Robert E. Lee High School Project Graduation 2011 Thursday ...

Robert E. Lee High School
Project Graduation 2011
Thursday, October 21, 2010 at 7:30 in the REL Cafeteria
Meeting Minutes
1. Conducted the first project graduation meeting after senior night in efforts to increase participation.
Approximately 25 attended the meeting. Introduced Frankie Jackson, Trisha Grosjean, and Gloria
Epperson as project graduation coordinators that have begun some initial work on the project.
2. Discussed the project graduation event. The event will take place on REL Graduation Day, Thursday,
June 2, 2011 - immediately following the graduation ceremony.
3. Talked about the goals for project graduation from a parent’s perspective, as follows:
a. Parents want a safe event for all students to participate in after graduation.
b. Parents want Lee students to have the same opportunity in a project graduation event, as GCM
and Sterling students.
c. Parents want to do whatever possible to attract as many students to participate in the event by
making it fun and affordable.
d. Parents want students to have a memorable event to recall as their last night with high school
friends.
4. Talked about the successes and not-so-successes of past Project Graduations.
a. Gloria Epperson talked about last year’s project graduation 2009, with highlights as follows:
The event was held at Gentry. About 25% of the students participated.
Those that attended had fun. Had a variety of fun things to do including: big blowout
mazes and obstacle courses, money cage, volleyball, hypnotists, gambling, etc.
The event cost around $30K, with $400, allocated for the Gentry location.
No disadvantages were expressed.
b. Frankie Jackson talked about project graduation 2008:
The event was held at Main Event in League City. About 40% of the students
participated.
Because the event was held out of town, students felt very special being provided a
unique opportunity.
The event cost around $75K, with $30K allocated for the Main Event location.
Disadvantages were expressed:
The main event is not as big as it appears. The line to get into laser tag was 1-2
hours. Wait time for a bowling alley lanes was 1 hour. Students ran out of tokens

early so by mid-evening, there was nothing left to do. Students were tired and
sitting around on the cafeteria booths waiting on buses to leave.
The food was not good, which included: chips and sauce, pizza, chicken nuggets,
cookies, and doughnuts.
The event was very expensive – the committee worked tirelessly for the money.
Getting kids on the bus to transport them there was a big responsibility.
The buses returned at 6:00 a.m. and by the time gifts were picked up, it was
almost 9:00 a.m. and everyone was exhausted.
5. Discussed the location of project graduation at Gentry, as a proposal. GCM plans to have theirs at their
school, as well as Sterling. Decided to make a final decision and consider all options at the next
meeting.
6. Assessed the budget needed for the project graduation event:
7. Updated fundraising activities that are currently underway:
a. Hoodies
b. Donation Letters to all Baytown Expo participants
c. Goosed by a Gander
d. Coke sales
8. Other fundraising activities discussed include: flip flops, t-shirts, enchilada plates, barbeque, Astros
game, Lee’s got talent, powder puff, photography, pizza, and outback coupons. Solicited leaders to
coordinate each activity.
9. Worked to get commitments to fill project graduation committee leadership positions. The following
was discussed and will be formally voted on at the next meeting.
Position
Co-Chairman
Co-Chairman
Event Coordinator
Secretary
Treasurer
Website Webmaster and Communication Coordinator
Fundraiser Chairman
Trisha Grosjean
Frankie Jackson
Randy King
Gloria Epperson
Name
************** NEXT MEETING: November 9, 2010 (Tuesday) at 6:30 in Lee Library ****************