Recorded by Sec. Jess Hoffa
Meeting commenced at 8:16 p.m.
Announcements:
1. Suzanna made a motion to rename our Community Outreach "Community
Engagement".
2. We have a Suntrust Bank account with a balance of $905.00. $500.00
is set aside for 5013c designation fees. We have an EIN number as well.
3. President of WHCA Lee Shewmake agreed to have WHCA sponsor our
June 16th event. We (The Patrick Henry Initiative) will be sponsors. We are
taking this approach to the event because we feel it is important to show that
the Woodland Heights neighborhood is thankful for and supportive of our
neighborhood school. The event will be called "85 years of Patrick Henry"
and will be a farewell to the Norrell students as well as a publicity event for
the charter. We will donate a plaque to Norrell and plant a tree in their honor.
4. Gina plans to attend the Building Facilities meeting on 3/23 and report
back to us next meeting.
5. Richard reports on his visit to Baltimore Green School and passes out hand
out with notes on the meeting. There were some striking differences in what
BGS is doing and what we want to do. Most of the important things are
covered in the handout, but suffice it to say, that BGS is much smaller than
we intend to be, with about 50 students, K-2. Also, they are completely privately
funded with no corporate donations or grants. Their school week is a 4.5 days
with Friday being a half day in order to give teachers time to do prep without taking
home an overload of work. It was definitely food for thought and we thank
Richard for taking the time to meet with them!
Discussion:
1. What will our operating cost be? It is still unknown until we know what
students will be attending because low income students are eligible for Title 1
funds from the city. Apparently Charters get less per pupil than public schools.
Pete says that $7000.00 per student is VERY tight. Gina thinks that most public
schools get about $10000.00 per student.
2. Perhaps we should start as simply being a K-2 school, however, the building
is too big to justify that. We could share the building with the School Board, or
have one class of 3rd, 4th and 5th graders. Gina suggests that we put together a
"potential student" list so that we have an idea of our numbers.
3. Suzanna passed out a 1 mile radius map so that we could pick areas
that we
could deliver fliers to as a means of publicizing "85 years of Patrick Henry". We
all picked areas that we thought we could cover. It was agreed that we should
deliver the fliers no earlier than 6/2.
4. Jess suggests that maybe we could talk to Rose Marie about putting up a
Community Events board at Fonticello playground.
Break into groups at 9:36
Meeting adjourned at 11 p. m.