Parent Superintendent Council – November 18, 2014
School Newsletter Article
Parent Superintendent Council (PSC) met on November 18 at Akimel A-al Middle School. Highlights included:
Taste of Kyrene
The Taste of Kyrene will be held on February 20, 2015. Schools keep a percentage of their opportunity drawing ticket sales to use as they wish. Last year Waggoner’s PTO earned $1200 that they used to remodel the Teacher’s Lounge. More information can be found at the Foundation website.
Safety & Security Committee
The Safety & Security Committee responded to the feedback generated at the last PSC meeting about the school office remodels. Some of the responses include:
- The reason for the remodel is that we have been focusing on security heavily for the last 10 years. The Homeland Defense Bureau audited our schools and the one recommendation they had was for us to upgrade front office security.
- The security glass was installed as a deterrent against unauthorized entry. The gap below it allows for sound to travel from the lobby to staff and for backpack pass-through.
- Seven of our school offices were remodeled this past summer, and the remaining 18 will be completed during the coming summer. A team is meeting to look at each individual school and customizing the remodel to meet their needs, within the safety standards.
- When the lobby computers are up and running, they will be used to assist new parents registering their students for school, and may also be used to streamline parent check-in procedures.
New Statewide Assessment
The new statewide assessment replacing AIMS is Arizona’s Measurement of Educational Readiness to Inform Teaching (AzMERIT). Kyrene students will take it in 3rd through 8th grades in English Language Arts (ELA) and Math. Students in high school who are taking ELA or Math classes will take AzMERIT End-of-Course Exams. They will not be used as criteria for graduation like the AIMS was.
School Finance
Jeremy Calles talked about several aspects of school finance, including procurement practices, vendor selection process and how PTOs can support schools. Highlights included:
- PTO groups need to check with the district before purchasing permanent items such as shade structures, to avoid sub-standard work that may end up costing the district money in the long run.
- Vendor selection must go through the district to ensure we are following state regulations with regard to bids. This can be a lengthy process, but there are ways to shorten it by going through state-approved vendors or an agency that has set up cooperative vendor contracts.
- While funding from the state for capital projects has been cut, Kyrene is fortunate to have strong community support for passing bond and override elections. There is a group called Keep Kyrene Strong that works to generate support for those elections.
- The District website shows our three-year Capital Improvement Plan to keep our facilities maintained.