Meeting Minutes: September 14, 2009

The following minutes were taken at the September 14th, 2009 meeting. These minutes are pending approval.

Meeting begins at 7:02 p.m.

1. Approval of last month's minutes

2. Election - Elected by majority vote are: Tom Fink, SPA President; Barbara Goyadis, Co-Chair; Tom Dauwalder, Treasurer and Priscilla Bryant, Secretary.

3. Treasurer's report: Ending Balance is $7,010.85

4. Tom Fink asks Hospitality committee chair Deb Kochka to address upcoming events that SPA will be involved with. Deb distributes a list of Sturgis events that require help from the SPA hospitality committee and proposes some new ideas.

The next event we will need help with is the Christmas Stroll, held the first Saturday in December. SPA will serve cookies and cider in the front entrance of the school.

Tom proposes a 50/50 raffle at the soccer match on Friday.

5. Administrative Update by Eric Hieser:

- Sturgis is currently near the maximum enrollment at 402 students.

- Many new lockers have been put in.

- We now have three mobile laptop carts consisting of 48 laptops for classes to share. These are in addition to the computer labs.

- H1N1 Update - The staff has been asked to make as much classwork as possible available online in the event students have to work from home.
If a student has flu symptoms they are asked to stay home for 24 hours after normal temperature resumes.

- There has been a jump in the number of seniors going for the Full IB Diploma (as of this meeting 70%) with an anticipated drop off to 60-65%. Last year 43% were full diploma.

- A Charter School hearing addressing the cap on Charter Schools will take place on September 17th in Boston. The Cape is not near the cap, however Martha's Vinyard is maxed out and an increase in the cap would help them.

-MCAS: In English, Sturgis is #5 in MA, #1 among special needs students. Sturgis is #5 in Math and Science.

- Jeff Wolfsberg will give a presentation to Parents on Sept. 24th on Lifestyle Risk Reduction.

-Open House will be October 1st at 6:45 pm

- The Board of Trustees has decided to apply for an increase in enrollment which would double the current enrollment and add an additional school. They will start with 9th and 10th grade and add a new class each year. They hope to open the new building in August. Each school will have its own 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th grade classes. The expansion is on the agenda of the Elementary and Secondary Board of Education meeting on Oct. 22nd.

Meeting ends at 8:28 pm

Minutes by Cindi Griffin