December Meeting Cancelled

The December by-law meeting has been cancelled, however the committee is voting via email on two issues. The vote will be in on Sunday, December 6th.

Issue 1: Placing a de-facto statement in the by-laws regarding the principals and teachers in the SI program.

Issue 2: Should we incorporate after finding out more information from non-profit leaders in the area, and advice from local lawyers?

If you are on the committee, please get your vote in by tomorrow!

A new meeting date will be announced after the holidays.

Other than that, we have Articles of Incorporation written up, I am working on the application process for both the incorporation in TX, and non-profit status with the IRS with help from our committee!

That's everything for now, I hope everyone has a great holiday season!

~Karin Bunton

October 3rd Meeting

We had a great meeting on October 3rd!

We have made progress on several issues, and should be starting with Article 7 during the next meeting.

• I have cleaned up the by-laws appearance with more sub-headings to make it more readable.
• I have also added a voting section to include proxy voting.
• We decided to create job descriptions for each of the elected officials to keep the by-laws to a minimal length.
• We still have questions out to the district administrators regarding the need for a sponsor, and how to coordinate all of the principals on the various campus. District policy gives them much more power over what we can and cannot do on their campus than previously thought. With the possibility of 3+ principals, we need to figure out how to keep them in the loop in an efficient manner.
• Lastly, we will need to start figuring out a way to pay for the non-profit application. We would like to get this in to the IRS prior to Dec. 31, 2009, since there will be a price hike starting next year by $100. Currently, the fee is $300 if we expect to make less than $10K per year for the first 4 years, or pay $750 if we expect to make more than $10K per year for the first 4 years.

The next meeting will take place on October 17th at 6PM. Please contact me for more details.

Thank you!

KB

By-Law Meeting

MEETING NOTICE

On Monday, September 21st, we will be holding a meeting to further review and modify the current rough draft of the SI Booster Club by-laws.

The meeting will be held from 6:30-8:00 PM at Karin Bunton's home, and her husband Craig has volunteered to watch kiddos.

Please RSVP to Karin via email, so she can make the appropriate arrangements and send you a copy of the by-laws.

Thank you!

Meadow Creek school preparations...

I hope everyone is having a great summer so far! I want to update you on what's been going on this last week.

We had a very successful registration day on July 30th at Meadow Creek! Andrea Ballard brought table decorations from Mexico to help make the table stand out. She also took the morning shift to help inform parents. Thank you Andrea!

Many of our parents came to the SI table to check out what was going on. It was great seeing you all!

One of our major goals was to get an updated e-mail distribution list, and we succeeded. 57% of our parents confirmed or changed their email addresses. We now have over half of the incoming Meadow Creek 1st grade class email addresses. We should be able to get the word out on any validated news that we get ahold of.

Parents had a chance to read over the petition that Andrea created, and many signed hoping that we will be able to bridge the communication gap between parents and the school administration.

Copies of the Booster Club By-laws were also on hand for review, and many people expressed interest in having a copy emailed to them. If you would like me to do so, please contact me. (I am still trying to see if I can post a copy on this site, but it's not looking good.)

My current plan is to have a By-law Committee meeting in the first half of September to get this ball rolling again. I will post the date here and in an e-mail about 2 weeks before the meeting. Hopefully that will give everyone time to get a little settled into school life again.

Lastly, at the SI table we had copies of Mr. Wagner's letter that were mailed home to the incoming 5th and 6th grade parents regarding the 6th grade curriculum. The first grade parents were very interested to see what was developing down the pipe, and the sixth grade parents had many comments and questions regarding next years developments. I have e-mailed Mr. Wagner as requested with 6th grade parents concerns and requests. I hope to have a response in the next week, which I will then forward on to 6th grade parents. I'll keep you updated.

Beyond that, we had something unexpected happen. We had several incoming Kindergarten parents come by our table who would like to be kept updated on any future meetings the district will have to get into the program. This is an area where I hope the future booster club will be able to help incoming and interested parents about the program. The word is out there, but not all of the pertinent information is easy to find on the HEB ISD website according to these parents. Opportunity knocks!

Other Meadow Creek news...

We have a new vice-principal this year. Her name is Karie Kuster, and she is coming to us from Wilshire Elementary. Apparently she and Mr. Leonard have traded locations this year. You will also find a new counselor, and her name is Renata Mahoney-Shepherd.

Also, if you went to the carnival last fall, hopefully your family had as good a time as ours did. It raised so many funds last year, that they are only holding two fundraisers this year. The main fundraiser will be the carnival, and it will be held on October 24th. Save the date, and any volunteers will be most welcomed by Gina Skinner. Contact her if you are able to volunteer.

Well, that's all I have to report right now. Hope you all have a great summer!

Karin

Ideas for practicing Spanish in the summer

Q: Do you have any advice for summer activities to keep them practicing Spanish?

A: Off the top of my head: record a cartoon on Saturday morning on Univision. There's a 3 hour block of shows the kids recognize but they're broadcast in Spanish. 3 hours is too much at a time, but I've been pleasantly surprised that Carmen & Gabe seem to follow along with a 30 minute show.

Alternatively, select Spanish as the language on a DVD (again, probably not a full-length movie, but shorter shows).

Check out books from the Spanish section of the public library (Bedford is getting a decent collection, and libraries purchase materials based on the amount of checkouts, so the more we check these out, the more they'll add.). I like to mix up ones kids recognize with other ones I think they'll be able to read/ pronounce. *Even books that seem young for them (Very Hungry Catepillar, for example) are interesting to them if they're trying to decipher the words. My husband has spoken Spanish his whole life but he still learns new vocabulary from children's books! (We all enjoyed the Spanish version of Fancy Nancy, for example.)

I am in the market for computer software directed toward kids (like Rosetta Stone, which I understand is geared toward business people).

I sometimes use http://translate.google.com/ to look things up.

Maybe we could get the kids to network on Webkinz to practice writing in Spanish to each other? I am not crazy about social networks for 6 & 8 year olds but at least that might have a little more purpose.

OK, I've got to go for now. Thanks for asking! I'm sure everyone has some ideas to share. It will be fun to add to the list.

First by-law meeting is set

Please join us at Meadow Creek Elementary School for our first by-law meeting for the HEB Spanish Immersion Booster Club. 

The meeting will take place Tuesday, February 3rd at 6:30 to 8:00 PM in the cafeteria.

I created a rough draft of by-laws that have many questions that need to be answered as of yet. Please look it over and let me know your thoughts. I will warn you...it's 14 pages long.

Thank you for your time!

Karin Bunton