2016-17 February PTO Meeting Minutes

(Thursday February 9, 2017)

Attendees: Officers Samantha Pierce, Karen Cordano, Lesley Porcelli, Sarah Hamersma; Vice Principal Christina Louis; Teacher Beth Ann Smith; Parents Andrea Buckvold, Connie Myers-Kelly, Chris Kelly, Beth & Caroline Myers, Rex Giardine, Kari Zhe-Heimerman, Gwen Riley-Zuckerbraun, Emily Hart-Gorman, Meinee Yates Richard

Call to Order/Amended Meeting Minutes Approved: The meeting was called to order at 7:04pm. The January minutes were approved.

The Principal’s Report:

 Ms. Louis reported that the first two Kindergarten Open Houses went very well, and there will be 2 more next week.

 Referral rates are down 48% from last year.

 The school has committed to targeting absenteeism, and is making phonecalls (in person, in addition to the robocalls) to homes when a student is absent. The goal is for children to miss 8 days or fewer each year. A call will not be made for a planned absence.

Report on Ed Smith Literacy:

Beth Ann Smith, instructional coach, unveiled a new Ed Smith reading campaign:

 The school wants to build a culture of reading and generate excitement about reading.

 They have been trying to discover how to make students more successful readers, and were wondering why, if scores improve so much over the year, why there does not seem to be year-to-year improvement. They compared data from the previous spring to the incoming students in the fall and found a big summer slide effect.

 They now feel a real sense of urgency, and are working hard to get students back to where they were before summer break.

 This summer, the school will focus on growing reading all summer long. Students with access to books over the summer benefit.

 The reading campaign will be now through September. After February break they will be launching the awareness campaign.  March 2 will be a Read Across America event.

 They will participate in a 20/20 reading challenge, asking kids to read 20 minutes a day for 20 days in a row. Then there will be a celebration pep rally.

 April or May there will be a book fair. They will be training students how to log in to a Scholastic online program to record books read.

 May 11 will be a summer reading parent workshop.

 In June there will be a Summer Book Giveaway. They want to raise $4000 to 5000 for good titles.

 An abbreviated version of this presentation will be put on the listserve.

 Parents made suggestions about connecting the program with the public library system.

 Ed Smith already has a Middle School Book Club and 6th grade book club.

 Karen Cordano requested that someone from the PTO help plan the book fair. They want a mechanism in place for every kid to get a book. Kari Zhe-Heimerman has decided to do it.

Treasurer's Report:

 The Black History Month luncheon was to be the next day, and the pizza had already been accounted for in the budget.

 There was a request from Ms. Stuetzle for $105.99 for new scores for a large event at Nottingham. It was agreed that the PTO could approve the funds but that in general the district should be paying for scores.

 There were 2 donations from families in the neighborhood.

 Sarah Hamersma emphasized that the PTO is in a good position to spend money, but due to the renovation, it should be spent on things that will last throughout the renovation, such as books.

Misc other:

 Karen Cordano gave a formal thank-you to Ms. Louis for arranging the Kindergarten Open Houses.  On February 23 there will be a Rothschild Round Table Kindergarten Prep Event where Ed Smith parents will go to talk about the school.

 Parent Tour Guides are now set up at Ed Smith.

 Kari Zhe-Heimerman proposed a Refugee Book Club in the spirit of protecting our students. The idea was to support teachers and librarians for books about being an immigrant or refugee. Ms. Young has a wishlist of books, and ELL teachers have wishlists of books. They will be also asking teachers what books they would like. There is no specific proposal yet, and a gofundme site was also proposed. Parents discussed sending the book list home, like a registry, for gift ideas for the classrooms. They will be coming up with a plan and funding estimate.

 Amazon Smile has set up an account with Ed Smith on the list of possible charitable donations to donate money to. Samantha Pierce will be setting up the account, and Kari will let people know about it.

 There will be a follow-up meeting about the renovation towards the end of March.

 Karen Cordano has been working on getting a screening of Hidden Figures for the school. 7th and 8th graders will see it at SU and the rest will see it at school. 4 buses for 145 kids will be $1100. We will need to pay the licensing fee at $840. A person in the community was willing to donate $400 to cover that cost. Parents will be applying for mini-grants to cover the rest. The group voted yes to moving the plan forward.

 The SCSD budget proposal is up on their website. Advocacy is important to get the money owed. The amount paid to charters schools is 6% of the budget. Parents are encouraged to write letters to the editor and make noise.

 For the Middle School musical, Ms. Wilson needs spotlights and is looking into renting one.

 Beth Myers offered to chair the Carnival Committee, with a goal of delegating lots of little jobs to lots of people. The carnival will be on June 9.

 Discussion of the gear sale was tabled until the next meeting.

 Chris Kelly said that the candy order forms have come in, and will go home with kids next week, with collection of the forms the week after winter break.

The meeting was closed at 8:42pm.

Respectfully submitted,

Karen Cordano (Corresponding Secretary) Lesley Porcelli (Recording Secretary)