September 2023 Meeting Minutes

10/4/2023 6:59 am

PTA MEETING MINUTES September 2023

 

Wednesday, September 20, 2023 – 6:30 EDT

  

Present: Ryan Kelly (Vice-President), Jessica Grande (Treasurer), Marisa Alverez (President)

Other in-person attendees: Blanca Burgos (Family Liaison), Leila Samara, Chris Audette (co-leader), Amy Browne (teacher rep.), Michelle Bylsma, Rob Televi, Molly Jansen, Kelly Lepley, Samantha Lewis, Laura Goodbody, Emily Chapman, Natalie Fleury, Jaclyn Leddy, Stephanie Roberts, Jen Hardy, Katire Clarke, Jen Schiarizze, Courtney Connolly, Bonnie Carey, Kristin Feminio, Nicole O’Neil, Michelle Morrisey, Carrie Greenaway, Ed Greenaway

Zoom attendees: Tara Donohue, Golden Family, Georgia Murphy, Karen Lee, Jen Misiazek, Julia Negele

 

AGENDA

Welcome, Meeting Overview, Introductions

• Marisa welcomed everyone to the meeting-a joint meeting with PTA and FOTL
• Marisa introduced herself as a first year PTA president. She introduced Ryan and Jessica as parents to a 2nd grader and K2-er. Danielle as a parent to a K2 and 3 year old
• Marisa introduced Chris and Michelle as co-leaders in addition to Blanca as Family Liaison

 

Lyndon School Organizations: PTA, FOTL, SSC

•  We want parents to understand all of the organizations and to not be confused by it all

 

Committees for 2023-24

 

• We need leadership on a number of committees and are actively seeking leaders
• Please reach out if you are interested

PTA Goals for the year:

These are the goals that the board has, but we are always open to what the community is interested in. Please let us know if you have any other priorities and ideas.

1. Making PTA more accessible
2. Community Building

1. Help bring the fun back to school
2. Support for parents and caregivers

3. Academic enrichment

1. We have a budget line item

1. Through Department of Education we have a grant for 20% discount

ii.We started late last year so could only bring Mass Audubon to the first grade. Will expand it to this year

4. Middle School & Social Emotional Learning

1. Worked a lot on that last year
2. Want to do more for this year

 

Room Parent Program

 

• They are initiating new roles within the Room Parent Program: Co-Room parents and Room Parent Ambassador
• Karen Lee and Natalie Fleury are the leaders this year
• They have been room parents for a number of years and their first as a leader
• Karen and Natalie compliment each other very well.  Natalie is creative and Karen is the organized email person
• Some enhancements they are implementing are as follows:
• Teacher and room parent survey
• Plan for related resources
• The first craft will be SquareOne art
• Anne Esseran is organizing SquareOne art
• Starting budget of $100 per class
• They are collecting parent and guardian contact information for each class. They have had 176 submissions so far and they have received 35 volunteer submissions
• A primary goal is to create a strong room parent community
• Room parent coffee is next Friday, September 29th at 9:45am.
• Natalie is focusing on the middle school as her heart really lies with the middle schoolers. No room parent volunteers for any of the middle schoolers yet. She and Blanca are doing a survey for the middle schoolers in addition to their parents to see what they are looking for.  It is less enjoyable for them to do crafts. Blanca and Natalie are looking to support the teachers as well. Goal is to put time and effort in with them as well. 
• There was a question that if you don’t have a kid in the class can you still volunteer for the middle school. Natalie said yes that is an option.  Also it doesn’t need to be a huge commitment. You can do what fits into your schedule.

Outdoor Classroom Updates;

 

• When people from the district come they say that we have one of the best outdoor classrooms in the city
• Eco Friendly Fridays (EFF): We are doing 3 sessions in the fall and 3 in the spring
• A recently expanded program
• There were 50 students as the last one
• Balance asked if the middle school students could volunteer.  Stephanie said absolutely
• We are trying to organize use of the outdoor classroom with Room Parent
• They are surveying teachers to see what may be barriers to using the outdoor classroom
• They want the middle schoolers to use it more.  If anyone has ideas, please reach out
• They are working with Michelle Martinat who is the BPS Outdoor Teaching and Learning for the district
• They are looking for a teacher lead to be eligible for certain grants
• New picnic table!  Students used it last week. They are looking for 
• They cleaned out a lot of trash.  So, they would like to implement flood lights.
• They are looking for volunteers. No meetings! Very impromptu. All emails, no in person

Upcoming events:

 

• PTA Mixer!

O We want people to get involved

O Snacks, cash bar, musical bingo

O Parent only event

O The YMCA will provide childcare but we need to confirm the time that they are providing until

 

• Turkey Trot – it is on the 18th of November

• Carrie Greenaway
• Her third year chairing the turkey trot – biggest fundraiser for the PTA
• We are looking for business sponsors
• Saturday before thanksgiving
• The day after the FOTL cornhole event
• The fundraising committee needs help.
• We also need help on the day of

• Setting up
• Cleaning up
• Running errands
• As much or as little of a commitment from you
• The middle schoolers can volunteer or they can run
• We are looking for a medium-sized kid to wear the turkey trot costume

Friends of the Lyndon

 

• Introductions
• It is a parent run non-profit group that raises $$ for the school
• They are opening funding for the first time in two years. They are having a pizza pitch night where teachers and admin can pitch ideas for funding
•  Michelle said that the teachers are thinking hard about their pitches
•  Open to staff – not just teachers
• Some examples of past funding:
• Lego robotics program
• Before COVID, they funded laptops
• They funded a K1 welcome back school books and ice cream social
• Events
• 11/16/23 is the cornhole event
• 5/2/24 is the spring auction
• They raised $13k in May 2023
• They meet on the 3rd Wednesday of the month at 7:30

 

SSC (School Site Council)

 

• Described what is means to be a Pilot School
• The reason why Pilot Schools were created is in response to Charter School legislation. They wanted to bring some of the great benefits of charter school into the public school system. We can hire and evaluate our school leaders. We can create our own governance system. However we have to maintain our own due diligence.
• What is the SSC? Every school in the state of MA is required to have an SSC. They are an organization that can advise school leaders. B/c we are a Pilot School, our SSC acts as a governing board of the school. One example last year is when we were talking about extending the school day. The board has the decision responsibility there.
• There was a question about the teachers being protected under the union. The answer was “yes” teachers are still under union protection. Ideally, a Pilot School is a melding of the good parts of charter school and public schools.
• Nicole said to reach out to her if there are any questions
• SSC elections are 10/4 at 6:30 there will be 3 open spots and one alternative. (we want 4 people added to the board every year)
• At the next PTA meeting there will be elections for the SSC and the CPC (Citywide parent council) 1 rep and 1 alternate which is the voice of our school within the district
• Blanca has been speaking to middle school parents and trying to get them to join. Nicole said to Blanca to send the parents her way. There was a question as to what the time commitment was. A very busy week could be 10 hours.  They meet once a week for 90 minutes. There is usually a committee meeting in between each meeting.  You would be expected to attend 1 meeting for the committee.  5 hours per month meeting 2 or so hours per month to read.  We are lacking in racial and ethnic diversity on the SSC. The SSC has been specifically tasked by Dr. Lugira is recruiting for ethnic and racial diversity because it is not representative of the Lyndon student body.
• Steve Lewis reminded us that all parents are members of CPC that just can't all vote. He highly recommended that anyone who wants to attend the meetings.
• We are also looking for a SpEdPAC rep and 1 DELAC rep. It is a one year term for both of these. We currently don’t have a SpEdPAC rep. There was a question about whether you need to have a special ed student to run for SpEdPAC.  The answer was you don’t need to have a special ed student or ELL student. It would be better to have some experience within
• We are calling for nominations for the open spots. Email the PTA, email Nicole for the SSC to submit your nominations. Teachers can not vote for parent members. Parents must vote at the meeting (it happens live – you can not vote over the course of a week)
• Any interest? Bylaws are available to review. CORI Form must be completed.

 

Open Forum and break out session for 10 mins

• Mingle and chat with other parents
• Steve and Michelle do the family photo day. 
• Michelle does the Lyndon Yard sale. Helpsy bin.
• Leila- bookfair, bake sale, etc
• Bonnie Carey – lyndon caring committee
• Emily – is our security consultant
• Everyone who joins the Lyndon PTA tonight will get a Lyndon sticker and if you are here in person you can be entered into a raffle. Need to officially sign up and pay $20 dues to complete your membership

Meeting adjourned.  

Minutes submitted by Jessica Grande