3/12/2020 Held via conference call Mr White shared an agenda which will be sent out along with these minutes and made available on our website. *Coronavirus has resulted in cancellations of upcoming events, including the dance on 3/20 which would have been a fundraiser for us via concessions sales. *Mr. White proposes some in-school field trips. These can be pushed out on the calendar as needed, even well into May. We would love parents to reach out to folks in their circles who might be interested in coming to Ligon to share their knowledge and experiences with students. Mr. White envisions a 2-day event going from 2nd-7th periods: a 2 hour presentation/activity followed by pizza and then another 2-hour block. This would be for about 50 students. Please reach out to Mr. White with any contacts, including those in public service (e.g., firefighters, police officers) who use technology in ways we might not have realized. *Financial status of the club is good (see agenda) * New family reception - this is traditionally combined with our final PIE club meeting of the year and we’d like to do the same this year. Date TBD, likely pushed into late May. * trip ideas for 2020-21: Atlanta, see sample itinerary, estimated cost ~$460 per student. April 2021 would be the ideal month but it is the ideal month for lots of schools and groups so those slots book up early. Spring Break 2021 is at the end of March so that gives us a little more time in April to work with. Given the current uncertainty regarding school travel and schedules, we will have to discuss further at future meetings. Would be great to discuss with new, incoming families at May meeting/reception. * New family recruitment - Mr. White will provide board members with a brief description of the MSEN elective program for us all to share with rising 6th grade families via elementary school PTAs and counselors. * Chris McLeod (president/chair) and Jennifer Bell (treasurer) have been OUTSTANDING in their contributions to and support of the PIE club; alas, their children are moving on from Ligon after this year. Descriptions of the duties for those positions are included in the agenda. Board will continue to reach out and publicize these needs. Related, Jennifer Bell asked about continuing MSEN at Enloe - if you & your student are interested, you may wish to speak to Mr. White and her to help get things moving!
January 09, 2020
Results from STEM Fair
1st Place: Arnez Thevin for his work on Virtual Reality
2nd Place: Zara Kemp for her expose on How the World Will End
3rd Place: Aiden Potter for his work on a portable heart monitor
Honorable Mention Awards:
Carsten Lyons for exceptional neatness
Nolan McInnis for orginiality
Sophia Quinter for Creative Engineering
Noah Ngam, best oral presenter
Saturday Academy
Dates are 1/11, 1/18, 2/8, 2/15, 2/22. These dates students should bring writing instrument & something to write on. Attendance is extremely important. Lunch will be available for purchase, provided by one of the participating schools' PIE clubs, and all will have a $5 meal option. Typical offerings include Chik-Fil-A, hot dogs, etc. It is also ok for students to bring their own lunch.
Mini-Run-Off 2/29 at Friday Institute - a competition for engineering, math, and science amongst the NCSU MSEN program participants. Mr. White will be discussing this with students in class. Winners of this competition go to statewide competition (MSEN Day) at Elizabeth City State University on 3/28/2020.
We will be providing and serving concessions on 2/15 and 2/29. This is a way for us to raise funds to reduce the cost of field trips. Signups have been created and are live on the Volunteer page.
School Dances
As another fundraiser, we will be providing and staffing concessions at the Winterland (January 17) and Spring (March 20) Ligon school dances. Signups to donate items or staff the booth (ideally 4 adults) are live on the Volunteer page.
Field Trips
SAS 02/26/2020 - Mr. White will drive, $270 covers cost of subs, students should bring money for a lunch stop.
Executive Airport 03/20/2020 - Mr. White will drive, $270 covers cost of subs, students should bring money for a lunch stop.
Haw River 04/14-15, 2020
$1436 cost of coach
$660 cost of subs
$100 per student for activities
If 44 students attend, cost per student is $148. Need at least 20 students to make the trip work. There is the potential for concessions receipts to lower the cost of these trips - TBD. IMPORTANT: if any of the trips are cost prohibitive for a family, please speak directly with Mr. White and it will be worked out with discretion.
Mr. White will send out permission slips for all 3 trips Tuesday 1/14.
NOVEMBER 14, 2019
FIELD TRIPS
Field trips are currently on hold due to Ligon Principal transition process. New Principal (Mr. Duvall) first day is 12/2/2019. Mr. White has already been in contact with Mr. Duvall and plans to work to expedite field trip approvals ASAP.
There is no concern about the local field trips (SAS, RDU, Cisco), though they will likely happen in 2020.
Proposed Atlanta trip:Mr. White has been in contact with NCSU about potentially sponsoring this trip for our students. Advantages of going through NCSU:
We are covered under their insurance/liability policies,
Don’t have to get State Board Approval (just educational excused absence approval from principal)
More flexibility in dates: State Board doesn’t generally approve trips in May due to concerns about conflicts with testing. However, Mr. White has looked at testing calendars and Ligon testing doesn’t start until June. Further, tour companies book up for March & April trips rather quickly, making May perhaps the only viable option.
Due to the trip being over $5000, NCSU requires a bidding process (and NCSU would take care of this). Consensus was to give NCSU the go-ahead to start this process. While it does add lead time to the process, we are already on hold with the administrative transition as it is.
There is the possibility that due to these delays, the Atlanta trip may not happen - tour companies may book up. Mr. White will do some research about potential other, closer, perhaps one-night trips instead of Atlanta. He feels strongly that any trip should be STEM focused.
FUNDRAISING
The Saturday Academy which was valiantly last-minute staffed and stocked by volunteers (THANK YOU!) sadly was not a huge financial success. Good news: we did not lose money. Bad news: profit was $17. There were far fewer students than usual and we had too many pizzas in anticipation of the usual crowd.
Our next Saturday Academy concessions date is TBD, Mr. White thinks in February - however, there was an email regarding some date changes that went out just prior to this meeting. Mr. White will check in with NCSU and communicate our concessions date ASAP.
There are no more school dances this calendar year; the next is in January. Signupgenius for that dance is on the volunteer section of the website.
SATURDAY ACADEMY
If parents are not receiving NCSU MSEN email communications, they should contact Mr. Braska Williams: [email protected] .
The dates for Ligon MSEN elective students to attend Saturday Academy at NCSU communicated in the most recent email are:
January 11 & 18, 2020 February 8 & 15, 2020
February 22, 2020 is STEM Day, which Mr. White indicated is similar to a career fair but focused on STEM careers.
MSEN ELECTIVE STEM FAIR
STEM Fair will happen December 11, 2019 from 6-8pm. Students should arrive by 5:45 to set up; judging begins at 6. The event will take place in the cafeteria. Students will be split into two groups; half will stay with their projects and present/speak about/answer questions from the judges, parents, and their classmates. Then the groups will switch so everyone has a chance to see their classmates’ projects.
The rubric is under review and revision with an updated one expected Monday 11/18. The same rubric will be used for judging and grading, however the student’s grade on the project will not be solely based on the score from the rubric. Mr. White will take additional factors into consideration for the project grade.
Students will have class time to work on their projects and are encouraged to speak with Mr. White with any concerns, struggles, or questions. Students should have handed in and spoken with Mr. White about their proposed topic already. It is absolutely ok for the topic to change as research and work gets underway - students should speak to Mr. White if this happens so he’s aware and can offer guidance as needed. In addition, if students encounter obstacles and failures, that is part of the process as well - document them and include them as part of the project.
October 10, 2019
Proposed Atlanta field trip
Friday-Sunday 6/8-10 (this date might change given Mother's Day weekend)
$436 per student, quad occupancy, based on 49 participants
includes tours of: GA Tech, Aquarium, MLK Center, Coke Museum, CNN, Varsity
STEM Fair December 11, information will be given to students in class 11/4
some discussion about reorganizing prizes and rubrics, possibly having separate criteria for prizes vs grade
discussion about outside volunteers coming in during class time to assist students with their projects
September 6, 2019
Trips
Coming back around to the options discussed at the end of 2018-19 school year, the two frontrunners for the “big” trip in the Spring were as follows
Orlando, to include Disney & Kennedy Space Center. Estimate for a 3 day trip was $637 per person, assuming 45 participants and quad hotel occupancy. Bus travel. Elyse looked into an air travel option and received a quote of over $2000 per person.
Atlanta, with the City Pass program to allow for several different places to visit. With the shorter travel time, this could allow for one activity on each of the travel days as well. Estimate was $425 per person (again, assuming 45 participants).
Mr. White will be in touch with NCSU MSEN program about sponsoring the field trip. Reason: don’t have to go through WCPSS school board, don’t have to be on their insurance. NCSU would provide liability insurance coverage.
Board decided to go with Atlanta as our proposed trip, based on cost and value. With Florida, participants would spend more time in transit than engaged in activities. April 24 2020 weekend is the proposed date.
In order to get closer to the targeted number of participants (and therefore keep the per person cost from increasing), spots on this trip may be opened up to a) non MSEN Ligon students and b) non Ligon MSEN students.
Discussion about field trip expenses and whether cost is prohibitive to participation. Mr. White has communicated to students and families to speak with him, in confidence, if finances are an issue so that he can coordinate assistance. Not much/any response last year. Elyse suggested an anonymous survey to determine if families need partial or full assistance in order to participate in field trips and volunteered to create one.
Smaller field trips:
Second Quarter to RDU, Lloyd Lyons (MSEN parent) to speak about piloting
Third Quarter, late Jan/early Feb to SAS
Fundraising
Discussion about whether we should engage in additional fundraising activities beyond the concessions at dances and Saturday Academy. Consensus was no.
Other
STEM fair date - proposed (and supported) move to December 11. This will be in lieu of a monthly MSEN PIE club meeting.
May 10, 2019
Celebrations for 2018-2019
School Trips - D.C., Charlotte and UNC Chapel Hill
Non-profit status
Raising over $6000 via fundraising (highest ever)
Board Member Recruits - Welcome to Elyse Lyons and Jennifer Marks
New Teacher Recruit - we will have 3 teachers involved with MSEN next year
Graduating some exceptional students that participated in Ligon MSEN
New families coming into MSEN
Financial Report: Current bank balance is $694 (not including $60 seed money for concessions)
During the next meeting (Sept. 12) we will vote on our trips for next school year. The trips being considered are: Atlanta (city pass), Kennedy Space Center in FL, Duke Lemur Center and visiting SAS
Parents are encouraged to look for sponsors to enhance our fundraising for next year.
April 11, 2019
Non-Profit Status: We are now fully registered and approved by the State. Final IRS documents are being completed and then we will give out our tax id to everyone.
Financial Report: Current bank balance is $858 (not including $60 seed money for concessions)
MSEN Day and Mini-Run-Off have been cancelled
Deadline for applying to the MSEN program is the end of the school year
Trip ideas being considered for next year: Atlanta (city pass), Kennedy Space Center in FL and visiting SAS
Last school dance: We will run concessions at the last school dance on May 10. A signups for food donations and volunteers can be found here
NCSU MSEN Awards Ceremony: May 4, 2019
Next MSEN PIE meetings: Our next meeting will be on May 9 which is our final meeting of this year (and our new family reception/celebrating our 8th graders). Bring your kids to this event as we will have light refreshments as well as vote on next year's trips.
February 21, 2019
New Board Members: We are pleased to announce Elyse Johnson and Jennifer Marks have volunteered to serve on the MSEN PIE board as VP and Secretary respectively. We are thrilled to have their leadership and talents.
Non-Profit Status: Now that we have a full board the non-profit paperwork has been submitted. As soon as we are notified of the status we will notify everyone.
Financial Report: Current bank balance is $951 (not including $60 seed money for concessions or additional DC trip payments).
MSEN Day and Mini-Run-Off: Both of these events have been cancelled so the last Saturday Academy will be February 23.
The last field trip of the year will be April 12 to Discovery Place in Charlotte.
Field trip ideas for next year: We are taking ideas for next year's field trips. Please email [email protected] if you would like to submit an idea.
March MSEN recruitment: March will begin the time when new students/families apply for to the MSEN program. We will have hard copy and electronic copies of the application soon. If you know a child that would like to participate please encourage them to apply.
Last school dance: We will run concessions at the last school dance on May 10. A signup genius will be coming out soon so please signup to volunteer.
Next MSEN PIE meetings: Our next meeting will be on April 11 with our final meeting of this year (and our new family reception/celebrating our 8th graders) will take place May 9. *Please note we will NOT have a MSEN PIE meeting in March.
January 10, 2019
Non-Profit Status: We need one more volunteer for Vice Chair in order to complete our non-profit status paperwork. We would prefer a 6th grade parent as the majority of the current officers are 7th grade parents. The duties of Vice Chair include helping coordinate meetings, volunteers and donations along with other items as needed. If you are interested please contact Chris McLeod at [email protected]
Financial Report: Current bank balance is $2918.44 (not including $80 seed money for concessions). $300 were raised via doughnut sales.
STEM Fair Results: Two first place winners each received $100 and second place $75 with third place receiving $50. The first place winners were sixth graders with second and third place represented from the eighth grade.
Saturday Academy: Dates are Jan. 12 and 26; Feb. 2, 16 and 23; MSEN Day Mini-Run-Off March 2. Our club will be serving lunch during the Feb. 23 and March 2 Saturday Academy. If you would like to volunteer and/or donate food please follow this link.
School Trips: UNC Chapel Hill Feb. 7; Washington DC Feb. 14-15; Discovery Place April 12.
Next PIE Club Meeting: Feb. 21 due to the Washington DC field trip.