East High United - June 2 meeting outcomes

Madison East High School parents, staff, and community members have been working since the beginning of 2005 to create an advocacy and support organization for this key East side school. The group was named at the June 2 meeting:

EAST HIGH UNITED
A parent-teacher-staff-student-community organization

The organization meets as a whole in the East High School cafeteria on the second Thursday of each month. (There is no July meeting, the next meeting is August 11).

In addition, working groups focussed on specific initiatives meet at a time agreed upon by members of those groups. A list of existing and emerging working groups is contained in this report from the June 2 meeting.

OUTCOMES - JUNE 2 MEETING

(NOTE: Several important announcements that are included at the end of this message along with names of people who have stepped forward to serve as contacts for several working groups that are being formed around specific initiatives.)

1. WE HAVE A NAME!!!

The lack of a name has been challenging for people trying to promote our fledgling organization, in efforts to build visibility with district administration and board members, etc. After some discussion, participants in the June 2 meeting decided to name the organization:

EAST HIGH UNITED
A parent-teacher-staff-student-community organization

The short version will be "East High United," but we will use the tag line to affirm our commitment to have membership open to anyone with a commitment to advocating for and supporting East High School.

2. NEXT MEETING

Thursday, August 11, 7 PM, East High Cafeteria

That meeting will focus on:

1) opportunities for visibility for East High United and its working groups during Freshman Orientation and during Registration Week in August, and

2) How might the issues identified by parents and staff in the March and April meetings be addressed in an East School Improvement Plan? How can our working groups contribute to development and implementation of a successful plan?

3. UPCOMING LISTENING SESSIONS WITH OUR NEW PRINCIPAL

Alan Harris, our new principal, will be holding listening sessions for parents and community members over the summer. The times and places of those sessions are being determined. At this time, there are two listening sessions scheduled in June for Latino/a parents and Hmong parents.

6/15 - 7:00 - Latino/a parents
EHS cafeteria

6/22 - 7:30 - Hmong parents
EHS cafeteria

There will be another session for African American parents, and sessions for any member of the East High community. The dates, times, places of those sessions will be announced when they are available.

4. SHERMAN MIDDLE SCHOOL STRINGS and BAND PROGRAMS

There was quite a bit of discussion about the announced changes in the Sherman Middle strings and band programs and larger questions regarding the future of fine arts in the East attendance area and the Madison school district at large.

Several parents were absent in order to attend a meeting at Sherman School regarding the changes there, and two parents came over to report in on the discussion at Sherman.

Additional information is available in the Wisconsin State Journal on-line archives at:

http://www.madison.com/archives/read.php?ref=wsj:2005:06:01:417576:LOCAL/WISCONSIN

In addition, several people have posted comments on the http://www.schoolinfosystem.org/ site (scroll down the page to find) regarding announced changes and the process through which the decision was made and communicated.

If you want to share questions or concerns with district administration and/or the school board on this issue, you are encouraged to attend the monthly Madison school board meeting (June 6, 7 PM, Doyle Building, McDaniel Auditorium) and/or send an e-mail to comments@madison.k12.wi.us.

5. EXISTING OR EMERGING WORKING GROUPS
In addition to resolving the name question, we identified several existing or emerging working groups around specific initiatives. NOTE: These groups meet at times and places that are MOST convenient to and agreed to by working group members. To form a working group around a change or issue that you would like to see addressed, please contact Lucy Mathiak at lucym@charter.net regarding your interests. Please contact the people listed to get involved with one or more of these new projects. This turned out to be a LONG list, so please read to the end to see what is happening!

VOLUNTEER COORDINATION
To ask for volunteer assistance or help connecting with volunteer opportunities at East, please contact:
David Mandehr, 257-1497, dmandehr@merr.com or dmandehr@madison.k12.wi.us

POSITIVE NEWS ABOUT EAST
This group formed earlier in the academic year and has been worrking to find and promot positive stories about East in the local media, from community news papers to the Madison dailies. To get involved contact:

Jeanette Riechers 249-0647, jriechers@aol.com
Allan Crossley 255-2706, wildmgr@sbcglobal.net
Kari Douglas mkdoug3g@charter.net

BUILDING AN INCLUSIVE ORGANIZATION - AFRICAN AMERICAN FOCUS
This group has been meeting on Sunday afternoons once a month to develop and use strategies to include members of the African American community in East High United. To date, efforts have included inviting the new principal to hold community listening sessions in neighborhood centers, connecting with members of the Sherman Middle School parents group who will be coming to East next year, and preliminary plans for a parent to parent potluck and welcome session at the beginning of the school year. To get involved, contact:

Angie Crawford 204-1609 acrawford@madison.k12.wi.us
Brenda Robinson 661-8157 bl.robinson@hosp.wisc.edu
Lucy Mathiak 255-0939 lucym@charter.net
Jill Jokela 241-2545 jjokela@sbcglobal.net
Abha Thakkar 661-0060 abha@northsideplanningcouncil.org

BUILDING AN INCLUSIVE ORGANIZATION - LATINO/A FOCUS
This is a very new initiative that is emerging from ESL staff at East. There will be a meeting at 3:30 on Wed., June 8, at East High School to talk about strategies and actions to include Latino/a families, particularly those for whom English is a second language, in East High United and its activities. To get involved, contact:

Blanca Cruz 204-1663 bcruz@madison.k12.wi.us
Joe Nigh 204-1633 jnigh@madison.k12.wi.us
Lucy Mathiak 255-0939 lucym@charter.net

STAFF LIAISON TO EAST HIGH UNITED

Theresa Calderon tcalderon@madison.k12.wi.us

SCHOOL CLIMATE
This group is just being formed and will work on goals, strategies, and actions, to address concerns regarding school climate. To get involved contact:

Jeff Leverich 241-3222 leverichj@weac.org

ACADEMIC PROGRAMS
This group is just being formed and will work on goals, strategies, and actions to ensure high academic standards and diversity in academic achievement at East. To get involved contact:

Jill Jokela 241-2545 jjokela@sbcglobal.net
Pat McDonald 204-1806 pmcdonald@madison.k12.wi.us

EAST HIGH UNITED GOVERNANCE AND STRUCTURE
This group met between the March and April meetings, and developed a proposed mission statement and structure for East High United, using ideas and input from parents, teachers and staff, from the March meeting. East High United has agreed to hold off on formalizing its structure and governance until the organization is more inclusive of all East communities, but we might expect to come back to governance and structure questions at some point in 2005-2006. To get involved, contact:

Jeff Leverich 241-3222 leverichj@weac.org
Joe Brogan 257-2010 kkowalik@wisc.edu
Lucy Mathiak 255-0939 lucym@charter.net

6. ANNOUNCEMENTS

In general: we started out in March with about 50 names on our e-mail list. The summaries and materials now go out to c. 150 e-mail addresses on the parent/community member list, 10 community organizations and neighborhood newsletters, everyone on the Parent Network e-mail list, some 200 members of the Booster Club, and over 260 faculty/staff at East High School.

_________________

ON-LINE INFORMATION ON EAST HIGH UNITED
Please check the Madison East High School Web site, including the calendar (Thanks Katie Johsnson!!!).

Updates and information will be posted on the School Information System site at http://www.schoolinfosystem.org/ (there is a menu pick on the left side of the page for PTO/A issues) as well.

_________________

EAST TO CELEBRATE 10 YEARS OF CERTIFIED NURSING ASSISTANT PROGRAM ON JUNE 9
NOTE: CNA program needs our advocacy and support

Dorothy Winger, who heads the CNA program, wrote:

I have an event occuring on June 9, 2:30-4pm in the LMC.

This is the ten year anniversary of the Certified Nursing Assistant
(CNA) program which is a part of the Family and Consumer Education
Department at East High.

The CNA program is an important step for
students interested in a career in health care. It is excellent
preparation for any student planning to go into a hands-on health care
career, but it is also now a requirement for entry into nursing schools
in Wisconsin. Our students are able to obtain their CNA while still in
high school, allowing them to decide if this is the right career path
for them before they invest in the college courses and allowing students
more immediate entry into the nursing programs.

Unlike those students trained at MATC, the East High CNA program is offered for free with
students only paying their $100 testing and certification fee to the
state. In the last ten years we have certified 160 CNA students.

On June 9 at 2:30-4pm will be holding the pinning ceremony for this semester's CNA students as well as welcoming back CNA graduates and instructors from the past ten years of the CNA program. We also invite others the attend the ceremony and show their support for the CNA program.

Milt McPike supported the program at its start in 1995-96 and has continued to advocate for CNA as a line-item in the budget since his retirement, but this is not yet a reality - we exist on only donations and grants which have become scarce. Funding for this program has been a struggle with the budget crunch faced by both schools and health care
institutions. Many nursing homes and hospitals have closed their CNA training programs with the recent changes in the certification and testing process and have stopped providing the lab and clinical nurse instructors for our program due to budget cuts.

Our demand for this program at East High has been strong. CNAs are constantly being hired in Madison as caregivers in nursing homes, hopitals, homecare, elder
care, and hospice care. Students obtaining certification are immediately employable at age 16 for $9 /hr jobs and their wages increase with experience and age to as much as $16 /hr.

This is a living wage that has helped our graduates pay their way through college and support their families. We are hoping that increased awareness of the program and its benefit to students and the community will encourage funding. Please help support our program through media attention or whatever means you feel are appropriate - and we'd love to have any of you attend!

Questions can be directed to:
Dottie Winger, CNA teacher
East High, Room 32 (and come check out our CNA lab!)
204-1666 classroom phone (8:15am-2:45pm)
770-0509 cell phone (2:45pm to evening)
833-9037 home phone (till 9:30pm and accepts messages)

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E-MAIL FROM JEAN NOTHNAGEL RE. "SERVICE E" INVOLVEMENT

Jean could not attend the June 2 meeting, but sent some thoughts about Service E at East. Please contact Jean at nothnjl@dhfs.state.wi.us if you have feedback/would like to work on this issue. Jean wrote:

I attended the Service E presentation last month, and I was very disappointed in seeing the decline in the number of students being recognized for their service work. In years past about 25% of all students were Service E recipients -- this year it I think it was barely over 10%.

Service E is the only non-academic pin that is worn on gowns at graduation, and I know students who really value that. Truly a recognition available to all students. And it is unique to East, which
should continue to be a source of pride.

I think some connection between PTO efforts could align with (what I see as a need for) invigoration of the Service E activity at school. I think it overlaps the "positive news" we would like to get out there, plus it partners us with students, teachers and staff.

Posted by Lucy Mathiak at June 5, 2005 2:09 PM
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