PA Committee meeting 09.03.11

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

Cindy welcomed everyone to the meeting. The Agenda was adopted. The minutes from the last meeting were approved.

JRC schools (Joint Research Council schools - Karlsruhe, Alicante, Bergen, Mol)
This is an important time for the JRC schools. These schools are joining together their efforts in presenting themselves to the Board of Governors as a coherent group that is an integral part of the European school system.
A series a meetings have been held with representation from management, parents, and ITU for brainstorming sessions on the way ahead for JRC schools. Jacqueline Ribeiro represented ITU and Markus Gammelin represented the ESK PA.  A statement has been produced for the Budget Committee meeting and the Board of Governors.

New school website
This is still in the development stage and so there has been no big announcement to parents about the first stage being on-line. The website will be shown and demonstrated on Open Day in the canteen.

PA dinner party.
The party was very successful and many parent class reps and teachers attended. This is very positive in the PA’s goal of building relationships and breaking down barriers within school.  Token “thank you” presents will be given to teachers who helped in the organisation of the party.

The next parent class reps and PA meeting will take place on 30th March - one meeting in the morning and one meeting in the evening - so that everyone has a chance to attend.

Summer camp on ESK grounds.
A 2 week summer camp has been organised on ESK grounds for the beginning of the summer holidays. This is being organised through AWO, ITU and the PA with permission from the management to use the school utilities. Details and registration will be sent to parents shortly. Jacqueline is the PA contact person together with someone from AWO. Contact details will be made available for all participants. There are already around 50 children who are interested in the camp.

Summer Football camp
A football camp with professional football trainers is being arranged exclusively for ESK pupils for the first weeks of the Summer holiday. This is being done in collaboration with Intersport Hoffmann. Details and registration forms will be sent to parents shortly. If the minimum number of participants (21) is not reached, it will be open to other ES schools but there will be a need for coordination for volunteer host families. This could be coordinated through the PA website.

Treasurer’s report
The non-profit status for the Association has to be re-established. The liability and accident insurance of the After-school Activities for the actual number of members and teachers will be brought up to date. (Die Haftpflicht- und Unfallversicherungsvertraege für die Ausserschulischen Aktivitäten wurden an die aktuellen Mitglieder- und Lehrerzahlen angepasst.)
There have been 2 grant requests from the Social fund.
Family 1: 100€, yes - 15 votes, no - 0 votes, unanimously carried
Family 2: 100€, yes - 15 votes, no - 0 votes, unanimously carried

There have been 2 requests for project funding.
Mrs Bialeki’s project for 250€:  yes - 15 votes, no - 0 votes, unanimously carried
English theatre trip for 135€: yes - 0, no - 13, abstentions - 2, this request was refused on the grounds that this was not extra-ordinary (many classes do theatre trips and parents are prepared to meet such costs) and that it did not promote the PA’s goals of cross-curricular and cross-section activities.

It was requested that the guidelines for project funding be made clearer and put on the PA website. Ute will look at the guidelines written for last year’s projects and revise them if necessary.

PA Membership Fees
It was suggested that the current PA membership fees (15€) were inadequate to cover the running costs of the PA. ESK PA has the lowest membership fees of all the European schools where the highest is100€ and the average is about 40€.  A new fee level should be debated and presented at the next AGM for approval.
The PA can also look for ways to fund raise to make sure that PA costs are covered.

School trips
There seems to be a complete lack of coordination for some school trips. Cindy and Nathalie will bring this issue to the attention of the direction at the next management meeting and request that proper procedures are followed to avoid funding and organisation problems.

Pupil welfare
There has been concern expressed about the fact that a number of year 7 students have had to be warned by Mr Hoyem about their lax approach to their studies. The PA would like to see a more pro-active approach by the teachers and educational advisors in the area of pupil welfare and work motivation. This will be discussed with the management.

AbiBall 2011
Again there seems to be little urgency shown by year 6 about the raising of funds for the organisation of this year’s AbiBall. The PA would like to know what help and direction the school are giving to the students in year 6 to help them with this. This is a perennial problem and it needs to be urgently addressed by the school management.

Italian and Dutch Party
There will be a big farewell party on June 25 to mark the end of the Dutch and Italian Sections. Details and registration will be on the PA and school’s website.

Subject Options
The feedback form parents has not been good as many have been told that their option choices (in some cases key subjects) will not be running. It was suggested that the procedure for choosing options is flawed as there is no opportunity to indicate 2nd and 3rd choices on the form. This may influence the timetabling and make it easier to make up classes with the mandatory 7 pupil minimum. This issue will be on the PA and management meeting agenda.

Kinderbureau

Hamid Betani has arranged for the Kinderbureau Karlsruhe to give a presentation on the topic of computers in children’s bedrooms. This has been scheduled for 12th May.

EuroBoutique
1,500€ has been spent on new stock orders in preparation for Open Day. There will be a small price increase of 2€/item to match the increase in costs. The new BläserKlasse polo shirts have already been ordered - ITU have agreed to sponsor 50% of the cost of these.

After-school Activities (AA)
There is a new dedicated email for administration purposes. It was regrettable that some parents still have not paid the dues for the current school year. This will be more strictly controlled next year.

Open Day 2011
Coffee stands will be available in Bau A and B from 10am - 12 midday.
Coffee/tea/soft drinks and donated cakes will be available in the canteen from 8.05am until the end of Open Day.  Anja will coordinate all parent volunteers for the cafe.

Other stands include:
- PA information stand for membership, summer camps, and football camps etc.
- EuroBoutique
- Burundi (Mrs Herrmann’s team)
- BläserKlasse concert corner (Mr Klagges)

Scolarest will provide a choice of 2 hot dishes and salad at midday.

The majority of PA committee members said that they were available to help on Open Day. 3 - 4 people said that they could help set up on Friday morning in preparation.

Agenda items not discussed:
Due to lack of time the Interparents report was re-scheduled for the next meeting.

Cindy thanked everyone for attending and the meeting was closed at 10.30pm.

Sarah Winthrop
13.3.11