Minutes of the
HHSAA Meeting on March 24, 2007 (2nd meeting)

Meeting held at the offices of Keller-Williams, 23670 Hawthorne Blvd #101, Torrance, CA

In attendance: Clark Millman 76, John Baker 62, Laura Wang 76, Sharon Branigan 76, Don DiTomasso 75, Richard Witte 69, Ray Millman 71, Beverly Bierman 50.

The meeting was called to order by Clark Millman at 12:30 pm.

Clark brought attention to the old HHS trophies that he had rescued from the rafters at the school. He, Laura Wang and Don DiTomasso had spent an afternoon cleaning and restoring many of the trophies that had been salvaged. Some trophies were broken or beyond repair. The trophies that had been rescued were on display at the meeting and all were encouraged to take a few minutes after the meeting to view them. Clark indicated that Banning High School wood shop will build a trophy case as a senior project. They are working with Clark on items such as materials and specs. Beverly recommended a written listing of trophies which could be framed and hung over the cases. This idea was met with approval from the group.

John Baker was invited forward to share his thoughts on the relationship between the HHSAA and Cougartown.com. He inquired what HHSAA members would like to see on Cougartown? Richard Witte suggested a "Heritage/Traditions" page which could recall some of the old traditions such as a "pinning ceremony"; the "turning of the class ring" when you move from Junior to Senior year and then you could enter Senior Square; Knights and Diaconians; and requested that Cougartown members and readers send in their recollections of traditions to be added to the page.

At this time Clark introduced our guest speaker Ms. Joy Bramlette, Principal of HHS. Ms. Bramlette spoke about the recent "riot" at the school in detail. Her conclusion was that there were a lot of different things happening at once, that there is some tension among the different cultures of students on campus, and that due to a miscommunication between Law Enforcement agencies, police incorrectly believed that an officer had been injured or was in severe danger on campus. The event was perceived to be a bigger deal than it actually was. In the end some students were arrested for throwing bottles at police. The good news is that the schools can work with local law enforcement to avoid these problems in the future. Part of the problem in controlling the crowd came in the form of an ancient and inadequate PA and phone system at the school. It takes 8 ½ hours to get a phone message out to all students homes.

Clark inquired if Ms. Bramlette had any ideas of what HHSAA could do to improve the school. Ms. Bramlette indicated the following improvements are needed:

• Improvement/upgrade of the telephone and PA systems.
• Awnings need to be built over the outdoor area for lunch tables. There are 2700 students at the school and the current covered seating areas are not sufficient to offer shelter during rain or hot weather.
• Fundraising: the most effective way to fundraise is to encourage all Cougartowners to participate in the Scrip and Grocery Store support programs. HHS currently belongs to the Escrip program (Vons grocery stores and other supporting vendors) and Target Stores. It does not cost the supporters (Cougartowners) any money to participate in these programs. They just need to register their Vons, Target, credit or debit cards with the program, and the school is automatically awarded funding by the stores. John agreed that Cougartown would help enlist supporters to join the scrip fundraising program.

Another thing Ms. Bramlette would like to do is organize a school carnival on campus for the seniors, at the end of the school year. Something to help the youth appreciate the school and to remember their old school fondly.

Ms. Bramlette sincerely thanked the HHSAA members for their caring and concern to want to get involved in improving the school experience for HHS students today.

Clark then introduced the subject of an "Alumni Hall of Fame" that would list famous and/or successful HHS alumni on a board to be displayed in the cafeteria. Clark moved that HHSAA initiate an Alumni Hall of Fame with the following names:

• Ron Mix: HHS Class of 1957. Football Lineman for USC, Los Angeles/San Diego Chargers, and Oakland Raiders. NFL Hall of Fame.
• The Beach Boys: Brian, Carl, Dennis Wilson, and Al Jardine. Popularized California "Surf" music. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
• Mike Scott: HHS class of 1973. Professional Baseball pitcher with the New York Mets and Houston Astros. Cy Young Award winner.
• Tom Fowler: HHS Class of 1975. Medical doctor and member of Doctors Without Borders. Also walked on to the UCLA football team and saw playing time.
• Curtis Conway : HHS Class of 1988. Football receiver for USC and NFL football player.
• Michael Graham, Mike Marsh, Sean Kelly and Henry Thomas: 1985 National record holding mile relay team. Ran 307.4 in 1985 and the national record still stands as of today. Marsh went on to win a silver medal in the 200 meters in the 1992 Olympics and a gold medal in the 4x100 in the same Olympics.

• Ted Gioia: HHS 75 - pre-eminent American authority on jazz music. Published author on the subject.
• John Baker: HHS 62 - developer and founder of Cougartown.com website, the best darn high school alumni website in the world.
• Scott Laidlaw: HHS 71 - running back for Stanford and the Dallas Cowboys; won a Super Bowl game while playing for Dallas.

Clark also requested that we organize a campus beautification day at the end up summer to help clean up the campus and bring some school pride to the students.
Richard Witte remarked that perhaps we could help get a PA system for the campus as well.
Clark requested that Cougartown advertise and sponsor an Alumni Homecoming event at Homecoming in the fall, perhaps we could have a dinner in the cafeteria and then watch the football game.
All agreed this would be a good idea to plan.
The next meeting is May 19 at HHS, room to be determined, Clark will arrange the location and advise.
Meeting was adjourned at 2:15 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Sharon Branigan
HHSAA Secretary