Bohemian Soul Benefit for John Muir School

Music, Dance & Dinner - Sunday, March 7, 2010 6pm - ?

$10-25 sliding scale - Age 14 years and under $5

Bohemia Gallery, 310 Oak Street, Ashland, OR

541-821-4861

School Improvement Survey link:

http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/?p=WEB22A6JH4STED

John Muir School

COMMUNITY GARDEN GROUP

Planning Meeting of January 24, 2010

Standing Stone Brewery 3-5 P.M.

Attended by Patti Ruiz, Pete Cotton, Tina Marie Springer and Bret Schumacher of Transition Town (invited by Pete) - First draft of meeting minutes below

ITEM #1 Review of 2009 garden experience – our second year

Changing the garden beds parallel was a success

Moving the Pumpkins to the East end of the garden was partially successful. The gophers populated that end of the garden as it was drier  this resulted in some stunted  & destroyed plants.

Designating path areas was positive. Needs to be better defined to keep growing plants from spilling over into the space.

TID watering schedule of M-W-F from 4-8pm continues to be successful.

The school classroom involvement last year was less, but it was generally felt the organizational structure surrounding the garden project needs to be formalized enabling teachers, students and parents to better plan and participate.

The use of city water via the hose was utilized in conjunction with TID flood irrigation more effectively last year.

The blackberries were wonderful last year! Both Tina and Pete actively pruned them during the year.

The heavy straw mulch was a mixed success. It did keep weeds down. It was not as clean as the first year and so created it’s own weeds. Also, because the troughs were much longer and the flood irrigation water pressure not as great, the mulch often blocked the troughs - sometimes stopping the water completely. Patti reported shuffling her feet through the troughs and lifting out the mulch out helped facilitate water flow in the community garden areas.

There was some confusion about what was planted where in the early part of the year. Better post marking for the upcoming year along with clearly marking the sections with string was a favored remedy to this problem.

The TID flood irrigation watering was more easily done by one person. The large amount of water leaking at pipe joints is of concern. It was generally felt we could expect a better yield if we control/eliminate leaks at pipe joints. This would reduce the amount of water wasted and ensure the areas around the pipe joints stays watered consistently. Right now the areas are slowly saturated eventually flooded to the detriment of the plantings.

Soil erosion where the water emerges from the irrigation tubing was better controlled last year, but remains an issue.

It is generally felt we would have significantly higher yields and be able to plant earlier if we establish an overhead sprinkling system in about three stationary places hopefully allowing use of both the city and TID watering options.

Patti feels refining the JMS community garden watering system is THE priority for the months ahead. We need to plan a better system and find funding resources.

ITEM #2 - LOOKING AHEAD:

The JMS has been invited to participate in the farm to school program if it is officially launched in conjunction with or in place of SODEXO.

Transition town has asked to partner with us as well. Mr. Schumacher attended the meeting and had many helpful insights.

IF we are to expand into the community, we will need to organize & expand our management and maximize harvest yields.

Perhaps having subgroups in charge of on-going maintenance is the answer.  For example, weeding, watering, trenching, thinning.   Setting up specific days for the entire community to come together was suggested for large scale bedding prep, community weeding days (make it a pot luck), harvesting parties and canning clutches.  The goal is to make the garden a bigger and better "community."

ITEM #3 – ACTION ITEMS

Pete Cotton will contact the Wilderness school and any other service learning organization with people resources of like (NOTE: See recent email on his success) He will also map the entire garden

Patti will contact the City to discuss ways to better utilize the city water during the summer. She will also check in with the Farm-School people for a status report.

Patti will contact Scott McGuire to bring him up to date, discuss the watering system, and weed suppression. She will also put together a tentative calendar of events for garden prep through fall harvesting

Tina will investigate grant monies and other types of funding opportunities

Next meeting end of February or first week in March.

Patti 482-2826 

Yearbook Update

Kids found out that it will be $15 per book for printing at printfast

The Yearbook would not be a hardbound, would be spiral and soft paper. Looking for recycled glossy paper. Haven’t looked online yet. Suggestion was made to look into Medford company and online printing sources. $15 is the highest price we think it will be for the yearbook.

There was a discussion about different types of paper to use, and making space for the kids to do their own artwork and sign on the book

There was discussion about who would do the layout. One parent talked about needing the design program, so the kids can be photoshopping photos and parent could help. Photoshop and Indesign are what would work best. There was discussion about using a webbased program – is there anything like that? Nobody knew of any. Suggestion was made to contact Tara Cottle, who is our tech contact person. Email is Tara.Cottle at the schools email.

There was discussion about having a yearbook committee and working out the design details in committee. Also, there might need to be a scholarship fund for those kids that can’t afford the cost.

Reimbursement – Marcia

Marcia wants to buy a hand wash station up at EarthTeach, it’s about $40, a hands free setup. Also, with her study of ancient India, she’s working on taking kids to Three Rivers, she ends up putting her own money in because not all students turn in money. He’ll do lunch for the kids for about $5. Finally, she wants to hire her partner back to reinstall the old handrails to the loft – a piece of art – so it can be installed somewhere in the school or courtyard. It is just collecting dust in the staffroom. It should be about a couple hundred dollars for the powder coating and other materials, labor would be donated.

A parent advocated we do that. Pat suggested it might be good outside the music room windows.

Vote to approve all three, all passed.

Treasurer – Lauren

Lauren is willing to be treasurer for next full year.

Secretary – Jennie & Tracy

Jennie & Tracy committed to sharing the secretary position. Jennie is primary and Trace will be backup.

School Board Meeting –

There was a letter presented at the School Board meeting expressing support for Doug and just asking for more of Doug’s time. Our appreciation for Doug was noted, and there was an opportunity to dismiss the notion that John Muir doesn’t care about academic standards. Juli DiChiro made some positive and supportive remarks about John Muir school, she was very supportive about Doug remaining in our principal’s role and an expansion of that support.

Site Council Update

The site council met last week. The big thing is what to base the school improvement plan on. The site council decided they wanted a much more holistic approach to student improvement that goes beyond just state tests. Doug investigated and found that John Muir students are out performing non-JM students at the high school. They also decided they wanted to highlight what makes JM special. One of the outcomes of that, in addition to Doug’s work, is to look at a “growth portfolio” to analyze what the strengths are in the curriculum, and looking at making the portfolio electronic.

Patti Ruiz presented a draft survey that the Site Committee has prepared, for the purpose of determining what our core values are, and then how those are reflected in our education and improvement plan.

The district owns a survey tool that will allow for feedback and anonymity.

The purpose of the survey is to inform the site council so they can make decisions about the school improvement plan, so those values will be incorporated into the school improvement plan.

Patti discussed the survey and the rankings. Patti said the goal will be to make the survey as comprehensive as possible and also allow comments or completion of an essay part. It was discussed that having a comment section after each category would be a good idea.

Measure 66 & 67 –

There was discussion about Measure 66 & 67 and what it would mean. After a 3.5 million cut last year, we’re looking at another million plus cut if the measures don’t go through. This could mean that school year could be reduced by another 3 weeks. One parent pointed out that Oregon kids go to school the least out of any state in the Country. And it could mean much larger class sizes than we have now.

Farm/Food Survey –

Trace talked about surveying kids and parents for the farm to food program. There was a discussion about how to reach everybody and get 100% participation from the JM community.

The farm to food committee has to have their final report to the district by March because that is when the Sodexho contract expires.

There was a request to include the farm/food survey, which is only 3 questions, into the site council survey.

There was a discussion about trying to survey JM kids and parents, the whole community, within 1 week.

Sock Hop –

There was discussion about the Sock Hop and making a final push before the sock hop – only 10 days to go!

Parent Participation, Suggestion Box

Christiana said some parents have approached her about parent comments and some not feeling comfortable with direct communication, and having a parent suggestion box. There was general discussion that anonymous communication does not foster open dialogue, which is what John Muir wants to promote.

Class Liaisons are Pat’s class - Christiana and Katherine

Marcia’s class – Lysa McDowell

Camille’s class – Katy and

Matt’s class – Grant Ruiz

Email Communication

Financial Update – Lauren gave financial report. See attached financial report

Announcements

PTC approves hiring of Tim Brandy for our field trip to Klamath Falls.