PARENT COMMITTEE MEETING

September 16,2005

Oneida Nation Schools

ONES Cafeteria

6:30 P.M.

Present Susan White, Denice Beans, Shanna Torres, Becky Nutt, Laurie Johnson, Michelle B. Hill, Frieda Clary, Cal Siegrist , Evelyn Elm

AGENDA

1.Welcome

2. Minutes of June 24 and September 1 meeting were presented and approved.

3. Old business – reviewed the Open House ,

4, Financial Report- Balance as of end of July report is around $55,000 minus some small

Outstanding bills.

5. JOM Requests

Band Requests by Mr. Siegrist- Thanked parents for the support of the Band program. Shared with them the present program and plans for future program which is dependent on community,

school and parent and student support .He stated we now have forty students in band. He explained the need for an added instrument and had sought out prices for such instrument. The instrument is the bari saxophone- cost is $2,199.00. He ask if it is possible to purchase this instrument as he has a student whom he could move in to play the sax. And that it would add to the fullness of the sound of the band. Three of the parents told of their experience in playing in school bands and were supportive and complimentary to Cal on his work with the children and youth of the school.

A motion was made by Susan White, seconded by Denice Beans to purchase the Accent 565LQ

bari saxophone from Heid Music at cost of $2,199,00. Motion carried.

Literacy Promotion -Parent Action Team , School ,family , Community

This team ask fo $3.00 dollars per child in grades K-5. I (Evelyn) explained this is part of a year long program for the Literacy/Reading program etc. Discussion followed, with one parent asking if the school is doing any special reading programs for high school students to increase

their reading skills. Becky Nutt responded to this parent and stated she would bring this concern to the principal and staff. Frieda Clary made a motion to increase the dollar amount to $6 and that the money be used for books only as she felt $3 was not enough to buy a good book. This was seconded by Susan White. The total cost for this request would be $1290.00. Motion carried.

Ideas (only) presented by Becky Nutt

Becky presented three programs to the group to think about:

1. Chemistry Show - Oshkosh

This show would be for elementary and middle school children or it could also come with a scientist in residence for three days. She will bring more detail to next meeting.

2. Bio technology program - especially for the biology and the advanced biology students.

Becky took a course this summer and said she thought it really would be great for the students experience. The people would bring everything they needed to the school for the sharing of the information. She will bring details to the next meeting.

3. Drivers Ed class– her concern is the number of students who are driving illegally. She states there are students who go to town and take the course but can’t get the behind the wheel driving hours in for various reasons. She has been contacting various driving schools to see what they could offer in the way of coming to Oneida School and has found one who said they were willing to go through the paper work to the State to accommodate. This would not be available until next spring if we should decide to do this. She stat it would be available to those students who made a"C" or better grade point and behaviorally showed responsibility at school , home and in community. She will bring back more detailed plans later.

Response from parents present was that they were interested in the details of all of these ideas.

Other—Discussion took place regarding communication between school and parents. Susan

White noted that this is a BIG problem through out the community. Her opinion is that there is so much programming available to the people and meetings that often it is just ignored. For example she said "when she gets the school newsletter, she skims over it and if something catches her eye she tears it out to read and discards the rest". She said its so thick. We talked about E-Mail, it too is good , but reaches only a small portion of the families of the school.

They stated "Flyers" usually don’t reach home. They feel "Teachers" are the main line persons

to be in touch with parents and that they felt the phone tree for the class rooms would be a good asset.

Parents Involvement in classrooms and on field trips was also brought up in that it is to late when a field trip is in place to ask for chaperones. We need to get the word out early this year that if you want to chaperone or volunteer in school activities with the students you need to go through the background check starting now, as it takes six weeks

Several pieces of information concerning school events, community events, etc, were available as handouts to the parents for upcoming events.

Next date for parent meeting will be OCTOBER 20,2005 , at the Turtle School, Meet in the cafeteria, then go to Parent Room for meeting at 6:00 P.M.. Bring a gift (something you have in your home ) wrapped in newspaper for gift exchange.

Submitted Evelyn Elm

Student Advocate ONS