PAC BOARD MEETING

Thursday, February 18, 2010 

Call meeting to order at 8:55 am 

Members in attendance:  Ms. Everett, Marsha Atwood, Wendi Andrews, Khristy Benson, Ms. Patterson, Martha Swiber and Bryson McLean            

I.   WOES PAC Projects 

a.   Updates

·        Secretary-Wendi

·        Newsletter-Bryson:  next one by March 26

·        Bulletin Board-Wendi:  updated, new info added

·        Web Page-Martha: 

o       FAQ Page:  PAC members to help Martha establish list of questions; work-in-progress

o       Newsletter needs to be added to website

o       Add a visitor counter to website

·        Meet & Greet-Khristy:  After school meet and greet on Friday, March 26; Khristy to send out a schedule for before school meet and greet

·        Glossary of Terms:  Need a coordinator

b.   PAC presence:  PTO events, school events sponsored by PAC, business sponsored events – does Mac have any suggestions? 

II.  New Topics

a.   Student Safety:

·        No ID checks:  staff checks ID when necessary; office staff knows most parents and do not need to look at ID; Ms. Everett will review procedures with office staff; anyone who comes in the building must sign in at the office and wear a name tag; children must be signed out at the office when checking out early; Officer Mitch’s office is at entrance and sees most people entering the building.  He also routinely polices the school’s campus.

·        Student Resource Officer:  new police commissioner of Cape Carteret does not think WOES needs a SRO, wants to limit or cut officer duties at the school

·        Homemade food:  no homemade food is allowed to be given to students, must be store-bought; teachers are responsible for monitoring food brought in to the classroom

b.   Office staff/lunch monitor courtesy:  complaints that office staff do not welcome visitors when they come into the office and are often not friendly – Ms. Everett will discuss with staff; lunch monitors have been limited to 30 minutes of duty and has helped with morale, noticeable improvement in attitude toward children

c.   Staff Morale:  what can be done to boost staff morale?  PAC and PTO to work together to come up with ideas; have PTO put notes/goodies in staff boxes routinely, not just during appreciation week

d.   Phone Tree:  complaints about abuse of phone tree – difficult to find a balance that is acceptable to everyone;  county pays for service – it is a blanket subscription for the whole county; it is necessary to make numerous calls to ensure that parents receive the message.

e.   Cafeteria lights:  students trying to read or do homework while waiting for pick-up cannot see in low-light conditions; cafeteria becomes very noisy at this time and students need to be able to hear their name when called; students are taught to be quiet when the lights are off in the cafeteria, therefore the monitors use “lights out” to maintain control over the noise and will continue to do so; it is possible that monitors could open the blinds in the cafeteria to allow more light

f.   Accountability and Curriculum Reform – History:  this issue does not affect elementary school; grades K-3 receive instruction on their community and neighborhood, 4^th grade studies NC and 5^th grade receives a highlighted introduction to US and South America.

g.   Central office commended WOES PAC as being an outstanding organization and a model for other PAC groups in the county

III. Curriculum/School Activities - Ms. Everett

a.   Dare:  underway, haven’t received any content complaints

b.   RTI process has been refined and is going well

c.   Kindergarten Registration:  02/25/10 from 2-7; teachers are developing activities to involve new Kindergarten parents

d.   School growth:  will probably have over 700 students by the end of the year; have one extra classroom and then will have to use trailers

e.   3^rd, 4^th and 5^th Grades EOG night – 3/18/10 at 6:00 pm (information meeting for parents, kids don’t need to attend; similar to meeting at the beginning of the year)

f.   February birthdays – February 26

g.   2^nd Grade Math Night – 2/18/10 

IV.  PTO report – Kim Jones

·        Upcoming events

o       Spring Fling April 30, 2010 (email requesting help has gone out)

o       MacDaddys TBA 

V.   Facilities/Maintenance - Ms. Everett

·        WOES has been selected as a pilot school to begin an energy savings program; goal is to save on energy costs in county schools; school has began to make changes to conserve resources:  lights are being turned off in the gym and in classrooms, laminator is being turned off and computers are being shut down; looking at sky lights to determine if they need to be removed; add article to newsletter about this program

·        Recycling:  mandated by the county; we recycle plastic, cans, paper and boxes

VI.  Transportation – Ms. Patterson

·        Best Behaved Bus:  January winner is Bus 212; driver will be presented a certificate on the morning news and the students riding that bus will get a treat

·        Positive Behavior Support has been expanded to include the buses; looking at putting treasure boxes on the buses

·        Buses are full, more kids are riding the bus; a couple of buses were switched because one bus was larger and could accommodate the number of children for that route 

VII. Policy - Ms. Everett

·        Bullying:  Ms. Everett has met with the staff and has had staff development covering bullying; teachers are to look at their own classroom policies and if nothing addresses bullying they are to rewrite to include bullying; Ms. Barrett and Officer Mitch have met with 5^th Grade students to discuss bullying 

VIII. Meeting Schedule:

·        Next meeting:  Thursday, March 18 at 8:45 am 

IX.  Questions/Comments/Concerns: 

·        Next Board of Education meeting with PAC presentations is on Tuesday, March 2 at 5:00 pm 

Adjourn Meeting:  Meeting was adjourned at 10:02 am