Beacon PTA meeting minutes – April 2023
BEACON PTA GENERAL MEETING
April 17, 2023 (6:00 PM)
MINUTES
1. WELCOME – Alberta Conteh, Robin Broshi & Gary Anthony Ramsay
(PTA Co-Presidents)
PTA Co-VPs: Carole Fennell, Shirley Brady & Kim Youngberg
Alberta welcomed everyone back.
2. READING OF MEETING NORMS – Alberta Conteh
Alberta reminded us of our meeting norms that are in place for all to feel welcome.
3. PRINCIPAL REPORT – Brady Smith
Brady welcomed all back and mentioned a successful trip to Japan for ~120 students
Air quality update – our advocacy work brought testers in and the full report is available to anyone. No concerns with air quality were found. Recommended we change the filters regularly and use charcoal filters. If we have an issue when painting or solvents in the taxi stand we may still have to relocate. Supervisor of school facilities visits us regularly. NYC dept of buildings visited the Taxi. They feel we are harassing them. They are at the same time making neighborly attempts to avoid painting during school hours. It’s a complicated issue but there are positive results because of advocacy. Brady got a cease and desist letter from them and is getting support from the DOE.
Water quality: 4 fountains were replaced, some with quality issues, some with plumbing issues. All tested safe.
Safety meeting: there will be 3 more evac drills. They are being scheduled and there is no advanced notice.
AP Exams are coming up.
Chancellors day new students will come in for diagnostics. ~180 students have art in the art show. June 9 opening.
June 10, is the 30th anniversary reunion.
Weekly updates cannot include EVERYTHING! Look to the PTA newsletter that covers even more activities. If Brady doesn’t acknowledge EVERYTHING he gets a lot of “what about me” and he takes care as much as possible so people feel they have been adequately “shouted out”.
Calendar change proposal.
Q: Do we want press coverage on the air quality issues? A: This has been going on for 10 years without a final resolution. Work was done in a less noticeable way because of the impact on admissions.
Q: How can parents help? What about copper sulfate? A: Brady saw the test but doesn’t have the expertise to read the result he will look into it. Brady has worked with teachers and seen the readers with elevated levels and supports working through the system. Everyone is frustrated. Results from apps aren’t official. “Stash app”
Q: Registration for summer pre-calc? A: Has to staff the position and they are now looking to fill it. Usually are able to create enough seats for any 11th graders that were in Algebra 2 who want to take it.
Q: Comments about the impact on the students with the air quality issues. Parents should not have to feel they just sit on their hands. Letters? Petition? How else can we get the parent voice heard? A: Teachers are speaking internally, not all faculty have relocated from the basement. Brady bought the air quality monitors that were used. One solution would require capital investment – & that’s on a 3 year cycle. The taxi stand does not plan to move in the near future. Advocacy can lead to unintended solutions.
Q: Is there a problem with getting a real time reading of air quality? A: Charcoal filters are an acknowledgment of the issue and the proposed solution. This is an incredibly challenging and intractable issue. We are part of the gentrification of midtown, zoning issues, OSHA issues. This is a true dilemma. We are seeing some movement.
Q: Is the superintendent involved? A: Yes. But we never got a bad result from the official testing; however they have recommended the charcoal filters which feel significant symbolically and try to leverage this.
Q: How long will we run with the filters? A: If baseline filters say it’s fine…they have acknowledged that SOMETHING is going on.
Other comments from participants:
Advice re press: let’s think hard about bringing press in because that can create a distraction. Real-time testing could arm us with more data because their tests say there are no problems. Maybe the DOE would allow the PTA to do its own testing; some kind of standing testing device the PTA could invest in.
Q: Why back off the issue due to admissions? Can the PTA help get the meeting with elected officials? A: There has been slow movement on this for over 10 years and we must be careful because the report says the air is fine. We may be a summer school site. Lots of moving parts to leverage strategically.
Q: Are the rescheduled Italy trip dates signed off? A: Yes
Q: Is there summer school? A: No. Pre-calc is not part of summer rising, rather, it’s enrichment.
Q: A parent has offered use of an air quality firm to help with testing. A: Noted. But this would have to be approved. We have been waiting 7 months for approval for air quality monitoring. Brady will follow up.
Q: Has there been a meeting with all the stakeholders (students, etc). A: Noted. New info will be communicated.
4. Vote on PROSE
Calendar change request: as a school we have a PROSE agreement. Staff have blanket approval; we may need to change dates to support PBAs. We want to request 4 half days (as we do in parent conferences). Trying to move closer to state waiver requirements. It’s a challenge since we are a very large school. June PBA is only 5 days (in years past we had 7), we have 360 grad level PBAs. This calendar change for half days would help teachers and grad seniors prepare.
5/25, 5/30, 6/5, 6/13. (PBA days are June 14,15,16, 20, and 21).
Caterina Bartha made a motion to vote, Elizabeth C seconded. Participants voted. Motion passed. Change is approved.
5. MINUTES – Nim Delafield & Monica McSharry
- Mar. 2023 general meeting minutes presented for approval (click here)
- James O’Neill made a motion to vote, Carol Fennell seconded. Participants voted. Motion passed. Minutes are approved.
6. 2023 BUDGET PROPOSALS – James O’Neill (Treasurer), Caterina Bartha (Assistant Treasurer); budget update; Budget Committee
JO gave an update. 3 items:
- Update on budget to date, gala and phonathon has pushed up the income
- Funding request from Brady for NYTimes digital subscription for all students & staff unexpected expense but PTA has funded it in the past. We have raised a small amount but we still need additional funding (request is for $3600 but the final will be lower due to fundraising). This will be through November (annual).
Shirley Brady made a motion to vote, Judy Olsen seconded. Participants voted. Budget request approved.
- CB made participants aware that the 23-24 budget is being worked on now to plan instead of waiting for September. This will be sent to teachers and committee heads.
Q: Do we have any other final requests before year end summer bridge, sports banquet. A: Yes for summer bridge but the goal is to get requests from everyone. We have not spent everything requested yet.
7. BUDGET VOTE – vote on new funding requests – see above 6.2
8. COMMITTEE REPORTS
- Fundraising / Kirsten Marino [MacBook Air raffle reveal; phone-a-thon]
- Shirley gave an update they are hard at work on auction deadline is 4/19 for donations. Only 19 tickets left for the Gala. May need more musicians. We have an auctioneer and an emcee. Grade gift baskets are looking good. We have some very good big ticket items. We can give an update in the newsletter.
- Auction / Morghan Richardson [volunteers needed]
- See above
- Community-Building / Cathy Lang Ho & Judy Olsen
- Judy noted we had a Bklyn and LES meetups recently. Grade wide 9th grade zoom is coming up. All parent event is planned in Cobble Hill. 11/12 gathering in school. See the PTA newsletter for all dates. You don’t have to live in the neighborhood you may attend any you want.
- Diversity, Equity & Inclusion / Melissa Magallanes & Jeffrey Marshall
- Jeffrey gave an update: DEI meeting this week, Keeping Score podcast is being discussed. Creating a student-led workshop to engage students. Working on awareness building. In May at Beacon about how to survive an encounter with police. There will be 50 books given to the first 50 families that attend.
- Special Education / Justine Keil & Isabel Santiago-Gordon
- Isabel noted the first in-person event will be a screening of the documentary film The Disruptors open to all Beacon community members. The topic is ADHD. Dr. Elizabeth Cohen will emcee a discussion after the film. Some members of the Special Ed student union will be there.
- Hospitality / Jennifer Weisbord
- No update
- Merchandise / Lisa Starr & Toby Williams
- No update – next lobby sale is 4/28 will be in the newsletter
- Communications / Kendall Gastelu & Kelli Henry
- Kendall reminded everyone to join the beaconparentassociation on Instagram
9. SLT UPDATE –
- No update; called a subcommittee meeting for 4/18 to review the community service program
10. OTHER BUSINESS
- June elections (PTA/SLT) Nominating Committee – parent volunteers
- 3 people stepped up more people are invited to join
- Other volunteer needs (bookmark our webpage)
- Submit local/neighborhood community–building suggestions
- AP test fees are now on the school store or AP teachers can collect
- Beacon school website working papers
- Please give to our annual appeal! Every donation, big or small, matters!
11. NEW BUSINESS
- No new business
12. MEETING ADJOURNED
Susan Kim made a motion to adjourn. Gary Ramsay seconded. Participants voted to adjourn.
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Questions? Please email us at beaconpta@beaconschool.org.
