November 2019 Meeting Minutes

11/27/2019 12:00 am

Patrick Lyndon K-8 Pilot School PTA

Meeting Minutes

November 6, 2019

1. Welcome, Meeting Overview

• Introductions of the PTA Board, Management Team and Middle School Team

1. Community Building Exercise

• Icebreaker Bingo

• Restorative Justice
• Initiative to build relationships between students and teachers and to reduce office visits.
• Dana is the Restorative Justice coach. She provided a brief presentation about Restorative Justice including its roots, how it is implemented in the school and how it is being used to respond to a harm.

1. Meeting Minutes

• Motion to approve the October 2019 meeting minutes. Motion passed.

1. Accomplishments

• Chipotle neighborhood night. The PTA raised $400!
• Room parent breakfast: very well attended by about 30 parents. Productive dialogue about what room parents have done in the classrooms.
• Election day bake sale raised $1,250.00.
• Membership: membership is up over the last 12 months, but at least 35 families that registered for the Turkey Trot are not yet PTA members. Please consider joining the PTA!

1. Updates

• School Site Council (Emily)
  • 10/17 By-laws passed out to new members. Reviewed governing structure.  Committees created – budget, hiring and communication.  Communication working on 2 projects (community pledge and information packet to promote school).
  • 6^th graders will be taking the ISEE in-school on November 7, 2019.
  • Lunch and recess monitors are up and running.

• City Wide Parent Council (Steve Lewis)
  • There have been 2 meetings since the October PTA meeting.
  • Educators for Excellence came to meeting. They advocate for Restorative Justice and will be providing testimony at the School Committee meeting.
  • October meeting – met with Monica Roberts. Office of Student Family and Community Advancement.  Play-to-learn program for Pre-K kids who are at home.  Student advisory cabinet – representative from each high school
  • Meeting with Superintendent – laid out vision and answered questions.
    • Every school to have fully-funded art, music, library and cafeteria (with good food).
    • She has expanded the maintenance department and requested a budget so that matters can be taken care of in a timely fashion.
    • Wants a dedicated technology budget.
    • HUB schools – provide assistance with housing, dental, etc.
    • Reduce standardized testing.
    • Assignment system needs work, but more importantly the perception of each school needs improvement. Need to work to make schools equitable.

• Friends of the Lyndon (Pat Murphy)
  • Silent/Live Auction is tomorrow night at 7 pm.
  • Raffles, Golden Raffle Tickets, Silent and Live Auction Items.
  • Buy tickets online – your raffle will be added.
  • Money wheel. $20 take a spin and take what you win.
  • Next meeting will get back to business.

• Room Parents
  • The Room Parent Breakfast was held and was well-attended.

• Library
  • Up and running. It is going well with the classes.

• Treasurer’s Report (Fran Guardabascio)
• Ramped up planning for the Turkey Trot.
• Started talking about the Red Sox game
• Expenses – negative lines represent money that was asked for, but some of it was returned. Had library expense hit this year for the guided reading program and library world.
• Some teachers have taken advantage of using the PTA Amazon account, which allows PTA to leverage tax exempt status.

• Upcoming Events
• Square1 Art: fundraiser that we do in the fall. Catalogs went home.  Place your order by November 15^th.  Hard deadline so that the orders can be filled before Christmas.

• Read for the Record
  • November 7^th
  • Break a world record by having the most people reading the same book on the same day. A book is chosen: this year is Thank you Omu by Oge Mara.
  • The story will be read in classrooms and then the students will do an art project.

• Daffodils
  • Received 200 bulbs. We will choose a date to plant them soon and will need volunteers

• Turkey Trot
  • Saturday November 23^rd. Running events for age 3 to 14. 
  • Biggest fundraiser. Many Lyndon parents who are business owners have sponsored the event and also local businesses have contributed.
  • Friday, November 7^th is the deadline to register and be guaranteed a t-shirt. Registration is open until the day of the event.
  • Need volunteers for the day of.
  • Family sponsorship wall
  • Winter clothing drive

• Book Fair
  • First week of Dec. 3-5.

1. Lyndon Gear

• The order form should be up and running soon so that orders can be filled before winter break.

1. Outdoor Classroom

• We would like to clean up and beautify the outdoor classroom
• Let’s consider applying for a grant to improve the space
• Consider new ways to use the space.
  • Quiet reading time
  • Online sign-up to schedule a time to use it.
  • Have combination information shared with the teacher so that teachers can access it.
  • Kindness rock garden
  • Nutritional aspect – vegetable garden?

Committee Overview

• Kindness Week
• Parents Night Out

Motion to adjourn.  Motion passed.