MINUTES OF THE MCCPTA DELEGATE ASSEMBLY
Tuesday, March 28,
2006 at the Carver Educational
(This summary includes motions and resolutions passed at the March meeting.)
Approval of Minutes:
The minutes from the February 28, 2006 Delegate Assembly were reviewed. A revised grading and reporting committee report was shown on the overhead and read. The report was amended to read as follows:
Committee chair Shirley Brandman had to leave early tonight, so Sharon St. Pierre reported for her. A grading and reporting update on new language for grading and reporting is in your packets. Please review the modifications in homework for completion and practice. When a student has turned in “homework for completion” by the deadline, and when it appears to the teacher that the student has made a good faith attempt to perform the assignment, the student should receive full credit, regardless of the accuracy, quality, or even completeness of the homework submitted. Only if, in the teacher’s professional judgment, the student has not attempted in good faith to perform the assignment, the teacher may then give partial credit for the homework. Please review these changes with your schools.
The minutes stand approved as amended.
Treasurer’s
Report:
The treasurer’s report was filed.
Business Items:
Sharon St. Pierre made a motion to set a time limit
of five minutes for discussion of the resolution. It was seconded and passed by
a show of hands.
Sharon St. Pierre made a motion to allow the Gifted
and Talented Committee Chair for White Oak Middle School who helped write the
resolution, Fred Stiknott, to speak to the Gifted
Child Committee resolution. The motion was seconded and passed by a show of hands.
Sharon
St. Pierre made a motion that the delegates support taking this resolution back
to their local PTAs and bringing it back next month for a vote. It was seconded
and passed by show of hands.
The resolution as written below was posted on the list serv.
Resolution proposed by the MCCPTA Gifted Child Committee
Recommending Development of a Gifted and Talented Curriculum:
WHEREAS, a Montgomery County Public Schools (“MCPS”)
Middle School Reform Steering
Committee (the “Steering Committee”) has been
charged to formulate a comprehensive plan (the “Plan”) that will produce a
rigorous and challenging middle school education program that improves teaching
and learning, promotes continuous improvement in all middle schools, and
ensures that all students are prepared for rigorous high school standards; and
WHEREAS, Policy IOA, recognizing that gifted and
talented students require instructional and curricular adjustments that can
create a better match between their identified needs and the educational services
they typically receive, provides that MCPS will prepare a scope and sequence of
objectives and activities as well as materials that accelerate and enrich the
regular curriculum in Pre-kindergarten-8, in mathematics, reading/language
arts, science, and social studies; and
WHEREAS, the National Association for Gifted
Children’s Pre-K-Grade 12 Gifted Program Standards (with which the components
of the MCPS gifted and talented program are to be aligned) require as a minimum
standard that instruction objectives and strategies provided to gifted learners
must be systematically differentiated from those in the regular classroom; and
WHEREAS, Policy IFA requires that curricula promote
continuity and cumulative acquisition and application of skills and knowledge
and allow teachers and students to understand what is expected and required of
them; and
WHEREAS, this Committee finds that the middle school
MCPS Curriculum Guides provide extensions and enhancements for optional and
periodic use in enriching gifted and talented education, but that such
extensions and enhancements neither sequentially and systematically ground the
acceleration of gifted and talented education, nor allow teachers and students
to understand what is expected and required of them; and
WHEREAS, as a part of a multiyear plan for
development of strong local gifted and talented programs, MCPS has determined
to strengthen differentiation in the instructional guides;
BE IT RESOLVED, that this Committee recommends to
the Steering Committee that there be included in the Plan the recommendation
that MCPS add as soon as possible to the middle school Curriculum Guides
sequenced and systematic higher level gifted and talented curricula, in
mathematics, reading/language arts, science and social studies.
Resolution Concerning MCPS Media Regulation:
A
delegate made a motion that we allow a five minute time limit of discussion for
this resolution. It was seconded and passed by a show of hands.
Ted
Willard made a motion for an additional five minutes of discussion. It was
seconded and
passed by a voice vote.
John Moriarity made a motion
that we defer action on this resolution until the April meeting. It
was seconded.
Rich Edelman made an amendment to the motion to defer action that MCCPTA specifically ask MCPS to delay any action pending our organization’s position. The amendment was seconded and passed by a voice vote.
John Moriarity’s original motion as amended passed by a voice vote.
Resolution Concerning MCPS Media Regulation: As adopted by the Richard Montgomery HS PTSA March 13, 2006
WHEREAS, MCPS recently revised Regulation IIB-RA to
ban the showing of R-rated movies as
well as excerpts from these movies in high school
classrooms throughout the county, and
WHEREAS, this regulation has the effect of blanket
censorship which undermines many high
school subjects, including but not limited to
history, English, foreign language and film classes,
without regard to the educational assessment of the
usefulness of the motion pictures relative to
the classroom objectives, and
WHEREAS, Regulation IIB-RA adversely impacts the
quality of student instruction, therefore,
RESOLVED, that MCCPTA requests that the Board of
Education immediately rescind Regulation
IIB-RA, section four, and
RESOLVED, that the replacement regulation incorporate
a system for exceptions, whereby
teachers apply or request to have certain films
exempted from the policy for educational purposes,
and
RESOLVED, that teachers who request materials that
are R-rated or un-rated for classroom use
should provide information to parents to form their
own assessment, and that a system of signed
permissions from parents should constitute sufficient
authorization to permit the use of R-rated or
un-rated motion pictures, either as excerpt or in
their entirety, in high school classrooms.
Sharon Schulman made a motion that we direct Ted Willard to endorse the work group recommendations that students who are 17 years old be permitted to sign permission for themselves to see R rated films. It was seconded. It passed by a voice vote.
New Business Item:
Juan
Johnson made a motion to raise the membership dues to $1.00 per member up from
$.75. No second is required. This will be included in the minutes. Please take
it back to your locals and it will be voted on at the annual meeting in April.
Nominating:
Acting officers -
Chris Barclay, nominating committee chair, last month nominated Sharon St. Pierre to finish the term as Vice President, Educational Issues and Ted Willard to finish the term as Vice President, Programs.
Chris
Barclay made a motion for the body to vote on these nominations (hearing no
other nominations from the floor for either position). No second was needed
since it came from committee. A voice vote passed for both nominees to finish
their terms.
Presentation of slate of FY ’06-’07 officers -
Cindy reminded delegates that nominations from the floor can always be made. The April election will be overseen by either the president or the president elect from the MD PTA.
Chris recognized and thanked his nominating committee members – Ana Janckson-Curtis, Allyson Morrison, Lori Merrill, Leslie Ridgway, Lauren Haven and Terri Salus. He referred delegates to their packets and the list of officers, Area Vice Presidents (AVPs) and cluster coordinators. The consensus of the delegates was not to go through the cluster coordinators and AVPs. The nominations for officers are:
President Jane
de Winter
Vice President: Educational
Vice President: Administration Cassandra Abdelmeguid
Vice President: Programs April Keyes
Vice President: Legislation Victor Salazar
Recording Secretary Liz Wheeler
Recording Secretary Kay
Romero
Treasurer Juan
Johnson
Bylaws:
By
direction of the MCCPTA bylaws committee, Vicki Rafel
made a motion that the bylaws amendments as shown on the overhead (see below) now
be accepted.
Proposed Amendments to MCCPTA Bylaws:
Vicki Rafel, Bylaws committee chair, explained the distributed proposed amendments.
At the February 28, 2006 Delegate Assembly a motion was adopted directing the bylaws committee to draft the following amendments to the MCCPTA Bylaws:
Article
VI Officers and their Election: Insert a new Section 4e which reads, “Any
officer of MCCPTA shall resign within a week of filing for candidacy for public
office.”
Article
VIII Board of Directors: Insert a new Section 5 and renumber the following
sections.
“Section
5. If a member of the board of directors (other than an elected officer –See
Article VI,
Section
4e) files for candidacy for public office, he/she shall not speak publicly on
behalf of
MCCPTA.
If elected to public office, a member of the board of directors shall resign
immediately.”
The Bylaws committee is proposing as an additional amendment a section that had been left out of our recent revision of the bylaws because it was not included in the Maryland PTA’s bylaws template. The suggestion has been made that without this language, members might be excluded in the future even though this has been our practice for many years.
Article VIII Board of Directors: Insert a new Section
11 to read, “Regular meetings of the board
of directors shall be open to all members of local
PTAs.”
Thirty days notice of proposed bylaws amendments is required. These proposed amendments will be voted on at the May Delegate Assembly since the April Delegate Assembly is less than thirty days away.