Chagrin Falls PTO

A new garden in the CFHS Commons courtyard.

Click to download the September 10 District Newsblast (78) sent by the District.

The Board of Education’s Report was presented by  Karen Penler.

• The District earned an Excellence with Distinction on the State Report Card this past summer (view the district report card by clicking here.) Value added component was met.
• Reports by grade detail are available via Chagrin Falls Board of Education.
• Goal: Improve Student Learning:  Passage rate (3 and above) on AP test scores have dropped from 80% to 74%.  Board of Ed has asked High School to evaluate this drop.
• HB264 – $1.2M bond initiative with debt repayment achieved through energy savings.  Retrofitting lights in buildings and boiler in Intermediate School.  (HB 264 information at this site.)
• New Learning Center in High School Upper Library
• Board retreat in October – will discuss next levy cycle.

All our sports teams are doing well this season despite a rash of injuries. Thanks to the cheerleaders for all the clever "cup signs" on the school fence!

The Administration’s Report was presented by Charlie Barch (Athletics) and Kurt Gabram (Business Manager).

Charlie Barch:

• Charlie is new athletic director – worked at Notre Dame College for 6 years before coming to Chagrin Falls as the associate athletic director. I also worked one year at Brush High School as the faculty manager. I am very glad to be at Chagrin, it is a great community with many great support organizations. I look forward to having a great year.
• Team Updates- Teams are doing great, the girls cross country team just won the Ray Sweeny Invitational. The golf team is undefeated in match play. The girl’s tennis team is 7-1 and off to a terrific start. Football is 3-0 and the volleyball team went 2-1 at the Rocky River Invitation this past weekend. Both soccer teams are off to a good start.
• Weekly Varsity Home Contests- boys golf plays Aurora at home on Wednesday along with Volleyball playing Perry at home on Wednesday. The football team hosts Aurora on Thursday.
• Misc Updates-
  • The football game will be broadcast live via the internet on sportstalkcleveland.com. This same website will be hosting a high school sports show at the new Panini’s in Chagrin Falls.
  • New Hire – girl’s lacrosse coach KC White. She was the assistant lacrosse coach last year.
  • Volleyball and girls soccer team are working with Darby O’Brien and Kristin Weitzel to have a “Network of Strength” week (1^st week in October). This week we will be raising funds to support a group that helps raise money for breast cancer support groups. It is different from Susan G Komen because it is not for research, but support for breast cancer survivors and/or patients. The website for the group is www.networkofstrength.org.   Team and Athletic Dept selling pink tee-shirts with the groups logo on it. Everyone who comes to either the volleyball match (10-7) or the girl’s soccer match (10-5) will get in free with their pink shirt. We will be trying to have a “pink out” similar to some school white out (everyone wears a white tee shirt) for each event. I attached a flyer that has when and where the tee shirts will be sold. (More information and flyer available for download here.)

Kurt Gabram:

• Ben Needham was hired to manage the PAC. Ben has a long resume in the area of set design. Ben will be responsible for scheduling, supervision and upkeep of PAC. He will also be teaching set design and construction for the Academy, and will assist in Chagrin Falls Schools’ productions.
• Marti DeSantis was hired as our food service supervisor. Marti is a registered dietician and has her Master’s Degree from Case Western Reserve University. She has been working with an insurance company as a wellness consultant. Marti was a big part of Tuesday’s movement day at the middle school. She worked with students concerning nutrition.

Side by side comparison of the courtyard in front of the High School entrance. The left side is before repair - the right, after. Great job!

• Facilities Update: The HS courtyard has been completely renovated.   This was a project that desperately needed to be done. The new benches, retaining wall and Commons picnic area give the courtyard a very collegiate feel. We also completed the new learning center project.   This is a state of the art facility where we can provide assistance to students that meet many of their learning needs. Our custodians, grounds and maintenance crews did a fabulous job in preparing the buildings for the return of students.
• HB 264 gives us the ability to implement energy conserving upgrades to all of our facilities. The State funds that are used for a house bill come at a 0% interest and the savings generated pay back the loan so there is truly no cost to the tax payer. We are in the process of reviewing the final contract.

District PTO reports were presented by the following officers:

Secretary’s Report – Beth Judge

• Shared thank you notes.
• May 2010 approved minutes on the PTO website. Minutes are approved via email and will post on the web within a week or so of meeting.

Treasurer’s Report – Katherine Collins

• Approval of 2010-2011 budget budget pdf (91) by Meg Nachtwey and Gigi Kuper-Lewis, unanimous by those in attendance.
• Monthly financial report (73) available for download.

First Vice President’s Report – Gigi Kuper-Lewis

• PTO Calendar Sales– Approx. 200 calendars left as of last week.  Approx. same number calendars sold as last year. For next year, we need to evaluate if we want to spend the extra money printing the books with so many pages, tabs, etc. or try to keep the cost down.
• Membership – Gwenn put staff membership envelopes in all the teacher/staff calendars and we haven’t had many teacher join PTO. Anticipate 300 memberships for $5,000 total.
• Website / Publicity – The website looks great.  We asked Angie to please keep only PTO items on the website.  We are no longer going to include other district announcements, events, etc. on the website.
• Welcoming – Many welcoming “teas” were held in the fall to welcome our new families. Gwenn suggested considering revamping welcoming next year due to low new parent attendance.

2^nd Vice President’s Report -  Meg Nachtwey

Responsive Community is no longer an active PTO committee, as Amy Price, the long-time leader is no longer chairing the committee.  In an attempt to keep the movement afloat, Meg will be speaking with the guidance counselors at all of the schools to offer our help and support, and also inform them of the $550 in funds available for responsive community type of programming.  Meg will also work to maintain relationships with groups such as SAY   and CPFY  and offer our support of their programming.

Financial Vice President’s Report – Laurie McCormack

• School Supplies –
  • Gurney

Sold 202 school supply boxes, up from 193 last year.

Sales for Gurney totaled $12,234, up from $10,090 last year.

• Intermediate School

Sold 192 school supply boxes, down from 206 last year.

Sales for the Intermediate School totaled $ 13,769, down from $15,981 last year.

• Middle School

Sold 80 school supply boxes, up from 54 last year.

Sales for the Middle School totaled $5,653, up from$3,382 last year.

Summary – Number of boxes sold for the district were up by 19 boxes. Total sales were up by $2,203. Our rebate from Innisbrook is estimated to be $1,583, up $110 from last year. Gurney purchased 5 boxes for students in need. One box was requested by the Middle School and purchased by the PTO. I would recommend continuing the protocol of families requesting boxes be purchased for them first ask the school, for privacy reasons. If the school declines the offer, the section rep or school supply rep can request that PTO purchase the box.  I would also recommend that as long as the school can verify the family is in need that PTO use rebate funds to purchase the boxes.  Again, for privacy reasons it would be best if the family could work through the school with the school ordering the box, and PTO reimbursing school.

• Shopping – Heinen’s registration has started.  If you haven’t already, click here to re-register your school choice for 2010 .  PTO gets credit for all purchases made between October and April regardless of when you register.  Giant Eagle registration will begin in next 2 weeks.  The link for that will also be on the PTO website.  The Giant Eagle school credit program runs October through March.  You must register for Giant Eagle prior to October, to get credit for the full timeframe, it is not retro-active.
• Fundraising – TheDistrict Fundraiser 2010 is Otis Spunkmeyer and Cherrydale wrapping paper and gifts.  Gurney and Intermediate schools will get catalogs for both.  High School and Middle school will get the Otis Spunkmeyer.  Incentive programs are: Gurney/CFIS:  for every $30 in sales or donation they will have one raffle ticket entered into a drawing with prizes of 2 family Kalahari water park packages(4 tickets each), a Nintendo DSiXL, a Apple iPod touch, and lots of gift cards. Prizes totaling over $1000.

MS/HS:  for each 10 tubs of cookie dough sold, receive a ticket to Kalahari water park.  For every $30 sold, have one raffle ticket entered into a drawing for a Kalahari package of 4 tickets. Kathleen will cut us a check for $800 to be used for the raffle prizes and is providing the 3 Kalahari packages. Sales packets will go home with students on Sept. 15^th.  Sale will run through Sept. 29^th.  The high school would prefer that we do not hand them out to all students but would rather have them available in the office for pick up.  They generally find them all over the high school and not making it home if passed out to all via 1^st period classes/homeroom.  There will be a kickoff assembly at CFIS and during lunch periods at Gurney.  We will have extra packets at the middle school open house which is the same day as our kickoff.

• Advertising – Information fliers in beginning of year “mailings”/folders; PTO website and school website advertising; school newletters and email blasts; open houses with product samples; glass case at Gurney with samples and info; sandwich boards; periodic announcements at schools once sale starts. Kristin Reboul has been great as a co-chair and we have been able to collect some volunteers via open houses, volunteer forms, etc but will still be able to use more for our pickup day shifts!
• Grant Requests Update – Karen O’Hearn

o   Gurney – Rachel Jones – $2,800 for One Book, One School initiative unanimously approved.

o   Intermediate School

1.     Jansen/Mitchell – Two sets Student Clickers for $1,800 unanimously approved. Remote controls that work with classroom computer to collect student data instantaneously. Will be used primarily in math classes but can be used in all subject areas. This will assist the educator is gather data and developing appropriate curriculum for students.

2.     Ms. Gill – PTO approved payment of tuition portion ($1,680) of Ms. Gill’s teacher development trip to Israel, a meeting with the International Reading Association.

Announcements

• Thank you to Jessica Gardner for all her work on PTO fundraiser, kicking off on 9/15.
• Gwenn reminded PTO of signup sheet for sandwich board in PTO closet as well as plentiful supplies in closet.

Drawing by Ariel Dreicer, Grade 12 Chagrin Falls High School.

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

• A big thank you to PTO for your $5,185.77 in donations for the months of February, March and April, 2010.
• Negotiations with the teachers’ union have been progressing and a tentative agreement has been reached.  The union will be voting on the agreement in the next few weeks.
• At our next Board Meeting we expect to approve a contract for Dr. Bill Koons to serve as our High School Principal.
• Screening of candidates for Assistant Principal is currently underway.
• It is the administrations intent to keep the number of minutes for the Advanced Placement Science courses to the same schedule we are currently using, that is one and one-half periods.
• Preliminary results indicate that our OGT test scores were very good this year.

The District Administrative report was presented by Chuck Murphy.

• Teacher Interviews

We have been very busy hiring a math teacher for the high school and middle school and a social studies teacher for the high school.  We are down to three candidates for the math job and 2 candidates for the social studies position.  There are many layers to this process before we decide on our recommendation to the Board.

• New Electives at the High School

The High School will be offering two new electives next year.  They will be offering digital photography and video broadcasting.

• PE Curriculum

The PE curriculum has been revised and approved by the Board this year.  We are offering many new exciting and cutting edge things in the curriculum.  We will be offering a course called GYM that will feature things like fitness folios, pre and post fitness assessment, goal setting, use of fitness software/Tri Fit, testing equipment, heart rate monitors, pedometers, the Wii, DDR, and Geo Motion mats just to name a few things.

Sculpture by Mike Fields, Chagrin Falls High School, Grade 12. Presented at the Spring Art Show.

District PTO Reports (Final Meeting of the Year)

PTO BOARD REPORTS

Comments from the President – Gwenn Klose

• Gwenn is currently filling Committee chair and school representative positions. If you or someone you know would like to get more involved in PTO through one of these positions, please contact Gwenn.
• Incoming/Outgoing Executive Committee members, please plan on attending a meeting Thurs June 3^rd at Gwenn’s house. This will be a chance to share any information with the Incoming Committee members and help them with their new positions. Outgoing committee members, please be sure to have your notebooks updated and organized to pass on to the new members at this important meeting.

Comments from Secretary – Kathryn Williams

• Thank you notes shared.

Comments and Treasurer’s Report – Jen Ganger

• Treasurer’s monthly financial report distributed and reviewed.

Comments from 1^st Vice President – Colleen Mahoney

• Welcoming: Maggie Mayes reports the following end of the year numbers for new students in the Chagrin Falls School District:

• • Here is the list of new student numbers by building:
  • Gurney Kindergarten:  ****Although there were approximately 140 new kindergarteners, only 60 of them came from homes where the parents were brand new to the district****
  • Gurney 1st- 3rd:  21
  • Intermediate School:  16
  • Middle School:  8
  • High School:  24

Please note: These are student numbers, not new families and these are approximate.  Some of the paperwork I received was missing information like grade level.  Also, because of the way the form is and the fact that parents may fill it out months in advance, sometimes parents mistakenly put the grade level which asks for “current grade” but they student comes to Chagrin starting in the next grade up!  It’s a little confusing, but the new welcoming chair will have all of last year’s data to look at and consider.

• Store Credits: Kelly Hendricks reports that Heinen’s has distributed checks to each of the school buildings for our Heinen’s Rewards Program.  We received a total of $7,876 ($2,711 from the High School, $991 from the Middle School, $1,840 from the Intermediate School and $2,334 from Gurney.)  The checks have been collected from building principals and turned over to Jen Ganger.  Heinen’s requires all district residents enrolling in the rewards program to designate a specific CF school.  The year- end checks are sent to each building and then collected for deposit into the PTO account. Next year, the checks should come directly to PTO.

• Website: Angie DeBernardo reports:  We are closing out the year with 57 “followers” for our RSS feed.  We average about 181 independent visits a month.  We’ve had over 200 items downloaded since the download tracker was installed. At least a select group of people are using the site regularly now.  I’d like to see it grow as an information source for parents in the next school year.  I think that only happens with time.  The site needs to consistently provide new information for people to use it.  This year, I did monthly updates using the reports from the schools to the PTO meetings as the main information on the site.  We could add in more posts about the “special events” that happen all year if the PTO leadership thinks that wouldn’t be interpreted by parents as “spam”.   I’d like to put up the welcoming rep info and school supply pack ordering info if people that move in over the summer might be able to utilize it.  Next year, the PTO should try the Evite system to advertise electronically if we are staying away from paper flyers and folders.  I have our email list of 440 members set up in 4 distribution lists.  I can set up the Evite system for next year if we have an event we’d like to try that way.I’m making up a summary sheet with all the info needed to run the website and instructions.  I’ll make it a new “folder” for the exchange.   I think we should consider making up access instruction sheet to some parts of the PTO web resources and putting it in the folders of some of the executive committee members.  That way, executive members could access email, Evite or post information on their own.I would like to transfer the account annual payment to the PTO somehow if we are sticking with our current setup.  Last year, I paid the site fee and was reimbursed  but that won’t work if the job gets handed off each year.  That’s all for 2010-2011.

• Calendar: Lori Newbauer will be calendar chair for the 2010/2011 school year calendar.

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

• Art Show went VERY well!  Art was beautifully displayed & the student work was wonderful!!   Thank you to Bridget Roush and her committee for a SUPERB job! (Editor’s note:  See work form the art show displayed here on the May Reports for the High School and the Middle School.)

• At the May 3^rd BOE meeting :

• • The H.S. P. E. teachers presented about the “New P.E.” program: more focus on fitness, activity, movement rather than games, sports, competition. Incorporating heart monitors,

T-Bows, tension bands, etc.    The Board recognized Edmund Leopold for his generous contribution to the “new P.E.” program.

• • Several staff members presented the district’s new RESPONSE TO INTERVENTION program.  It is a district wide program to initiate consistent assessments, providing students with needed intervention and a lot of follow up to see if the chosen interventions are working.

• • Mr. Charles Barch was introduced as the new athletic director.  He was previously the Athletic Director at Notre Dame College.

• At the May 15^th Board of Education meeting:

• • The Spanish teachers presented a class trip for 2010 – 2011.  It’s a trip to Spain.   It will be over Spring Break and the students will take classes while there and live with a Spanish family.

• • Mrs. Hamid presented a class trip for 2010 – 2011 to Egypt.  The students while stay in hotels.  It is also over Spring Break with a couple of days of school missed as well.

• • The baseball coach requested to continue to take his players on Spring break to play in Florida.

• • Ms. Malone presented a summer camp for the soccer team at West Virginia University.  It includes soccer camp and a white water rafting trip.  Mr. Thompson and Mrs. Penler do not think it is a good idea to school sanctioned white water rafting trip.

Comments from Financial Vice President –Laurie McCormack

• Financial Planning Committee - Ann Thomas has sent out letters to the PTO grant recipients. The letters inform them of the grant approval and explain to them the protocol for receiving the items requested.

• School Supplies – We have all lists from grades 1-8 and quotes back from Innisbrook.  Grades 1-8 can be ordered online and shipped directly home.  No calculators or protractors (8^th geometry only) will be supplied by Innisbrook.

Email blast has already gone out for MS.  Other grades should also get one.  It will also be in the newsletters.  The deadline to order is in mid June.

• Membership – there is 1 additional member.

• Fundraising – We are just starting to look at our options for next year.  Gwenn, Jessica and Laurie met with rep from last year.  The Entertainment book is now a small pamphlet customized to our geographical location with online access to additional coupons.  The company has also replaced Otis Spunkmeyer with another cookie dough company, Classic Recipes.  For the same price, there are 48 rather than 36 cookies per container.  Sally Foster will no longer be door to door catalog sales.  The kids would sell gift cards to go onto their website, order and have it shipped directly home.  Shipping charges start at $5.95.  We would receive $8 per $20 gift card sold and 40% of additional online purchases.  Last year, we received 50% of total purchases.

We are meeting with the Otis rep tomorrow and hope to make a decision next week.

Art by Julia Englehart, Grade 8. Presented at the 2010 Art Show.

The Middle School report was read by Gwenn Klose.

• Art Show Winners – Congratulations to the high school and middle school art departments for organizing the art show at Hamlet.  Our students had amazing pieces in that show.  Congratulations to Dana Savakis, our middle school purchase award winner, and Devon Riegel, our honorable mention.

• Power of the Pen– Congratulations to Devon Riegel and Samantha Spear who will be representing Chagrin Falls Middle School in state Power of the Pen competition.  Larry Richmond has served as their coach this year and the students have done a great job.

• Achievement testing – Middle school students participated in statewide testing during the last week of April.  All our students worked very hard.  Thank you to the PTO and the board of education for providing ice cream sundaes as a reward for the students’ hard work.  The middle school also sponsored a skating party as a celebration for completing the week of testing.

• Class trips – Our eighth graders traveled to Washington, DC on May 10-12.  The trip was a great experience for all the students and the behavior was exceptional.  Seventh grade students traveled to Cleveland on May 13 for an extended day trip.  We visited the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, science museum, took a tour on Lolley the Trolley, and spent the evening at the playhouse watching “Grease”.

• Rolling Thunder – A group of Vietnam Veterans visited our eighth grade classes on May 14 to discuss the war in Vietnam and their experiences as soldiers and veterans.  This was a follow up activity of our trip to DC.

• New Staff Members – Welcome to Mr. Curtis Howell who will be moving from Gurney to the middle school next year.  He will be teaching science and math.  We are currently interviewing for a new Algebra I teacher who will be splitting their time between the high school and the middle school.  We are so excited about the new additions to our already great staff!!

• Literacy Day – We are looking forward to our Literacy Day on May 25.  We have two visiting authors presenting that day.  The students are currently working on books to present to Gurney book buddies.  Gurney 2^nd and 3^rd graders will be traveling to the middle school in the morning.  Each of our students will read their book to the elementary students and the elementary students will read their favorite book to our middle school students.

• Congratulations to Mr. Todd Thombs who has been given the Outstanding Mathematics Professional Award by the Greater Cleveland Council of Teachers of Mathematics.

• A big thank you to the PTO for the great luncheon during Teacher Appreciation Week.

• A huge thank you to Mary Donley, Laura Fricke, and Becky Borden for being the middle school PTO reps this year.  They have done an outstanding job and we have all benefited from their work!!

The Middle School report was presented by Laura Fricke.

• We held an after- OAT Sundae Celebration this month.
  • Held on Wed., April 28^th
  • Thanks to our guest scoopers Board of Education members Mary Kay O’Toole, Anne Thomas, Karen Wise &  Liz O’ Neil

• Teacher Appreciation
  • MS Hospitality provided a Fiesta lunch on Friday, May 7^th
  • Many thanks to our AWESOME Hospitality co-chairs Karen Ostanek & Jill Andrews and their committee members for a great year!

• Internet Safety Presentation/Discussion
  • Thursday May 20^th, 7:00pm in the MS library
  • Encore presentation to the parents of what their MS student recently learned
  • Open to all Chagrin parents

• MS Literacy Day
  • Tuesday May 25, 2010
    • 8:20-10:50 am
    • Gurney 2^nd & 3^rd graders will visit the MS and share a book & snack with a 7^th/8^th grader
  • Organized by the MS Library Staff, Lori & Amy
  • Volunteer support provided by PTO

• 8^th Grade Promotion
  • Ice Cream Social, DVD and Dance Committees are hard at work
  • Large photos featuring 8^th grade students will be for sale by silent auction at promotion. You can preview these photos here on the PTO website.