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Col. Zadok Magruder High School PTSA, Inc.5939 Muncaster Mill Road Rockville, Maryland 20855

Magruder HS PTSA Minutes 1/19/2010

mhs-ptsa.org

I. Call to Order - Linda Kuserk, President, called the meeting to order at 7:30pm.

II. Special Program - Mr. Bill Seested, Head of Magruder's security staff (301-840-4610),and MCPD Officer Henderson-Neal, EFO gave a detailed explanation of the security

policies and procedures at Magruder. Topics discussed included the number of securitycameras at Magruder, the number of security staff assigned to Magruder, areas of the

school not covered by security cameras, fights at Magruder, how to locate/contact amember of the security staff or Officer Henderson-Neal and the incidences of items beingleft behind as opposed to stolen from a student.

III. Approval of November minutes - Meeting minutes from 11/17/09 were approved andseconded with no corrections.

IV. Treasurer's Report - The report for 1/19/10 was distributed and reflected a closing balance of $10,532.86. The After Prom budget has a closing balance of $7161. 47 as of 12/31/09.

There is a need for one more person to volunteer to review last year's accounting records.Please contact Linda Kuserk if you are willing to perform this task.

V. President's ReportEducational grants for staff - there were no additional requests from staff members for the educational grants that were announced in the beginning of the school year. Theremaining requests from the fall semester are still valid. A proposal was made to fundMrs. Jordan's field trip request for $700 and to fund Mrs. Garland's $250 request for a"first in family to go to college" scholarship. The academic committee will meet withMrs. Garland to come up with a rubric for the selection process. A motion was made toapprove these 2 grant requests. The motion was seconded and passed.

VI. By-laws ReviewJoe Stewart, immediate past PTSA President, explained that our by-laws were lastreviewed in May, 2006 and that although we were granted an extension by the state thatthey were effective until November, 2009, actually they expired in November, 2008.Therefore, Magruder's PTSA by-laws are very overdue for review and revision. The

by-laws were reviewed by a committee in Spring, 2009 and in the June, 2009 edition of the PTSA newsletter, the by-laws were put into a new format and the following changeswere proposed:

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- the PTSA used to have 2 secretaries and 1 Vice President. The proposed changeis to have 1 secretary position and 2 Vice President positions.- there only needs to be a one day notice prior to PTSA meetings.- the term of committee chairs would be changed from 3 years to 1 year.Chairpersons can always volunteer for another 1 year term - there are no limits tohow many terms a chairperson can serve.

A motion was made to submit these revisions and new by-laws. The motion wasmade seconded. The motion passed.

VII. Principal's ReportHSA testing has been completed for all seniors who needed to re-take the test.Finals are going smoothly.End of the 2nd marking period is 1/22/10 and report cards will go home on2/2/10.PEAC information night to be held on 1/21/10.Principal's coffee to be held on 1/28/10.Cluster program initiative - Cluster-wide program that will have monthlymeetings with all cluster principals and PTSA/PTA presidents. The first meetingwill be held on 2/11/10.18-20% of all Magruder students are ineligible to participate in athletic activities.These students are not producing as they should be, they are not embracingeducational opportunities and participating like they should. The staff is lookingat who these students are and at instruction techniques.The graduation rate at Magruder is about 90% - this includes all students who

begin at Magruder as 9th graders but don't graduate from Magruder, no matter what the reason.A new "student profile" is being developed to send to parents electronically.These reports will be more comprehensive than Edline - it will be acomprehensive, global picture of how the student is doing in school. A major effort will be made to obtain email addresses for parents of all Magruder students.

VIII. Delegate's ReportTed Willard reported that money is the main topic of discussion among the delegates tothe MCCPTA. The MCPS Operating Budget is being developed, the Board will pass the

budget and send it on to the state level. The state is required to spend a certain amount of money for public education but there is some controversy as to if MCPS owes money tothe State Board of Education. The economic indicators are very bad at this point, there isa need to push the legislators in Annapolis to give MCPS as much money as possible.Some of the Board of Education's recommendations for cuts include: bigger class sizes,cutting transportation to magnet programs. We all have to pay close attention to the cutsthat are being proposed at the local and state level.

IX. Committee ReportsFacilities - Louis Wilen reported that the old shed is gone from outside and will bereplaced by a new brick building. The flower boxes outside the school located by thefootball field entrance will be replaced by concrete. Louis has been comparingMagruder's building to other schools that he has visited around the county and saysthat Magruder has the cleanest building of all those he has seen.

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Every15Minutes - Patty Winters announced that she has handouts available regardingsafety for kids. There are "rookie driver" magnets available for sale at A Sign Store onRedland Road. The off-year project is to promote the student assistance program. Afollow-up parent symposium is tentatively scheduled for March. This symposium willfocus on student stress levels at the end of the school year and how to decrease stresslevels so students don't turn to drugs or alcohol to deal with their stress.

X. New BusinessA discussion was held regarding the possible changes to the lunch schedule for the 2010-2011 school year. A proposal has been made to only have 3 lunch periods instead of thecurrent 4 lunch periods. With the current lunch periods being back to back, there is verylittle time for the building services staff to clean the cafeteria before the nextgroup of students arrive. With only 3 lunch periods, there will be more flexibility for staff and for scheduling purposes. The 3 lunch periods will be randomly assigned inmixed grade levels and this will also make scheduling easier. Parents expressed concernsabout safety and security of 3 lunch periods with more students in each lunch, longer food lines and a shorter amount of time to get through the lines and eat your food. The

staff feels like the current 45 minute lunch period is too long, there has to be more staff present in the cafeteria to supervise the students. The proposed new lunch schedule will be the topic of discussion at the Principal's coffee on 1/28/10.

XI. Adjournment - the meeting was adjourned at 9:25pm.

Respectfully submitted;

Fidelia RomanowskiRecording Secretary