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Submitted by Mary Jo Davis
Present: Carrie Berkley, Katy Blackhall, Joy Burns, Marilyn Chong, Barb Cey, Mary Jo Davis. New members: Charles Antonelli
and Shelley Larson
Absent: Lisa Morrow
1. After introductions we started discussing the upcoming school year
meetings and programs. On Oct. 16, Barb Saxton will be speaking to a parents on Everything you wanted to know about teachers
but were afraid to ask. This event is being advertised as Parents Night Out with sponsorship from our group, Parents who
Care and all the elementary PTA/PTOs. Houghton, Woodland Meadows, Pleasant Ridge and Heritage PTO/PTAs will all hold business
meetings from 6:15-7:00 and then Barb will speak at 7:00. This event will be held in the Middle School Cafeteria. On November
13, Barb Cey will speak about the status of the Saline School District similar to what she did last year. Her talk will be
at 7:00 pm in the Heritage Media Center. Currently we have Jan 22 reserved for a meeting but no speaker. Barb and Carrie
will be trying to locate a speaker on motivation and/or brain research. If the 22nd date doesnt work for the speaker, they
will try to schedule for sometime in late Jan, early Feb. They will try to have the speaker confirmed before October 10 so
that we can include the program information in a list of meetings to be passed out at the Oct. 16 event. We decided to cancel
the February meeting as there was no school that day. On Mar 12, Barb Cey has arranged for nationally know speaker Stephanie
Harvey to talk on literacy. Our last meeting will be April 23, 7:00 pm in the Woodland Meadows Media Center where we will
again have a panel discussion on Summer Opportunities. Carrie will try to track down one or two speakers to discuss their
summer programs (Maybe the Livingston-Washtenaw Math Science Consortium?)
2. We next discussed Job Positions within
the steering committee. Here are the positions everyone volunteered for, with a brief description of each job. The descriptions
are just my interpretation and can be easily changed!
Facilitator: Mary Jo Davis . This person runs the meetings and
generally organizes the group.
Webmaster: Joy Burns. This person updates and maintains the REACH website.
Publicity:
Marilyn Chong. This person is responsible for getting information about meetings to school newsletters, the Saline Reporter,
the Ann Arbor News and possibly posting flyers at the schools just prior to meetings.
Newsletter: Shelley Larson. This
person will put together a quarterly newsletter with articles from steering committee member and possibly other sources.
Programs: Barb Cey and Carrie Berkley This team is responsible for locating speakers for our meetings and arranging
for the room in which to have the meeting.
Communications: Charles Antonelli. A new position this year, this person
will be responsible for maintaining the email notification loop and sending messages as needed to all members.
Grants:
Katy Blackhall and Shelley Larson Another new position, this team will be assisting Barb Cey with grant writing for upcoming
programs. Also they may work on a grant to get more books into the library about T&G kids/parenting.
3. We discussed
other possible projects for the group. Barb Cey mentioned updating the list of extracurricular activities that was compiled
by the PALS group 2 years ago. Katy Blackhall said she would work on that project, with help. We will try to recruit a
committee for her at the first few meetings of the year and within the email loop. Therefore, Katy is now the Activities Directory
Contact. We would also like to get another Book Group going this year. We need someone to step forward to be Book Group
Coordinator. This person would select a book, find a meeting place and either facilitate the group or locate someone else
to facilitate. As of now, Barb Cey did not know to what extent help from parents would be needed in classrooms to assist
DEP students and others. It would be helpful to have someone identified as Parent Assistance Coordinator whose job it would
be to work with Barb on recruiting parents as needed to work in the schools. Two additional positons we should fill would
be WCAGE/MAGE liaison and Saline Talented and Gifted Advisory Committee liaison. These people would be responsible to report
to REACH about their respective group acitivities. They might write articles for the newsletter or an email to go out to
the REACH membership.
4. For those new people we discussed WCAGE and MAGE. The Washtenaw County Alliance for
Gifted Education was started many years ago before parent support groups existed in any districts. It is barely existing
today, with only a president and treasurer. They are parents link to MAGE, Michigan Alliance for Gifted Education. If you
pay dues to WCAGE, you automatically are a member of MAGE. You get great information and opportunites for meetings, programs
and scholarships through these organizations. Dues are $25 to join WCAGE. I (Mary Jo) spoke about the wonderful Michigan
Mentorship program that WCAGE sponsors. My daughter Joanna got to shadow a U of M graduate student of Biomedical Engineeering
this summer through the program. To join WCAGE please send a check for $25 made out to WC-AGE to Marilyn Geiger, 2680 Brassow
Drive, Saline, MI 48176. Include your name, address, phone and email address.
5. Barb Cey had proposed that our
group be a parent subcommittee of the district Talented and Gifted Advisory Committee. We all agreed that it would be a good
way to continue our good working relationship with the district. Our handouts can then be copied within the T&G budget
and will be more available at the school buildings. The Talented and Gifted Advisory committee will be meeting on Oct 11,
Jan 17, Mar 21 and May 9 from 4-5pm in Union School. Marilyn, Shelley, Carrie and Mary Jo are on the committee. The main
goal will be to review the work done by last years review subcommittee looking at the National Standards for gifted education
and comparing them to what we do in Saline. An action plan based on the review will then be developed. Additionally Barb
mentioned that the district as a whole has Differentiation of curriculum as one of four main parts of its mission for the
2001-2002 school year.
6. Mary Jo asked everyone to consider being a building contact person for other parents with
questions. The following people volunteered:
Houghton: Charles Antonelli, Joy Burns
Pleasant Ridge: Open
Woodland
Meadows: Marilyn Chong, Shelley Larson
Heritage: Mary Jo Davis
Middle School: Mary Jo Davis
High School: Katy
Blackhall
7. Our next Steering Committee Meeting will be Tuesday September 25 at 7pm, place TBD (the library rooms
were booked). New members are welcome (we need some other people for all these open postions!) Please consider asking someone
you know to attend. Also think about whether we would like to find someone to be a Legislative Contact to keep the group
abreast of all the legislation at state and federal levels for Gifted Education.
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