Polaris K-12 School Website

Meeting called to order at 6:39 p.m. by co-chair Diana Ede. Quorum established.

Principal’s Report: Denise. The high stakes standardized testing is done. Student led conferences are coming up. There will be a recognition ceremony for 9 graduating seniors who have been at Polaris since kindergarten. Mark, Jamie and Margaret who have been at Polaris since the beginning and Carol Comeau, the assistant superintendent when Polaris started, will be attend. This ceremony will be a breakfast held on April 17th at 9 am. Polaris has been around long enough that a Polaris graduate now has a child in kindergarten at Polaris.

Polaris will be honoring their Volunteers of the Year. This year’s Volunteers of the year are Jeff Block, our Fall Auction Coordinator, Hilary Seitz who leads the Coffee and Conversation for K-3 parents and the internship program with UAA, as well as Alice McArdle and Deborah McLallan, library ladies extraordinaire. Not only did they organize the book fairs but have been instrumental in getting other donations for our library.

Elementary Report: Carol Bartholomew.K-6 is gearing up for conferences. They have been continuing their discussions on portfolios. K-6 teachers have been involved in conversations on the middle school transitions. Math placements have been made for next year’s middle school students, schedules have been put together and the shadowing program has been put in place. The end of the year will focus on how the year has gone and wrapping up the year.

6th Grade Transition Report: Allie. The focus has been on the shadowing program. All 5th and 6th graders who are transitioning to middle school next year will spend one morning shadowing a middle student. The secondary students who are being shadowed are all volunteers and will receive training. There will be parents’ meetings on May 21 and May 22 from 12-1:30. This will be a brown bag lunch and give parents the opportunity to have all their questions about the transition to middle school answered. 6th grade camp is now called “Transition Strategies” and, in the fall, there will be credit and a grade attached to this intensive.

There will be no graduation ceremony for elementary students entering secondary next year. Denise said that this tradition had been taken from Chugach for elementary and Stellar for secondary. Polaris, however, is a K-12 school. There’s no differentiation between elementary and secondary as separate schools. It’s a transition the students make not a graduation. This was a good time to change the tradition. Each family group will be having their own celebration of their school year and their accomplishments as a family group.

Secondary Report: Siri Khalsa. The Fall ’08 schedule for all secondary students will come out tomorrow at the all school meeting. Teachers are now looking at intensive offerings for Fall and Winter. Announcing intensive offerings sooner will all students to do more long range credit planning. Secondary students will register for Fall intensives at registration. Registration for fall classes will be by grade level take place after fall intensives. There were some behavior problems in the lounge. The lounge was closed before break. An al -secondary assembly, led by the student officers, was held to address this problem. This has resulted in an addition to the lunch proposal and the situation is much improved.

Financial Report: Kim Pigg. Financial report and proposed budget for next year were handed out. Parent Forum has unallocated funds of $4,374.02 to disburse.

Requests for funding.

• Christina, the art teacher, has $1350 to spend. She would like to purchase display panels for student art. In order to purchase 2 panels, she needs $800 more.
• The Theatre Project still needs money for lights.
• Allie is requesting $825 for the spring 6th grade camp which has the opportunity to participate in a team building exercise at Northstar. This would be a wonderful bonding experience for these students. The 6th graders are doing a fundraiser with the Alaska Dinner Factory to raise money for their intensive. The customary cookie dough fundraiser clashed with the new Wellness policy and needed to be replaced.

Jeff Friedman made a motion to fund the 6th grade camp for $1000. The motion was seconded by Deb Blouin. Motion passed. $700 will come from opportunity scholarship, $300 from unallocated funds.
Jeff Block made a motion to give $800 to Christina so she can purchase 2 art display panels. The motion was seconded by Renata Hoskins. Motion passed.

There was some discussion about funding for the Theatre Project lights. Jeff Friedman suggested we reserve money to use as matching funds when the Theatre Project do their lighting fundraiser. If lights aren’t ordered this spring, they won’t arrive in time to be installed for the fall theater production. If the lights are ordered all at once or in larger quantities, there is a reduction in shipping costs which can be significant. Deb Blouin suggested deferring this issue until the next Parent Forum Meeting. This issue was tabled until the next meeting.

Kim requested that everyone review the proposed budget. Parent Forum needs to vote on a new budget at its next meeting on May 1, 2007.

Fund Raising: Parent Forum is looking for volunteers for fundraising including the fall wrapping paper fundraiser, Fall carnival and auction, as well as someone to take over the newsletter.

New Officers: Kitte’. We will be electing new officers at the next meeting. We need to grow leaders out of our group. Kim does 3 jobs, the fall fundraiser, the newsletter and Parent Forum Treasurer. Cathy and Geoff Wright have done a lot of work with the website. We are now relying on the website to recruit volunteers rather than making phone calls. Diana is chair of Parent Forum. A co-chair is needed. Kim Pigg will stay as treasurer for another year unless someone else would like to take over. Deb Blouin has offered to be a volunteer coordinator. Jeff Block is looking to mentor someone who will take over as Fall Auction Coordinator.

Vision Committee: Vision committee met and talked about the mid-level transition. Polar Resurrection and their idea for a cook-off were also discussed. This would be a quarterly event, similar to Iron Chef, where the cooks must use a secret ingredient in their recipe. (Mango was mentioned.) Judges for this event would include 1 elementary student, 1 secondary student, 1 staff member, 1 parent and 1 guest. Voting on judges and ingredients would take place soon. A suggestion was made to compile the recipes.
Vision group is moving forward with the seminar in the fall. The course will be open to parents and students and will be taught by Denise and Bill in the fall for credit.

Volunteer: Kitte’ Miller and Cathy Wright.
Book Fair: Alice and Deb have gotten donations from various sources. The Aviators Society has donated a large number of books to our library. Volunteers are needed to help set up for the fair and to work the cash registers. There will also be a used book donation. The library will get first choice of any used books that are donated, teachers will then get to choose for their classrooms. The remainder will be taken to Title Wave and sold for credit for Polaris. Any leftovers after that will be donated.

Old Business
Trip Reports – One student reported on her trip to the People to People World Leadership Forum in Washington D.C. over spring break. She was one of 4 Alaskan students to participate.
Another student reported back from the 33rd Harvard Invitational Forensics Tournament. There were 8 rounds of tournaments in 2 days. Facing more experienced and more intensively trained teams, they took the opportunity to learn everything they could and enjoy the process. They put what they learned into good use at the state competition where the team came in 3rd in Policy Debate and took 2nd highest speaker points.

Community Service Proposal – Deb Blouin. An updated community service proposal based on feedback from the last meeting was handed out and Deb went over the handout. The proposal calls for a change in the format of the community service the students perform. It intends to get rid of the time card punching and make it more of a mission. Parents should be involved earlier in the process. If parents can’t help, students will be connected to a sponsor who will help them with their project. Students would be recognized at all school assemblies (2 per year) for their community service work. An opportunity to recognize faculty, staff and parents would be included. Check the Connecticut student volunteer website as a model. Discussion included questions on exactly how this proposal would be implemented. Could parts of it such as the bulletin board of community service projects be put into place right away? Should it wait and be rolled out in its entirety? Deb would like to keep it as a complete package and not implement it piecemeal. How would this be advertised to parents and students? Is adding 2 assemblies a year a problem? Deb sees these as being Polaris’ pep rallies. Polaris doesn’t have sports teams that compete, instead our school would come together to do community service. Would students want to be recognized with ribbons and pins?

Denise commented on the fact that this is the first parent proposal ever. The Vision Committee like it. Parents need to mull this over and give feedback. It’s clear that it needs more details, especially on how it will be implemented. Denise suggests that Parent Forum make this proposal its project for next year. Flesh it out, add the necessary details, set a time line for next year as to how this proposal will move forward.

Math Literacy – Kitte’ Nothing today.

Polaris K-12 History Project – Richard Emanuel couldn’t be here but the History Project handout was available.

New Business

Summer Playground Use. The Polaris playground will be having some of its drainage problems addressed. Exactly how is not yet certain. A trench is one possibility.

Summer Playground Get-Togethers Last summer Hilary Seitz and the Coffee and Conversation group came up with a series of Polaris get togethers at playgrounds around Anchorage. One weekday was chosen and each week a different playground was designated as the gathering spot for whoever wanted to show up to play and visit. That is going to happen again this summer. The schedule will be posted on the Parent Forum web site

New Student Interviews. See Margaret if you’re interested in volunteering.

End of School Picnic will be Wednesday, May 23, in the afternoon. This is the last day of school.

07/08 calendar: still under construction.

Back to School event. Molly Boots proposes an indoor event such as an ice cream social so we won’t be rained out again. Whether this event could be held in Polaris depends on space and cleaning issues. Date for this event is not set yet either. School starts on Wednesday, August 22.

Meeting adjourned at 8:20 pm.

Meeting called to order at 6:36 p.m. by co-chair Diana Ede. Quorum established.

Principal’s Report: Denise. Anchorage Operatic Seminar spent a day at Polaris. Individual elementary classes were held in the morning. In the afternoon, there was an all school assembly to watch an operatic performance of Little Red Riding Hood. The performance was well-received by the students.

We were awarded the Best Buy $15,000 grant for which Corey Aist had applied.

The seminar class for parents discussed at the last Parent Forum meeting will happen in the fall. The text for the class is Schools That Learn by Peter Senge.

The next Parent Forum meeting is April 10, 2007.

Mandated testing is coming up April 3-5. Parent Forum provides water and snacks.

Elementary Report: Carol Bartholomew. During the last early release day meeting, Dr. Adam Grove gave a presentation on stress in adults and children and how to cope with stress.
Intensive catalogs will go home before spring break. Our principal Denise who represents Alaska at the National Association of Secondary School Principals received an award for her work. In addition, she now represents the entire Northwest on the national committee.

Secondary Report: Siri Khalsa. At the last secondary meeting, the staff went over the list of all scholarship opportunities and recommended students for various opportunities. A parent is needed to disseminate information about scholarships. Cathy Wright will post the information on the Parent Forum website. There will be a summary of local and state opportunities and a link to the extensive high school site.

6th Grade Transition: Heidi Postishek. Hand out of Polaris K-12 Middle School Program was distributed. 6th grade camp is becoming mandatory. After this spring, 6th grade camp will be offered in the fall and will include pre-registration for classes, showing new 6th graders their lockers, etc. Impact on 8th graders will be minimal. There will be more middle school classes. Staff is looking at how advisories will work with the larger age spread. The impact of changing to a 6-8 middle school on retention is expected to be good. It will be more difficult to get into Polaris at 7th grade. There is a difference in funding for middle schools. How will math work? Students will be placed in a math class based on performance on standardized test, elementary teacher’s assessment and any other available data. Students will be placed in Math A, B or Pre-Algebra. Students will take 4 core classes plus 2 electives. Secondary starts at 8:30 (elementary at 8:15) and ends at 3:00. There are no half-day Wednesdays for secondary students.

Ad Board Report: Sally Betz. Ad Board is working on updating the bylaws. One point from the bylaws relates to Parent Forum. The Ad Board bylaws specify that 3 of the Parent Forum representatives are parents of K-6 students and 3 are parents of 7-12 students. Is it necessary to maintain this elementary-secondary split or should it be simply 6 representatives from Parent Forum? Sally requested feedback from PF on this issue. Kim Pigg suggested it say 6 representatives from Parent Forum with a recommended but not mandatory split between elementary and secondary. Parent Forum can decide in its own bylaws how to split the representation on Ad Board. Deb Blouin made a motion to amend the Ad Board bylaws to specify just the number of parent representatives and have Parent Forum amend their bylaws to reflect the split between elementary and secondary. Motion was seconded by Patrick Solano-Walkinshaw. A vote was taken and the motion passed.
Op group meets Mondays at 1:50. Parents are welcome to attend. Op group minutes are distributed to advisories. Parent Forum will request a copy of their minutes. Op Group gave out the Polarian Awards. Kim Pigg received the first Parent Award, Green Star got the group award and Hannah Strobe received the student award.

Financial Report: Kim Pigg. Financial report was handed out. Parent Forum has unallocated funds of $4740.07 to disburse.

Requests for funding.

• Lori Sheperd for the Graduation Committee. Graduation Committee met February 5, about 20 parents came. They have received some donations from companies for food, but still need decorations, flowers, etc. The graduation committee is requesting $300-500. Their next meeting is March 12 at 6 pm. Q-Doba is catering food for 250 people. There will be a pre-graduation reception, then the grads can go celebrate afterwards. Last year Parent Forum allocated $500 for graduation of which $454 were actually expensed. Kim Pigg made a motion to allocate $500 and Parent Forum will pay actual expenses. Motion was seconded by Jim Hasbrouck. A vote was taken, the motion passed. Lori will leave records/model, preferably and e-doc on the computer, for next year’s graduation committee. It was suggested that this become a regular line item in Parent Forum’s budget.
• Kitte’ Miller for School Bonds Yes. On Election Day, April 3, 2007, two school bonds (Propositions 4 and 5) are up for approval. One is $20 million bond for maintenance of existing schools, the other bond is for rebuilding Clark Middle School. Schools Bonds Yes uses money it raises to go to media and marketing, including radio and t.v. ads to try to get these bonds approved. Last time there wer school bonds on the ballot, Parent Forum donated $200 the the School Bonds Yes committee. Kitte’ Miller made a motion to donate $200 to School Bonds Yes. The motion was seconded by Molly Boots. A vote was taken, the motion passed.

Kim will add senior graduation to next year’s budget. Any other budget recommendations should go to Kim. There are about $4000 left. Perhaps more of that could go to the theatre which still needs lights.

Vision Committee: Vision Committee met the week of Feb. 19. There were students present. The committee will meet once more before the end of the school year.

Volunteer: Kitte’ Miller and Cathy Wright. Volunteers are needed during the standardized testing period April 3-5 both as hall monitors and to purchase snacks and water.

Old Business

Community Service Proposal – Deb Blouin. A parent proposal was handed out. Deb requests feedback especially from teachers.
Siri stated the he personally liked the proposal. It’ll be interesting to hear feedback from teachers and students. How does one motivate students to be interested in doing community service? Deb answered that you take what students are already doing, quantify it and evaluate it. Carol Bartholomew asked what the elementary component of the proposal is. We want to make sure that community service is not just secondary but K-12. Deb suggested pairing advisories and family groups. Community service could be treated like a passion project. Use the same format for elementary and secondary but scale back the scope to a level more appropriate to elementary. There could be a community service bulletin board for all to see and use. The inent of the proposal is to unify community service and make it consistent across all advisories.

It was noted that the largest impact will be on parents and, therefore, parents need to be on board. Parents have to participate, bring their own community service experience to the process.

Proposal must go to all constituencies, all must give feedback and all must approve before it goes to Ad Board which has the final approval. Elementary needs to be included, not necessarily in this proposal but through conversation and consideration. Including an elementary student in a secondary student’s proposal could be part of it.

Denise made four specific suggestions for this proposal:

1. That it be called a 6-12 Community Service proposal.
2. That Deb look at the last two proposals that passed, the lunch policy and the 5/6 contract proposal. The current version is an adult document intended to be read by adults. It needs to be changed to be a proposal intended for students.
3. Address the fact that the K-12 Parent Forum has chosen to put forward a secondary proposal.
4. Figure out how a child whose parent does not participate will not be penalized.

The parents’ role and responsibility needs to be spelled out. Perhaps there needs to be a parent representative or aid for each advisory. A suggestion was made the parent aid be centered around a specific project. Projects do not need to be outside school. Community service is not a new concept to the students/school. However, the structure imposed on them is new.

The proposal will be posted on the web site.

New Business

Business School Partnerships – Kathryn Smith The foundation responsible for School-Business partnerships has gone through a renewal and has a new executive director. In order to invigorate the program, every secondary school now has a coordinator. Kathryn Smith is the coordinator for Polaris. Kathryn had a slide show presentation which will hopefully be put onto the Parent Forum web site.

The website for the School Business Partnership or SBP is www.asdk12.org/depts/sbp/ The goals and history of the program are outlined in their handbook. The goals include giving students a realistic picture of the business world and to develop a mutual support understanding among businesses, schools and communities.

Polaris’ business partners include Schlumberger, National Wildlife Federation, Kaladi Brothers, Anchorage Waterways Council, UAA Environmental and National Resources Institute (ENRI) and the Association of General Contractors (AGC). Schlumberger has taken students to North Slope to tour the oil fields. National Wildlife Federation helped start the Habitat. Kaladi Brothers helps DECA. The Anchorage Waterway Council has given Polaris a $3000 science grant and students are involved in monitoring water quality. ENRI is monitoring bugs in the creek. AGC helped with Davia’s Build Up intensive.

Some businesses such as Providence have all district partnerships. Others are school specific. Alaska Dinner Factory and Q-Doba are possible business partners for Polaris. SBP publishes a newsletter. We’ll have the logos of our business partners in our newsletter. Polaris was the partnership for the month of January. There are many opportunities here for parent volunteers. Parents can be contact points for partners.

Math Literacy - Kitte’ Miller. The National Association of Secondary School Principals is publishing a book on math literacy. The text which is coming out soon takes a community wide approach to math literacy. Kitte’ wants to see if there is interest in getting a group to meet and talk about math issues. We appear to lose kids somewhere between 3rd and 7th grade.

Polaris K-12 History Project – Richard Emanuel. A hand-out explaining the project was distributed. Discussion was postponed until the next meeting to the late hour.

Meeting adjourned at 8:29 pm.

Meeting called to order at 6:38 p.m. by co-chair Diana Ede. Quorum established.

Principal’s Report: Denise.

Denise shared a letter from Commissioner Sampson recognizing Polaris for its improvement in boosting the achievement of the lowest achieving subgroups while maintain the school’s overall performance. NAPE testing of fourth graders took place. Fifth and seventh graders will be taking the Terra Nova standardized tests on Feb. 6 and 7. Spirit week will, therefore, be reduced to Monday and Friday. Monday will be formal and Friday will be school colors.
The money left over from construction will be used for technology. 30 more computers have been ordered for the library. Current library computers will go to classrooms that have antiquated computer equipment. 5-6 more printers will be bought. In addition, Parent Forum funds will be used to purchase televisions and DVD players for classrooms that don’t have them. Corey Aist received a Best Buy Grant for $2,500 and has applied for a Best Buy $15,000 grant.

Transition to 6-7-8 middle school:

A schedule has been hashed out to accommodate a 6-12 secondary program. Working on curriculum emphasis for 6-8. The plan to publicize this information includes written communications, newsletters, Thursday folder and eventually a page for the handbook. The transition is being made because a 6-7-8 middle school is developmentally most appropriate. It’s also in line with the Anchorage School District which is also moving towards a 6-7-8 middle school. Heidi and Siri will give a presentation on the transition to Parent Forum at its next meeting on Feb. 27, 2007. The same presentation will be given at the ad board meeting on Feb. 28, 2007. Current 6th graders will do the 6th grade camp intensive in the spring. Current 5th graders will do the camp intensive in the fall. In coming year, the 6th grade camp intensive will be in the fall.

Graduation: Michelle Johansen

College Goal Sunday is Feb. 11, 2007. Seniors need to fill out the FAFSA
(Federal Application for Financial Student Aid) in order to be able to accept scholarships or loans for college.

Lori Sheperd is organizing a parent committee for graduation, planning for the event, the reception and looking for funding from Parent Forum. 32 students are graduating this year. The first meeting for parents of seniors will be the evening of Feb. 5. Molly Boots said that senior graduation is not a big budget item for Parent Forum. Funding for graduation will be on the agenda for next month. An idea that came up last year during graduation planning was for the junior parents to help or plan the event for seniors.

Prom date has been moved to April 28. It will be at the Hilton. The theme will be red carpet or 007 or a combination. Hilton has agreed to do some food and decorating. A hoodie with a wolf print and ’07 will be sold as a fundraiser.

Elementary Report: Carol Bartholomew.

The middle school transition has been the topic of discussion in K-6 meetings. The family backpacks that are complete have been given to Cindy to be bar coded and put into circulation. There will be a Family Literacy Night on Tuesday, February 13 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. There will be both informational and activity stations. Some of Hilary Seitz’ UAA student will be leading some of the activities. Coffee and Conversation on Feb. 1 will focus on math.

Secondary Report: Siri Khalsa

Registration went smoothly. Middle school details are being passed on to secondary (9-12) teachers. The textbooks purchased with the legislative grant have arrived. They come with integrated internet support so that students can get extra help and practice. These are Algebra I, II and Geometry texts.

Ad Group Report: Sally Betz

Ad group is working on a revision of its by-laws. These have not been revised since the inception of the school. There will be further discussion on the changes during the next ad board meeting on Jan. 31 at 5 p.m.

Financial Report: Kim Pigg

IRS 990 was submitted Dec. 13, 2006.

Current balance is $20, 256.91 Actual available balance is $14,074.62. This does not yet include the Title Wave fundraiser which brought in $752. E scrip has brought in $500 with another $500 about to be deposited.
Polaris has received a $15,00 Rasmuson Grant for the Polaris Sports Field. Doug Eby was instrumental in getting this grant. The Rasmuson Foundation does not normally fund schools so this grant is going through the Parks Foundation.

Budget discussions for next year need to start soon. A draft budget is needed in April. The budget must be approved at the Parent Forum meeting in May.

Fund Raising:

Spaghetti Dinner – Kristen Buchta and Kathleen are organizing this event. The cooking has begun. Kathleen with the help of Marx Brothers Café at the museum is preparing all the food. 25 gallons of sauce have already been made. Marx Brothers has loaned us their kitchen, provided many of the ingredients including their Caesar salad and is loaning us their van. They’ve also let us purchase many of the ingredients through FSA which has brought down the cost. They expect to come in at or under last year’s budget. Any leftover sauce could be canned and sold as a fundraiser. Six student from Heidi’s advisory and six from Allie’s advisory are helping as wait staff. Wait staff should arrive between 4:30 and 5 p.m. The layout will be a little different from last year to try to improve the flow of people through the food lines and tables. Volunteers are needed at 2 pm on Friday, Feb. 2, to help tear lettuce for the Caesar salad. Volunteers are also needed for clean-up.

Vision Committee: The next meeting is February 13 at 11:30 am.

Discussion last time centered on the community environment at Polaris. The current issues include the school climate and ways to strengthen the community. The students have formed a group called Polar Resurrection which is looking at ways to strengthen the sense of community, reestablish elementary and secondary connections and recapture some of the Polar spirit. Some of these issues have to do with the new school and how to use all the space in the new school. This was likened to a large family, which has been living in a tiny apartment where togetherness was the only option and all resources had to be shared, moving into a spacious multi-bedroom house. Now everyone has their own room with their own bathroom, computer and television and the challenge is to find ways to bring everyone out of their rooms and into a common space to spend time together.

Community service continues to be a focus. How does community service fit into the Polaris philosophy? How important is it to the Polaris mission? One of the issues is that the various family groups and advisories handle community service differently. Community service requirements for secondary students differ significantly from advisory to advisory. This raises the question of grading equity. A suggestion has been made that there be both a list of choices for community service and a list of the community service students and families are performing. Since Polaris does not have team sports, it was suggested that perhaps community service could be viewed as the school sport and used as a focal point for school spirit. How can a balance be found between accountability (requirement and grading) and spontaneity (meaningful, heartfelt community service). Denise suggested that perhaps a seminar class for parents (and older students, if interested) on how to have a dialog and discussion be offered next fall. It could run through UAA and be offered for credit. The subject for the dialog/discussion could be community service. Perhaps there would be a community service proposal that grows into a community service policy for Polaris.

Old Business

Parking Lot Please remind people not to park in the red zone. It’s a safety issue and it shouldn’t be just James’ job to do this.

New Business

School Bonds:

Kitte’ Miller who is the chair of School Bonds Yes asked Mike Carlson from McCool Carlson Green Architects to give a presentation on the plans for Clark Middle School. Clark Middle School is 45 years old, has many deficiencies, and needs to be leveled and rebuilt. In order for this to happen, Anchorage voters need to approve a school bond for $65 million in April. Polaris got its new school because Anchorage voters approved a school bond. Polaris now has the opportunity to help Clark get its much needed new building by supporting its bond. The slogan being used is “My school is Polaris, but I bond with Clark.” Chugach Open Optional is also supporting Clark. Mike Carlson’s presentation showed both the school as it is now with its many problems and the plans for the new school. 60% of the bond would be funded by the state. Anchorage would only be responsible for 40% of the $65 million. Debt from school bonds is not steadily building up. $43-$50 million is being retired each year. The last time a school bond issue passed in 2004.

Opportunity Scholarships:

A senior at Polaris, is going to the 33rd Annual Harvard National Invitational Forensics Tournament as a member of the South High Debate Team. The student is asking for an opportunity scholarship from Parent Forum to help make this possible. The student has offered to do a workshop for Marion’s debate class upon returning from the Tournament as well as reporting back to Parent Forum at the next meeting. Parent Forum still has $1000 budgeted for Opportunity Scholarships for this school year. Upcoming events for which students might request Opportunity Scholarships are the FFA State conference and the DECA state conference both taking place this spring. Debra Blouin made a motion to award the student a $250 scholarship. The motion was seconded by Jeff Friedman. After some discussion about whether we were supporting South H.S. and whether the amount was appropriate, it was agreed that as a Polaris student, the student would be representing Polaris as well as South. South is giving the debate team $300 and Debra Blouin felt we should match that amount. Debra revised her motion from awarding the student an Opportunity Scholarship of $250 to awarding an Opportunity Scholarship of $300. The revised motion was seconded by Molly Boots. The motion passed unopposed.

The suggestion was made that there be a ski swap at Polaris next fall.

Meeting adjourned at 8:30 pm.

Approval of Minutes Motion by Kim Pigg, seconded by Laura Jorgenson, motion passes. Minutes are approved.

Principal’s Report – Denise. Denise gave a review of the first quarter. Comments from students and staff on the Fall Carnival were positively excellent. The 1st fall theatrical production Strictly Ballroom was a huge success. A group of teachers have been taking a credit class through UAA focusing on the transition to a 6-8 middle school. First half of the session reflected on the philosophy. Advisories will be 6-12 not 6-8. Grades 9-12 went to the college fair while 7-8 learned about the 7 methods of highly effective teens. For Socratic Seminars, Polaris has a partnership with Clark Middle School. Clark will come and observe our seminars.

Copies of the school goals were distributed. Handout includes both the three goals and the action plan to meet these goals. Polaris received a legislative grant for $16,000. A large portion has been used to purchase new math texts for Pre-Algebra, Algebra 1 and Algebra 2. Remainder of the grant will be used for the third science classroom. Kitte’ is going to send a thank you to the legislature from Parent Forum.

Elementary Report – Carol Bartholomew. Thanks to Parent Forum for the money for the tubs used to store books in the bookroom. Parent volunteers are labeling the tubs. More volunteers are welcome. See Judy and Carol. Terry Patka, the district reading specialist, was at Coffee and Conversation. AAEYC (Anchorage Association for the Education of Young Children) meeting in January usually has classes geared for parents.

Secondary Report – Siri Khalsa
Marion organized a college visit for all students in grades 9-12. Half the students went to UAA, the other half visited APU. Feedback from the students was good. Secondary students have registered for intensives. Registration for next semester is at the end of intensives. The schedule will probably be available before Christmas break. The registration process will be similar to last time and will take a whole day.

Op Group Report – Genny Boots and Kitte’ Miller
There are 3 mural proposals. Denise and Christina have approved these proposals. Sketches/designs are displayed outside the gym, the SPED office and DECA and comments are being solicited from the Polaris community. Christina will address Op Group on how to make appropriate comments about the design (not the artist).
Daniel is putting together a committee to identify and address problems at Polaris.

Financial Report – Kim Pigg
There is a change in the format of the financial report. Numbers shown are net.
The auction netted $15,366.10. Total income is $32,006.74.

Finance committee met and has proposed two changes to the budget.

1. $2500 to go to Technology. In part this will go to purchase digital cameras for the elementary family groups to use.
2. $2535 from Polaris Now Income to go to theater upgrades

Ongoing fundraisers:

• At Partycraft, mention Polaris when you check out and 5% of all purchases will go to the school. Office Depot has a similar arrangement.
• Escrip brought in about $75 in September and $167 in October.

Motion was made by Jeff Friedman to accept the proposed budget revision and seconded by Jim Hasbrouck. A vote was taken and the motion passed.

Vision committee meets Dec. 12 at 11:30 in the conference room. There is lunch on Thursday 11/30 at 11:30 at the Moose’s Tooth for all interested in extra discussion on community service and its effect on Polaris.

Volunteer Report – Kitte’ Miller

• Still need a co-chair.
• Spaghetti Dinner will be February 2, 2007. In addition to dinner, there will be a Sock Hop and dance lessons with Jack Klauschie.
• Looking for an editor for the newsletter. Kim Pigg has been doing this on her own.

Old Business
Auction and Recruitment – Jeff Block

Jeff Block coordinated the Fall Auction this year. He is looking for people who want to plan and coordinate the fall auction and volunteers who would like to be groomed to take on more responsibility. Jeff handed out a chart recapping the 2006 Auction, breaking out the items auctioned by category, value and price paid for them during the auction. There were a few items left at the end of the auction. Jeff proposed that we give the 3 $15 Arctic Roadrunner certificates to the custodians who cleaned up after the carnival and auction. The $40 Party World gift certificate will go to the Prom Committee. To help with parking for next year’s fall carnival, it was suggested that nearby businesses be contacted and asked about using their parking lots that evening. Jeff will coordinate the Fall Auction again next year working with Laura Jorgenson. He’s looking for volunteers to be groomed to take over the coordination of this event.
College Goal Sunday is February 11, 2007. This event, targeted to juniors and seniors in Alaska, is intended to help families complete federal financial aid applications. It’s in its third year in Alaska. There are 17 sites statewide. The three in Anchorage are at Polaris, East High, and West High. Laura Jorgenson is looking for volunteers to help with set-up, greeting participants, take down and some paperwork.

Meeting adjourned at 8:20 pm.

Meeting called to order at 6:40 p.m. by co-chair Diana Ede. Quorum established.

Approval of Minutes motion by Kim Pigg, seconded by Renata Hoskins, motion passes. Minutes are approved

Principal’s Report: Denise

Outstanding Volunteer of the Year Award for school year 2005/2006 presented by Denise to Cathy Wright since Cathy was not in town for the official ceremony last spring.

HSGQE are finished. 5 students took the complete exam. Two events took place last month. One was the school dedication. The other was Denise’s trip to D.C. to give testimony to the Aspen Commission about No Child Left Behind. Alaska is in the final review process to become one of a few states to start using the student growth model. Instead of tracking progress by comparing this years grade X to last years grade X, the student growth model tracks the individual student’s progress. A student�s scores in the current year are compared to that student’s work the previous year and that information follows the student if he/she changes schools or school districts. End of the 1st quarter is coming up. Michelle is working on school goals. In accord with the new wellness policy, vending machine and DECA offerings have changed. Currently looking at the math curriculum for 7-12 for consistency and to put together a financial package for textbook upgrades. Some of the texts are vintage 1985. Teachers are taking a course based on “Breaking Ranks in the Middle” and will use this to put together an action plan for the transition to middle school. We will have 5th and 6th graders making the transition this year. Campfire program is waiting for final municipality permits and expects to start the end of the 1st quarter.

Elementary Report: Carol Bartholomew

Looking at portfolios. Looking at assessments from last year. Our librarian Cindy is looking for volunteers to help with Battle of the Books. Gail’s and Carol’s classes are doing a preschool story hour at Title Wave. The next one is October 17. Encourage any preschoolers you know to attend. Bookroom is organized thanks to Helen Farnstrom and Shelly Flores. Volunteers are still needed to put titles on index cards and start a check-out system. Carol has Family Reading Backpacks that she’d like to make available for families to use. Each pack contains a book, related activities and whatever supplies are needed for those activities. Perhaps Cindy has a place to keep them and could handle check-out and parent forum could replenish supplies and get them ready to go back out.

Secondary Report: Siri Khalsa

Advisory time is being used for extra P.E. activities. Marion is working with Michelle to consolidate college prep and career advisory. At the end of the month, the college fair is taking place at the Egan Center. Secondary students will be taken over. Parents� Day is usually the first day 10/30 and students will go the following 10/31. There is a dance on 10/13 from 7- 11 pm. All parents are welcome. Chaperones for this dance can contact Joe Seitz.

Ad Group Report: Beth Adams

By laws that cover Ad Board and the Polaris community are outdated. Beth is providing electronic copy. Katy Lovegreen and Kelly Hebert will help update the by-laws. Opportunity to and process for submitting proposals to ad board was discussed. Proposals can come from anywhere in the community. The most recent proposal was the new secondary lunch policy that was implemented last school year.

Financial Report: Kim Pigg

Profit & Loss Budget Overview handed out. Fall Fundraiser is a little lower than last year. E-scrip is higher. Expenses will need to be prioritized. K-6 teachers have requested $250 to buy 50 tubs for the book room. Recommendations from Kim:

• Authorize the Polaris Theater group to expend $1093 that is earmarked for them.
• Authorize $2000 for the Intensive Scholarship fund.
• Fund Special Project for the K-6 teachers.
• Wait until after the auction and carnival (which provide about 80% of PF�s funds) before going through rest of the budget.

Jacque Tucker presented a check for $100 from Junior Girl Scout Troop 616 to go to the theater, so the theater group now has $1193.

Molly moved to authorize the theater group to expend the $1193, fund the teacher request for $250 and give $2000 to the Intensive Scholarship fund. Vicki Vermillion seconded. Motion passed. Funds will be expended.

Alyse Gavin made a motion that PF set aside $200 to be used to replenish supplies in the Family Reading Backpacks. Details to be worked out later. Beth seconded the motion. Motion passed.

Finance Committee: Nancy is almost done with the boiler plate information about Polaris and Parent Forum that will be needed for grant applications. Kitte has some contacts interested in writing grants.

Old Business

Co-chair needed.

Secretary: Motion made by Beth Adams to nominate Renata Hoskins, seconded by Jacque Tucker. Motion passed. Renata is the new secretary.

Ad Board Rep: Maria Husa resigned from elementary ad board rep position. Motion made by Cathy Wright to nominate Patrick Solana-Walkinshaw, seconded by Beth Adams. Motion passed. Patrick is the new elementary ad board rep.

Registration: Adjustments were made for secondary registration, especially middle school. 7th and 8th grade registered separately with 8th grade going first. 7th grade registered knowing which classes were closed. Process went much more smoothly.

New Business

Parent Forum By-Laws: Have they been found? Beth will check binders.

Next Parent Forum meeting is November 28, 2006 at 6:30 pm. Others are 1/30/07, 2/27/07, 4/10/07, and 5/1/07. No PF meeting on 10/24, the Carnival committee is using this date if they need it.

Family Literacy Night will be February 13. Carol Bartholomew asked if parent forum could provide snacks.

Meeting adjourned at 7:55 pm.

Meeting called to order at 6:30 p.m. by co-chair Kelly Smith. Quorum not established.

Elementary Report � Carol Bartholomew. Birchwood Camp was a blast. No real issues or problems with transition to changes in elementary configuration for next year.

Secondary Report � Siri Khalsa. Middle school committee met; Siri attended DECA conference.

Registration Committee � Diana Ede. Many helpful changes to the registration process will be implemented in the fall.

Principal�s report � Denise. Class lists will be available before the school year ends. Art installation will begin next week; 1% for art committee met to discuss placing of pieces, display of miniatures with student statements. Calendar for next year is done. Frank distributed parking flier that will be placed on cars parked in fire line.

7:10 p.m. � Quorum established.

Budget. Dianna R. moved, Renata seconded to accept next year�s budget. Motion passed. Thanks to Kim for her efforts.

Election of Officers � Parent Forum & Ad Board. Diana Ede nominated for co-chair. Kim Pigg, Treasurer; Kelly will continue search for the secretary position. Ad Board: secondary reps � Beth Adams, Dianna Rowedder, Sally Betz (alternate?); elementary reps: Marie Husa, Molly Boots, James Hasbrouck. Alternate � Renata Hoskins. Beth moves to accept slate of candidates, Jeff seconds; motion passed.

Other leadership positions: Volunteer coordinators: Kitte Miller, Cathy Wright. Fundraising (Finance?): Nancy Burke, Kim Pigg. Auction: Jeff Block. Teacher interviews: Barb Marsh, Jenny Ditto, Hillary Seitz, Kelly Smith.

Approval of Minutes. Dianna moves, James seconds, motion passes, minutes approved.

Vision Committee - Diana Ede. Kids, staff, parents, discussed history of Polaris vision & agreed it is time to revisit mission, identify vision of the future. Next meeting will be September 7.

Theater fundraising � Kitte. Discussion of applying plaques to seats and bleachers postponed to next Finance Committee meeting.

Bylaws � Kelly. Review of the bylaws will be put on the September meeting agenda.

Website � Kitte. There will be a meeting at Geoff Wrights� house May 21 at 1 p.m. to discuss the website & electronic communication. Denise stated that involving students means having to follow school district policy.

Campfire. Haven�t heard anything about whether they still want to try to establish a program.

Speakers. A speaker program for next year was discussed briefly. Space will be reserved for a monthly speaker program next year.

Community Schools. Program could expand next year; let Denise know thoughts. Language program will continues in the fall.

Meeting adjourned - 8:05 p.m.

Next meeting � September 27, 2006.

The meeting was called to order at 6:30 p.m. by co-chair Kelly Smith. Introductions were made. The agenda was approved by consent. Approval of the minutes of last month’s meeting was deferred because the minutes were not available.

DECA Funding Request

Distributive Education Club of America (DECA) students Ian Worthington, Kelsey Cook, and Joel Adams requested funding for four students and a chaperone to attend the national DECA conference in Dallas April 29 - May 2. At the recent state DECA conference, 4 students qualified to go to the national conference. Other fundraising plans include requesting help from Op Group, a raffle basket, coffee sales at next week’s parent conferences, and asking local businesses for funding. The cost is $1400 per person. Dianna Rowedder moved to give DECA the $1000 left in the scholarship fund. Kitte Miller seconded the motioh. Several members suggested that the students post an article on thewebsite and in the Ellipsis about DECA, and on their experiences at the conference. Beth Adams mentioned that if
Parent Forum approves funding DECA will be required to report back to Parent Forum on the conference within 30 days.

A member raised the topic of the types of food that will be sold at the school store when the district sets a policy limiting junk food. Kelsey Cook responded that this topic is being discussed by DECA nationally, and that they are looking at other types of products they could sell. Kim Pigg called the question; the motion passed.

Principal’s report - Frank Hauser

Statewide testing went very well. Only 2 or 3 students missed testing. Thanks to ParentForum for assistance.

Upcoming events - School photos 4/13; school seminar 4/27; Ellipsis fundaiser 4/28; prom 5/6; school dedicatioh 5/12.

The school dedication committee has met 3 times. Frank asked that anyone who had photos that could be used for a
slide show should e-mail them to him. Committee meetings are 4/21 at 11:30 and 5/5 at 3:15. The District is printing the invitations and is kicking in $200. Molly moved for up to $300 for mailing & food, Pippa Kenner seconded the motion.

Kim mentioned that there is $250 left in the budget for testing snacks that could be used. Beth moved to amend the
motion to increase the amount to $500. The motion passed with no further disucssion.

Members reviewed a draft parking flyer. Frank reported that there is a serious problem with parents & visitors parking in the fire lane (areas marked by a red curb). The law is that parents can only stop to drop off and pick up students. Frank reported that the school is working on alternatives for opening a third lane. Flyers will be handed out to violators at set times, focusing on the fire lane right in front of the school.

Finally, Frank reported that next year’s very comprehensive calendar will be available at the end of April or beginning of May.

Model UN Conference report - Jeremy Knowles

Student Jeremy Knowles reported on the National High School Model UN Conference that took place in New York City over spring break. Photos will be posted in Larry’s room. The conference was attended by 2500 students from 30+ nations. Frank chaperoned and reported that the students worked very hard while at the conference.

Elementary report - Carol Bartholomew

The primary interns have finished their residencies but are still in classrooms part time. The elementary teachers have finished the matrix continuum for K-3 reading & writing, which will be implemented next year. Parents will get information about it at open house next year. Teachers are getting ready to look at how elementary math is taught because the elementary configuration is changing again next year.

Conference signup sheets are on the tie dye board. Three interns will be teaching intensives. Parents can put in a
preference request for next year’s teacher. There will be family group teacher changes. Make sure to request a change or state a preference that you would like your child to stay in the same classroom if possible. A revised Elementary Behavior Plan is coming home in this week’sThursday news. Feedback is welcome.

Secondary report - Siri Khalsa

Secondary testing occurred just a week after spring break. The three mornings spent doing in-depth test preparation was very valuable. The middle school committee has been meeting, and has created an action plan for the transition to the 6-7-8 combination which will take place year after next. Intensive schedules are out. The lottery was very successful; secondary still has spots open. There are wait lists for other grades.

Parent Forum Organizational Business

Kelly explained how he foresees running meetings next year; he plans to share the running of meetings with the upcoming co-chair when he wants to take a position on an issue or if there is a conflict of interest. He would like to set a goal of keeping meeting length to two hours. If discussion goes on too long, he will suggest tabling issues, and referring issues to committees if significant.

The members discussed nominations of officers for 06-07. Elections have to take place at the May meeting. Kelly asked members to suggest nominations.

Parent Communications

Kitte has established a weekly bulletin for the community (Polaris News) that comes out on Thursdays. She has received mostly positive feedback. She reported on recent developments on the Parent Forum website ( polarisk12.org) and the new parent e-mail distribution list. There is a comprehensive calendar on website. The second publication is for parents and officers of parent forum (Connections from the Polaris Parent Room), for use by PF officers and others to decide which items to take action on. Geoff Wright, who built the website and continues to improvement, stated that two things need to happen - more content, more people who know how to use it and operate it.

Budget for Next Year

The members reviewed the budget Kim has drafted for next year - final discussion will take place in May. The draft budget doesn’t include special event fundraisers. Areas of need that were identified late last year and early this year are incorporated (theater, art department). Siri mentioned that the school’s computer technology was upgraded with
construction money, but it will become obsolete. Upgrading will fall upon the school.

Parent Involvement in Teacher Hiring

Teacher hiring committees are formed with representatives of constituency groups (parents & students). Parents can volunteer to participate, but must commit to attending all interviews taking place for the hiring of that position. Kim raised the possibility of voting on a pool of parent representatives. If interested, send Kelly your name in the next month. Beth will put an announcement on the website; Kitte will get the word out at parent conferences. Members agreed that Kelly and Dianna could appoint parent representatives if teacher hiring occurs before end of May.

Key Dates - 06-07

These are dates tentative.

• The K-12 picnic is tentatively scheduled for August 18.
• Parent Forum meetings will take place on 9/26/06, 10/24/06, 11/28/06, 1/30/07, 2/27/07, 4/10/07, 5/1/07. Ad Board meetings will be the day after Parent Forum meetings.
• Intensives are tentatively scheduled for August (secondary), January, & May.
• Fall carnival - 10/27.
• The rockwall kickoff will take place the same evening as open house, 9/13.

Finance Committee

Kim reported that the Finance Committee is developing boilerplate information to start pursuing grants. The visioning committee needs to keep them in the loop.

Visioning Committee

Dianna Rowedder reported on the visioning committee’s activities. Nancy Burke (a member of the Finance Committee) would like to attend the Visioning Committee meetings. Molly Evans and Diana Ede have volunteered to join the committee. Next year’s new co-chair should be on the committee. Meetings are next Friday after school and on May 8.

The committee hopes to double the size of the group by the May 8 meeting. All are welcome to attend.

Fall Carnival & Auction

Molly reported that she and some other veteran carnival/auction volunteers are stepping down. Jeff Block is willing to co-chair, but will need a co-chair. An ad hoc committee will be formed to find help for Jeff. Molly, Jeff & Pippa will look at job descriptions; Kitte will solicit volunteers.

Members were asked to invite involved parents to attend the May annual meeting.

Meeting adjourned 8:59 p.m.

Parent Forum met last night. A LOT HAPPENED! These are not official minutes and probably don’t cover everything that was discussed - just my recap.

• After a fun icebreaker facilitated by Kitte, Carol reported that the elementary teachers were adjusting to their new space. Carol and Hilary discussed the UAA Early Childhood Education internships.
• Frank mentioned that he had received several e-mails with concerns about the amount of secondary homework. He asked that people contact teachers first, then cc: Frank. He also asked parents to discuss with their students whether they are using study halls effectively.
• The playground is open and supervised until 3:30 p.m. After that, children must have a parent supervising them if they are to continue using the playground.
• Fundraising for the rock wall was discussed and it was agreed that Kelly, Kim, George, and Damon will form a committee to pursue ideas for a formal event.
• Kitte reported that the Spaghetti Feed was extremely successful.
• Parent Forum voted to restrict the $332 wine bottle auction proceeds donated by the art students to art program expenditures.
• Kim reported that the fall Nicholson fundraiser has been extremely successful, though final numbers are not yet in.
• Pippa made a presentation about traffic flow and parking and will continue to investigate problems and solutions.
• Molly and Kitte reported on auction/carnival plans.
• Kitte reported on the Polar!s Now fundraising idea, which would solicit cash donations from parents. The amount raised would probably be eligible for matching grants.
• Kitte also presented an informal but thorough calendar of upcoming events. Parent Forum formally requested that the school post a calendar of events for the community to keep everyone apprised of important dates.
• Ideas for several new parent events were discussed, including different events with focus on different grade levels.
• Bonnie and Pippa will continue researching options for before and after school care.
• Beth reported on the Alaska Kids Count! a Juneau-based parent network formed to advocate for school funding in the legislature. Beth will pursue having someone make a presentation to Parent Forum.
• Beth also reported that the website is up but needs content, and that the laptop has been submitted to Margaret for ordering. Dianna suggested ordering a printer with the remaining funds already committed to the purchase of the laptop.
• Beth also presented the idea of a parent database which could be used to generate a directory.
• The possibilities for sports activities before and after school were discussed and will be pursued by Kelly, Frank, and Damon.
• I missed the discussion of the Parent Forum “Strategic Plan.”