Sherwood Montessori Parent Organization (SMPO)
Minutes of the SMPO preliminary meeting September 21, 2010
Time 6:05pm Sherwood Montessori 4/5 classroom, 746 Moss Ave, Chico, CA 95926
Mary Lucas called meeting to order with Lisa Williams taking minutes
Approximately 20 parents in attendance as well as Russell Shapiro, Chair, SM-BOD and Michelle Yezbick, Director of Sherwood Montessori.
Mary started off the meeting introducing herself and asking people to sign in. She explained that the purpose of the SMPO was to coordinate volunteers and raise money for SMPO determined projects to support the mission of the school and to create community events. The goal of the meeting would be to select interim officers, get committees started and ask for an initial voluntary “get us started” donation.
Russell Shapiro, Chair of the Sherwood Montessori School Board then talked about the misconceptions of Charter Schools. He stated we were as much a public school as McManus or Shasta, just not a “traditional” school. The Charter law is different in different states and was enacted to get out of the voucher initiatives that were being sought. The States did not anticipate parents starting schools when the law was put into place. The Charter is our contract and although we report to Chico Unified School District (CUSD) we have quite a bit of autonomy. Special Education is the only service we rely upon for CUSD to provide. We must follow the education code in two areas only: Instructional minutes and the STERS requirement for employees of Sherwood Montessori. Otherwise our Charter is our law and what we must follow.
The State of California is where the money to run SM comes from and it is determined by an allotment of per student days and is less than what traditional public schools receive, so we have a big funding gap. This gap is approximately 4% of total revenues and looks to be $25,000 for the first school year. We do receive lottery funds and since we are such a small school, some grants are not worth the time investment/cost to apply. Because we are a 501.c3 tax exempt non profit we will have an opportunity to write grants to our school’s strengths and one of those strengths will most likely be our gardening program. These grants will take time to write and potentially receive .
It is imperative that we have the SMPO raise funds to meet the gap in demand for funds and to allow greater flexibility in the way in which funds are spent. Certain expenditures are not allowed to be made by the school, but could be made by the Parent Organization. An example would be for a social committee to fund social functions for the school that do not benefit the “whole” school and such things as flowers or gifts for sick or struggling teachers or families.
From the Board’s view the goals of the SMPO would be to have a communication conduit of the parents ideas by having the president serve as a non voting member on the SM-BOD and to raise money to the fill in the budget gap for the school as well as provide money for projects the SMPO determines worthy
Russell also discussed the fact that our Charter is only a 2 year contract and that it is hard to stay a Charter School. After the first renewal the Charter will be renewed in 5 year increments. We already need to be working on our first renewal in order to have our school continue. After the first year we will get a report card and the SM Board is already looking at reports on other charters to try and identify what we need to be doing to guarantee renewal. The bottom line is that we need to have parents help run the school in order to continue to be a school!
Mary Lucas thanked Russell and then started a discussion regarding what had been done to date to start the SMPO and the need for the SMPO to open a bank account as well as the steps that were being made to do so. Russell stated a business checking account could be opened and the SM-BOD would make a resolution to allow the SMPO to open an account so it shows the Parent Organization is under the 501.c3 and thus tax exempt. This discussion led to agreement by the members present that a bank account should be opened and that, in turn, led to a discussion of a voluntary dues assessment to open the account which could then fund the first fund raiser of the SMPO which two members are currently working on. The fundraiser involves the sale of T-shirts. We need the funds to purchase the T-shirts in order to sell them. The parents are currently working with the students on the choice of a school color and mascot. Discussion continued regarding student involvement in logo design and future years t-shirt marketing and design.
Kristen Cobery suggested an initial voluntary donation of $10 per student in the family and identified that Punnu Chopra had a receipt book for any donations that were made on this night. The tax ID# was identified to be put on the receipts and it was confirmed that they would be tax deductible.
Marci Pope then spoke of the need for a school directory and that binding this directory could also be a good fundraiser for the school. Michelle discussed the need to have it be voluntary and that the opt out forms were already filled out and that the information was available to start on such a directory.
Mary Lucas than reiterated the need to agree on the interim positions of president, treasurer and secretary until elections were held next month. A meeting was set for this election at the next SMPO meeting at 6pm on October 19, 2010 at the school. At the next meeting the goal would be to adopt the bylaws that were in process with the assistance of Erwin Williams and the interim SMPO Board as well as the election of permanent officers. Any people interested in serving on the SMPO Board were encouraged to let themselves be known. Mary stated she would like to remain the interim president until the election occurred. Those present agreed. Then there was a call for any interest in the interim treasury job and David Kuperman volunteered until he realized that Punnu Chopra was in the process of handling financial matters. It was resolved that once the bank account was opened that the interim treasurer would be David Kuperman. Kristen Cobery then volunteered to act as interim secretary.
Mary Lucas then proceeded to outline the offices and duties that we need a selection process for, whose duties would include the following as well as attendance of all SMPO meetings:
President: Serves as a non-voting member of the SM School Board, must attend BOD meetings and give SMPO reports, responsible for the general organization of SMPO and for the communication with committee chairs, responsible for communication to general parent population via email and Wednesday Envelopes, sends social notes/flowers (births, deaths, etc).
Secretary: Keeps meeting minutes, develops meeting agendas in cooperation with President, keeps contact database up to date, keeps records of volunteer hours, assists committee chairs with getting volunteers for specific jobs, sends thank yous for donations
Treasurer: Responsible for collection of money from fundraisers, deposits, record keeping regarding income and expenditures, provides finance report to the president prior to all school board meetings
The next discussion centered on the need to begin the formation of committees and those present were encouraged to sign up for committees that were on sheets of paper listed in the back portion of the room. Anyone who was willing to act as chair of a committee was encouraged to place a star by their name. The main standing committees that would have monthly meetings and report to the SMPO Board were identified as follows:
Fundraising: To organize and execute fundraising events
Facilities: To take care of one time maintenance and repair needs as well as weekly cleaning needs of the school and grounds and the organization of School cleaning days (3x/yr?)
Special events: To plan special events for the purpose of community building (talent show, fall festival, holiday events and end of year celebrations), graduation planning and assistance with Friday Farmers Market and garden care
Site Support: To organize helpers for Wednesday envelopes, tech savvy assistance for officers, work on compiling class lists of contact information and phone trees, taking photos of events and yearbook support if needed
There was discussion regarding the need to have the SM children involved in the cleaning of the school daily, weekly and tri annually. Michelle, the director, stated some of the cleaning tasks were more appropriate for adults and there was further discussion regarding adults volunteering to assist students as they cleaned the school as needed.
Meeting adjourned at 7:15pm and parents signed up for committees and made voluntary donations to SMPO. Next meeting scheduled for 10/19/2010 at 6pm.
Respectfully submitted by Lisa Williams