The
menu will be simple (hachis parmentier/shepherd pie) and will provide families a
pleasant opportunity to socialize while raising funds for the school. The date is still
to be determined.
 Marianne Quinn is organizing the staff appreciation week and needs
parents’ help with daily events including a breakfast, flowers and vases, bus driver
appreciation, and raffle prizes.

French Immersion Staffing Cuts

Cori Vanchieri reports that the 0.5 FTE English position for French Immersion is being
cut in FY10. The cuts affect all elementary school language immersion programs in
the county
 Parents have met with Ms. Swift and Mme Gouin to discuss cuts and
their implications. Specifically:
1. The cuts will have a large impact because our kids need this English
instruction to pass their tests (in English) and prepare for Middle School.
2. A dedicated teacher is needed because teachers can’t be speaking English in
class.
 Parents have also started organizing to demand the position be
reinstated. They have:
1. initiated a letter-writing campaign
2. Seven parents testified at the Board of Education Meeting on
April 14. They spoke to the value of the program in preparing for IB, the value
for heritage parents as well as for preparing for the global world.
 Parents heard from the board that immersion is a
wonderful program but we face a tough budget year and that we should speak to
County Council.
 Parents are also working to build a coalition.
 The group is hoping to get more letters to the board and
will have a table at the French movie night that will take place at SIMS.

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  The group is also working to assess the cost of the French
Immersion program and compare to other programs.
 The group’s first priority is to have the position reinstated
but it is also preparing for future cuts.

Minutes Prepared by Yasmina Mudarres –PTA Secretary