Phoenicia Primary PTA Meeting October 6, 2014

Held in the library.

In attendance:

Rena Baker

Marcey Brownstein

Jeanenne Bennett

Rebecca Barry

Denise Warren

Lori Matteson

Christina Signore

Yuki Asada

Anna Millenson

Michele Garner

Heather Roberts

Ann McGillicuddy

Jenna Rogers

Phyllis McGill

Mrs. Sella isn’t in attendance today as she has a personal engagement.

***Childcare is available for all ongoing PTA meetings and Brio’s provides pizzas for the 6:00 p.m. meeting.

Dr. Phyllis Mc Gill Superintendant going to all Onteora school PTA meetings in October to discuss several issues:

1. Later start times for high school students. New studies have proven that high school students have a hard time waking up in the morning. Because of the melatonin in their system, they go to bed late and hence need to sleep later in the morning. High school kids are exhausted the first thing in the morning. American Academy of Pediatrics have come out with a study that it is better for kids to start school later for high school students. This year they are looking into a possible later start time for secondary students for the 2015/2016 school year. In order to do that a lot of planning will be involved as there aren’t enough busses for everyone to go to school at the same time. Transportation is a big issue in this district because it is 282 square miles. May have to flip the schedule somehow with the elementary school students and the secondary students It was discussed that this plan might mean earlier start times for elementary students.This may be a big issue. She has been given the directive that they need to look into it. Just starting the initial conversation about this and there will be a shared decision making committee about this. There is lot to figure out around this issue. There will be parents on this committee. This is one of the goals set for Dr. Mc Gill by the school board but it isn’t necessarily a done deal. Might impact sports. As is, high school students need to leave one period early to get to out of area games because we are so far away from other districts.

2. Another goal of overall culture-NY State council of school superintendents Jonathan Cohen professor from teacher’s college- national center on school climate-following up with him and looking at other ways to see how we might improve the district and the culture and climate.

3. 5 year Financial plan-comproller’s office- we are doing well financially compared to other districts. We have a decent amt. of money in our reserves but are shorted $1,500,000 every year because of the gap. All tax payers getting a refund by the governor, family credit but it is short changing school districts. Doing a map of what the district will look like in five years.

4. Professional development committee-Teacher’s workshop Becky and Rick Dufour- teachers can help plan together and help each other to learn from each other-collaboration-the culture and climate survey can help with this and improve the learning and help the district.

6. After the reconfiguration, it was figured out that there was no consistency in the readers writers workshop and math series-realized the middle school teachers- the different kids from 3 buildings- kids were coming up in very different ways- basic skills and knowledge in reading and math. No real consistency across the grade in the district and the grades below and above. We never had an articulated curriculum. Professional development committee is starting to map the curriculum out across the grades vertically and horizontally.

7. Technology audit-outside group ECC- came recommended by technology savvy committee and faculty. Looking at the data. Focus groups of small groups of teachers and administrators currently. And by the middle of Nov there will be some recommendations of how to upgrade the technology. This is a further upgrade from what has been done thus far.

8. Board Goals that were approved at the Sept board meeting.

-testing

-English language learners- increase in staffing/interrupted and no formal education

-looking at the whole child in terms of wellness

-promoting a healthy environment in looking at student’s experience and making sure they have an experiential experience.

-budget development and setting up priorities of the district

-fostering an open and positive collaborative relationship with the stake holders

--how do we make sure our facilities really support students and their education

PTA Budget-Rena went over the budget, nothing major to report. This Year’s Fundraisers- moving forward the PTA is trying to put a monetary goal with each fundraiser

Book fair- golden notebook- sold $2359 and we made $471.85 (20%). Higher than it has been in the past. This is possibly because we had book fair open during two different events after school. The Golden Notebook is sending a letter with the check asking us if we want a larger donation back to the school if we want a donation in books instead. Mrs. Mc Gill said there is a line item in the budget for books so probably better to take the cash. All in attendance agreed that we could discuss this further in the future.

Mixed Bag- orders due October 10. They are coming out with a whole new catalog moving forward.

Hockey fundraiser- Trying to sell tickets for the Nov 1 game. $5 of every ticket sold will come back to the school. We will all be grouped together in the same area. Trying to find a poster or something to generate interest that we can hang in the school. Due Oct 20.

Silent Auction-Send out first school mailing right after October 20. Urge everyone (all parents, teachers, PTA members) to reach out to all of their practitioners, local businesses, friends and family for possible donations of goods and services. Send second mailing November 15. Everyone start reaching out to people for donations. Tell everyone to go online to access the Google document and make sure I include a link to the doc when sending the email to the PTA. Goal $5000 this year.

Rewards programs- Amazon, Box Tops, IGive set up and ready to go, Shoperoo. Don’t forget to use the Phoenicia School link when ordering from Amazon!!!!

Events

Chef in the Garden scheduled for this Wed raindate next Wed. Need parent volunteers and you can come and help out when your child’s class is in the garden. Need photos as well. Maybe Brett Barry can do photos. (The rain date actually turned out to be Tuesday, October 14th). Kool Skool- Looking for parent volunteers.

Halloween- Pumpkin painting after school Oct 22. Kids need to sign up to stay after school. Need a couple of parent volunteers. Bring big tee shirts or smocks??

Karate- sign up sheet went home today. All grades. Need a parent volunteer to sign kids in and out. Checks payable to Phoenicia PTA. 14 kids available but can possibly do groups.

Kool Skool-Science, Lego, Pottery, Get out and Play, Jewelry Designing. Need more parent volunteers. Christina Signore is going to run the Lego Kool Skool but could use a second parent to break out the younger and older kids.

Science Fair-Heather Roberts chairing this again. This would be her 4th time chairing it and wanted to know if the PTA had an opinion as to a theme for this year. Recycling, Earth Day, Invention Convention were all possible themes that came up.

ROOT Initiative- Initiative for limiting testing for elementary school students. There is a lot of fear, questions and lack of knowledge by the parents. They would like to go forward with this initiative, they want to have a public forum to increase awareness, be more organized, and make something happen with this. Ann McGillicuddy from the BOE came out and Jenna Rogers and Heather Roberts came and went over all of the details about testing initiative they are spear heading at Bennett. Labelle lawsuit-lawyer won a case against NYC claiming that they weren’t providing an adequate education ……. APPR “annual professional performance review”

Parents can get copies of their kid’s results of ELA and MAPS assessment tests. How do we ask for this??