Monday, December 3^rd, 2007

Parent Community Meeting

In Attendance: Wendy Winchel, Leah, Sharon Bellusci, Heather Mezzetta, Lisa Connolly, Tracy Scott, Cat Finney, Felicia Dawson, Andrea Lentz, Brenda Gessner and Cliff Williams

o Matthew and Spencer presented the Robotics Team challenge…to do an energy audit of our school. The team built a model of our building as an energy efficient building after the remodel. This was a practice presentation; they will be presenting their ideas to a panel of judges. They included 5 recommendations: Zone heating, photo solar cells (hot water), lighting (day/natural and energy saving light bulbs), overhangs and two door systems on entry and exit doors and radiant floor heating.

o Wendy shared some interior finish options for the school. This included swatches of carpet and tile. There will be more to see and decide upon soon. All input is needed and welcomed. Check the front of the office for other interior options.

o Construction update: all is going well and actually ahead of schedule. Heating issue that will be continued to be address by the district.

o School Boundaries: Meetings are underway about resetting the district’s site boundaries. Brenda Gessner reported that some parents at the meetings are raising questions about all the magnets on the Westside and the status of magnets in place of neighborhood schools.

Wendy Encouraged all of us to share the facts about how choice is important to children and parents with the large effort and percentage of our student body coming from our neighborhood, but that we want all families in the district to have choice.

o Superintendent Search: District is working on review and articulation of our district’s goals and philosophy with the school board. Community/neighborhood meetings are underway, check website.

o Fundraising Update: C3 events will not be producing our fundraiser. Site Council is looking into our options to form our own non-profit fundraising organization (Friends of Westside Village), possible sponsors, entertainment and more. Hope to know more after the winter break as to where we stand on going ahead with the BAB fundraiser on our own.

Fundraiser letter will go out again this year.

Fundraising Funds are being spent in our Before and After School programs. The After School Club (a.k.a. homework club) is now up to about 50 children. Drama, Spanish, Legos, Music Roots Group, Orchestra, and Basketball are going very well.

Tracy Scott announced the Robotics part of Legos needs a volunteer for January – March for just the one hour on Wednesdays. The competition will be over by then.

o Sharon Bellusci supplied WVMS with grant information from the United States Tennis Association. We will be writing a grant to start a younger’s intramural tennis program.

o Exploratories are underway. Drama exploratory and Drama club are working hard on the Winter Solstice set for Thursday, December 20^th at 6:00pm.

o Kids are building volcanoes and there will be science inquiry to go along with them.

o Heather Mezzetta proposed the idea of parents being able to write one check to cover several field trip cost at once. A supporting suggestion was to be able to write a check quarterly or to run family accounts like is done for the lunch program.

o Conferencing in January will be starting up. This is a one on one opportunity to review how it’s going. But calls, emails and talks with facilitators are very welcome at any time.