Graham Hill Elementary

Graham Hill
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Graham Hill Elementary School/PTA meeting summaries

PTA meeting summaries

Summary for 4/25/2025 5:30-7 PM

Upcoming Events

  • Grounds Work Part 5/9 2:30-4:30 
  • Heritage Night April 25th at 5:30-7:30pm
  • Teacher Appreciation week is the 1st Week of May

WAYS FOR FOLKS TO GET INVOLVED

  • Volunteer–after school clubs, lunch and recess support, Heritage Night 
  • Join a committee (have committee sign ups) 
  • Serve as interpreters/translators for people and documents for the school and PTA 
  • Start a grade-level WhatsApp/Signal group to help with communication/spread of information (need grades 2-5)
    • Can also be language-specific–we have Spanish already 
    • Need Somali, Oromo, Vietnamese, Amharic
  • Text D7 moves to 44321 for a link to donate to SESSFA/share with people you know
  • Sign Katie Kribb’s advocacy letter to the district (see below/ email to come)

Minutes for 4/2/25 In-Person Graham Hill PTA Meeting 

  • Welcome–PTA Board introductions–Arlene
  • Invite new GH families to introduce themselves (kids’ grades, where they’re coming from if they want, leave time for Zoom participants to respond)
  • Table Introductions (introduce self)–discuss what is your favorite thing/memory of Graham Hill this year (5 minutes)–Rebekah 
    • Quick share out–record on poster paper
  • Update from Principal Gardner–Principal Gardner
    • Heritage night
      • LOTS of volunteers needed
        • 30 min shifts
        • Especially need people to help monitor hallway activities 
        • Email Principal Gardner if available 
    • School budget
      • Budget is hard, especially with limited resources (we are not a levy school); puts us in a position of making really hard decisions (trade-offs)
      • We are allocated staff and then get a very small amount of money from Title 1 funding
      • We are allotted .2 nurse and a .5 social work –felt them impact of not having a full time social worker this year
        • Felt it was important based on needs of the entire school to use some title 1 funding to have a full time social worker and .5 nurse
      • 3 week process with multiple scenarios considered; lots of staff conversations and multiple votes; budget is 100% staff vote and has to pass by a ⅔ vote
      • GH was allotted one extra teacher for next year
        • If they use that 1 teacher in one grade, the benefits of having smaller classes affect only one grad band
          • Staff opted to choose an interventionist that can benefit every grade band
            • More students will benefit from this choice than by putting an extra teacher in one grade band 
            • Also allows us to have 5 tutors from the beginning of the year to offer tier 1 support (academic support)
              • Tier one support is instruction that happens in the classroom (tier 3 = SPED and tier 2 = not SPED, but need a little extra academic support)
  • Community questions for Principal Gardner
    • Why aren’t we a levy school and how do we become a Levy school? (City of Seattle Early Education Levy)
      • To be a levy school you have to renew the application and somewhere along the way a few years ago the application wasn’t renewed 
      • The city is revising the application process now, but as soon as it is available we will apply –could possibly receive levy funding for 26/27 school year, but not 25/26
      • Current tutors are funded by an OSSI grant that we won’t be able to get next year 
    • Next year can make a decision if needed to open more classroom if classes are too large
      • By end of may they will know what the classroom configurations will be for next year 
    • Early enrollment and counts
      • SPED has rolling counts (throughout the year) and staff can be allotted throughout the year; it is hard to hire for those positions during the year; often because those positions get displaced 
      • General ed counts happen in Spring and October and those are the only time staff allocations are made
      • Uncertainty around what will happen with Title 1 (federal funding)–but once we have the funds, the government can’t take it back 
      • Although there are class size ratios set by the state (18 is the recommendation for K-2), teachers are bound by their contracts which allow for 26 in K-2 and 28 in 3-5
        • Ratios aren’t based per building, but on a districtwide average 
  • Advocacy on 2.0 FTE rule and Distinct IAs–Katie Kribbs 
    • Katie has written a letter to advocate for 2.0 rule and SPED IA’s
      • 2.0 rule requires that schools reach a threshold of needing 2 teachers before they can receive any teachers (even if they have enough teachers for 1 full classroom) *also says they won’t take away a teacher unless a school is under enrolled enough to lose 2 teachers, but we could advocate for them to separate those two parts of the rule
        • Next year we already have fewer teachers than the number of students enrolled 
        • First part of the letter asks the district to remove this policy and give us one teacher that we are owed 
        • The rule began in 2017, but wasn’t enforced until now (as a cost saving effort)
      • SPED is understaffed for next year; programs aren’t full yet, but they will be
        • Second part of the letter asks to let us keep the IAs we have, knowing that kids will come 
  • Move-a-thon and SESSFA (Arlene, Jess)
    • 17 SE schools are trying to raise $500,000 to be (mostly) equitably distributed
      • Helps support Principal and students 
      • Please reach out to 5 people and ask if they will donate something to SESSFA–give what feels comfortable 
      • Last year 460,000 was raised and GH received about 20,000
      • Text D7 moves to 44321 for a donation link 
      • Examples of what that money goes toward: Covers snacks for whole school; teacher grants for $400; needs fund for Ms. Janet; etc. 
      • Messaging directly from teachers to students about the fundraiser is really important and helpful 
  • How to get your child screened for special education (Shana)
    • Shana created a flyer explaining what to do if you think your kid might benefit from SPED services and what to do if your kid is not yet in elementary school (Child Find can help you get everything in order before school starts–takes a while so start early) 
  • Teacher Appreciation week is the 1st Week of May –there are many ways to help:
    • Bring something for a Potluck 
    • Bring flowers 
    • A few other volunteer opportunities–look for an email from the committee
  • Grounds Work Part 5/9 2:30-4:30 
  • Graham Hill Sounders Game –talk to Arlene if you are interested
  • Table Discussions/Popcorn–need recording materials for each table or big poster (ask an audience member to help)–Rebekah
    • What are your priorities for Graham Hill?
    • What do you want to stay the same at Graham Hill?
    • What do you want done differently? 
    • How can the PTA support these efforts? 

Summary for 10/16/2024 6-7 PM

Upcoming Events

Next General PTA Meetings 

  • Wednesday, January 8th from 6-7PM on zoom
  • Wednesday, March 5th, from 6-7PM on zoom
  • Wednesday, May 7th, from 6-7pm on zoom

Graham Hill Staff and Teacher Needs –

  • Amazon wishlist is updated throughout the year –
  • 40 packs of playing cards for APTT night
  • New underwear, slightly used or new socks and pants, all sizes, all genders
  • For Mr. Cole – Disinfectant wipes, kleenex, wooden puzzles (Melissa and Doug), playdoh, and wet wipes

Become a member of Graham Hill PTA 

Budget Proposal and Approval– for more information contact molly@grahamhillpta.com or lisa@grahamhillpta.com

Updates and Announcements 

  • School closure update should be announced October 21st

The Lion King – Graham Hill needs support with the Lion King musical after school club. Reach out to Kathleen at kaclevenger@seattleschools.org if you can help.