Minutes from the BRAGTS Board of Directors Meeting

November 12, 2007

 

 

In attendance:  Michael Kearney (president), Donald Jennings (president-elect and VP public relations), Gideon Carter III (treasurer), Julie Sheffield (secretary), Sherry Scardina (at large), Lannette Cohen (at large), Jennifer St. Cyr (at large), Julie Perkins (at large), Amber Moran, Mark Day

 

Not in Attendance: Richard Truman (VP mebership), Anita Haywood (VP programs), Carlos Sam (at large), Sherry Brock (at large), Judy O’Dell (at large)

 

Treasurers Report (Gideon Carter)

▲       No change to previous balance which was $10,352.84

 

Website (Don Jennings)

▲       Website was migrated to a different server which may have caused some problems with emails going through

▲       Don and Dick plan to get together to update the website

           

Programs (Michael Kearney for Anita Haywood)

▲       Opened discussion regarding possibility of having a Winter General Meeting.  This has not been held in recent years, but we might want to resurrect it.  Primary focus would be disseminating information to parents/teachers on summer programs such as:

o   Torrance creative scholar’s program at ULL

o   Timbuktu Academy

o   Camp Challenge

o   UNO

o   Governor’s Program at McNeese

o   Natchitoches

 

Public Relations (Don Jennings)

▲       Distributed updated contact list

▲       84 attendees signed in at Fall General Meeting (more were in attendance, so some did not sign in)

▲       Receipt for recent BRAGTRS brochure printing given to Gideon, agreed to another run of 500, prefer school system to print if possible, if not will take to Kinko’s

▲       Discussion of which ACT scores to list on brochure. It was decided not to include BRMHS in future printings

 

Logo Contest (Don Jennings)

▲       148 logo contest entries were received.  Attendees each selected up to five favorites by secret ballot.  This exercise resulting in 32 total entries that received at least one vote and 13 that received more than one vote.  The 13 were presented for a second vote.  This time, each attendee selected up to 3  favorites, which resulted in 2 entries tied with the most votes.  The winner was selected with a final vote on these two 2 entries.  Many beautiful items of artwork were submitted; unfortunately some were too detailed for a logo.

 

Update from GT Office (Sherry Scardina)

▲       Glasgow’s Blue Ribbon School award was noted in Parents Magazine, a billboard at Perkins/Kenilworth, and The Advocate.

▲       At the recent National Association of Gifted Children Conference in Minneapolis, East Baton Rouge Parish School System recruited gifted teachers in the vendor hall. Sherry learned more about gifted programs in other states. Attending with Sherry were Carlos Sam, Cindy Phillips, Margaret Mattson, Kristi Groves, and Jackie Palka. Many states have gifted only at the elementary level; there is a big push for the International Baccalaureate (IB) program as well as the Advanced Placement Program (AP) sometimes at the expense of gifted; gifted teacher certification is less rigorous in some states (1 hr gifted education in MD vs. 18 hrs. in LA).

▲       After October 27th EBR Mania, the Gifted and Talented Office received many calls asking about the difference between magnet and gifted programs, and many parents. The PreK Pupil Appraisal Coordinator received many requests for screening and questions the week after the event.

▲       The Gifted office is working hard to get Scholastic Academy students identified as gifted.

▲       Looking at universal screening for kindergarten; an expedited tool is needed b/c it is not feasible to do the 30-minute one-on-one screening with all kindergartners.  Also, looking at possibly using iLEAP scores for universal screening for end of third grade.

▲       The Gifted Office will be sending out a postcard with the characteristics of gifted children listed.

▲       Sherry said they have had problems with schools not complying in a timely manner to requests for gifted screening.

 

 

Follow-up Comments (all)

▲       Michael asked that the BRAGTS board be included in efforts to grow gifted enrollment.

▲       It was suggested that better coordination between the Gifted office and Pupil Appraisal is needed to streamline the overall process for parents of prospective gifted students. 

▲       It was suggested that a question be added to the magnet school application “do you want your child to be screened for the gifted program?”

▲       It was mentioned that Bulletin 1706.B requires a “Child Search Coordinator” for gifted students.  No one seemed to know who that person/position is.

 

Task Force to “Save the Self-Contained Gifted Program” (Kearney, all)

▲       After much input at Fall General Meeting (see separate meeting notes), a Task Force was formed to look at recommendations to save the self-contained gifted program.

▲       The first meeting was 11/1/07 with 15 in attendance.  At this meeting 6 subgroups were formed to deal with specific issues relating to areas of interest and breakout brainstorming sessions were conducted.

▲       Good attendance is expected at the next meeting on 11/17/07.

▲       We are willing to (and prefer to) work with EBRPSS on this.

▲       Concern about EBRPSS re-drawing attendance zones for next year; creating dedicated gifted sites should be done in conjunction with those plans.

▲       Referred to 1998 outside evaluation of the G/T program commissioned by former Associate Superintendent E. Don Mercer in which it was recommended that the G/T program should “drive” the rest of the system.