PTA Meeting Minutes 10-19-2016

PTA Presidents:

Upcoming Events:

SECB Character Day — dress up as favorite book character Friday, 10/28
School does not do Halloween costumes — not allowed to wear costumes on Monday. This is an alternative proposed by committee. Nothing scary, please, but you can do some fun dress-up.
Roots & Community celebration is Nov. 5. We still need people to sign up for pot luck and cultural tables.
Picture Day November 10th. Need some parents to help out — starts at 9am, goes to about 1pm.
Book Fair — tentative dates 15th and 16th of November. Volunteers needed for school-wide book fair.
November PTA meeting is Nov 16th, 8:30am in ICT cafeteria.

PTA Treasurer Update:

Doing well with Pizza Friday collection, Lice day went fine.

Assistant Principal Bridget:

Soccer tournaments for second graders happening now — doing other grades soon.
Social-emotional committee is looking for members — would love to have some more members.
Installing bike racks — three-phase process. 5th grade exit will have three bike racks. 3 south of that, and 3 at other side of garden.
Coding program — starting studios for fourth & fifth graders. pre-k through 3rd is also doing. Doing code.org. Takes coding language and makes it into fun activities — great for technology literacy.

PTA Presidents:

Morning Program — both Monkey Do Yoga and KING cancelled due to low enrollment. Morning Drop-off also cancelled due to low interest (only 10 or so families)
Valentine’s Day Dance — Saturday, February 11 chairperson needed! Cheri has done for 5 years. Usually there are two co-chairs doing it. Every detail is written up in a guide. It’s a school-wide event that everyone loves — it’s a fun evening. There is food, a DJ, goes until 9pm. We won’t have this event if we don’t find a chair!!
Would love to hear from people who are interested in the Executive Board — looking for someone to shadow the PTA president and treasurer.

Yvette’s Update:

Fifth grade Middle School orientation in cafeteria, Oct 25th in cafeteria, 8:30am. Reminder for 4th graders — keep track of attendance, latenesses — they look at that. Fourth grade parents can attend.
Second Cup of Coffee — program started for parents of kids with IEPs, so parents can talk about their experiences, exchange ideas. Meeting every third Friday of the month in room 101. 8:30am or 8:45am for 45 minutes or so.

Nicole Krieger (Communications Committee) – Introducing Konstella:

We use Mailchimp for big announcements, but Konstella will be used for sign-ups, the school directory, and classroom communication. Trying to centralize a bunch of communication. Konstella can be used for: classroom calendar, snack sign-up, social groups
So far, each parent should have received an email inviting them to join a classroom. If you accept that invitation, you should see your contact info in Konstella.
Konstella offers four different kids of groups: Classrooms, committees, social groups, private groups. Group members can message each other.
Question: What about Remind (K-3)? A: Previously, classrooms used different tools — trying to centralize things. This can replace google groups.
In each class, there are room leads — these are the class parent liaisons.
Classroom groups are private. Working to get teachers to join. Can send notes to classrooms — w/teachers on or off.
You can see openings by committee. Committee members can message the group, create events and sign-ups, and share files and photos in the committee.
Right now, we have “Test Drive Konstella” social group if you want to test it. Another example is the school-wide camping trip.