Friends of CAHS PTA
Martin Luther King Library
· Penny reported that CAHS would like to work more closely with the Welcome Center - a separate school for ESL students housed in the building with CAHS. Mr. Fawcett, has already begun this by involving the IB students in activities with some of the ESL students. It is hoped that we can support some of his projects as well as come up with some of our own.
The Grant Writing committee has worked on a grant for a pilot project for a CAHS and Welcome Center joint arts program. The Grant Committee is also working on a grant from Lowe’s for tools for the drama department.
Diane Nance sent a press release to inform us about an exhibit at the Columbus Museum of Art entitled STORIES FROM THE SOMALI DIASPORA: PHOTOGRAPHS BY ABDI ROBLE.
· The minutes from the July meeting were clarified. Page one, number 7 under ‘How Can We Increase Diversity in Friends of CAHS?’ should read ‘Have an event (professionally monitored) directly addressing cross cultural communication/interaction.
· A concern was raised about new students arriving at CAHS with no friends from middle school. After a discussion, we would like to request a mentoring program between upper classmen and new students. This would help with the transition to CAHS and also help foster relationships between upper class students and incoming students.
· We were in agreement that we would host a forum for the candidates for school board and pose our concerns and needs so that we could be appropriately informed on their positions about educational issues that impact CAHS. It was decided that the meeting would occur in October at CAHS. The meeting will have to be on a different night than our standard PTA meeting because the CPS board meets on the first Tuesday of every month.
· Credit Recovery – We discussed our opinions of what CAHS should be. We had unanimous agreement that CAHS should not be ‘like every other CPS high school’ due to its rigorous college prep curriculum. We also discussed the rationale for credit recovery and if it was necessary at CAHS. We were unclear about federal mandates.
1. Anne Hoke will contact CPS to ask for a breakdown of all high schools regarding the number of students who use Credit Recovery and their success rate.
2. We discussed how CR is viewed by colleges and universities. Angela Hill offered to ask at Franklin University about how Credit Recovery has impacted student success.
3. We would like to ask Shawna Gibbs, school board member and graduate of CAHS, about the cost of Credit Recovery and who the contract is with.
4. We would like to engage CAHS alumni in the discussion about how CAHS has changed over the years.
5. We plan to correspond with other college preparatory lottery schools across the country and find out about entrance requirements and their policy for handling poorly performing students.
· It was decided that we would draft a policy statement and get it out to parents. This might be distributed to parents as they drop students off in the morning. We are wanting to hear from parents who might not agree with the changes we are proposing so we can look at different perspectives. We will discuss this at the September meeting. We will ask for a mailing list to send the statement to all families, not just PTA members. We will offer rides for parents who need transportation. Brian Edmiston and Pat Enciso will write the policy statement.
· We discussed having an event for CAHS alumni to better know the CAHS history and academic and climate history.
· We talked about not wanting a school of two different types of students, those succeeding and those not trying, but rather, wanting a climate within the school that would help all students work at succeeding. We discussed the high school experience at CAHS being the gateway to college success and credit recovery setting students up for college failure.
· We would like to suggest to Mrs. Powell that we would like to see tutoring for freshmen by sophomore students.
· New parent, Toni Dodge, has offered a fundraising project which involves Meals on Wheels. She delivers a route every Tuesday. This is part of the Service Club Volunteers program which supports non-profit organizations. She earns $25.00 each week and that money will be donated to Friends of CAHS PTA to support school programs. This project could earn between $300-$500. per quarter. She is asking for any volunteers to help with this endeavor. An email will be sent out with more details. This is a wonderful opportunity for us to earn money and support a great program. Thanks Toni!
· Our next meeting will be held at CAHS on Tuesday, September 4th at 7:00 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Edna Reed, secretary
