Friends of SW Charter School

Monthly Meeting

April 7, 2015

6:30 pm

Dates to Remember

• April 9^th Yearbook orders due! No exceptions.
• April 11^th SWCS New Student Lottery 10 am
• April 12^th Community Crafternoon 3-5 pm, Great Room
• April 13-15^th OMSI Trip for 5/6 students
• April 18^th SOLVE Cleanup at Cottonwood Bay 10 am – 1 pm
• May 5^th FoSWCS Meeting 6:30 pm @ Elephants on Corbett & 2015/2016 FoSWCS Board Elections

Agenda

Open Forum Community Comments

Crafternoon planning is going well.

Plant Sale order forms are due Thursday, April 16^th

Yearbook order forms are due Thursday, April 9^th

Bike to School 2015 Co-Event with Sunstone Montessori (Eric Wilhelm)

Eric Wilhelm, a Sunstone Montessori parent, attended our meeting to discuss working together on the Walk + Bike Challenge in May. The Walk + Bike Challenge is aimed at encouraging more kids and families to walk and bike to and from school and throughout their neighborhoods. The Challenge is hosted by the Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA) with support from the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT), the Safe Routes to School National Partnership, and others.

Like SWCS, Sunstone’s students are geographically dispersed throughout the city. Sunstone is organizing a kickoff event on Sunday, May 3^rd from 10am – 12pm at Willamette Park. They will bike and walk from the park to the OHSU tram. Sunstone is also holding a bike rodeo Sunday, April 12^th from 10 am – 12 pm on the blacktop behind their school. We can come get ideas if we’d like to do a bike rodeo too. They are going to identify volunteers to do bike trains at least once a week during May and would like us to do the same. We could have a bike train down Corbett together.

Sarah Anderson will register our school for the Walk + Bike Challenge. Wednesday, May 6^th is the official Walk + Bike Challenge day. Christina will talk to Sarah Anderson about any ideas she may have. We might be able to manage some small groups to bike together. We can put this out on the blog and have people self-organize. Hanne and JoLea would be happy to have people ride along with them. We should offer the option for parents to drop kids off at Willamette Park and then more kids can bike to school with parent volunteers. Parking at Willamette Park is free on weekdays before 9am.

Wilkerson/Annual Camping Trip Update (Hanne)

Camp Wilkerson is officially out for 2015. They are completely booked.

The weekends we are looking at are: 8/28-8/30, 9/11-9/13, or 9/18-9/20

Hanne is getting quotes from several campgrounds:

• Camp Adams (Molalla) similar to Wilkerson with a mix of campgrounds and cabins
• Camp Namanu (Sandy) – upper campground with just tents
• Camp Magruder (Rockaway Beach)
• Camp Twin Rocks (Rockaway Beach) – Probably out of our price range. Facility is more like a conference center and not in the spirit of Wilkerson. We’re more in the $1500 range.
• Hornings Hideout (North Plains) off 26

25-30 families usually attend our family camp weekend.

Looking for a place that has food storage like we had at Wilkerson, but it’s not a deal-breaker.

Hanne feels confident that we will have a place and date set in the next week.

Staff Appreciation Update (Melissa)

Staff Appreciation Week is May 4^th – 8^th

Each day of the week we’ll provide something different to staff similar to what we have done in the past — flowers, coffee cart, work party, chocolate, and lunch.

We will cover staff lunches on Friday. We could order from Elephant’s, Zupan’s or Verde Cocina.

Last year’s work party meant a lot to the teachers; they really appreciated it. This year, we hope to plan a work party for Monday or Tuesday of Staff Appreciation Week.

SW Charter School has been invited to participate in the South Waterfront Art Exhibit. The South Waterfront Art Exhibit is held annually in August and includes juried artwork produced by artists living and working in the South Waterfront neighborhoods. Melissa will be working on doing something to exhibit with Mike’s class. They are giving us a 100 ft. long wall to display our art. Many of the sponsors of the art exhibit are our auction sponsors as well.

At this point in the school year, our teachers are feeling pretty stretched. But interested parents could get involved. Melissa has forwarded all the information to Anne. Melissa is meeting with the organizer of the exhibit tomorrow to look at the event space. She will ask him if there is space for another smaller exhibit. Maybe we could display the Andy Goldsworthy inspired photos that Jen Downer took of the 5^th and 6^th graders work.

JoLea and Elise continue to work on the Room Parent Folders that will include general guidelines for new room parents. The folder will include an overview of room parent duties. We will get them done toward the end of this year and then distribute them at the beginning of next school year.

Online Auction (Christina)

The Spring Online Auction will be April 27-May 4.

Chris Beckley has done new artwork for the event.

There will be over 100 gift certificates to restaurants and local adventures up for bid.

Winning bidders can pick up their items at school on May 6^th at 3 pm. If winners are not local, we will ship items for free.

Liz will send Sarah Mutal a list of places where we have advertised the auction previously.

Field Day 2015

Field Day is Friday, June 12^th at Willamette Park.

We need to get Willamette Park booked. Kate will call Portland Parks & Rec to check on availability. She will work with Karen and Anna in the office.

There is a chance that part of Willamette Park might be closed in June due to the construction of the Hannah Mason Pump Station. This would affect access to the playing fields and bathrooms. If we needed a backup, we could probably make Caruthers Park work.

At this year’s field day, we’d like to do another collaborative art project like the bottle cap mural. One idea is milk jug igloos, but they would be difficult to transport back to school. We could do another bottle cap mural representing another theme. We can start collecting bottle caps now.

We brainstormed activity/station ideas:

• Hula hoops
• Large beach balls
• Parachute for younger kids
• Marbles in kiddie pool
• Dodgeball
• Badminton
• Chess and other board games
• Face painting
• Sponges
• Art a La Carte (Melissa) – a variety of crafts such as clay, beads, pipe cleaners, easels, etc.

Need a mix of volunteer-led stations and self-led stations. It gets exhausting for parent volunteers to continually try to draw kids in.

Volunteers should be responsible for the set-up and tear-down of their own stations.

We will definitely provide a dairy-free frozen treat option this year.

Dismissal went a lot better last year. Everyone was in their group with ice cream distributed by teachers. JoLea will be responsible for planning dismissal and treats this year.

Financial Update (Christina)

None.

Final Community Comments

None.

Google Docs version of April 2015 Minutes