The High School report was presented by Kert Boedicker and John Brownlow.

• College 101 was a huge success.  The students and speakers had a great day.  Many thanks to the PTO for their support, Bill Koons, the counseling staff, Jayne Hasler and Loretta Schwalm for their coordination of efforts and all the speakers and parent volunteers that participated.

• Your Life Your Choice – Once again seniors will be invited to this alcohol awareness program sponsored by the Chagrin Falls Police Department.  The scheduled date is April 27.  The goal of the Your Life, Your Choice program is to reach as many seniors as possible informing them on  how to make good life decisions.  (Video from Fox News, above.)

• High School Musical – The Music Man had two sell out performances with over 150 students participating in stellar performances.  Thank you for all your support of our music program.

• National Merit Commended – Ten juniors qualified as National Merit Commended scholars.  These students had an index score of 201 or above and are invited to participate in the 2011 National Merit College Program’s Reporting Service. National Merit Semifinalists are announced in September.    The Scholars are Tom Donely, Sarah Greenlaw, Emily Hellwig, Alex Kreger, Mariel McGuiness, James McSherry, Kaliegh O’Hara, Chase Plante, Sam Schiferl, and John Shoemaker

• Irene C. Heller Award recognizing outstanding high school chemistry teaching – High School Teacher Christine Deighan is the 2010 recipient of this award.  The American Chemical Society annually sponsors an award to recognize an outstanding high school chemistry teacher in the Cleveland Section. The award consists of an honorarium of $1,000 and a framed certificate. The award is named for Irene Heller of North Olmsted High School in recognition of her contributions as an outstanding high school chemistry teacher and her service to the Cleveland Section.

More good news! Congratulations, WInd Ensemble!

John Brownlow provided an update on the HS Social Studies Department.

1. In June the new Social Studies Standards will be adopted by the Ohio Board of Education.  Drafts of this document have been made available and the State has been receiving input from schools.

2.  The OBE has begun to provide information on the new standardized assessment model (OGT will be phased out in two years).

3. As a result of these two developments, the Social Studies department is beginning the process of re-aligning our current curriculum with the new standards.

An update by teacher:

• Brownlow- Preparation for AP exams
  • AP US GOV-Monday 5/3
  • APUSH-Friday 5/7
• Mike Slayers- Enhancing his curriculum in World History and US Gov with historical fiction,
  • purchased with the help of the PTO
• Jim Serluco-
  • US History-researching of Family Trees, utilizing United Streaming and Learning 360.
  • Sociology- Research Papers emphasizing the use of the APA format.
  • Econ- Virtual Stock Trading
• Brian McKenna
  • World History-the Renaissance to contemporary times with an emphasis on changes taking place in the developed world.
  • US History- Reconstruction to current times. Emphasis on foreign policy issues.
• Chris Bauer- 8^th grade
  • 8^th grade trip to DC is in May
  • On 5/28, the 8^th grade will be going to Century Village for a Civil War Re-enactment.
• Johna Graziani and Caroline Miller- 7^th Grade
  • Presented last week at the Ohio Social Studies Conference on communication between a cooperating teacher and a student teacher.
  • The 7^th graders are creating multi-tiered timelines to recognize events happening in various cultures and places during the same medieval era.

High School PTO Report

The High School PTO report was presented by Wendy Pierce.

• College 101, a program for high school seniors which focused on preparing students for life away from home, was held on Tuesday, April 13^th.  We had 6 parent volunteers who acted as hosts/hostesses for the speakers.  It was the first time the High School had the program and it was a great success.  There were four sessions:

1. Chad Cunningham, University of Akron Police Sergeant spoke about safety and security issues on campuses.
2. Tom Hanculak, Chagrin Falls Prosecutor spoke on Turning 18: Legal Rights and Responsibilities.
3. Gerry Weil and Kaija Bruveris from Charles Schwab spoke on Financial Fitness-various topics including checking and savings accounts, debit and credit cards,  and identity theft.
4. Mary Lind Crowe and Ursuline College students from the Breen School of Nursing discussed Staying Healthy in College.

127 of 130 student evaluations recommended the program for next year.

Over 75% agreed or strongly agreed that the information provided would be helpful in the future and over half responded that the information provided was new to them.

• Teacher Appreciation Day luncheon is currently being planned.  It will be held on Friday, May 7.

These cracks in the CFHS courtyard will be repaired this summer. More facility repair projects are being discussed due to potential funding from HB 264.

The Board of Education Report was presented by Mary Kay O’Toole.

• On March 25th the board of education held our annual retreat which means we met in Sands Community Room with the Superintendent and Treasurer from 8:00 am until 2:50 pm.  We reviewed the District goals, talked about personnel issues, curriculum revisions, facilities plans, and we went spent time discussing budget considerations and went through a draft of the budget for next year.
• At our April 5th meeting the board accepted the resignation of Marva Sickinger with the understanding that she will be rehired at half time for next year.
• At our April 19th board of education meeting we had an update by Mark Donnelly about the financing and timeframe of a HB 264 project.  Ohio State House Bill 264 allows school districts to use low interest bonds (zero interest if we can get federal stimulus money) to finance energy conservation projects such as lighting upgrades, steam trap repair, and unit ventilator retrofits.  The bonds are paid back with the savings generated by the energy conservation.
• The board accepted the resignation of Jason Starynchak effective the end of the school year.
• This is the time of year when we “non-renew” many limited contracts.  At a future meeting once our needs and our budget are more clear  many of these personnel are rehired.  For example all of the retired/rehires are non-renewed at this time, as were the 2 kindergarten teachers that were new this year.
• We did reduce the contract of Paula McVey from full time half time due to Reduction in Force for declining student enrollment.
• Contracts for these administrators were extended through July 31, 2012:  Bob Hunt, Christine Jackson, Rebecca Holthaus, Chuck Murphy, Rachel Jones, Mark Donnell, and Bill Holzheimer.
• You are all cordially invited to attend this year’s Chagrin Falls School District’s Town Hall meeting on Tuesday, April 27, 2010, at 7:00 p.m. in the District’s Performing Arts Center lobby.  All Community members are encouraged to attend to hear a brief up-date regarding the state of the schools (video here; power point download here (24)) and then an opportunity to address questions to the administrative staff and board of education members.  The night’s agenda will include a look at the future vision for the Chagrin Falls School District as well as a conversation on the fiscal health of our schools.
• The board was pleased with the news that the Safe Routes to School committee was awarded a $577,000 grant to make our community safer and more walk able.   All those that were part of that committee are to be commended for all of their efforts. Go to Safe Routes Chagrin for more information.

The Administrative Report was presented by Kert Boedicker.

Upcoming Dates:

• Learning Center Update – Upper Library – High School
• Bridge to the World program
  

August 15 – 30 – Hosting 13 Chinese students

• April 23-25    Hamlet Fine Arts Show-
• April 27          State of the School – PAC Lobby
• April 30          Student Council Speeches
• May 3 – May 12        AP Testing
• May 11            Professional Development Day – early release 1:25
• May 13            Senior Awards Night     (Dessert) 7:00 p.m.
• May 14            Springfest (seniors last day)
• May 15            Prom (Cleveland East Marriott) (Info and forms here)
• May 16            After Prom  (Info and forms here)
• May 17             Senior Project Begins

District PTO News

Comments from the President – Gwenn Klose

• A special thank-you to Laurie McCormack and the Financial Planning and Research Committee for their hard work. We will be voting on their recommendations for Grant requests this evening.
• Gwenn will be filling Section Rep and Committee Chair positions. Please, contact her if you are interested in a position or if you know someone who is.
• The year end wrap-up meeting date will be announced, soon.

Comments from Secretary – Kathryn Williams

N/R

Comments and Treasurer’s Report – Jen Ganger

• Treasurer’s monthly financial report distributed and reviewed.

Comments from 1^st Vice President – Colleen Mahoney

• Calendar:  Looking for a chairperson
• Store Credit:  Kelly Hendricks reports that Heinen’s will not yet release the dollar amount that we will receive but listed below are the final number of registered families for each school:

• Gurney                     111              121

• CFIS                         100             102

• CFMS                        45                45

• CFHS                       156              169

• CF exempted            80               84

Heinen’s will send checks mid-May.

Kelly placed orders for teacher requested items from the Giant Eagle Rewards Catalog.  Teachers will be informed this week whether or not their requests were granted.  Below is a list of granted requests:

Brittany Lawrence – PIS – classroom calculator set, fadeless paper for bulletin boards

Transportation Dept. – 6 buckets of chalk for bus safety program

PIS recess – 6 swing- n- hops, 6 playground balls, 6 set junior footballs, 7 basketballs

MS athletic dept. /math dept. – mouse for laptop

Spanish teacher 2^nd-6^th grade – classroom set of markers/crayons

• Website: Angie DeBernardo has been able to track the number of downloads from the website.  Tracking for the past month shows that 18 “Funding Request Forms” were downloaded. Meeting minutes are also being downloaded (32 downloads for Oct., Nov., and Jan., minutes), along with Intermediate School Spirit Wear forms (14).
• Welcoming: No report this month

Comments from 2^nd Vice President – Gigi Kuper-Lewis

• Art Show opening reception at Hamlet Atrium, Thurs. April 22 7 – 9 awards are at 8.

NEW THIS YEAR: Dad’s Club Award, art students help with set up, Kenn Hetzel (art teacher) built new display showcases for 3D work, new display system for  quilts, quilts/pillows presentation, article about show in SUN NEWS, Highway Garage is sponsoring the reception cake, new sandwich board displays so only date has to be changed, music provided by SOLE PREROGATIVE : Brian, Nathan, Evan Breitsch and Michael Mahoney.

• Board Meeting : Mark Donnelly, business manager shared that a decision needs to be made about the energy/facilities contract

• Board Meeting : several Ts have been riffed, but may be rehired depending on enrollment  plus Marva Sickinger is now a retire/rehire teacher – I believe will return on a half time basis

*   SAFE ROUTES  TO SCHOOL won a $577,000 grant.  Now the real work begins!  Volunteer meeting : Tues. May 11   7:00   at Chagrin Falls library

Comments from Financial Vice President –Laurie McCormack

• Financial Planning Committee – The Ballot of Grant requests was passed out and voted on by the attending members. The grant requests were all approved. For a copy of all grants approved, download the 2010 PTO Grants information sheet. (24).

• School Supplies – We have all lists from grades 1-6 and quotes back from Innisbrook.  We expect to get the Middle School requests very soon.  As we did last year, the boxes for 1-6 will be ordered online and 7 and 8 will be sent to the school for pickup at the walk through (or orientation).  MS can’t be ordered online and sent to the home because there are too many combinations of boxes since kids have options in what classes they take.

Once quotes are set we will do an email blast and hopefully a reminder in the newsletters.

• Membership – there are 21 additional members totaling $235 in dues.

• Fundraising – We are just starting to look at our options for next year.

Comments from Past President-Lisa Fredrickson-

• PTO Constitution-The updated PTO Constitution has been presented to the members for their approval. The PTO Constitution is reviewed and updated about every seven years. This helps to make it a working document and hopefully clarifies job descriptions and the funding process. Lisa asked for a motion to approve the new constitution.  It was made by Julie Andrews and seconded by Wendy Pierce. The attending members all approved the motion and the updated constitution. Each new Committee member will receive an updated copy in their notebooks

Lisa would like to thank the Constitution Committee members for their hard work- Jen Ganger, Kathryn Williams, Mary Kay O’Toole, and Meg Nachtwey

• Nomination of the New Executive Committee- The slate of members for the new Executive Committee has been presented to the members. Lisa asked for a motion to approve, which was made by Kristen Wood and seconded by Kelly Hendricks. It was approved and the new executive committee is as follows:

President:  Gwenn Klose

First Vice President:  Gigi Kuper-Lewis

Second Vice President:  Meg Nachtwey

Financial Vice President:  Laurie McCormack

Treasurer:  Katherine Collins

Secretary:  Beth Judge

Financial Planning and Research Committee Chairman:  Karen O’Hearn

District Fundraising Chairman:  Jessica Gardner

Lisa would like to thank the Nominating Committee of Loretta Schwalm, Laura Fricke, Lynn Hardacre and Kristin Wood for their help with this important task.

Announcements

Next Executive Board Meeting – Wednesday, May 12th, 12:30 p.m. at Gwenn Klose’s home

Next General Meeting – Wednesday, May 19^th, 7:30 p.m. at Sands Community Room