PTA Meeting Minutes October 2021

11/1/2021 6:25 pm

 

General Meeting 

 

Wednesday, October 6, 2021 – 6:30 EDT

  

 

Present:  Maya Dias (President), Leila Samara (Vice-President), Ed Greenaway (Treasurer), Karen McLaughlin (SAR Teacher Representative), Amy Browne (Teacher Representative) Kathleen Tunney ( Lower school management), Andre ward ( Upper school management), Dianelle Caparro (Family Liaison), Pascale Casimyr (Haitian/Creole Interpreter), Angela (Spanish Interpreter)

Other attendees: Christine Barbuto, Sarah Parker, Vanessa Calligaris, Christine Ventura, John Ventura, Sam Lewis,  Timothy Yaecker, Anne Essaran, Sue Kemalian, Emily, Julie Colantonio, Justin Perlman, Pam Foster, Beverly Spaulding, Emily McDonough, Allison Perlman, Emily Chapman, Meg Dervan, Lisa Gaulin, Julia Debrevil, Joy Mello,Steve Lewis, Stefanie Frischknecht, Irene Daly, Julie Ma, Raina Santucci, Christine Conley, Meagan Lydon, Adliz Santana, Betty, Rachel, Nancy Curran, Gianna Moran, Katherine Finucci, Rose O’Connor, Bizu Gelaye, Angel Maldonado, Carrie Greenaway, Ricardo, Lorena Almeida, Deb Brendemuehl, Christina Dumas, Dan Glennn, Ann Hill, Zoom User, Zoom User

Agenda

 

Welcome, Meeting Overview, Introductions

 

• Meetings will not be “sponsored” by grades this year since we are meeting on Zoom

• The Executive committee introduced themselves. 

• Encouragement to join PTA if not already a member. This year, membership dues are $15/family.

 

 

Minutes Approval, Essentials

• MOTION to approve June and September  2021 minutes, seconded and passed. Minutes are posted to PTA Facebook and website.
• Call for Nominations: Overview of parent representative positions for SSC, CPC, SpEdPAC and DELAC given. 
• Bylaws: 30 day notice given re updating/amending of PTA Bylaws by Bylaw review committee. To be presented before the end of the year.

 

Updates Across the Lyndon

 

• PTA

 

• Membership: Current membership numbers reviewed. Encouraged participation in PTA activities.
• Square 1 Art: Scheduled for October. Orders to be given by Nov 26th. Shipping date December 13th
• Read for the record: Sam Lewis updated about this event which will happen October 28th.  All volunteers must be CORI checked. 
• Traffic Safety: PTA working with neighborhood services, school, BPD and BTD to update signage, make small changes.
• Community Building:  STOP, TALK AND BUILD. Encouraged families to reconnect and rebuild our school community spirit. “ All are welcome”. 
• School Site Council (SSC) –  Julie Ma:   September meeting was held.  Staffing challenges and hiring of staff for upper school incl. language teacher which needs to be reposted.  Space and changes made to building was discusses ie. Library becoming a classroom.  PTA room space will eventually be made into a library.  Lunch monitors have been hired and Nurse Stein is leaving and need new hire for that position.  Full time social worker too.  Community Field Coordinator/Mr. Lorenzo- there is concern about his caseload and staff are working with the union on that.  Election to Work agreement that staff need to sign as part of Pilot school and within that there hasn’t been any updates made except for staff working on Equitable Literacy. Spring MCAS 2021 is coming out and staff is administering MAP assessment for K-8. There is a 90 day school improvement plan to focus on equitable literacy and family partnerships.  Also, construction work on ventilation happening eventually in the old PTA room. 
• Citywide Parent Council (CPC) – Steve Lewis: Meeting was held at the end of September.  Changes made to CPC in the last few years.  Represents parent voice and that’s a difficult voice to agree upon so striving to get as much representation as possible to represent actual diversity of students in district.  Every single parent/guardian is a member of the CPC.  The elected rep is just there for voting on leadership positions or if CPC takes a specific stance.  Please come advocate on a district level.  At last mtg. parents spoke of specific initiatives such as a petition for installing HVAC in every single school.  Also parents advocating for an elected school committee.  Next meeting is Oct 26 6-8pm on Zoom and there is a push to keep it that way so it is more accessible. 
• Friends of the Lyndon (FOTL) – Joy Mello: Leadership board has switched up this year.  We raise funds for the Lyndon and whatever we make we spend to support students and teachers such as  Lego robotics, Dreambox, Guided readers, NEC screens for ⅔ grade loop.  2019 was successful and used that money to support through last year.  Hoping to start up meetings and fundraising again.  They’ll have a table at the Turkey Trot to expand visibility.  More help is needed.  How can we support all the grades and we hope to do a bigger fundraising event in the spring.  Join the next meeting on Wednesday the 13th.  
• Room Parents – Stefanie Frischknecht: Mrs Tunney sent out an email today recruiting parent volunteers.  Traditionally 1-2 parent/guardians per classroom to help enrich kids' days.  No set requirements: make it what you want with the teacher. With Covid, parents aren’t allowed in school so will need to be creative this year.  Crafts via Zoom, organize teacher gifts-not necessarily money.  Be a voice for the PTA directly to the classroom parents to help drum up excitement.  You will need to be CORI checked even if you’re only on Zoom with the class.  

 

• Outdoor Classroom - Allison Perlman: Working with Leila and Christina Butler.  Previously with Sam.  It’s slowly coming back to the original vision of urban meadow.  Working on weeds.  Did some planting over the weekend and bulb planting will happen in fall.  Work with Mr. Ward and Mgmt. to figure out how to get classes to use the space.  Need to engage more volunteers especially in the spring.

 

• Caring Committee - Julie Colantonio:   Haven’t been active.  Exist to support such as coat drives, grocery/gift card drives, food drives when there are families in need.  The group needs to reestablish themselves this year and needs new parents to get involved.   Management team is notified of a family in need and they kick the CC into action.  

 

• Equity Roundtable - Sam Lewis:  Had the first meeting of the year and the group is growing.  Key initiative working on is a system to help families get and stay connected to one another.  Come get involved.  Focus is making sure we have an equitable environment for all students.  

 

 Fundraising Updates 

• Box Tops – Emily McDonagh:  Numbers are low via BoxTop app submission. Informed parents how to use and encouraged use as this is an important source of funds which can be generated by usual household shopping.
• Lyndon Gear –  Lyndon Gear store will be launching soon. New colors and different accessories offered.

 

Treasurer’s Report- Ed Greenaway

 

Annual 2021-2022 budget was presented. It’s a little bit adhoc this year because of the Pandemic pause last year but we hope to support many school activities and hold fundraising events.

Elections – Maya

No contest so nominees were approved.

• SSC (2 seats) Samantha Lewis, Emily Mc Donagh
• CPC (1 seat, 1 alternate)  Sarh Parker, Alternate- Steve Lewis
• SpEdPAC- Email acceptance of nomination accepted. Sheena Pennie
• DELAC- No nominee. To leave open for recruitment

 

  Committee Overview - Maya

Many opportunities to volunteer and support the school. Specifically looking for Traffic Safety Brigade volunteers, Equity committee, Wellness Committee  

New volunteers needed to take over the Library moving forward.  

Equity Committee: new committee, goals align with Equity roundtable goals of equitable literacy and increasing participation by underrepresented groups. PTA is looking for parent ambassadors to help with this. They will be looking to redraft the school’s mission statement to explicitly state our goals for an equitable educational community. Alfonso Pruneda and Jill Ragusa are involved.

 

  Upcoming Events

• School Photo Day 10/26
• Election Day Bake Sale 11/2
• Square One Art - Chris Rohrig Submission Date Oct 25th
• Scholastic Book Fair - online Oct 25-Nov 7
• 2nd PTA Meeting, November 3rd at 6.30pm
• Turkey Trot Sat Nov 20th: Turkey Trot – Debra/Caitlin
• Spelling Bee & Spellcheck Fundraiser- Early 2022

Answers to questions in the chat-

 

• Explain a little bit more about recess volunteering. Please reach out to us.  Lots of opportunities on the website.  Mrs. Tunney explained that notice went out to parents K-5 to volunteer for recess duty.  You can choose a day per week from 11:15-1 to monitor outside, keep them playing safe.  If inclement weather, do not report to duty as parents are not allowed inside still.  Email Mrs. Tunney with questions.  

• What about equitable math and sciences?  Mrs. Tunney explained that BPS has a 3 year goal about equitable literacy. Provide a strong foundation for students and that transfers to all subject areas...not just ELA...all academic specialties.  Even in P.E. students are using high level vocabulary. 

 

Meeting adjourned.  

Minutes submitted by Leila Samara and Maya Dias