PTA Minutes Until there is a separate site
September 2008
PS 39 PTA General Meeting September 16, 2008
PTA report
Jenn introduces staff and teachers. The PTA official name is the PS 39 Parent Association but we are using the PTA name and PS 39 Parent Association interchangeably. You can donate to the association and the application will be in the folder being sent home soon.
What does the PA do?
It builds community, gets funds for needs of the school, and advocates for the school on behalf of our children.
What do we spend our money on?
We spend most of our money on three general categories: staff development and curriculum support, capital goods (like school supplies and furniture) and enrichment programs such as afterschool programs and in school programs like chess in schools and NY philharmonic.
On Friday, the parent body will be getting the PS 39 handbook. Some things to look for: letter from Jenn and PA membership form, check list for committee involvement, student information form (which will be created into a class list), class parent info, list of everything the PTA does and chair committee info. Tania has assembled this folder and needs volunteers to help with this assembly and she will post it when to get together on the yahoo group.
Please join the Yahoo group. The Yahoo group is a general forum for parents to talk about issues going on in the school. Info on how to join the yahoo group is in the folder.
Jenn introduced the executive board members and thanked last year’s executive members.
Jim Brennan attended the PA session. Jim donated money so that the pre-k students have their own bathroom. He also supports the school with a technology grant. Jim will designate an additional $30,000 from his budget to our school. This will be for equipment purchases. Another $7,000 grant will also be awarded to the school. Jim asked that if we have any concerns to contact his office on
Anita told the parent body that Jim has been a huge supporter of our school and thanked him for his support of our school.
Principal’s report
Anita officially welcomed everyone back to school. She apologized for not being here the first few days of school due to back surgery. The window project is going on schedule, which is really great news and scaffolding will be gone first week of October on the
We had 6 teachers attend professional development at UCONN this past summer for a week. Five teachers attended this conference in the summer of 2007. Anita noted that these teachers are very dedicated to the school to give up their summer vacation to attend this program.
We will be doing 2 cluster enrichment programs this year. The first one will be curriculum based this fall across the grade. The second one will be student interest based offered this spring. We will be doing the Investigation Inquiry Method (IIM), which is how to find information, how to organize it and how to present it. We are extending this from K to 5th grade. Teachers will be giving parent seminar on how to work this method. We are continuing with Renzulli for the students.
Testing
19.3 % increase in ELA scores and 85% of our students are at or above grade level. 93.9% of our students are at or above grade level in math.
Questions addressed
Lunch time
All of our students get 50 minutes of lunchtime, which split between 25 minutes of eating and 25 minutes of recess time. Children just coming out of k and into 1st grade are still getting used routines, especially since they have to share the cafeteria with 2nd grades. Because it takes more time to get used to the routine, but they will get better at this routine. The students are often social and will choose talking to their friend than eating the peanut butter sandwich.
Bathrooms
Children have access to the bathrooms the entire school day. Children go in pairs to the bathrooms and they never go to the bathroom by themselves. There is one hour they cannot go to the bathroom in the cafeteria but they do use the bathroom at the nurse’s room during this hour. If your child has specific bathroom needs, please let your teacher know this so that information can be given out to school aides and nurse.
If parents ever have any questions please email or call her.
Bathroom renovation
Peg presented the up date on the bathrooms. We received $400,000 from Bill de Blasio’s budget and $100,000 fro Marty Markowitz’s budget. The Department of School Facilities will be organizing the project and have already met with Anita to get the plans started. Peg will continue to spearhead this project and be in contact with the DSF.
Freya represented Bill De Blasio. On his behalf, he welcomes us back to school. We are launching the green your school contest, based on how to make your school green.
We want to hear from parents about the school system and there is a survey that Freya passed around.
Bill De Blasio is also funding up grades on computers and an afterschool program partnered with Jewish Museum.
Vice President of PTA report/Fundraising
Jenn introduced Alan Siege who talked about fundraising and securing grants for the school. Fundraising includes time, talent, or treasure (wealth, work or wisdom) and we need to think in these terms when doing fundraising for the school. Alan will be communicating with the families of the school through letters throughout the school year.
Elaine talked about the various committees that we have this school year and introduced some of the chairs.
Joy Canning talked about coordinating class parents this year. She will be the communicator between class parents and the PTA and the teacher. We need strong parental support in the classroom. Joy is also in charge of the international potluck dinner. Please bring a dish that reflects your heritage or your favorite dish. There will also be activities and an art show. It is on October 3rd. She asked if there are any people who want to volunteer, to please sign up on the poster.
Arianna Galesi is chairing the Halloween event on October 25th at
Jenn told the family body that the craft fair is being canceled and if anyone wants to step up and chair this event, they need to contact Melissa McGill or to Jenn Jacobs. Melissa commented that we have built a vendor base and she has information about this. If someone wants to help put it together, it still is a money maker for the school and vendors are starting to recognize our school as a great opportunity.
The candy /wrapping paper sale is our biggest fundraiser. We made close to $6,000 on this fundraiser. You can order stuff for the holidays on line. Kathleen Toimil is in charge of this event.
Lesli Klainberg talked about the supplies for the classrooms. It is also a PTA fundraiser. We did this with our vendor WB Mason and it was very successful. Families of 75 students participated this year and we hope for more next year.
YMCA
YMCA (Y) employee Kathy Birro presented the school with a partnership for PS 39 and the Y. The Strong Kids Program YMCA is an initiative that offers kids an opportunity to participate in the programs that they might otherwise not be able to afford. They want to give cards to as many PS 39 kids as possible. They will get a YMCA card and in December the YMCA will start classes for strong kids Y.
Parents need to fill out applications that Kathy gave to the parents at the meeting. The folder had lots of information of what the Y offers the Strong Kids Program. The YMCA looks forward to this partnership. The program is offered for ages 5 to 17. Six guest passes are being offered to each child. Students between the ages of 5 through 12 have to come in with an adult.
They are also offering the "2nd grade Swim Program" where the 2nd grade children come to the Y during the school day for swim lessons and swim safety. This grade was chosen because of research based on the amount of children of that school age who drowned.
In March 2009, the Y will also be working out of the armory on
Principal’s Report
Anita reported the following information:
- She thanks all the parents and families to express their condolences about Mr. Kahn’s passing and she passed this information along to his family.
- Brian Carter was introduced as the new music teacher. He is working hard to make sure that Larry Kahn’s legacy is continued through the music school. He is a licensed music teacher. He has a degree in music education and he is a very accomplished percussionist and works hard to involve physical activity with music. Brian welcomes all suggestions from parents and children. He also taught on
- Picture day is this Friday and 5th grade students will be having their graduation photos taken that day too.
- Babysitting will be provided in the afternoon and a hired babysitter in the evening. (Camp 4 Kidz)
- Please be prompt with your time for parent teacher conferences.
- Please remember the rapid school dismissal that is the first Monday of every month. Anita will send a letter reminding parents about this dismissal.
- New enrichment partnerships in the school: Mark Morris dance company, the YMCA and the Brooklyn Public Library.
- Enrichment program that is during school day: the school will hold an exhibition in January and another one in the spring. This will be the culminating activity for the enrichment cluster.
- Curriculum based enrichment based clusters, for grades 2, 3, and 4 and 5, which is intergrade, not just within the class. Flyers were sent out to the children and they selected what they were interested in.
K and 1 grades are going to try a pre-enrichment cluster in the spring.
- Assemblies: September was launched with anti bullying sessions, October was NY Philharmonic, November was the political mock election, a storyteller, (Tammy Hall), will be holding an assembly in December for grades 1 to 5. January is a break, February a second assembly with
- Mark Morris is working with grade 1 now and grade 3 in the spring
- Dance for life from arts connection thru a health and heart grant program for grades 1 and 2.
- Chess is starting in December for grades 2 thru 5; Monday is the team day and Wednesday is the club day. In house instruction is 1st thru 5th grades.
- Our 5th graders are wrapping gifts for God's Love We Deliver.
- Partnering with the YMCA to provide holiday cards for the residents of the YMCA and provide gifts. Items will be divided up by grade once we know what they need. Toys for kids and slightly used clothing are suggestions that the YMCA is making. All grades are contributing towards the items but the 5th graders will be packaging them.
- New Victory Theatre is another partnership being formed. We get discount tickets for many of the performances. Look at the Wednesday bulletin for more information.
- In December grade 1 is going to mark Morris performance and get a tour and a Q&A with the dancers and maybe dance on stage with them.
- Young composers will start in the spring after school
- Second grade swim program for a cycle of 8 weeks in the spring with the YMCA.
- The PEEC trip from March in the Poconos for 5th graders
- Partnership with the Jewish museum for grades 1 and 2. Each grade has 7 sessions and will be studying Chagall. A tour of the museum will be a field trip for all students. The afterschool component is limited to 20 students per grade. This is through Bill de Blasio’s office.
- A huge thanks to Donna baker for organizing these partnerships.
- PBIS: This is a program that is a philosophy and it is developed by the school based on the culture of the school. It is in response from the staff and the parents and we want to see a more systematic approach to discipline. It is proactive not punitive. It looks for consistency of behavior, standards, and language. The program teaches the school and its population about adhering to consistent standards in different areas of the school like on the playground or in the music room. It’s not just for the children but for the staff members as well. We have a team that meets twice a month consisting of 16 people, all the school aides are on it, guidance counselor, parent coordinator, a coach from the program and teachers representing every grade and 3 parents. There are no Paras on this team. The team established 4 Principles: be safe, be respectful, be prepared, be responsible. There are very concrete steps to be followed and puts in place a discipline code for the school.
- Professional development: teachers college for literacy in upper grades, AUSSIE program for lower grades; after January 1st they will swap and TC will be in the lower grades, and AUSSIE's in the upper grades. Almost all professional development this year is focusing on differentiating instruction. Five teachers went to the Confratute program at UCONN this summer. Now we have a lead teacher for each grade. This training focuses on how to move the average or above-average student ahead in academics. This program really gives the teachers the kind of support they need to move these children forward. Teachers will meet monthly to discuss curriculum across the grades.
- We have action research math projects based on our data from pre-k to 5th grade. It answers the question to how we can strengthen their math skills. K is developing oral math vocabulary, 1st and 2nd grade children how to explain math and the upper grades are teaching kids the specific strategies.
- Windows will be done by the first week of February.
Recent Events
Thanks for KathleenToimil for the candy and wrapping sale. How much money did we make? The total is about $4300.00. We had an election bake sale we made almost $700. Thanks to everyone who baked and sold the goods. Halloween party was a success and thanks to Arianna for running the event. The scholastic book fair is going to take place on Thursday. Everyone should contribute $5.
Upcoming Events
The parent part of the scholastic book fair will be open in room 103 plus coffee and baked goods will be available. Goods can be dropped off in the morning or at 12 at
December 6th
The entire day is dedicated with a partnership with Barnes and Noble and the 10% of the proceeds will go to our school. Remember to get your vouchers!! The teacher wish list will be available at the store too. The 5th graders will be wrapping and making money for their class trip. Elaine is looking for 3 volunteers every hour to hand out vouchers on the corner of
Class parent coordinator: Joy Canning
Thanks to everyone for volunteering as class parents. There are class parents for every class. If you have not given an email address or phone number, please give it to the class parent.
Other fundraising opportunities
On November 26th we will be starting a 3-week fundraiser where we will give reviews of local businesses. The insiderpages.com will give our school 1.50 to our school if you are the first one to review a list. If you are the 2nd to 4th reviewer, the company will give our school .50. Friends and family can also contribute as reviewers for local businesses.
Development Committee
Alan Siege reported that we are trying to raise money from the parent body. We have raised approximately 2500 in a goal of $25,000.00 this represents only a quarter of the families of our student population. The school is definitely going to lose money and so it is even more important that we raise money for our school. We can contribute to professional development.
The committee will be sending out a letter to the parent body. The committee will also be doing a phone in to the parent body trying to raise money for the school. In the first week of December, a graduate of the school will be doing a short film on the school. He will be filming all the activities that the school is involved and we hope to use this film to raise money. We will also be asking local merchants for donations and if they don’t donate, maybe they could donate at the auction in March.
posted by PS39 PTA at 12:26 PM
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