Beacon PTA Meeting Minutes – Feb. 2021

Beacon PTA Monthly General Meeting – Minutes

Feb. 8, 2021 (6PM, Zoom – video replay is here)

1. WELCOME  – Shirley Brady, Robin Broshi, Nancy Molesworth (PTA Co-Presidents)

2. PRINCIPAL REPORT – Brady Smith 

• Appreciation for the PTA and particularly our PTA co-presidents
• Recognized PTA’s role in getting new Chromebooks to students in need in an expedited fashion
• Respect For All Week kicked off in Advisory on Friday, Feb. 5th.  Brady is hosting “No one eats alone” Zoom lunches with students all week.
• Black History Month – February 26th advisory curriculum & Beacon’s annual Black Excellence show will also be held that day.  
• High School reopening – no timeline available yet, we just know that middle schools will reopen on Feb. 25th. Will have to arrange for weekly COVID testing with student and teacher consent. Brady is hopeful that high schools will reopen this spring but not sure what that would look like. Superintendent has said there would be a 4-week lead time.
• Teachers will still be given medical accommodations if HS were to reopen. UFT contract will come into play. 
• Beacon cannot mandate that teachers live-stream their classes. 
• Priority will be given to “neediest” students to attend in-person school.
• Staff are getting first and second doses of the vaccine. Specifics about status of teacher vaccines cannot be shared (protected by HIPAA).
• 1st semester final grades have been shared to students’ email inboxes (from Ben August); students must respond by firm to request changes (or acknowledge they’ve received their grades) by 5pm on Feb. 12th
• NX grade extensions are possible; students affected have been notified
• College advisory (regarding using Naviance, etc.) has started for juniors in Advisory.
• Brady has an 11th grade advisory group that has begun the college advisory
• Spring clubs recruitment is underway and the goal is to get more 9th and 10th graders involved.
• JumpRope grading platform is being considered as an alternative to PupilPath.
• HS admissions deadline has been extended to 3/1 by the DOE.
• SAT – 1st day of SAT will be administered at Beacon on 3/24 if it is administered at Beacon. Additional days also approved by DOE depending on numbers of students who want to take it so as to allow for social distancing and other COVID precautions.
• ACT administration is TBD.

3. VOTE – Proposal by Principal Brady Smith to move parent conferences to April.

• Brady proposes to move dates of PT conferences to April 8th (evening) & 9th (afternoon) as that is closer to middle of the term – APPROVED

3. APPROVAL OF MINUTES

(Anju Gupta & Katherine Bruck, Recording Secretaries)

• Jan. 2021 general meeting minutes were presented for approval (click here). 

• Kim Youngberg moved to approve the minutes.  Diana Mahiques seconded. APPROVED.

4. COMMITTEE REPORTS

• Treasurers (Spencer Green; Andrew Flamm)

• Andrew Flamm remarks: $168K raised to date out of $250K goal.
• $238K of $300K has been allocated to date.

• Fundraising (Karen Jolicoeur; Alison Overholser)

• Alison Overholser remarks: virtual upcoming events being explored – magician/mentalist, cooking class, wine tasting, author speaker, raffles, sales of various items – such as popcorn, candles etc.
• Karen Jolicoeur remarks: encourages others to join fundraising committee
• $4600 has been raised in corporate matching

• Diversity Equity & Inclusion (Gary Ramsay; Windell Williams)

• Gary Ramsay remarks: Beacon Equity team met on Feb. 5th and is in the final stages of coming up with mission statement
• DEI meeting was on Feb. 1 with subcommittees reporting:
  • Admissions: working on outreach.
  • Professional Development: Tyler Brewster of Peer Connect presented a workshop for teachers that was well received.
  • Content & Community: Harriette Cole moderated a presentation of the documentary “Memphis Majic” with filmmaker Eddie Bailey
  • Transparency and accountability: seeking more flexible Zoom norms for students. Parents should be allowed to advocate on behalf of their kids to their advisors.
• Book club meeting coming up on Feb. 9th.

• Communications (Justine Keil; Kathy Morgenstern) 

• Justine Keil remarks: weekly newsletter format has been updated to make it easier to read. Communications survey will get parent feedback on PTA comms. 
• Kathy Morgenstern remarks: asked parents to follow PTA on Facebook.

• Community Building/Relations (Karen Stonely)

• Special Education parents & guardians: Survey closed on Friday, Feb. 5th with great feedback.  Survey results have been shared with administration and leadership. Next Special Ed parents virtual meet-up is on Feb 25th at 5pm.
• Neighborhood parent reps: hoping to have spring outdoor neighborhood gatherings. Need UES, Bronx and Staten Island reps.
• Parent grade reps:
  • 12th grade reps are planning graduation and yearbook etc.
  • 11th grade reps are gearing up for college admissions and hosting a series of small group chats for parents
  • 10th/9th graders – working on connectivity amongst students and families. Advisors are promoting spring clubs to 9th graders in particular.

• Merchandising (Tali Mermelstein; Jeff Rosenblum)

• New merch will be coming in March – stay tuned.

• Hospitality (Elle Melaver; Kate Williams) 

• No report.

7. SCHOOL LEADERSHIP TEAM UPDATE (Robin Broshi; Windell Williams)

• Last meeting on Feb. 4th focused on CEP – set of institutional goals, collaborative documents with benchmarks to make sure meeting goals.
• Communications – Brady is looking at ways to improve comms between teachers & administration

8. NEW BUSINESS

• Robin: Call for parents to volunteer for Executive Board nominating committee, which will be presented at March monthly PTA meeting
• Beacon parents encouraged to run for NYC Community Education Councils, also known as CEC positions; more details are here. Parents should make sure they can access their student’s NYCSA MyStudent.nyc account in order to submit a nomination. 

9. PRESENTATION

Beacon teacher Mike Barr demonstrated and gave advice on Google Classroom and PupilPath for parents & guardians. (For his full presentation, watch the video.)

• Walked through various features and functions of Google Classroom: assignments, when turned in, etc.
• Teachers don’t use Google Classrooms for grades – those are put into PupilPath and other grading apps.
• PupilPath is also called Skedula on the teacher side.  
• Remember that grades take time, especially for labs, so your students’ grades may be delayed.
• One parent/guardian per student can receive a Google Classroom daily summary but parents/guardians don’t receive their own log-in, but may ask their student if they can log in using the student’s password. 
• Brady acknowledged that there is not consistent use of PupilPath among teachers. Beacon is working towards the goal of more consistent use of PupilPath by teachers.
• Kerry Dowling comment: As a Consortium school, Beacon supports teacher autonomy so not all teachers use PupilPath; teacher flexibility is what makes Beacon unique.
• Contact Parent Coordinator Erdene Greene for tech issues (such as passwords) and she will direct parent concerns to the right person.

10. MEETING ADJOURNED 

The next PTA monthly meeting will be held on March 8th at 6PM on Zoom.

For more information, please contact: beaconpta@beaconschool.org

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