Beacon PTA Meeting Minutes – Nov. 2020
BEACON PTA GENERAL MEETING
November 9, 2020 (6-8 PM, Zoom)
AGENDA (Minutes noted within sections)
1. WELCOME – Shirley Brady, Robin Broshi & Nancy Molesworth (PTA Co-Presidents)
2. PRINCIPAL REPORT – Brady Smith
- Fire in the building – all teachers and students were evacuated safely. Started as a grease fire in District 75 kitchen. FDNY came to the school and everyone was outside for about 45 minutes. Water damage drained from the 2nd floor to the 1st floor and basement, and is now being cleaned. We offered 5th floor classrooms to the District 75 school to use temporarily.
- Parent/Advisor conferences set for this Thursday & Friday. Contact your child’s Advisor or Beacon Parent Coordinator Erdene Greene (egreene@beaconschool.org) if you have not yet set up a conference time.
- First quarter grades due from teachers tomorrow so they will be processed and available by conferences. Students will have them Thursday and then available on Pupil Path.
- Schedule this week: no school Wednesday for Veteran’s Day; no office hours or Advisory Friday for conferences
- Access to lockers for fully remote students on Friday afternoon (12-2:30). Students will be escorted to lockers and back.
- Committees:
- Admissions: so far DEI and staff members are ready to go but still waiting on DOE guidelines.
- Advisory: looking to improve/streamline the advisory process with students and staff. Wellness is a big topic.
- Equity team: parents, staff, students to increase DEI work in the school
- Staff and students planning workshops for January or February.
- COVID threshold: Still waiting for the DOE to advise on where we are. They are focusing on zip codes, which is not logical for HS since students travel.
- Spring term teaching: how teaching will be handled is still being determined.
- In-Building Learning: students are welcome to come in at any time, don’t need to fill out the DOE remote survey. Mondays are maxed out, but there is room on Tues/Wed/Thurs. Email attendance@beaconschool.org to let the school know if your child wants to come in.
- Health education for 9th graders – usually covered in Advisory; most focus on mental health currently but more to come. Sexual health education – looking at options for outsiders to make it more effective. Being overhauled for all grades.
- Gym/PE: Each PE teacher has 500 students. There isn’t a class period available for PE with the current class schedule. PE teachers monitor our remote PE app called Plat4m, which is very similar to a recorded class. Students are expected to complete workouts on their own. Questions: please email Coach Simmons at nsimmons@beaconschool.org
- Complaints about communications from teachers on nights and weekends – trying to make it more systematic so we can get students off screens for periods of time. Brady has given them guidance with “guardrails” regarding communications but it’s hard to enforce. He’s trying to reach out to teachers who aren’t following the guardrails. Asking parents to help students to learn to turn off screens and limit screen time.
- Lunch/wellness breaks: working with teachers to be mindful of not running over class time so students can get their breaks. The school will look into vegetarian options for lunch in the building.
3. COMMITTEE REPORTS
• Treasurer – Spencer Green (Treasurer) & Andrew Flamm (Assistant Treasurer)
• Funding Requests: $750 for Mock Trial and $4,000 for Model UN.
Motion entered to approve requests; vote passed with more than 50% approval.
• Fundraising: $36,000 raised so far this school year, with $3K alone from the virtual 5K run
• Recording Secretaries – Katherine Bruck & Anju Gupta
• October general meeting minutes – presented for approval [click here]
• Motion entered and vote passed with more than 50% approval.
• Communications – Kathy Morgenstern & Justine Keil, Co-VPs
• Promoting Zoom events in weekly comms to make it easier for parents to join & connect.
• Community Building/Relations Karen Stonely & Sari Gabay, Co-VPs
• 10th Grade: virtual event coming up on 12/9 including a discussion on Community Service
• 11th Grade: survey went out last week to find topics that families want to learn about
• 12th Grade: something coming soon
• SPED (Special Ed) parents: Great kickoff to first meeting. Next one on 11/23 at 5pm.
• Neighborhood reps – looking for ideas for virtual get togethers.
• Diversity Equity & Inclusion – Gary Ramsey & Windell Williams, Co-VPs
• Parent workshop on 11/19 – Peer Connect; available to all parents.
• Meeting on 11/9 – established 4 working groups and came up with a list of priorities; will report to the general DEI team and to the PTA.
• Book club met last week on “Caste” by Isabel Wilkerson – very appropriate for today’s times.. Planning to have another book club meeting in Dec.
• Fundraising – Karen Jolicoeur & Alison Overholser, Co-VPs
• Looking to raise money but have to be sensitive to what families may be going through.
• Targeted weekly appeals in the works. Looking at virtual fundraisers. Please forward any suggestions.
• Hospitality – Elle Melaver & Kate Williams, Co-VPs (no report)
• Merchandising – Tali Mermelstein & Jeff Rosenblum, Co-VPs (no report)
4. SLT UPDATE – Robin Broshi
• Looked at the Comprehensive Education Plan and evaluating goals for subcommittees for relevancy. More information can be found on the DOE website for all schools in NYC.
5. VOTE ON BUDGET PROPOSALS – PTA Co-presidents
Covered earlier.
6. OTHER BUSINESS
Our next monthly meeting is Dec. 12 at 6pm; other upcoming meetings can be found here.
7. MEETING ADJOURNED
CONTACT:
