This month’s Parent Teacher Student Association meeting marked the annual election of next year’s PTSA board, which resulted in a unanimous sweep for all candidates.
The PTSA board for the 2025-2026 school years will have the members: Veronica Yap as President, Kelly Smith as Executive Vice President, Emily Cravens as Vice President of Membership, Michelle Gohl as Treasurer, Mina Carson as Secretary, Laura Gates as Financial Reviewer and Nicki Townsend as Historian.
Yap, the current PTSA president, called the meeting to order a little past 5:30 p.m. on March 18, 2025. All members of the current PTSA board were present along with a handful of other members and school officials. Dr. Mahindrakar and Ms. Ross were both in attendance.
The first item on this meeting’s agenda was the election of the PTSA Board for the 2025-2026 election.
To begin, Mrs. Yap went through the list of all nominees for each position, and asked if any other members wanted to nominate another member from the floor for a position as well. No members chose to do so, leaving only a single candidate for each office.
The vote in favour of a candidate was verbal, members could cast their vote in favor by saying “Aye.” When all names were read for the official election, all members in attendance said “Aye” and none opposed.
This slate was chosen prior to the election by members of the PTSA. On January 9, 2025, members of the Nominating Committee of the ANHS PTSA met to consider all eligible candidates for the upcoming year’s term of office. This committee’s prior inspection and agreement on this year’s candidates is likely why the election was such a landslide for all positions.
After the overwhelming agreement for the election, Mrs. Yap jokes, “I won’t name them again. You all know[them].”
After the election, the meeting shifted into other school specific topics.
Most notably, Dr. Mahindrakar gave his President’s report to the entire PTSA. From his address, the most important topics were concerning the changes to how the school will handle the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress tests that will take place for juniors after Spring Break.
The CAASPP is a standardized test that all juniors must take during the weeks preceding Spring Break.
This year, a grade bump will be offered to students who achieve a three or four (reaching or exceeding state standards) on their CAASPP test. The bump would change a grade by a noticeable amount, being described as increasing a B to a B+ and a B+ to an A.
Importantly, a failing student will not receive a passing grade due to the grade bump.
Other high schools are also providing similar grade boosts to incentivize some students to do their best on the tests, rather than breeze through the week.
The accuracy of the tests are crucial to properly gauge the ability of the school to teach its students at a level deemed to be the standard by the state of California.
However, the altered grade will not go into effect on a student’s official transcript until the results of the CAASPP are released, in the fall of the following school year. Luckily, the release date will be before next year’s seniors will have to start submitting their full transcripts to colleges.
At the end of the meeting, Dr. Mahindrakar remarked, “I am really thankful that we have all these parents that come and invest in our school…we’re really lucky at Aliso Niguel, we have a lot of parental involvement.”
March’s PTSA meeting was a major success, revealing the members of next year’s PTSA board and important updates on the CAASPP testing.
