General Meeting Minutes - Sept 2023

9/21/2023 7:00 pm

South County PTSO

Type of Meeting: General Membership Meeting

Meeting Date/Time: Thursday, September 21, 2023 @ 7:00 PM 

Location: South County High School Library

Meeting Called to Order: 7:04 PM

Attendance: Katie O’Donnell, Pres., Kitty Greenstein, 1st VP, Renee Flynn, 2nd VP, Ellen Ardry, Treasurer, Dr. Khoshaba, Principal. See attached for members in attendance.

Katie O’Donnell-Welcome and Introduction. Stressed the importance of membership. The current membership is 77 and our goal is to add 150 new members. 

Dr. Khoshaba, Principal-State of our school presentation

Introduction, welcome, and slide presentation.

Transparency regarding issues at SCHS. “Beliefs about Educating Students”

• Crazy for kids
• Curious
• Consistency 
• Culture-nurture all kids

Teacher vacancies filled with long-term sub-not the goal, but there are very few applicants. Only one long-term sub currently.

Strengths at SCHS:

• Art-many students participated in art show at the Workhouse looking to move this to SCHS
• 60+ Clubs
• New Murals that represent students-several new over the summer
• Trusted adult initiative-every student is encouraged to have a trusted adult at SCHS
• Strong Fine Arts Dept: Band, Orchestra, Choir, Theater, Guitar
• Strong Sports Programs

School Survey from last year:

Parents/Students/Teachers: overall positive

Staff: expressed the need to have more access to Dr. Khoshaba. He will address by:

• Adding a leadership cohort
• New staff 0-3 experience work towards connecting with them
• Attendance at team meetings
• Observation in classrooms
• Mobile office

SOL Results show SCHS is excelling above county averages.

Breakdown of SCHS Student Body:

• 2177 enrolled
• 126 ESOL
• 272 SPED
• 323 Military Connected Youth
• Ethnically-Very Diverse School

Behavior is an area of concern:

• Cutting Class 167 students (21% of discipline)
• Cell phone violations 74 (9% of discipline)
• Insubordination 74 (9% of discipline)
• Unexcused Tardies 61 (8% of discipline

Plans to work with all at-risk groups to reduce discipline infractions.

A county team is being put into place to support SCHS families and students in at risk groups. Specialists from the Family Engagement @ FCPS Gatehouse working on family outreach.

SCHS is proud to be a Red Bag School

• Food pantry for SCHS and surrounding community 
• Lead by parent Karen McGuinnes and Claudia Jones, Asst. Principle
• Link on PTSO Facebook page for families to sign up to be donors

Another area of improvement: Absenteeism SCHS is at level 2- we need to improve. Parents can help by ensuring kids are coming to school, traveling during school closure days, etc.

Hidden in Plain Sight (HIPS): Fairfax County Police to offer an interactive parent program touching on drug and alcohol abuse, mental health, eating disorders, risky sexual behaviors, etc. The next presentation is October 16th at Sully Station

Parent request for Dr. Khoshaba:

• Better communication regarding what grade levels attend school on days when PSAT/SAT are given in school.
• Better communication/clarification of what days are necessary for kids to attend (parents voiced kids were told in some classes they didn’t need to come). The concern is that this affects our absenteeism level.

Academic Focus-High Yield Strategies 4-Year Plan

• 2 each year 
• 2023-2024 
• Getting students engage in content
• Building student self-efficacy

What parents want students to know about high school in 2023.

• Coping with stress is a daily struggle
• I try really hard even if my grade doesn’t show it
• Cyberbullying is more common vs. physical bullying
• Grade change and parent should wait a week
• It’s difficult and stressful to balance school and college applications
• We mostly do work on our computers all day

How can parents help?

• Brainstorm ways to reduce stress
• Encourage attendance
• Discuss cellphone use during school-allowed between classes and at lunch
• Monitor sleep patterns
• Check student social media accounts for cyberbullying

Treasurer Report-Ellen Ardry

• Need to approve 2023-2024 proposed budget-print outs on tables for review by general membership-APPROVED by membership
• Changes we made from previous year
• Page 2 #6 Senior Class needs
• Page 2 #7 Monthly events and recognitions (roll Mosaic, Hispanic Heritage, etc into one line item
• Page 2 #8 Teacher and Professional Development $5500
• Page 2 #9 12 month CD-reinvest to earn money. Need to have aprox. $10,000 to start off each school year-insurance, etc. 
• BUDGET APPROVED and May 18th general membership meeting approved
• If we need to make changes we will come back to the membership
• BHAG-Big Hairy Audacious Goal
• Need committee to vet ideas for possible execution
• If interested pleas sign up (available that night)
• School/Teachers: 
• PTSO funded 6 professional development opportunities for teachers
• Classroom and club funding requests:
• Must be received by 1st and 3rd of each by 12pm
• All requests must go through mini-grants chair
• Katie O’Donnell:
• Sign-up genius for snack donations for teacher development day-PTSO will purchase subs
• Sign-up genius for $5 gift card donations for Honor Roll -PTSO will purchase 50/100
• 100 bags with gift cards, granola bars, candy 
• Principles/Admin- draw randomly and pass out in Advisory
• Renee Flynn-Lorton Holiday Extravaganza and Craft Show: 
• Explanation of event-one of the largest fund raisers
• We need volunteers- sign-ups available at meeting. Watch for sign-up genius to come for flyer distribution, road signs and banners.
• Katie O’Donnell-All Night Grad Party Fundraising going well approx. $4500, but much more needed to keep ticket prices down. Party is approx. $35,000.

Meeting Adjourned 8:20 PM

Board Meeting Minutes- Aug 2023

8/1/2023 6:49 pm

Primary Board Meeting Agenda/Minutes

Sunday, 13 Aug 2023 @ 2P (Home of Rachana Garg)

• Attendance (Board members)

• Board members:

• Katie O’Donnell: President
• Ellen Ardrey: Treasurer
• Kitty Greenstein: 1st VP
• Renee Flynn: 2nd VP Absent
• Rachana Garg: Corresponding secretary
• Melinda Fortunato: Recording Secretary
• Dr. Samuel Khoshaba: Principle
• Communication
• Text, e-mail, KIT message, meetings……carrier pigeon
  Rachana - is there a messaging/marketing calendar?
  Dr. K - All school events - one page document uploaded to the website. Connie adds all events and can build them in.
  Centralized Calendar - Leslie Lewis manages it. Give event details to Connie to add to the calendar.
  Rachana will manage PTSO central calendar and work with Francis on marketing.
  Dr. K - add promotions and pictures for events. Send Lisa Beskenis pictures for promoting.
  Dr. K - electronic marquee finally getting fixed. Marvin Wooten will update marquee.
  
  

• Budget:

• Treasurer report
  Ellen - worked with Katie. Explanation of the Report. With projected, expenses, actual.
  Raising money & event is ANGP - Craft Fair gives ANGP $10K - holding this year for student participation and then Fair may give $10K by request.
  Dr. K - ask for other students besides SGA to attend ANGP to give other students opportunity to voice their ideas & input.
  Katie - not a student event, but can consider. We don’t want too many ideas.
  Melinda - maybe have a schedule with various students attending each month and that gives other groups of students more info on ANGP.
  -BHAG - $30K
  –$28807 -  spend more than we bring in.
  12 month CD - mature on 28th of July - First Bank of Indiana
  $5000 - can we put down to St. James for ANGP, Katie says can’t do it yet. St. James said they will pick a date for all schools to give deposit.
  Professional development fund - $5000 approved
  Dr K - thank you. has never seen a PTSO put money behind the school like this.
  BHAG - how do we solicit ideas for this? Front of the school. Tabled - work out details, need a committee & verbage. Address Questions like-  whats the goal of this and why do we have so much extra money?
  Ellen - we passed our audit. YAY!
  Teacher Membership - Only 10 members. Teachers with students cannot be both types of members. Teachers who are family members need to tell Katie they are members as a family.
  Point of meeting tomorrow is for teachers to join. Will give water bottles and offer raffle.
  Dr K - who are teacher members? Counselors or staff? Teachers are the members - not staff. 100% membership is 100% teacher membership.

• Katie - Gift Cards - $5 Gift Cards for honor roll,
  Stallions for Success & Hope Kids - risk for dropping out: Tier 1 - 80% no needs, Tier 2 - 15% Stallions for Success have moderate needs academically underachievers, attendance behavior, Tier 3 - 5% High underachievers, not in special ed
  Creating more opportunities for Tier 2&3 - if you haven’t skipped class and met the goals get a reward - a nice reward with a seal, gift cards. Every 4 ½ weeks. Second 4 ½ weeks - fewer than 5 tardees, Third 4 ½ weeks - no behavior issues…..
  Katie - use honor roll money for Stallions for Success. Can ask for GC for positive behavior for students.
  Dr. K - 25% of student qualify for free/reduced lunch ($18K or less per household)
  Dr. K - 30 staff who are team leaders - get no extra money for extra work - can we give GC to team leaders? Katie - we don’t have enough for 30. Dr. K - if something comes up that we can give them that would be great. Katie will talk to Karen M for extra GC that were purchased. 25 for honor roll and the rest will go to Stallions for Success.
  
  
  

• Review talking points for the teacher welcome on 14 Aug 2023

• Teacher incentives for becoming members
• Raffle of Dr. K’s parking spot
• Quarterly for one week?
• $2 for one chance or 3 for $5?
• All $$ goes to off-set lunch for in-services & teacher developmental fund
  
  Ellen will give report on how many and amount of club funding from 2022-23.
  Katie - Prof Dev fund - basics and Dr K will give details to them on Friday.
  Ellen - Cannot fund transportation or hotel

Dr. K - auction Dr K’s spot to students. Students don’t want it. What about teachers? Quarterly auction off Dr K’s spot.  Will ask teachers if they want this?
Allow students to leave 5 minutes early. $1/min? Once a quarter? Once a month? How do we sell this?
Who will be the DJ every Friday? Raffle for the DJ?

• Status of being able to submit funding requests through a “digital portal” or sharepoint type process/program

• Marketing

• For the PTSO: Francis Fick 703-867-2481

• Date of teacher in-service lunch?  Dr. K - November 6th

• Automated Workflow Update - Rachana - no functionality with membership toolkit. There are other systems that we can use for workflow. Google Workspace - $12/use per month OR Jira Cloud is free version. Katie - Let’s try the free version for now.

• Next General PTSO board meeting will be 21 Sep 2023 @7P in the library

General Meeting Minutes May 2023

5/18/2023 6:54 pm

South County PTSO

Type of Meeting: General Membership Minutes

Meeting Date/Time: May 18, 2023 @ 7pm

Meeting Location: SCHS Library

Attendance: Ann Wilkie, Dr. Khoshaba, Katie O’Donnell, Ellen Ardrey, Kitty Greenstein, Melinda Fortunato, Sue Emert, Audrey Higgins

1. Call to Order 7:02pm
2. Minutes: Review/Approval of minutes 2023-24 SY Approved
3. Approve Slate of Officers Approved

• President - Katie O'Donnell
• 1VP - Kitty Greenstein
• 2VP - Renee Flynn
• Recording Secretary - Melinda Fortunato
• Corresponding Secretary - Rachana Garg
• Treasurer - Ellen Ardrey

1. Officer Reports
• Treasurer -  ANGP - little low (no expenses submitted yet), $6K in debt currently
2. Committee Reports
3. Principal’s Report - Staff Appreciation was great, thank you.
   Katie asked - Denominations of gift cards for next year, $10 x 30 for all staff.
   Deliberately for all staff, not just teachers.
   Spring Fling - Community event, was fantastic, live band, etc.
   Student Advisory - May 23rd
   Parent Advisory - June
   Silent No More - Opioids May 26th during 1st class, Freshman Only 815-940am, parents with kids who died, kids who were addicted, graphic, by DEA, laced in marijuana
   Only 5 sessions in Fairfax County
   Graduation June 9 at 930am
   Prom - ticket in advance only. At Westwood Country Club - sold 200 tickets
4. Announcements
   Karen McGuinness Teacher Appreciation & food pantry went well.
   Mosaic -
   Katie found someone to do military appreciation for 1 year - Marcy Whiteside
   23-24 Budget and Calendar Meeting: June 28, 7pm at Katie’s house
5. Adjournment 7:27pm

General Membership Meeting Minutes April 2023

4/12/2023 6:46 pm

April 12 2023 

General Membership Meeting Minutes

Meeting Location SCHS Library

Call to Order at 7:13pm

Minutes: Review/Approval of minutes from Feb 2023 meetings Approved

Officer Reports

Treasurer Report  - Ann Wilkie presented Ellen’s report

Spring fling – Renee Flynn - volunteers signup going out, kids carnival games, middle school helping, My Yard Sign, Blood Mobile, Fire Dept, Police Dept, free admission, carnival fees, PTSO games, gift card tree, 50/50 raffle, ANGP, Local Band playing, Cross promote with other schools

Committee Reports
- Staff Appreciation Lunch May 5th - Karen McGuiness, Anitas catering, Mexican style theme, sign up genius coming Apri l24th, chips/salsa/candy/drinks/gift cards.

-Food For Neighbors -  red bag program, food for students in need, SCHS will be a drop off for food, first local event on April 29 soft launch, food delivery that morning red bag donation, 15 volunteers to help sort food that morning and to bring food, will host 5 red bag events per year at SCHS.

Honor Roll – gift cards & certificates to Advisory classes for kids on honor roll, PTSO funds 50 $5 GC and ask community for same thing and ask for donations for candy & treats. Admin passes out the gifts to honor roll students. Dr. Khoshaba said kids really love it and clap for the classmates. Tardy Party – kids on time get name put into a raffle for gift card.

Committee Positions – Open – Military Connections, Fundraising, Science Fair and others.

May 18th is the last general membership meeting of the year. Nomination Slate to be voted on.

Principals Report
Students leaving during the day, huge problem; Shutting Gate, Security at gate and students can only leave with a pass from office
AP Testing Coming soon, SOL/AP testing happening at the same time
Teacher – Miss Blesi, New Teacher of the Year for Region 4, up for FCPS Division New Teacher of the Year.
Cookies with Khoshaba – 15 minutes slot to have a meeting with teachers
April 26 – Admin Assistant Day – 8 staff, email Constance for names
Military Kids Day
Autism Awareness Month
Library Week – Last Week of April
Teacher Appreciation Week is for all staff – not just teachers, South County Umbrellas & lanyards for staff
Musical – Percy Jackson May 5, 6, 12, 13
Lockdown Drill During Lunch, Before School Drill will be happening
Prayer Room – letter for parent permission, leave at 110pm to pray until 130pm.

Adjourned at 8:40pm

Attendance:
Dr. Khoshaba
Freshta Ibrahim

 Ann Wilkie
Katie O’Donnell
Tonya Williams
Lisa Beskenis
Sue Emert
Kim Parton
Renee Flynn
Kitty Greenstein
Melinda Fortunato

Board Meeting Minutes March 2023

3/9/2023 6:52 pm

PTSO Board Meeting Minutes

9 March 2023

Attendance: Dr. Khoshaba, Ann Willkie, Kitty Greenstein, Katie O’Donnell, Melinda Fortunato, Ellen Ardrey, Renee Flynn

Budget update - CD reinvestment Voted YES See below.

Membership update - 512 Members 

Vote YES - $10,000 for bathroom dividers for Mr. Wooten - Urinal dividers estimate
Worked through FCPS - Precision Doors is the company, 5 per bathroom, 8-10 bathrooms
Katie asked if the county would contribute.  Dr. Khoshaba said the county won’t contribute because it’s not a safety issue.
Katie will ask the community for donations.
Ann suggested the PTSO pay upfront and then ask the community for help to defray our costs..
Dr. Khoshaba - who would we reach out to?
Are there other organizations that will donate?
Katie will reach out to families via Membership toolkit & South County FB pages. Venmo Katie $$?
Ellen - We have to pay taxes on money donated so we need to be careful with collecting money. Membership Toolkit - do we pay taxes on donations through Membership toolkit?

Square purchases - Yes. 2 swipe & 2 tap - found and in good condition. - Renee

Food For Neighbors - Karen McGuinness is our PTSO representative for this program at SCHS. She is in contact with Claudia Pirouzan-Jones, AP.  Karen is going to Irving MS to observe the process.  This program will start Saturday, April 29th at SCHS. 

Katie - offered a portion of the PTSO closet for storage for this initiative.
Kids are praying during C lunch in that area so we need to not disturb them at 12:30pm. There is also a church who uses that space on Sundays.

Get a sign for the PTSO closet - who will do this?

Spring Fling and Craft Fair
Accepted 93 vendors. Turned away twice that number. Vendors are paying, deadline of Saturday, March 18.
Two sponsors - $300/each, Trade Masters & Potomac Music 
Food trucks - 2
Cross Country will grill.
Military Connected Youth for Snow Cone Truck - not Kona Ice because this club wants to do it. Capital Snow is a FCPS teacher as backup.
Middle School did not respond to emails so far.
Blood Mobile, Chamber of Commerce
Melinda and Renee will email the Workhouse - sponsorship?
Dunkhouse - donate to dunk - Coaches!!
Looking for fun, little kids things, LacrosseTournament here that day.
Will change the route for vendors. Pay attention. Need Flatbed carts.
Katie - does ANGP have a table and can they ask for a spot?
Sign Up Genius to come. Morning announcements to come. 

Vote to approve Nominating Committee -Yes
Receive Applications, approve the slate to report to the membership at the May general membership meeting and they vote.
Patty Klunder, Ann Wilkie & Audrey Wiggins - serve on the Nominating Committee.
Tier Effect:  Nomination committee emailed the board, committee chairs, and then membership.
No nomination forms submitted so far.
The nomination committee sent emails to members who attend PTSO meetings.
Ann reached out to SCMS board Teresa Hull & Catherine Aspergis for incoming 9th grade parents to reach out to.  No suggestions were given.
Katie has stepped up to be President next year.
Ann suggested current board members be flexible in the board positions they serve in next year since Renee has served as Corresponding Secretary for three years and cannot serve in this position again.  Advised current board members to list the positions they are willing to serve in when completing the nomination form.
All correspondence and nomination forms go through the nominating committee.

Fundraising Idea - Katie
Lawyer - Power of Attorney reduced rate for 18 year old childrens. Offered to give PTSO a percentage of his fees.
Not a good idea because of the appearance the PTSO is endorsing him.
He can sponsor the PTSO like any other business.  Katie will reach out to him.

Voted on the CD via electronic vote:  Use our Savings account balance ($1991.46), the small amount returned from last years ANGP refund ($470.90), and the CD balance after paying the fee ($20,181.66) and then $2,255.98 from Craft Fair profit to get us to $25k …. Deposited at 5% for 13 months would earn $1,250.00
Put $15000 into a CD instead of $25000.

The following mini grant approvals were approved via electronic vote:

Stock Market Games

Virginia Council Economic Stock Market Game

Personal Fitness PVC Pipes for Technique

DECA Competition

Allotted to Club Grants- Ann said it should be special funding request, not club. $1150 for Key Club for memorial rocks. 
Dr. Khoshaba - is there a deadline for funding requests? If you get trends of requests, than maybe suggest deadlines. If there is a pattern…
Ann - No deadlines, clubs don’t know when they will need money.

Principal Report

Dude Be Nice - wear Orange Friday, March 10
Day Light Savings this Sunday at 2am
Rhamadam - March 22 - April 21 - staff and students can’t eat during that time. Please be respectful of this.
Muslim Student Association - school accommodating needs
April 1 Spring Break
Traffic Patterns - arriving & leaving - afternoon is chaotic 255-305p by flagpole area. Working with security team. Bubble to the gate - blocking some lanes so there is no traffic at 215+
All else will be directed visitors spots for pick up or in the student pickup.
2nd - students leaving property all the time
Door Dash Delivery - confrontation
Shutting gates from 830-215p, one way in and out during those times.

Security Updates - lockdown drills will restart, before school, transitions & lunch still need planning for lockdowns. Working through this with police & security staff. Will teach kids before the drill. The week after Spring Break.

Classroom Observations - goal is 50, at 22. Good feedback mostly. A couple of staff need assistance/guidance.

April 25th at 6pm Parent Advisory

March 15th 1015 Student Advisory

Meeting Adjourned  - 8:04pm

Board Minutes - March 2023

3/1/2023 9:42 pm

PTSO Board Meeting Minutes

9 March 2023

Board meeting minutes - Feb 2023

2/8/2023 9:40 pm

PTSO General Membership Meeting Minutes

February 8, 2023

Meeting Called to order at 7:00 pm

Board Minutes - Jan 2023

1/18/2023 12:00 am

PTSO Board Meeting Minutes

January 18, 2023