PTA General Meeting Minutes
June 10, 2020
Attended via Google Meet due to Coronavirus shutdown
Note: Meeting began about 15 minutes late due to technical difficulties
Welcome to our first-ever virtual PTA meeting – Michelle Dobson, Co-President
Updates and Q&A with Ms. Rosa
- First and foremost, thank you to parents and teachers for your support.
- Acknowledgment of all the people in our Children’s School community directly impacted by COVID either personally or a loved one. A moment of silence was observed for the loss of Educational Assistant, Vanessa Burkett, a beloved member of both the ICT and 6:1:1 site who died from COVID related causes on April 17th. She will be greatly missed and there will be a more formal gathering when the school is back together.
- Thank you to all the parents for your flexibility and helping to make everything possible and please know that while the Chancellor’s office sometimes gets communications out very last minute, school administrators do their very best to get messages to parents and students as quickly as possible.
- Administration, teachers and staff are in constant communication about the possibility of school reopening. Chancellor has discussed several possibilities for how and when to reopen schools but there have been no decisions and again, we ask for your flexibility.
- Options include blended schedules of one week in the building, one week at home, or one day in school, one day remote learning. Another consideration is “looping,” which would mean potentially promote kids together who are in the same classroom with the same teachers and staff; promote classes with one teacher; or promote only the kids, but with different teachers. This is not definite yet.
- Summer school will be remote despite Governor Cuomo’s directive to have summer school in person. The administration will try to have summer school teachers continue in the grade they were teaching during the school year.
- Grading policy: This has changed around the remote learning platform and parents will only receive report cards through their DOE NYC Schools account in late June. They will receive the following grades: an MT – Meeting Standards or N – Needs Improvement. Teachers have been asked to be flexible and students will be given this MT or N grade based on time in school and not penalized for students who cannot engage remotely.
- Fifth Grade Graduation going virtual on Friday, June 19th! Thank you to 5th-grade parent graduation committee and teachers for delivering graduation packages to each 5th grader. Watch for the live stream details!
- People have asked about current events and how the school is addressing the death of George Floyd, the protests, and racial inequality.
- The Equity team – met this past Monday to discuss the resources from the Chancellor’s office and these are being given to teachers to give out to parents or in their own class discussions.
- Teachers have historically had the opportunity to participate in professional development around these issues and have participated with Border Crossers, now Center for Racial Justice, and will do so again when the opportunity presents.
- If anyone is interested in joining the Equity team, which works on all issues of equity in the school including curriculum, please reach out to assistant principals, Rosa Perez-Leonetti or Frank Ammirata.
- The Equity team has a Book Club, which is reading “How to be an Anti Racist” this month, and parents are welcomed to join.
Miscellaneous
- Someone asked about whether Middle and High School applications will change and unfortunately there is no news on that.
- Working on a “Getting to know 372” for new families and if anyone wants to be a speaker at that event, please reach out to the PTA.
- Good news! Jessie Childs has worked very hard and yesterday the school received word that we will be receiving $600,000 through participatory budgeting to be used toward a new playground.
- Baby William Lawrence Pinto, was born to Assistant principal, Bridget Nash and Jeff!! Welcome to the PS 372 Team baby William!
Updates from Ms. Yvette
- Please join Tea time with Ms. Yvette talking about race. There will be two sessions: one for parents of younger students and one for the parents of older students. This is a meeting for parents facilitated by school guidance counselors and will be recorded.
- NYC DOE student website, Mystudent.com, is the only way to receive report cards so if you are not signed up please reach out to Ms. Yvette who can submit your information to get an account. Currently, it is not possible for two parents to have separate mystudent.com accounts but Ms. Yvette is continuing to bring this issue to the attention of the DOE.
PTA Updates – Michelle
- PTA Officers elections will be held in the Fall. Current officers will remain in place until that time.
Budget Report – Liza
- Despite a difficult year, we raised more money than we spent and reached 65% of fundraising targets.
- Spending was less because of the shortened year but we anticipate continued expenses such as mini-grants which teachers were told are still available to them as they switch to remote learning and need new resources.
- Schools have been told to expect budget cuts so the PTA is hoping to re-organize our budget to try and cover enrichment programs that may no longer fit into the school budget.
- PTA hopes to keep some community events free next year as they are important for community building but some may include requested donations.
- Please continue to support The Children’s School through Amazon Smile, Shutterfly, Primary, and Mabel’s Labels which donate a portion of your purchase to our school. These are listed on a sidebar on the Inclusions website.
Thanks – we couldn’t do it without you!