1. Call to Order - Jenny Sergeant

PTA of PS 32 Meeting November 19, 2013 PS 32 Auditorium

Attendance: 30

2. PTA Welcome Message - Camille Casaretti Thanks to everyone for coming. Apologies for Rosemary’s absence – she had a change in her work schedule this evening.

3. Motion to Approve The Minutes of the Last Meeting The minutes from the last PTA meeting were approved.

4. Principal’s Message – Ms. Florio Everyone is working hard in the classrooms at the school and good things are happening at PS 32. i. Title 1 Funding There has been some concern about the loss of Title 1 funding in the school community. 51% of our students qualify for free school lunch, we need to be at at least 58% in order to maintain our Title 1 funding. We were grandfathered in for 2013-14, but in 2014-15, we will be losing our Title 1 funding. After finding out that we will be losing our Title 1 funding, we took some time to try to find out some more information about what this will mean for us as a school community. After meeting with Deputy Network Leader of Operations in charge of overseeing how I use the budget, we reassessed what money would be going where next year. After assessing our needs for next year, we anticipate that we will be able to secure programs without our Title 1 funding. With the cuts that have already been made to the budget, we anticipate that we will be able to cover the majority of the programs that are currently being offered in the school in 2014-15. The cost of Arts Connection is $22,000. We are confident that we will be able to pay for Arts Connection next year. In the past, we have used our Title 1 funding to support our specials (Art, Music and Science). Typically, Mr. Dave gets an extra $10K for supplies, and Mr. Noel gets an extra 5K for music budget. Those subsidies may be not be offered if we lose our Title 1, but the programs themselves will still be offered. Also, new furniture may not be provided to the classrooms if the Title 1 money does not come through. However, there will always be two teachers in every classroom, except for the G&T classes, this budget cutback will not affect that. Regardless of Title 1, money will also be provided services, for enrichment, and academic intervention services. Extra supplies, “luxury items”, and technology would probably be the first things to be cut when we lose our extra Title 1 money. PTA of PS 32 Meeting - November 19, 2013

Professional Development, (we spend about 30K a year in Professional Development), would probably be next. ii. Holiday Show is Two Days The PS 32 Holiday Show will be two days this year (Dec 18 and 19). iii. Lockdown Drills We had our first soft lockdown drill and it was very successful. iv. Parent Teacher Conferences Parent Teacher Conferences were very successful, we had 91% attendance (403 parents). iv. Thank Yous Thanks to the PTA and everyone who joined a committee. Thanks to Naidre Miller for organizing the Fork and Pencil Book Fair.

5. Guidance Counselor Report - Ms. Straker Attendance is important. Illnesses - If your child comes to school with a rash, we have to send them home. Once they get a doctor’s note, then they can come back to school. If your child is injured, we will let you know with a note or a phone call. There is also usually a note sent home if you need to do some kind of follow up. The Middle School Workshop was last month and was very successful. The Soft Lock Down Drill was on October 29 and it was very successful. There will be one more drill during the school year after January. Staff and children know what to do in case of an emergency. There is one fire drill left before January. Ms. Straker’s Extension 1021 if you have any other questions, her email address is [email protected].

6. Treasurer’s Report - Julie Veto

$55,933 is current Bank Balance $21,000 in revenue since last meeting $12,483.40 in expenditures

We hoped to bring in $40K this year, and we now think we will bring in $71K. i. Expenditure Requests a. $300 for Quickbooks for PTA Bookkeeping Motion carried. b. $2000 for Learning Leaders Program at PS 32 Learning Leaders is New York City’s largest and most experienced organization dedicated to engaging families and communities to support student success. They support the placement of parents or community members in the classroom. Learning Leaders’ mission is to help New York City public school students succeed by training volunteers to provide individualized instructional support and other school- based support, and by empowering parents to foster their children’s education development.

PTA Minute Archives: ps32.org/minutes 2 PTA of PS 32 Meeting - November 19, 2013

The goal of the program is to bring extra community members into the school. The training gives people from all different backgrounds the opportunity to learn how to take charge in the classroom.

The majority of volunteers work one-on-one or with a small group of students in elementary school classrooms and libraries. Some volunteers also give general assistance to a teacher. Volunteers are asked to serve a minimum of 2 hours per week from September through May.

The $2,000 budget includes the following for up to 6 people:  The $2,000 budget includes 6 people  Training at your school (3 two hour sessions) for new family volunteers.  Training at another school/site for additional new volunteers during the school year.  Volunteer manual for new volunteers.  Workshop (1) and resources for returning volunteers and/or parents.  Application review, reference and background checks, ID badges.  Ongoing program support to monitor program progress and troubleshoot issues.  Web-based portal to manage program registration, parent attendance, and communication with Learning Leaders.

According to Ms. Florio the majority of the need is from out of classroom personnel and to support with recess or instructional lunch. Ms. Florio has not received specific feedback from classroom teachers yet, though she would like more time to hear from them.

The motion was tabled. We will do more research into the program before voting on the money.

7. School Safety Issues - Sailaja Sastry (PS 32 Parent) Ms. Sastry expressed her concern about our openly accessible school yard. There was an incident where her son was inadvertently locked out of a portable classroom unattended during school hours. Ms. Sastry wants to explore the option of having additional school safety agents or other alternate school safety measures. As per Ms. Florio: Ms. Straker is drafting a request for cameras to be installed in the building. Currently, the school safety agents walk around the premises every 15 minutes to make sure there is no one on the premises who shouldn’t be there. Ms. Florio would also like to see video cameras installed at PS 32. Naidre Miller suggested forming a school safety committee.

8. Garden Committee - Bess Hauser Thanks to all the volunteers who came out to prep the garden for the winter. Thanks to all the parents who helped the kindergarten classes for their enrichment. We still need more volunteers, especially someone who can help with systems and budgets and spreadsheets. The Garden Committee is trying to create a dropbox folder that will be accessible to all the parents who are on the committee. They are also looking to expand their composting system in the garden with food scraps from the cafeteria. If you volunteer in the PS 32 Garden, you can register with Brooklyn Food Coalition to get FTOP credits at the Park Slope Food Coop. We are currently partnering with ioby to raise funds to install recycling bins at PS 32. We have raised over $3,000 for the bins, which is about half way there. There are still $3,000 left in matching funds left, the campaign ends in December.

9. Fundraising and Membership - Christine Harper Christine Harper is our new fundraising chair. i. Garden Party The Garden Party raised over $2,200 and it was a great event. We are at 26% school participation in the Membership Drive and we have raised $23,821. On December 1, the membership campaign will be end We are up from our grand total of $3,300 last year. ii. The Spring Auction Shii Ann Huang and Fiona Carter are chairpersons of the Spring Auction. The Spring Auction will be on May 17 at the Gowanus Ballroom We are projecting to raise $25K-$30K from the auction The next fundraising meeting will be this Friday at 8:45 am in the cafeteria.

Banes and Noble Bookfair - Dec 15, 2013 Dave Caplan explained the event and handed out volunteer signup forms. You can sign up to volunteer at ps32.org/bnbookfair

10. Community Events and Outreach Committee – Camille Casaretti for Jackie Johnson The PTA is forming a new committee called the Community Events and Outreach Committee to be headed up by Jackie Johnson. The CEOC will be responsible for planning and assisting the administration with planning community events like garden day and school flea markets and carnivals. While there is an element of fundraising to these events, the focus will be on community building. The committee will also focus on community outreach which means making sure all children have weather appropriate clothing, costumes for school dress up events, and other support as needed. Please start collecting items for this years Holiday Flea Market. We are not accepting clothing or plush toys for this event. Volunteers will be needed to sort.

11. After School Committee – Camille Casaretti for Imma Giacolli A survey regarding the next session of after school is in your child’s homework folder today. Please fill it out and return it as soon as possible. We will be accessing the results this weekend and finalizing the 10 week schedule for January through March. The final schedule for the Winter 2014 session will be sent home the week after Thanksgiving break and will be posted on the school website. There is currently a waiting list for the Lego class. All of those on the wait list will be placed first.

12. Wellness Committee - Rachel Kline Brown The Wellness Committee is working with an organization called Food Fight, who had a PD day with teachers and staff on how to eat more healthfully so that they can be role models for students. The Wellness Committee also has a lot of other ideas: getting bike racks outside the school, doing more with school food Wellness Committee also needs someone who would be willing to make sure that the water gets delivered to portables. Contact Rachel Kline Brown at [email protected] if you are interested in volunteering.

Next meeting of the Wellness Committee is Tuesday, November 26

13. Library Committee - Naidre Miller for Adam Marcus i. Fork + Pencil Book Fair We beat last year’s numbers which was great, but we did not make as much money as anticipated We netted about $2500, but the final numbers are not yet tallied ii. Gowanus ”Go Pro” Project Adam Marcus is piloting a project called Go Pro, but he needs people to volunteer in order for the program to go forward. He has a $10,000 grant for it.

More About The Go Pro Project (Gowanus Projects Annex) The goal of the project is to create a space where our PS 32 students and their families can participate in the culture of literacy that has been established at school. Through the use of Apple computers that will be dedicated to the use of our wealth of databases and digital reading material, Google Apps for Education and Gmail parents our students and their families to have direct access to the resources needed to fully participate in the culture of literacy that we have established at P.S. 32. The space will also be used as a learning center for parents through workshops. To encourage greater participation in the PS 32 learning community we will set up a digital scrolling display placed at the Gowanus Houses to provide updates of PS 32 news and events. Presidents of the tenants association is already on board iii. Call for Class Parents If your class does not have a class parent, please consider stepping up.

14. NY Public Meeting Announcement - Camille Casaretti

Ms. Casaretti informed the members about a very important meeting that will take place on Thursday, Nov 21 at noon on Canal Street in Manhattan. The purpose of the meeting is to let Mayor-Elect Bill de Blasio know what’s on the minds of NYC parents when it comes to decisions that are being made about our schools. Everyone will have a chance to deliver a 1-minute speech on the topic. If something is bothering you about the state of Education in NYC these days here's the forum that you've been waiting for.

The PTA of PS32 Executive Board 2013 – 2014 President - Rosemary Gomez Vice-President – Camille Casaretti Co-Treasurer – Julie Veto Co-Treasurer – Jenny Sergeant Secretary – David Caplan Email: [email protected]

PTA Minute Archives: ps32.org/minutes 6