BEACON PTA MEETING MINUTES – SEPT. 2021
Beacon PTA General Membership Meeting
DATE: Sept. 20, 2021 (6PM, Zoom)
MINUTES
NOTE: Meeting recording of this Zoom is here.
1. WELCOME – Shirley Brady, Robin Broshi, Nancy Molesworth (PTA Co-Presidents) Quorum; recording; introduced Executive Board members.
2. EXPEDITED ELECTION – MEMBERS AT LARGE
Three new 9th grade members at large were elected to the PTA Executive Board: Marisol
Cruz, Tali Mermelstein and Carla Miller. Thanks to all who expressed interest and to Parent
Coordinator Erdene Greene for vetting the results.
3. PRINCIPAL REPORT – Brady Smith
–Thanks to PTA and to parents who have volunteered to help in the school.
–Addressed reasons behind programming delays in school reopening
–Also explained why there are more 9th grade students than expected this year.
PARENT COORDINATOR UPDATE
–Explained the hold-up in MySchools (NYC Schools Account passwords), which are essential for parent information, schedules and more.
–For more info, please contact Ms. Greene or visit https://bit.ly/fall-2021-login-help
–Rest assured, she is working through the backlog of thousands of parent emails.
4. APPROVAL OF MINUTES – Anju Gupta, Recording Secretary
–Approved June 2021 PTA meeting minutes (Motion to approve: Kim Youngbeg. 2nded by: Robin Krugman. Vote: Approved.) (click here)
–Approved August 2021 PTA special meeting minutes (Motion to approve: Diana Mahiques. 2nded by: Robin Krugman. Vote: Approved.) (click here)
5. TREASURERS’ REPORT – Spencer Green, Katherine Bruck & Andrew Flamm
–Spencer presented the work in progress budget, with about 15-16 teacher requests, which still need to go into Quickbooks and will be presented at the October PTA meeting
–Obviously last year was radically different with remote and hybrid learning, so we need to re-set for a new year of in-person learning
–We look forward to supporting teachers and students as we would in a more typical year
6. COMMITTEE UPDATES –
- Fundraising: Karen Jolicoeur, Alison Overholser – Highlighted activities they plan for the year ahead, including a MacBook Air raffle
- Communications: Justine Keil – Looking for help (parents volunteered in chat)
- Community-Building: Karen Stonely, Natasha Zaretsky – Momentum underway with grade-level parent reps now in place, meet-ups planned and neighborhood reps also starting to take shape. IEP parents also coming back strong after building community last year and look forward to a town hall with our new AP for special education, Naisha Crews
- Diversity, Equity & Inclusion: Gary Anthony Ramsay, Windell Williams – Look forward to having our first meeting in October and looking at a range of equity issues and to growing DEI’s impact in the year ahead
- Merchandise: Julie Harding, Diana Mahiques – Look forward to first in-person merch sale, with special discount for 9th graders, coming up
- Hospitality: Jennifer Weisbord – no report
7. OTHER BUSINESS
• Oct. 12, 6pm: PTA Monthly Meeting (Zoom)
• More upcoming PTA meetings are here.
8. MEETING ADJOURNED
Questions? Contact beaconpta@beaconschool.org
