Present: Don Berger-chair, Bob Roth-parent, Denise Goodman-parent/staff member, Dot Rosenbaum-parent

Guest: Tanya Lucas-Development Coordinator to discuss "Guide to Parent Involvement"

Don Berger called meeting to order at 4:05 p.m.

The committee reviewed with Tanya the most recent draft of the "Guide." A few suggestions were made and discussed. Except for the section "Giving", consensus was reached. The committee recommended the section on "Giving" be revised to stress the important role parents have in this aspect of the school. It was decided that Tanya and Don would make further recommendations via e-mail to the committee members. The goal is completion of the "Guide" in a timely fashion to facilitate including it with the admission acceptance mailing.

After completion of this topic, Don brought up the two major goals the committee needs to work on the remainder of this year.

1. How to best facilitate communication with parents.
2. How to increase parent involvement in the Cary Academy Community.

The focus of the remainder of the meeting was how to best facilitate communications with parents in regards to the use of the Cary Academy Intranet. The parent population under utilizes this tool that offers so much information. Discussion followed about the rationale for this. Suggestions included

• That the 15-20 % of the parents that go onto the system on a regular basis, is the same percentage of parents that would read hard copy information.
• That the technology is not being used because the parents need more education about how to use it.
• That many people who are barraged with e-mail have conditioned themselves to be very selective in reading it.

Strategies suggested included:

• More training on the Cary Academy Intranet. Maybe a special evening course on navigating the Intranet.
• Restructure orientation night to include more information on the use of the Intranet.
• In the orientation process, stress the importance of parents reading the monthly mailings and other information that comes from the school either on line or hard copy.
• Try to obtain more information on why parents do not access the information on the Intranet more frequently.

1. In the annual survey ask how often parents read the monthly mailing and how thoroughly.
2. In the annual survey ask if parents would prefer hard copy to on-line mailing.
3. In the annual survey ask how Cary Academy can most effectively get out information that they will read.

• Check with the Informational Services Department at Cary Academy to see how often the help desk is used by parents and what type of questions they have. Include these problems with any training.

The meeting was adjourned at 5:15 p.m. The next meeting is scheduled for Monday, February 5, 2001 at 4:00 p.m.