Parent Action Group meeting notes 2010-11
1/27/11
Latino info meeting Feb. 15, AfAm info meeting Feb. 22; Amy will write note for email list, and wants a BIHS parent to attend.
Still working on getting BUSD to pay last year’s Pauley Ballroom graduation invoice, so that we can move forward with this year’s. (Community Theater is the backup)
Fundraising: Food trucks: $2 admission ticket doubles as raffle ticket, + bake sale, + ~$100/truck to participate. Goal for event is $10K. Seeking items to give away in the raffle. Also seeking more fundraising volunteers.
Outreach: School Board newbie Josh Daniels coming to next PAG meeting (2/17). Will have a BIHS presence at 2/10 Open House with various flyers. And pushing to get students of color to attend 2/4 lunch.
Field trips: Sophomore college visit to UC Davis & Sac State split in two parts, 2/28 and 3/2. Parker/Isaacson may be going to SF or Ft. Point or ??, but waiting to hear back. Also awaiting word on yearend class trip.
Website: No movement to report to date on new site.
Graduation: Committee of seniors meeting every Tuesday, working on program. Will start on logistics in March, once we nail down location & date.
AC: Recurring conversation around 9th/10th classes not so challenging, jump to 11th is difficult. Approved IB Enviro Science course.
1/6/11
Curriculum: BIHS will offer IB Environmental Systems & Societies (SL) next year for juniors/seniors as science alternative, pending expected BUSD approval. Expect it to bring more students into the IB diploma program.
Course catalog is being finished and printed, expected out in February.
Fundraising: BIHS is up 20% over last year, likely thanks to end-of-year appeal. Overall BHSDG fundraising up 24%, AC up ~28% (they also did special appeal, in September), but small schools are uniformly down.
More than $50,000 currently in BIHS account.
No progress over break on food-truck fundraiser, so it will be in spring.
Field trips: Putting together college trip (probably in March) for sophomores to UC Davis or Sac State, will need funds to subsidize buses and lunch. Aiming for sophomores to align with the rest of BHS, give students more time to make necessary course corrections. Might be able to connect BIHS grads @ Davis, or BIHS parents who teach at Davis, to connect with the trip, if time allows.
Matt trying to arrange US Mint/Fed Reserve field trip for econ classes.
No CloseUp trip to D.C. this year because no teachers are willing to take on fundraising coordination demands.
Letters of recommendation: Is there some way for parents to thank/reward teachers (esp. 11th grade) who go above & beyond the norm in writing letters? Trying to fund sub days so teachers can focus on letters might run afoul of teachers’ contract. Teachers already try to coordinate/even out the burden.
Outreach: ~20 kids of color at last meeting, all AfAm (Latinos scheduled a conflicting fundraiser, while Asians simply didn’t come back after 1st meeting). Trying to set up meetings for 8th grade parents to encourage students of color to consider BIHS.
Graduation: Students want food, so trying to sort out a less-expensive option. BUSD still has not paid last year’s invoice, so we can’t reserve Pauley for desired date this year (June 10). Not making much progress because too much falls on Amy.
AC update: International fair, student leadership status, new IB science course, college trip, graduation celebration, upcoming events.
Int’l fair: AC found staff/student interest, IF parents do the planning/organizing, and if certain caveats (inclusiveness, scholarships, not being too ambitious) are kept in mind.
SSC: Slow getting started, committees being formed, focusing on WASC accreditation and evaluating BHS programs.
12/2/10
Outreach: College/parents session in early Jan., pre-registration session for parents of color Feb. 26. Also planning support session for students, divided by class.
Pre-registration info night for all BIHS 10th grade parents on Feb. 24, 7-9 in library. Course catalogs to be distributed the week of Jan. 20
Fundraising: Int’l food trucks, on tennis courts, in April. (Beware of Cal Day on April 16). Also considering Int’l film festival as fundraiser & community-builder (Chela).
Grants: Matt awaiting electronic copy of grants ideas from Becky D, then will distribute to teachers seeking ideas, offering parent assistance. Grants not too feasible for field trips because of the lead time & planning required.
Field trips: Possible (but pricey) walking tour of SF. This, like other potential trips, is difficult because of the size of our classes (200+), which either requires us to split into consecutive days or fund lotsa guides. BAM trip next week still needs chaperones. Trip possibility: Link TV in SF. Another possibility: Multi-college trip for all 10th graders.
Graduation: Surveying seniors about what they want. If it’s Pauley Ballroom, will be June 10. nding new sash vendor. Costs could be cut by 75% by eliminating food purchase, (11th graders are already planning their event for next year.)
AC: Discussions about college trip (class,tour,food,event)
BSEP: BIHS representation on committee (parents & students) is overwhelming. We’re also overrepresented on SSC because of heavy student parents.
Interesting note: Many key players on basketball teams, both boys and girls, are in BIHS
Global opportunities: Chela will recruit interested parents to discuss int’l trips and study opportunities and what role BIHS can play in facilitating them. Matt wants AC to discuss the issue and provide guidance, then come back to subcommittee for actions. One concern is all-school resources being used for trips that benefit only a few.
Next meeting: Dec. 16 (no Amy, no Candy)
11/4/10
Field trips: Have gone to Arab film fest, Oakland Museum (Pixar). Parents asking for more structure/rules for chaperones. No more trips scheduled. All trips must be calendared by March 1.
Fundraising: Mailing solicitation for BIHS designation of donation; envelope stuffing on Nov. 15 @ 7:45.
- Food truck fundraiser: We can get around health dept. rules if we charge admission (also get a cut of trucks’ take, plus we can sell bake-sale goods). This could be a regular fundraiser/community builder. Plan is to pilot for BIHS, then later expand to other schools. Aiming to do this on a Saturday night.
- Films: Chela bringing list of potential benefit movies
- Grants: Parent vols have provided grant calendar, offered to write grants
- Team-building: Have identified several opportunities, i.e. Heifer Intl Third-world village in Los Altos
Outreach: Pizza lunch for BIHS students of color on 11/5; no idea how many will attend. Will ask what what kind of support students think would be helpful. Amy may want a parent to join in outside-BUSD info night on 11/15. BUSD (Pam Hairston-Small) also working on countering the community perception that BIHS is not a friendly place for students of color. M3 program (independently funded) doing hands-on support for six first-generation-college AfAm boys, might aim to have them all in BIHS, though that would be subject to lottery. (Similar in many ways to Black Scholars program)
Principal Scuderi: Working on school profile (for accreditation), looking for input from parents about data that shows SLC successes and challenges. Supports existing learning communities, would like to get BIHS more diverse and figure out how to fund its higher costs (esp. IB coordinator). Student safety, quality of teaching, administrator involvement in learning process are major priorities right now. In early years of BIHS, there was a commitment by BHS leadership to ensure that it got top-quality young teaching talent (which some other SLCs find inequitable). The way the lottery is currently set up will not help desegregate the SLCs. Need to build a reputation within the community that BIHS will be supportive to kids of color. How to measure teacher performance: try to mine data on individual student growth, not just overall test scores.
Graduation: Lorrie Williams/Thea Daniels will head committee. Students have not yet made any plans/requests. Last year’s graduation cost ~$36K (largely for facility, grossly overdone food); broad agreement that we should spend far less this year. Amy suggests Friday June 10 for this year (must be after May 23 end of IB tests). Maybe some kind of memorial to Kalpna Mistry, Susan Werd.
IB test stats: Kids of color are underrepresented in IB tests, despite individual outreach and school’s offer to pay fees. Only one student who received IB diploma was minority.
SSC: Still getting organized. Talking in small groups about what kind of data should be collected for self-study. (BIHS has two parents, three students and two teachers on SSC)
Next PAG meeting: Dec. 2
9/16/10
963 students in BIHS for 2010-11
Faroe Island visitors: Coming Oct. 6-9, hosted by BIHS families. UC visit on Thursday, shadowing BIHS kids on Friday. Will ask 9th grade history/geography teachers about slide show, maybe lunch w/BIHS football team.
Upcoming meetings: Will set PAG meeting calendar, probably Thursdays at 4
AC -- Sept. 22 @ 3:45 in C115, Other parents Amy & ?
PAG Oct 7
BIHS parent meeting Oct. 12?? w/Pasquale Scuderi