Beacon PTA meeting minutes – Jan. 2023
BEACON PTA MONTHLY GENERAL MEETING – MINUTES
Date: January 9, 2023 (6PM, Zoom)
Minutes approved at 2/13/23 monthly meeting
AGENDA (click here)
1. WELCOME – Welcomes from Alberta Conteh (PTA Co-President)
2. READING OF MEETING NORMS – Alberta Conteh
3. PRINCIPAL’S REPORT – Brady Smith
- January PBA is week coming up (Sunday update includes details)
- Wed/Thur assessment schedule being settled (making sure accommodations are in place)
- ELA Regents Tue/Wed/Thurs
- Friday is a short school day
- Students only need to come in when they need to come in.
- On Friday, students will learn about their schedules (they got a blank form in advisory, but they can pick up another blank from the main office.)
- Spring schedules are being settled now (still finishing up Arts).
- Will get schedules within the next week or so.
- E-payments are now available on the school website (connected to school (not PTA), launching with collecting prom and senior dues
- Sports wins:
- Last Saturday – girls basketball team won!
- Feb 16th – Black Excellence Show (parents invited) & recruiting students now
- Feb 8 – Beacon students can attend the HBCU event at Barclays Center
- Jan 19/20 Beacon Choir Show (check out Instagram!)
- March 23 – Social Justice teach-in returns (first half of Friday) – focus on Black History/Women’s History/Climate (parents invited to submit recommendations for facilitators)
- Thursday will be the first ‘Senior late night’ in school
- Jan 20 – S-Heal advisory sessions will begin
- Jan 22 – Lunar New Year
- Jan 16 – no School MLK Day
- Jan 9 – first admin training on JumpRope (real time attendance; grades to come). Training sessions to come
4. APPROVAL OF MINUTES –
December 2022 monthly meeting minutes presented for approval (click here).
Carole Fennell moved to approve. Elizabeth DeLaBarre seconded motion. Approved.
5. TREASURERS’ REPORT – James O’Neill & Caterina Bartha
Funding requests (only 1): Teensy magazine ($1500) § Gary Ramsay made a motion to approve, Carole Fennell 2nded. Approved
6. COMMITTEE REPORTS
· Fundraising (Rosemary Wagner & Kirsten Marino)
o Raised > $10K in 2 weeks with year end campaign. $52K with online donations only. $70K all in donations.
o This is far below last year. (plus our budget is down $300K from last year when we had the COVID-19 ARPA relief funds)
o More events to come
· Gala – Morghan Richardson
§ To occur late April or early May
§ Looking for volunteers (sign up here)
· Diversity Equity & Inclusion (Melissa Magallanes & Jeff Marshall)
§ Wed 6PM DEI Multimedia Club will discuss ‘Keeping Score podcast
§ Feb 1 – next DEI Committee monthly meeting
· Merchandising (Lisa Starr & Toby Williams)
o Jan 19, 10:30AM-1PM is the next Beacon Merch sale. (cash/cc)
o Website store is up and running (click here)
o Looking for volunteers for upcoming sales
· Special Education (Isabel Santiago-Gordon & Kristen Keil)
o Jan. 10 at 6PM monthly meeting (introduction to Beacon College Counselor Valerie Mitchell to discuss college admissions for students with IEPs/504s)
o March 2 – Zoom meeting – neurological and educational testing info.
· Communications (Kendall Gastelu & Kelli Henry)
o Efforts focused on recruiting volunteers for subcommittees (including communications)
· Community-Building/Relations (Cathy Lang Ho & Judy Olsen)
o Jan 17th Tue – next book chat “Building Connections”, hosted by Schrey family
o Jan 30, 6PM, Parent grade reps meeting
o Feb 13th neighborhood grade reps meeting
· Hospitality (Jennifer Weisbord)
o Ongoing hospitality events in school thanks to a great group of volunteers
7. SLT UPDATE (Robin Broshi) – haven’t had any meetings since last semester, so no updates for now
- Jan 18th next meeting 4PM (click here for Zoom info)
- Focus is on updating bylaws
8. OTHER BUSINESS
- Parent volunteer sheet is live on the PTA website – Shirley
- NYC Education Council elections – Robin
- Community Ed Councils – (CECs) – Parent leadership has input on school policy. Parents can run to serve on the CECs. Decide if you want to run now.
- Click here for more information and sign-up
9. ADJOURNMENT – James O’Neill makes motion to adjourn; Judy Olsen seconded.
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- Questions? Please email us at beaconpta@beaconschool.org.
