ARCHIVES


	ARCHIVES of the Youth Initiative High School Waldorf Initiative Viroqua, Wisconsin, USA
	YIHS Parent Meetings Minutes 2007-04-02 APRIL Parent Meeting – 4/2/07 A well attended meeting Storytelling Parent Fundraiser Update. It will be held on 4/27/07 at the home of the Whited-Fords The program will include Storytelling, Improve and Music. Appetizers, Desserts and Wine will be served. Tickets will be $25 to $35. Help is needed. Contact info for signing up is in the Weekender. Thank you Kelly and David… Quilt Raffle – A beautiful quilt has been made by Sherry Knapp and Sally Colacino. We have printed 600 tickets - $5/ea or 6 for $25. It will hang at the Co-op and parents are asked to sign up to staff the table to sell tickets during the busiest times and tickets will be available at the registers. Liz has the sign up sheet – please call her to sign up. Tickets will also be available through our website. Parents are also asked to sell as many as possible themselves. Liz has the tickets. Please call her. Thank you so much Sherry and Sally It is really beautiful Sports Update – LaFarge has approved a Girls and Boys Basketball for next school year. We are in the process of asking for Girls Softball and Boys baseball. Deadline is June 1^st. Denise said that Liberty is playing tennis with the Viroqua team and that the coach supports a Tennis Co-op. We will ask the Board to approve it and formally request the co-op. Denise will take the request to the coach and perhaps the Athletic Director and Principle to see if it can be approved for next year. Theme Week Planning – Please call Shawn or Anna Jo to volunteer. Meals for the crew - Toni Schneeberg - Toni is organizing this. Meals will be vegetarian, delivered to school. Food for 6 – Please call Toni Promotional Materials - Conrad Set up and take down - No one stepped up to be in charge but Denise Doerr, Karen Pothen and Kim Chotzen said that they would help Food Art - This was pretty undefined right now- Sparrow said that he would help procure food. There is a teacher for this section Regarding Concessions - Will this be a Student Fundraiser? Parent Fundraiser? Proceeds go to support the teachers for the week? No site has been selected yet. Mask/Puppet Making – We are looking for a teacher for this section. It will be Mon. Tues. Wed. afternoons. Several suggestions were made about who in the larger community might be interested in leading this. The names have been sent to Shawn and Anna-Jo We don’t yet know where the performance will be. One of the visiting teachers – Marcia Mequen, a trapeze artist will be giving public workshops on Monday 4/16 at the Main Street Station. Children – 3:30 to 4:45 and Adults – 5 to 6:30. cost will be $10. Proceeds will go to help support her work at YIHS during the week. Revisions Task Force - Parents approved the proposed changes to the By-Laws and the Guiding Principles. Text of the changes are on line. A vote will be taken at the Annual Meeting. Discussion regarding the ongoing conflict within the school. Conrad reports that a management team consisting of himself, Lars Bergan and Liz Cox has been formed. An adult will be present at Student Meetings for the time being. Becky Rekward will be taking Donna Simmons’ classes. A number of mediation sessions have been held. Some parents felt that an out of town mediator should be hired – that anyone from this community would not be able to be impartial enough. It was suggested that a Sophomore Class meeting might be appropriate or needed at this time due to the fact that Donna was a primary teacher for this class. Parents are encouraged to help their students “process” what is going on, recognizing that it is hard to do so when not all information is known or can be known as much of what has transpired is open to different interpretations. Anyone with questions, or who would like to talk about it should contact Conrad. Our next meeting will be on May 7^th A request was made to not always have meetings on Monday. Note – one item that was not included on the Agenda was planning for Service Week. It will be held this year during the week of May 14^th. Please contact me if you are interested in helping -- Dawn 2007-03-12 Present: Marjorie Rehbach, Conrad Rehbach, Liz Cox, Joanne McNall, Mary Root, Jan Rasikas, Sandra Schmidt, Kelly Whited-Ford, Kim Chotzen, Sheila Grams and Shawn Lavoie Opening: Games with Shawn Lavoie (If you missed this you missed out!) 1) Theme Week: This year’s coordinator, Shawn Lavoie, presented the Theme: “Performance Art”. Many students wish to perform and several do not. There will be classes building skills and performance will be by choice. Nick: will teach the German wheel. Marie will teach modern dance Marcia: from cycropia wants to come but is looking for a place to hang and work low level trapezes Call Shawn with ideas @: 634-2214 Visiting teachers will stay with Shawn at Jacobs farm during the week. They need help to be fed. Meal wheel organizer? Transport volunteers for off campus classes and final performance. 2) Bread and Puppet Theatre is coming to town! Performances March 30(ages 14+) @ 8pm at the Landmark Auditorium Sunday, April 1^st @ 4pm in the PRWS gym (for all ages) please promote and support these amazing events! puppet making/performance workshop Sat. March 31^st 10-3:00 in the PRWS gym. With lunch served by the 6^th grade class. ($5) –call 637-7828 3) Quilt Raffle~ prepare to sell tickets by taking turns staffing a table at the co-op. 4) Play concessions will need help for the spring play at the Temple Theater. There will be no dinner before the play this year. 5) Graduation will take place at the Kickapoo Reserve. 6) Next Parent Eves: Monday, April 2^nd @ 7pm. ; Monday May 7^th @ 7pm. 7) WHO IS IN CHARGE OF SERVCE WEEK THIS YEAR? Please call Conrad ASAP! Thanks! 2007-01-22 Present: Sandra Schmidt, Sally Colacino, Trish Dougherty, Dawn Hundt, Mike Knapp, Sherry Knapp, Theresa Carey, Kim Chotzen, Stephen Park, Marjorie Rehbach, Mark Spark, Conrad Rehbach, David Whited-Ford, Kelly Whited-Ford, Janelle Prine, Denise Doer, Sheila Andersen, Jane Siemon, Vicki Ramsey, Rich Grams, Sue Grams, Liz Cox, Carol Hanlein, Brian Wickert Facilatator: Kim Chotzen Scribe: Brian Wickert Opening Verse: Quiet I Bear within me.... Social Mixer: Singing of Dona Nobis Pacem Valentines Dinner Fund Raiser on January 17, 2007: Jane Siemon explained to us the help she needs from the parents for this parent & student fundraiser. This is the list of tasks where parent help is needed: Publicity/ Advertising Set up / Table decorations Help Jane and students with Cooking Supervising the Students Serving Silent Auction/Cheese Cake auction Entertainment Clean up Saturday night Clean up and re-set rooms on Sunday Dawn Hundt is holding the help needed sign up sheet for parents. Please contact Dawn to find out where help is still needed. The sooner the better! Dawn's phone number is 452-3485. Discussion on price of Valentines Dinner: There is a limited number of seats (70) for the dinner and in the past all seats have been sold out each year. Price last year was $30-$50 per person. It seems about 70% paid the $50 per person. After the discussion there was no decision made on the price by the parents so the decision was made to let Jane decide the price, taking into consideration what the parents had to say on the issue. Entrées Stuffed Pork Chops and Vegetarian Homemade Ravioli Senior Graduation: Graduation date is June 3rd 2007. Senior parents and students have been meeting to select location and format. Junior parents are to help with the food in some way and will be contacted in the future. Letter from the Faculty: Vicki Ramsey read a letter from the faculty concerning the Care Groups. No action taken by the parent group as a whole. Admission Group: Conrad brought the question if YIHS should be forming an admissions group with representation from students, administration, faculty and parent groups that would set policy and standards for admissions to YIHS. Some of the tasks of the Admission Group would to be to guide new families through the admissions process, formulate admission criteria for students and review admissions after the prescribed period for review. At this time the parents did not feel it was necessary to form an Admissions Group. Possibly in the future if the school were larger and had more administrative, faculty and parent help to staff an admission group it might be a good step. The status quo is ok with the parents at this time. Parent Fundraising Report and Ideas: Liz Cox reported that the parents have raised $3,113.00 to ward their $7,000.00 line items thus far this year. Much of the raise money came from the dinner theatre that K O'Brien with the help of Frank Wildingway and the students put on earlier this fall. Upcoming events for the parent fundraisers are the Valentines Dinner (see above discussion on Valentines Dinner) and Spring Play Concessions. Dawn and Marjorie volunteered to be the coordinators for the concessions for the spring play at the Temple theatre. Theresa Carey is looking for volunteers to help finish the playhouse. The playhouse is in an unheated building so warmer weather is needed before this task can be completed. If interested in helping contact Theresa Carey. Two new ideas were talked about: Story Telling Evening with desserts: Kelly W-F and Marjorie Rehbach will be coordinators. They will look into feasibility of finding storytellers and locations to hold event. Dinner Theatre with theatrical presentations: K O’Brien will look into doing something similar to what was done in the fall. Last year the income for the parents from the Valentines Dinner was $2,000.00 and the concessions for the spring play was $600.00. Adding these two numbers to the parent fundraising current total of $3,112.00 gives a projected total of $5,713.for the year. The parent total line item for parent fundraising for the year is $7,000. As a parent group we are not quite reaching our line item total. We will need parents to help with these two new ideas to reach our goal. Eurythmy Tour: The Chicago Waldorf school's senior class is coming to Viroqua on January 26-29th and will do a Eurythmy performance for PRWS & YIHS students at the Temple theatre. Students and teachers will total 26 people. Liz Cox is picking up this dropped ball and she is looking for housing and planning of meals for these students and teachers. Thank you and good luck Liz. Proposed Process for the revision of the Vision/Mission Statement for YIHS Draft One prepared by Char Elderkin and Dawn Hundt was handed out at this meeting for parents to read. This will be an ongoing project this year and parents are encouraged to join in the process. Copy of Draft One attached. Closing Verse: Meeting ended at about 9:15pm Unapproved minutes respectfully submitted by Brian Wickert 2006-12-14 12 families were represented Sports Com. Info only. A conversation was held with the LaFarge School District. They appear to be very interested in forming a long term relationship for Sports Co-ops. They need more participants to maintain their teams. The YIHS Board approved development of a comprehensive agreement between YIHS and LaFarge. This work will proceed. In addition a draft “Sports Philosophy” was distributed. Members of the committee will contact the other Physical Education teachers for their input. If you would like a copy please contact Brian Wickert or Dawn Hundt. The next meeting will be Jan 17 at 3:15 Proposal to change the way Fundraising is organized. A long discussion was held. The following points were agreed on by all present. Leave Student Fundraising as it is To preserve the Matching Grant Program, To encourage student responsibility and initiative To allow them to continue to develop their own fund under student control Raise the Parent Fundraising line to $20,000 To make it clear to parents that it is their responsibility to fund the school Parents are expected to model “good behavior” including taking responsibility for, participating in and supporting fundraising activities Reduce the Development line to $27,000 In most cases, Events should not be run by Development Staff. Their responsibility should be seeking Matching Grants, other grants, creating the Development mailings., developing relationships with donors, parents, alumni, alumni parents etc. Exceptions would be Events designed primarily to ask for money. It is the responsibility of parents to be willing to help Development identify potential donors and be willing in some cases to actually ask for money, either in person or in writing. The Development Staff should help parents learn how to do this. It is OK to spit fundraising income between students and parents. Parents are expected to help students with their projects and vice versa. The key is in “where was the project initiated and who carried the primary responsibility.” 5. We were not in favor of a “fundraising buy out” option. Dawn’s Note – I think that these points should be considered by the Students, Board, Fundraising, Finance etc. so that we have a clear plan for the 2007/08 school year. Care Group Proposed Changes. We did not have the most up to date version of the proposed changes. Evidently the Students did not either and they did NOT approve the version that they had. We did not have the time for a full discussion of the issues. However we did agree on the following points; Students should continue to choose both their Peer and Mentor The “Peer” aspect of the process should be strengthened with discussion and training offered. Good written records must be kept of all decisions made by a Care Group. Add language to the written description of the process which includes a statement of the idea that the process exists to serve the faculty and facilitate their work with the students. We see the process as being “social” in nature and must be allowed to unfold “from the heart” We would like to hear what the Faculty thinks of the proposed changes Because we did not have enough time for a complete discussion of the issue we ask that the Board not approve any changes other than the ones above at the January 2007 Board Meeting. Theresa will circulate the current draft. Other Class Parents will have a chance to make additions and we hope to discuss it again at our next meeting. Apparently, a phone tree message was not sent out regarding this meeting. We would like to have that happen in the future. At the October meeting it was suggested that the Class Parents would be willing to take on this responsibility. Ladies? Can you do that in the future? Phone Tree’s were completed for each class and distributed. Does anyone know where this project stands? I don’t think that we set a date for the next meeting. If so I did not write it down Unfinished Unapproved Prepared by Dawn 2006-11-16 Coming soon 2006-10-16 Present: Vince Hundt, Mark Sparks, David Whited-Ford, Toni Schneeberg, Rich Grams, Sue Grams, James Lewicki, Renee Lewicki, Colleen Gilgenbach, Hugh Gilgenbach, Theresa Carey, Dawn Hundt, Faith Anacker, Trish Dougherty, Joann McNall, Kelly Whited-Ford, Kim Chotzen, Brian Wickert, Conrad Rehbach(End of Meeting). Facilitator: Kim Chotzen. Scribe: Brian Wickert. Social Mixer: We opened the evening with a game where we got to know unusual things about other parents. Fun was had by all. Parent Phone Tree: The class parents (Theresa Carey 9th Grade, Toni Schneeberg 10th Grade, Carole Hanlein 11th Grade, Sherry Knapp 12th grade) will start a parent phone tree before each parent meeting in hopes of getting more parents coming to the meeting. Class phone trees and school phone trees need to be made. Life Skills Parent discussion with Donna Simmons: On November 9th at 7 pm Donna Simmons will have a discussion on the Life Skills class. The focus of the meeting will be sexuality, drugs and music in relationship to teenagers. Other topics will be discussed also. All parents are encouraged to attend. Question of Morale of Students: One parent brought the concern that the students currently have an antagonistic behavior toward the adults of the school at this time and it seems to be effecting the morale of the students. A general "us vs them" mentality seems to be increasing. This attitude seems to foster lack of trust by some students in the administrative group. Other parents were hearing similar complaints at home also. This behavior seems to arise out of unclear expectations of and responsibilities of the newly formed administrative group. The question of what are a student's responsibilities in school really mean could also be re-visited. Other issues that seem to still live with some students is the confidentiality issue from last spring and expulsion policy discussion and board decision of this fall. The complaining the students have been doing, has taken up the bulk of their student's meeting time and has left little time to work on student fundraising responsibilities which has been frustrating for other students leading to lower morale. After much discussion the parents are asking that these points be looked into by the students and Administrative Group: What are the roles of the partnership between student and adults in running YIHS? How to bring clarity to the role of the Administrative Group? Would it be possible to create a focus or listening group, in the new house structure, with the Administrative Group, asking about what are the student's concerns, about how decisions are made? Re-clarify how confidentiality issues are handled and when the students are being not asked to carry these decisions? Our hope is that this will help surface any underlying concerns of the students and bring clarity to the decision making process and structures in the school to rebuild a cooperation between students and adults again. Mark Spark volunteered to speak with the Administrative Group for the parents about this concern and possible ways to address the morale of the students. Sport Committee Report: The Sport Committee's goal is to have a Sport Philosophy statement ready to present to the student and parents at the spring All School Meeting and elections. Sport Committee members are: John Karlstad (Board Rep.), Dawn Hundt, Brian Wickert, David Whited-Ford, Anna Jo Doerr, Julia Hundt, Leri Alstad Van Ellis with student representation of Caleb White-Ford and others yet to be identified. Caleb is getting other students lined up to participate. The next meeting is November 7th at 7pm. We are asking everyone to bring their own Sport Philosophy Statement for YIHS to the meeting. We plan to read them out loud and then discuss and distill the important points to build the Sport Philosophy Statement for the YIHS. Anyone who wants to help with this work is welcome to come. We also will look into the dates of Coop submission request dates with the public school. Parent Fundraising Discussion: Theresa Carey, from the Development Committee, (Development Committee Members: Liz Cox, Jacob Hundt, Mike Knapp, Conrad Rehbach, Theresa Carey) reported that our goal as parents is to raise $7000.00 this year. Last year the parents raised $3,700. In addition to the fundraising by the students and parents, the development line in the budget is for $40,000.00. The Parent Fundraising Committee is Theresa Carey, Liz Cox and Dawn Hundt. They reported that K O'Brien is planning a dinner theater for either Nov 11th or 18th or both. No one present was sure about the dates. Frank Wildingway volunteered to be the cook and Faith Anacker will be his helper. We need other volunteers to help with this event. We probably need a coordinator for this event to bring it together as we have K O'Brien doing the entertainment and Frank & Faith doing the cooking but no one coordinating the whole event. Anyone interested please contact the Parent Fundraising Committee. Coffee House Evenings: This year the students want to use this venue as one of their fundraising projects. The Parent Fundraising Committee discussed the question of parent "buy out" raised at the last parent meeting. The Committee did not want to set a dollar amount and asked that if the parent or parents who felt they were unable to contribute time but wanted to "buy out" that they should individually talk to someone on the Fundraising Committee about their circumstances. It was also pointed out that the parent fundraising activities are about more than just raising money. The social benefits are just as important. By spending time working together the parents get to know other parents better and learn more about the lives of other families. It creates an opportunity for parent to discuss parenting styles and strategies with other parents working with all our children Spending time working together as parents also sends a strong message to the children about how the parents support the school and their ability to work with others. Holiday Faire- Theresa Carey is getting a group to build a couple of play houses to sell at PRWS Holiday Faire and possibly at Three Rivers' Holiday Faire also. Faith Anacker has volunteered to be one of the builders. Theresa needs materials, supplies and volunteers to help. Call Theresa is you have any of the above. Dawn Hundt will check with the PRWS coordinators about a possible silent auction of the playhouse at the Holiday Faire and Energy Fair Raffle in the spring at PRWS. Watch the Weekender for news on Parent Fundraising needs. No report was available on current totals of money raised by the parents thus far this year. Mark your calendar: Next Parent Meeting is November 16, 2006 at 7pm Unapproved minutes respectfully submitted by Brian Wickert 2006-09-26 Parent Meeting Minutes. Present: Paul Newton, Mark Sparks, Dan Chotzen, Toni Schneeberg, Sheila Anderson, Robert Ribbons, K O'Brien, Denise Doerr, Jannelle Prine, Theresa Carey, Dawn Hundt, Faith Anacker, Carole Hanlein, Stephen Park, David Whited-Ford(late), Kim Chotzen, Brian Wickert, Conrad Rehbach. Election of Chairperson: Kim Chotzen was asked to be chairperson and she willingly accepted with much appreciation of all the other parents. Thank you very much Kim for taking on this responsibility. Care Group Discussion: What is the Care Group? What is a Care Group Alert? What is a Care Group Request? The Care Group is made up of a group of students, teachers and parents whose task is to pro-actively look for and help students who seem to be struggling either academically, socially or possibly in need of counseling. A Care Group Alert is the first step in giving a heads up to a possible need with a student. The Care Group Alert can be given by a teacher, student or parent and is sent to the Care Group chairperson who is Jacob or Conrad who notifies other teachers of possible need of a student. Care Group Request is when a formal meeting is held with the student, the parents, the Care Group and the students mentor and student buddy to help the student with their challenges or issues. Parents on the Care Group need to be approved by other parents attending the parent meetings. Parents in the Care Group will also be the class parents this year. The following parents were approved by the other parents to be Class Parents and Care Group members for this school year: Freshman Class Parent is Theresa Carey. Sophomore Class Parent is Toni Schneeberg, Junior Class Parent is Carole Hanlein, Senior Class Parent is Sherry Knapp. Parent Fundraising Discussion: Liz Cox, development person for YIHS, was unable to be at the meeting so Theresa Carey reported in her absences. This year the parent's fund raising responsibility in the budget is $7,000.00. Last year the parents raised $3,377. The students and parents work together on some fundraising events and separately on others. The Parent Fundraising Committee (Liz, Theresa, Dawn) met over the summer and made up a proposal for Parent Fundraisers for this year. A copy of the proposal is enclosed. The parents at the meeting approved this proposal for the year. Ideas and how to proceed were discussed. Coordinators are needed for each of these events. Especially needed are coordinators for Holiday Faire Sales, Spring Play Concessions and Dinner Theatre. Please find your place to help out with the Parent Fundraising and if interested in the Coordinators responsibilities, talk to Liz Cox about the details. The question of buying out of fundraising activities was brought up and the Parent Fundraising Committee will discuss this idea and make a recommendation. Upcoming Parent and Student Fundraising Event at Norskedelen. Help is needed Oct 14th with cooking and transportation. Call Dawn Hundt for details and times if you can help. Parent Meetings for Each Class Discussion: Last year toward the end of the year the freshman parents got together and found that it was very helpful to meet and discuss how it was going with their children and other freshman students. After the meeting the parents wondered why they had not done it sooner in the year because it was so helpful in many ways. The proposal is to have class meetings this year in addition to the school Parent Meetings. The Class Meetings are a way to help gather the parents together. Class meetings can help educate parents to better understand the school's Care Group, Development, curriculum or development needs. The parents at the meeting approved the idea to have class parent meetings. It is being left to the Class Parents to organize, plan an agenda, set times and call these class parent meetings. Announcements: Clarification that the October 12th evening meeting to talk about college for students is open to all parents not just 11th & 12 grade parents as assumed by some. It is never too early to start to learn about the next step for your child's education after YIHS. If you have questions about this evening meeting please contact Donna Simmons 637-8031. Ad Hoc Sport Planning Meeting date to be announced. If interested in being on the committee please contact Brian Wickert. Kitchen Project Update: Dawn Hundt gave us a walking tour of everything that has been done and what yet needs to be done. We have gotten a lot of help and volunteerism on this project and it would not be this far along without all the people stepping up to help. The students are using and cooking in the class room but the project needs a little help to finish it off. Dawn handed out a "Tasks still needing to be done list". (see following). Please contact Dawn as soon as possible if you can help. 452-3485. Next Parent -Meeting is scheduled for October 16th, 2006 7:00pm to 8:30 pm. Kim Chotzen will facilitate and prepare the agenda. If you have an item for the agenda please get it to Kim by no later than October 13th. This is the Friday before the meeting on Monday. Contact Kim by email: kchotzen@mwt.net or phone 637-8404. Unapproved minutes respectfully submitted by Brian Wickert Kitchen/Science Room Update Sept. 26, 2006. Needs List. Thank you to all parents, students, faculty and friends that have helped with this project so far... Tasks still needing to be done: 1. Close off the plumbing holes inside the cabinets and put a couple of coats of polyurethane on. 2. Level counter tops and attach to counters (have them sloped towards the front 3. Screw all cabinets down better. 4. Finish painting outside of cabinets, then put a coat or 2 of poly over the paint. 5. Poly, cut and attach wood on cabinet backs. 6. Attach stove top and counter top on Demonstration Table. 7. Figure out which drawers can be used and use as many of the remaining "faces" as you can in other places. 8. Put in as many shelves as possible. 9. There are 2 drawers that are full of paint. Clean them out as best as you can, add a coat of primer or KILZ and paint the inside one color 10. Cut and place "cubby hole" bottoms and perhaps shelves in the "cubbies" 11. Make curtains for the "cubbies" and hang them. 12. Touch up the under cabinet bases with paint. 13. Find or make and install hold down brackets for 3 bowl sink. 14. Figure out a plan to store as much as possible in the cabinets we have and put stuff away. 15. Haul items not needed down the stairs. 16. Attach handles to doors and drawers when painting and poly is done. 17. Fix door latches on cabinets. 18. Buy peg board and hooks for behind the 3 bowl sink and hang it. 19. Build a dish drying rack for above the 3 bowl sink and hang it. For Student Kitchen: 1. Paint cabinets and walls. 2. Find or cut a "face plate" for the cabinet. 3. Attach cabinet door handles. 4. Clean and organize the cabinets. 5. Add shelves as needed. 6. Build a dish drying rack for above the sink (after the electrical work is done).