PTA Minutes - June 2 2015

Meadowbrook Preparatory School

PARENT-TEACHER ASSOCIATION MEETING

 DATE: June 2, 2015

MINUTES

PERSONS PRESENT:

Forty-five (45) persons were in attendance.  A register was taken and is on file.

CALL TO ORDER 

 

The meeting was called to order at 7:45 am.by President S. Little Forbes who also said a prayer.

 

APOLOGIES

There were no apologies for absence.

READING, CORRECTION & CONFIRMATION OF MINUTES

The move for the confirmation of the minutes was made by Mrs. Teena Miller and seconded by Mrs. Sadekie Lyttle-Forbes.

WELCOME

Welcome was extended to all by the President. A special welcome was given to Mr. Kez Harrison, the newly elected Chairman of the School Board.
 
MATTERS ARISING FROM THE MINUTES

CCTV Project

The camera in the parking lot has to be grilled.  Tags are being sold for $2000 per person to raise funds for this project.  Corporate sponsors have been contacted.

Stakeholder’s questionnaire

Regarding the repairs to the bathrooms, $48,000 worth of equipment and paint will be needed.    A parent who is a plumber has offered to do the job free of cost.

Principal Update

Ms. Francis thanked the parents for the support given throughout the school year.

July 2^nd will be the official end of the schoolyear. Some students will go off before.

To date, $132,000 were collected from the lapathon.  The Principal would have loved to see some more parents there and so she asked parents to prepare for next year’s event.

Development meet: It was a good day. Seventeen (17) schools participated.

Inter-school Prep. Champs was May 30, 2015. 25 students entered.  MPS went to three semi-finals and entered in the final events.  Overall, the boys placed 23^rd out of 60 schools and the school placed 28^th on the final day.  Ms. Francis implored parents to turn out to these events to support the students.

Grade 3 Diagnostic Test will be administered June 9-10.

Parents were reminded to assist the student in preparing for their end of year test so that they can get a good report card. In the future the students may need to get a report or recommendation from the school and their report cards will be used to provide same.

Prize giving will be on June 26 for Grades 1-4.  Prize giving and Valedictory Service will be on July 2, for Grades 5 & 6.  Report cards will be distributed on July 7. Registration of new students is ongoing.  Parents are being asked to promote the school so that the population can be increased in the new school year.

The school will be competing in five events at the Nestle Schools Swimming Championships June 5, 2015.

Ms. Francis expressed thanks for the support given to the May Fair.

NEW BUSINESS

1.       Increase in School Fee
Mr. Kez Harrison congratulated the PTA for its involvement in the life of the school.  He proceed to give the background for the need to increase the school fee. The stated the following:

The school has been running a deficit.  It costs JA$49 million dollars to run the school for one year. Seven million of that is used for swimming, the canteen, pre-school and the Tuck Shop. The remaining $42M will have to be provided by the 180 students currently enrolled. This means that it costs $233,000 per child per year or $78,000 per child per term.  The current school fee of $60,000 is therefore inadequate to provide for each child each term, (a deficit of $18,000 per student per term).

This means that statutory deductions are not paid over in time.  He is aware of the difficulty some parents face in paying school fee and highlighted the fact that special payment plans have been worked out with parents.

He agreed that moving the school fee from $60,000 to $78, 000 is not realistic.  He pointed out that if there were more students in the school, the deficit would be reduced.  He also pointed out that if the PTA and the school could do more find raising, then the deficit could also be reduced.

A healthy discussion ensued. Suggestions of $69,000 with an extracurricular activity, $65,000 and $67,000 were made.   It was also suggested that an incentive could also be given to parents who bring in another student.  Mr. Harrison will take the suggestions back to the School Board where the final decision will be made.

It was also suggested that much more advertising of the school should be done. The strategies could include distributing flyers to household in the Meadowbrook & Havendale communities, parents distributing same at their work places and in their communities and the use of social media.   It was stressed by the parents that important information on the school such as its ranking with other institutions should be made available to prospective parents. The school needs to build on its product then do the marketing.  Three parents, Ms. Arthurine Miller, Mrs. Stewart and Mr. Basil Davidson volunteered to sit with the Principal and pull the relevant data to use in promoting the school.  The information gathered could be emailed to parents who would then post it on social media.

It was pointed out that the support of parents for the fund raising activities planned would be critical.
 
2.       Special needs students.
Ms. Small was commended for the excellent job she was doing with these students.  It was suggested that the school considers this as a formal program and advertise it.
 
3.       Summer School
Summer school will run for three weeks.  The cost will be $10,000 for 3 weeks if payment is made in full or $4000 per week.

ADJOURNMENT

With their being no other business on the minds of the parents except the impending school fee increase, the meeting was adjourned at 9:10 a.m. on a move made by Ms. Tracy Ann Robinson and seconded by Mrs Shana Swaby.

Recorded & prepared by: O. Michelle Isaacs- Secretary