Thank you to everyone who took Drummond’s survey about the CPS extended day plans.
The LSC took the results, along with feedback from our administration and teachers, and yesterday we sent a letter to CPS CEO Jean-Claude Brizard and the members of the Board of Education, sharing with them our hopes and concerns about the proposed extended day.
The survey results sent a clear message, with 91.5 percent of respondents preferring a school day shorter that the 7.5 hours proposed by CPS. Of special concern was the length of the school day for our youngest students, with 70 percent expressing support for Early Childhood having a shorter day than our older students. There were also clear concerns about the future of afterschool activities and homework if a longer day is adopted.
We also appreciated the preferences about how the additional time should be used, with Recess, Science, Foreign Language, Math, Montessori Work Period and Art topping the list.
The letter to CPS expressed our desire to collaborate with CPS to make a longer day a success, as they have collaborated with us to make our Montessori program successful. However we were clear about our parents desires as communicated in the survey, and about our practical concerns, primarily that no funding has been identified by CPS for implementing this program.
Please join us for the next after school committee meeting on:
Date: Wednesday, March 16th 2011
Time: 6:15pm
Location: Bucktown Library – 1701 N Milwaukee Ave ·
Agenda
Call to Order
Roll Call
Administrative
Co-Chair
Mandated CPS stipend Updates
Current Account
2011 Survey
After School Program List Flyer
Application for financial assistance
YMCA –Programming
a. Before Care Update
b. Sports
c. Spanish
d. Other
4. Kudos / Thanks
• Jennifer James, Cindy Nicita and all volunteers, for Rocking the Block!
• Rachel Gross, Malefia Emiru-Charo and all volunteers for Drummond Cooks!
• Marilyn Rosado and Melissa Sterne for the new spirit wear
• Sabrina Craig for the Family Directory
5. New Business – Upcoming Volunteer Opportunities
• El 1 Fall Festival – Vivian Barrett
• Family Reading Night – Cindy Nicita, Mary Zerkel, Lisa Wright
• Technology Committee – Melissa Sterne
• Drummond Cooks! Cookbook Project – Monica Rezman and Katrina Lipe
• Parent Socials – Mollie Stromberg
• Kiss n’ Go – Julie Neswold
• Food & Coat Drive – Mary Zerkel
• Fall Book Fair – Sarah Landicho and Alyse Goodwin
• Montessori Parent Education – Maria DeVeyra
• HomeRoom Reps – Maria Sotelo and Neha Gandhi
• Spring Fundraiser – Simone Widney
Drummond PTO Meeting Agenda
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
7:00 P.M. – Drummond Montessori, The Hideout
1. Welcome/Introduction
2. Principal’s Report
3. Treasurer’s Report
4. Old Business / Updates
5. New Business- Committee Reports
• YMCA sports program – Mollie Stromberg
• Drummond Montessori Matters – Mollie Stromberg
• Teacher Appreciation Day (Pam Anderson & Maria Sotelo chair)
• End of the school year picnic (Laura Lopez & Maria Holstead chair)
6. PTO Elections for 2010-11
Nominate Simone Widney as new PTO President and Megan Hinchliff as ongoing Treasurer.
Still need VP and Secretary.
Present: Grace Kwon, Megan Hinchsliff, Simone Widney, Elsa Rivera, Hollly DuPart, Bonnie Kenz-Mara, Lisa Wright, Sabrina Craig, Marilyn Rosano, Neha Gandhi, Malefia Emiru-Charo, Laura Lopez, Marilyn Rosado, Sarah Landicho, Sherry Coleman, Mark Neidlinger
1. Welcome/Introduction
2. Principal’s Report
• Staffing
- Congratulations to Laura Lopez, Drummond’s new Parent Worker
- Mark has officially been chosen as Drummond school principal. Thank you.
• CPS is facing a projected $700 million to $1 billion deficit for the 2010-11 year
- Specific figures and potential plans CPS has to reduce this deficit were shared
- Mark expects to receive Drummond’s 2010-11 budget by end of March which will give a
better idea of how the budget cuts will affect Drummond.
- Notification letters to new student families will be delayed to April, pending budget.
3. Treasurer’s Report
• Current balance: $4,711.16
• Upcoming expenditures (estimated):
- Teacher Appreciation Day $400
- End of Year Picnic $400
- Summer Get Together $700
- 8th Grade Trip (max) $1,000
- Database $1,000
4. Old Business / Updates
• Drummondschool.org website
- Some updates have been made on the website. More to come.
• Newsletter – Sarah Landicho
- Hopefully next school year, newsletter will be a class during the day.
• Book Fair – Sarah Landicho
- Working on spending the money raised from the Book Fair to add new materials.
• PTO Elections
- Elections will be held in April
- Anyone interested in being nominated should contact Grace Kwon.
5. New Business- Committee Reports
• Diversity & Outreach Fundraisers – Sabrina Craig
- Planning on fundraisers to support the Spanish language program
- 63% of parents indicated they would like to see Spanish implemented
- Working to get Spanish language classes during school time.
- Using a vendor such as Language Stars could cost $10-$15K for each student to receive
Spanish classes 1-2 days/week for 45-minutes.
- Need to raise money by August 1st
- Plan to have 3 small, events based summer fundraisers this year to raise the money.
Game Night at Leona’s – Parent driven
Parent Night at Lotties’ – Parent driven
Pump It Up – Child driven
- Goal: Install Spanish language program at Drummond and sustain it.
• Teacher Appreciation Day
- Pam Anderson (Chair)
• End of the school year picnic
- Laura Lopez and Maria Holstead (co-chairs)
• Revamping Online T-shirt store – Grace Kwon
- Need to get pictures of t-shirts available to post online
- Currently receiving reporting of online store from PayPal
- Happy with current t-shirt vendor. Price and quality are quite good
- Marilyn Rosano offered to take over online PTO store management
• Database – Grace Kwon
- Current database is 1/5 of PTO budget
- Looking into creating our own database or purchasing & customizing
• Corporate Giving Concept– Holly DuPart
- Ideally, with corporate giving program, we would have a pool of finances, donated by
corporations, to fund various committees so fundraisers would not be necessary.
- Lots of parents feel bombarded by fundraisers
- Need to be proactive to get other people (businesses) to give us money
- This would be a corporate giving program that happens annually with Friends of
Drummond (FOD) helping to fund the program.
- October is a good time of year for this with matching donations at the beginning of the
calendar year.
- Design flashy promo materials are needed.
- Montessori Matters has a corporate giving component. Holly and Mollie and Montessori
Matters will touch base to ensure no overlap of services.
• Montessori Matters – Mollie Stromberg
- Kick off was delayed until budget received to be able to provide a tangible goal.
- Goal was: $75K but will need to increase this goal due to CPS reports.
- Website in the works. Has logo, diverse photos of children, similar to big event
website.
- Conclusion is June 3rd with a concert. Location TBD.
- Next step is to communicate why we need this money.
• Fall Walk-a-Thon – Grace Kwon
- New group fundraiser to help finance PTO, After School Care, Diversity & Outreach,
Teachers, and possibly 8th grade trip to Washington, D.C.
- If we raise $25K, that would be $5K to PTO and rest help fund each group
- Possible name: Drummond Montessori Matters Walk-A-Thon
6. Kudos / Thanks
• Everyone who made Family Reading Night a wonderful success!
7. Announcements
• Accepting nominations for PTO 2010-2011
