Minutes PA Committee meeting 14.09.11

Cindy welcomed everyone to the first meeting of the new school year. She anticipated that this year will experience the first affects of the budget cuts that have been imposed on the school from Brussels. Cindy emphasised that the PA will work closely with the school management to ensure that the quality of education will be maintained throughout the school.

Welcome of new parents
Cindy reported that the “Einschulung” ceremony went very well this year despite a misunderstanding for the provision of refreshments for parents. Coffee and cake is provided every year in the Canteen for all, and individual classes who wish to organised something themselves will be encouraged to hold separate events for new parents on another day. Parents commented that the info on the PA website was very helpful, and the PA realises that this service is vital for parents in general, as communication via the school website is still not comprehensive enough.

New PA office
The PA office is now located in room 208 of the Administration Building. A little time is still needed for the rearrangement of furniture and archive files, but everyone is welcome to come to the office at the usual time - Wednesdays between 8.00 and 12.30.

Book lists
The book lists are still a source of frustration for all parents. This issue will be brought to the attention of the school management and a request made that the system be revised this year to avoid unnecessary expenditure for parents in the future. This topic should be discussed again well before the end of the school year so that any changes can be realistically implimented.

Course options in OS
It has been reported that course lessons have been cancelled at short notice, with little or no information for parents of pupils affected. In particular, L3 German for class 2 OS, is to be replaced by Spanish. There was no warning about this and parents are most distressed by the lack of communication, and that the teaching of the language of the host country is not available to some students. The PA and respective class reps have already approached Mr Pialoglou about this unacceptable situation.

The PA will ask the school management for a list of all courses that were originally planned for this year, but have subsequently been cancelled for whatever reason. Also a list of all classed that have had their teaching time reduced to compensate for the small number of pupils in the respective classes will be requested. Also for details of all Mother Tongue classes that have been re-grouped to  reflect the new rules about class sizes in OS and GS.

The PA will also investigate why a science teacher is teaching Human Science in an OS class, and to ask how many other teachers are not teaching their primary subject.

Security rules for Sports
There are new rules for securing valuable items, such as watches, jewellry and mobile phones when students are playing sports. The PA will ask for publication of these rules on the school website, so that parents and students can reference them.

Proposals for PA’s 2011/2012 strategy
Increase membership
Negotiate discount card with InterSport
Introduce new membership card and number for families
Increase number of sponsors - involve them more with the school, invite them to events etc.
Introduce a web blog for parents - improve community atmosphere
Complete website page for EuroBoutique and increase selection of products
Introduce summer camps for Kindergarten children

Summer Camps 2011
The summer camps were all a great success and very welcome for parents. Some camps were over subscribed. The PA will investigate how to build on this success and also how to keep costs down to a minimum for all. There will be questionnaire for parents for feedback and to help improve the camps for next year. A meeting will be arranged with management, school Hausmeister, and AWO (organisors of the ESK summer camp) to review the success of 2011.  It was noted that the ESK camp was offered in the same period as the tennis camp, resulting in lower participation in the latter.
Staggering the different camps - Football, tennis and ESK - to avoid competition between them does not, however, seem a viable option. The planning of next year’s summer camp should start this October.

New PA Coffee mornings
Cindy will be introducing coffee mornings for all parents in school at regular intervals which will be organised by the sections in turn. This will be an informal drop in sessions held once a month when parents will have an opportunity to informally discuss issues with other parents.
The first morning coffee will be in October from 8.05 onwards and will be organised by the English section GS. the PA will provide coffee and tea, and parents will be asked to bring a cake.

Forthcoming events
Class reps, teachers, management and PA dinner party
Open day
Summer fest
ESK 50th Anniversary

OS students’ party
The PA would like to encourage the organisation of an OS students’ party which would be used to raise funds for next year’s AbiBall. This will be discussed further with school and student representatives.

PA finances
Ute reported that after submitting the financial documents (2008, 2009, 2010) to the “Finanzamt” the non-profit status has been restored to the PA. Confirmation now has to be sent to the Register of Associations and the Bank. The “Finanzamt” and the Bank have accepted and confirmed the new draft statutes of the PA, which had to be amended following new regulations from the “Finanzamt”.  The new statues now have to be presented at the PA AGM for approval.
 
Ute presented the final accounts for the school year 2010/2011 and briefly explained them.
At the end of the school year there was still a small amount of sponsorship money.
Expenses due from Interparents is still outstanding from May 2011, despite several reminders. Ana Gorey was requested to investigate this.

The PA accounts will be sent to the Auditor, Mr Bill Scott-Stewart.
 
Guidelines need to be established for accepting contributions to the Social Fund by the main contributor. Ute will arrange a meeting with him to find a solution agreeable to both parties.
Ute also reported that the city department for water had been contacted during the holidays in respect to providing drinking water fountains. The City department contributes 3 drinking water fountains per year to each school. The PA is investigating the possibility of donating a drinking fountain for the OS building in 2012.

There were 2 requests for PA funding support:
Mrs Thomson requests €180 for the Mathletics in GS registration
    vote: 13 yes, 1 abstention
    This was granted with the proviso that all students have access to the Mathletics     programme

Mrs Klemola requests €150 for supporting the Biotop in GS
    vote: 14 yes

Cindy has received notice from the school that the subsidy from Brussels for the After-School Activities have been immediately stopped and will not be available for this year. The After-school Activity group will have to meet to make new proposals for the AA programme and see in what way this will impact the cost to parents.

AGM 2011
This year’s AGM will take place on 17th November.
The Committee members, whose tenure is up, were asked if they would be prepared to put themselves forward to be re-elected. Ana, Letizia, Hamid and Nathalie all agreed to put themselves forward for re-election. Valerie and Barbara will be resigning. Jacqueline is undecided. Flemming (not present) will not be re-elected. Cindy, Ute, Thorsten, Michel, Sarah, Veronique, Debjani (and Anja??) will continue on the Committee for their 2nd year.
There will be a number of proposals put forward for PA members to vote on:
Changes to the annual membership fee from €15 to €30 per family to be effective from January 2012. Although this is a big increase it was noted that the membership fee has not been increased for many years. Payment will only be through standing orders as there will be no more direct debits made by the PA.
Revised PA statutes as approved by the Karlsruhe Finanzamt.
PA support for MEET (Movement towards European Education) proposal by Ana Gorey.

Parents’ Evening.
Debjani, Barbara, Hamid, Veronique, Letizia and Cindy will ensure that there are enough membership application forms available for the class reps before the parents’ evenings.
A date needs to be set as soon as possible for a Class Rep/PA committee meeting after the parents’ evenings are all finished.

The next committee meeting will be Wednesday 12th October.

Cindy thanked everyone for their attendance and closed the meeting.

Sarah Winthrop
24th September

Present:
Cindy van Velzen, Nathalie Beroard-Barth, Ute Schmidt-Rohr, Thorsten Reineke, Letizia Dalle Donne, Ana Gorey, Hamid Bateni, Veronique Needham, Debjani Basu, Jacqueline Ribeiro, Valerie Dujardin, Michel Messmer, Barbara Bellosa, Sarah Winthrop.