Working notes from TNS PTA meetings during the 2023–2024 school year, covering the transition to co-presidents, budget planning for K-1 teaching assistants, grant activity, event coordination, and preparations for 2024-25.
July 19, 2024
• Calendar
• Main events:
• Holiday fair
• Sing
• Friday 6th - Meet and greet in garden with Dyanthe and Shaquwan
• Friday 13th - PTA breakfast (in library so people can come into the building)
• Picture Day October 1st (Tuesday)
• Communication between PTA and Admin
• Who should Admin send info to?
• Can we get a list of committee heads and participants?
• We have Exec on Konstella, Brooke will add Admin to that
• Denise can then archive the year
• Konstella - Who manages the calendar updates?
• Admin puts it on Google Calendar but it doesn't update
• Brooke will assign someone to own this
• Set up calendaring time with Tatiana
• Brooke will check Tatiana's availability
• Pre-K/K Meet and Greet
• Cute, informal event
• Should we make a PTA one sheet?
• Make a "welcome" doc to pass out inviting people to participate in the PTA
• Based on the PTA sheet from the handbook
• Librarian
• New hiring going well
• Cheryl will be there for a couple days
• Chance to celebrate her
• Kindergarten Teaching assistants
• The PTA needs to send check to DOE who then pays "School Professionals"
• Need $ by Sept 5th from PTA
• We can do it payment plan, quarter by quarter
• Dyanthe and Stephanie to work on this
• How much more $ do we need to raise?
• 40,000 more to meet goals
• 168,000 in bank now but we need to commit to raising the 40,000 and if the $ leaves we must replace it
• Grants Pending:
• Stephanie talking to 3rd Street Music School
• Possibly violins in the school?
• 15,000 to Studio in School
• 10,000 Notes and Motion scholarship
• Sex Ed
• $1,900 for Sexually Smart
• Recommended by Earth School
• PTA meetings being more inclusive
• Alternating evening meetings
• Minutes need to be available to parents
• We need list of who the PTA is
• Parents felt unwelcomed at meetings
• More events/meetings after 5 PM
• Sharing agenda ahead of time would help inclusivity
• Make 2 documents
• One is agenda
• One is minutes
• Summer Mailing
• Welcome back
• Used to be an event day before school
• It was very casual
Jun 11, 2024
• Intro
• Teacher's Report - Erin
• Window Situation - Alex talked to Carey
• Dyanthe got a date, not for several months but there is a commitment from Anna (custodial contact), one guy does all of the windows but there is a tangible date to hold Mark to account to. Not before Summer Rising starts. Alex to email Carey that they said before summer rising. Dyanthe to get date.
• Dyanthe's Report
• Pbats - every 5th grader does this in math
• Req's multiplication, division, fractions, calculating area, culmination of skills. Work independently. Design a playground. Present to teacher & staff member. Next year have families participate. Reflective process. Marries math plus social emotional.
• Pbats are part of how they think about assessment.
• PROSE days
• Agreement b/t UFT & DOE, started in 2016. Allows flexibility for skills who were accepted into Prose. Collaborative. We applied with 5 other prog schools. 5 year thing. Allows additional prof. Dev. time. On Mon's they meet after school (always have, not just in contract). This allows additional time.
• Days for next year: Oct 25, Dec 13, Jan 17, Mar 14, Apr 4, May 23 half days. 13 June (no anniversary day next year) & June 26 full days.
• Don't coordinate with other prose schools but maybe that would be a good idea.
• Preliminary Budget
• We don't get actual budget from city yet so this is the Prelim Budget
• Budget almost doubles this year's - 70k >> 128k.
• Teaching Assistant: Usually rely on Paras to have a second adult in the lower level classroom but next year there won't be enough paras to cover this.
• This year PTA didn't have to cover any teaching assistants bc they had paras to help with general classroom.
• Next year no children entering K/1 with paras. 2 classrooms w/no paras.
• DOE doesn't provide $ for this; PTA has to cover this.
• Teacher burn-out.
• Choice we have to make -
• We need $40k for 2 - we don't have this extra money put away for this
• Erin - State has passed lower class size law. NYC gradually implementing slowly (20%, 40%...). Corrently 20 for K and 32 for older.
• There are many high need situations that happen every day in the classroom for K/1 kids. Big need for another adult in the class to help.
• Alex checked old tax records, our biggest year we raised 98k. Most schools are all struggling to raise money. PS11 will raise 600k this year! That is not coming from the school.
• What we do not have and have not had is a person who is dedicated to fund raising and an expert at fundraising. Person we rely on doesn't have to be a parent at TNS.
• Mario - we raised 95k this year. Short ~30k.
• We have 416 parents at school - marketing - works out to be ~29 month. Get people to sign up in Sept. for monthly donations. Konstella shuts off at end of year and need to re-up.
• We have no play book - need to have one so we know who the connections are with. Need to rely less on word of mouth to pass on knowledge.
• We need someone who knows how to fundraise.
• What can we offer wealthy people to incentivize donations. (ie name Library, brick on the wall, etc)
• Programs covered by school - Ballet, 3rd St music, School sounds recorder for ⅘'s, People should be open to partnerships - music enrichment program. Need new ideas.
• Health Education - Best person is called 'The Talk'. The rest are zoom. Tina is trying to manage coordinating with 4/5 's to bring someone in. Malia - might know someone who can do this. Also for music.
• Review of Budget - itemized descriptions reviewed.
Jun 5, 2024
• Budget
• Who to discuss budget with Dyanthe
• Goal to vote it next week / before end of year
• We have a meeting with Dyanthe
• Make sure everything is there in terms of Dyanthe's needs, we vote on it s a Team Issue is Dyanthe's needs will change by next year
• What is in actual bylaws deadlines to keep with those? Is it end of this year? If it's not, it is better to be topic of first PTA meeting next year
• Do we just do it and vote every time something comes up? Or do we wait til Sept? Can we approve something and then change it in Sept?
• Check the bylaws
• Ask Amy and discuss what Dyathe thinks is best - better picture of needs in Sept., better to not rush it
• We voted this year's like a month ago
• Brooke is speaking with Dyanthe after this and will check
• We need a copy of the bylaws - no one has seen the actual doc. Can't find on the drive
• Events
• Tatiana not on Events next year - just the bake squad :(
• Not sure if there will be an Events committee - Tatiana thinks we need Events Coordinator - in charge of Konstell calendar, events calendar, in charge of sending out the WhatsUp
• Tatiana will make an Events calendar for next year to hand off - if we have dates set before hand then we shouldn't have to switch around so much
• Major Events Outline (not set in stone) - Talent Show, Auction, etc. We have to make sure we can staff these and head them up
• Elena will take care of calendar and it is worth setting it up with her. She will take this over in the Secretary role.
• Discussion of talent show and how that came about…
• We need people to commit to dates before hand and commit themselves
• Calendar
• What are the main things
• Holiday fair
• Sing
• Friday 6th- meet and greet in garden with Dyanthe and Shaquwan.
• Friday 13th- PTA breakfast (in library so people can come into the building)
• Picture Day October 1st (Tuesday)
• Communication between PTA and Admin
• Who should Admin send info to?
• Can we get a list of committee heads and participants
• We do have Exec on Konstella so Brooke will add Admin to that.
• Denise can then archive the year
• Konstella- Who manages the calendar updates?
• Admin puts it on Google Calendar but it doesn’t update
• Brooke will assign someone to own this
• Set up calendaring time with Tatiana
• Brooke will check Tatiana’s availability
• Pre-K/K Meet and Greet
• Cute, informal event
• Should we make a PTA one sheet?
• Make a “welcome” doc to pass out inviting people to participate in the PTA
• Based on the PTA sheet from the handbook
• Librarian
• New hiring going well
• Cheryl will be there for a couple days
• Chance to celebrate her
• Kindergarten Teaching assistants
• The PTA needs to send check to DOE who then pays “School Professionals”
• Need $ by Sept 5th from PTA
• We can do it payment plan. Quarter by quarter
• Dyanthe and Stephanie to work on this
• How much more $ do we need to raise?
• 40,000 more to meet goals
• 168,000 in bank now but we need to commit to raising the 40,000 and if the $ leaves we must replace it
• Grants Pending:
• Stephanie talking to 3rd Street Music School
• Possibly violins in the school?
• 15,000 to Studio in School
• 10,000 Notes and Motion scholarship
• Sex Ed
• $1,900 for Sexually Smart
• Recommended by Earth School
• PTA meetings being more inclusive
• Alternating evening meetings
• Minutes need to be available to parents
• We need list of who the PTA is
• Parents felt unwelcomed at meetings
• More events/meetings after 5 PM
• Sharing agenda ahead of time would help inclusivity
• Make 2 documents
• One is agenda
• One is minutes
• Summer Mailing
• Welcome back
• Used to be an event day before school
• It was very casual
Jun 11, 2024
• Intro
• Teacher’s Report - Erin
• Window Situation - Alex talked to Carey
• Dyanthe got a date, not for several months but there is a commitment from Anna (custodial contact), one guy does all of the windows but there is a tangible date to hold Mark to account to. Not before Summer Rising starts. Alex to email Carey that they said before summer rising. Dyanthe to get date.
• Dyanthe’s Report
• Pbats - every 5th grader does this in math
• Req’s multiplication, division, fractions, calculating area, culmination of skills. Work independently. Design a playground. Present to teacher & staff member. Next year have families participate. Reflective process. Marries math plus social emotional.
• Pbats are part of how they think about assessment.
• PROSE days
• Agreement b/t UFT & DOE, started in 2016. Allows flexibility for skills who were accepted into Prose. Collaborative. We applied with 5 other prog schools. 5 year thing. Allows additional prof. Dev. time. On Mon’s they meet after school (always have, not just in contract). This allows additional time.
• Days for next year: Oct 25, Dec 13, Jan 17, Mar 14, Apr 4, May 23 half days. 13 June (no anniversary day next year) & June 26 full days.
• Don’t coordinate with other prose schools but maybe that would be a good idea.
• Preliminary Budget
• We don’t get actual budget from city yet so this is the Prelim Budget
• Budget almost doubles this year’s - 70k >> 128k.
• Teaching Assistant: Usually rely on Paras to have a second adult in the lower level classroom but next year there won’t be enough paras to cover this.
• This year PTA didn’t have to cover any teaching assistants bc they had paras to help with general classroom.
• Next year no children entering K/1 with paras. 2 classrooms w/no paras.
• DOE doesn’t provide $ for this; PTA has to cover this.
• Teacher burn-out.
• Choice we have to make -
• We need $40k for 2 - we don’t have this extra money put away for this
• Erin - State has passed lower class size law. NYC gradually implementing slowly (20%, 40%...). Corrently 20 for K and 32 for older.
• There are many high need situations that happen every day in the classroom for K/1 kids. Big need for another adult in the class to help.
• Alex checked old tax records, our biggest year we raised 98k. Most schools are all struggling to raise money. PS11 will raise 600k this year! That is not coming from the school.
• What we do not have and have not had is a person who is dedicated to fund raising and an expert at fundraising. Person we rely on doesn’t have to be a parent at TNS.
• Mario - we raised 95k this year. Short ~30k.
• We have 416 parents at school - marketing - works out to be ~29 month. Get people to sign up in Sept. for monthly donations. Konstella shuts off at end of year and need to re-up.
• We have no play book - need to have one so we know who the connections are with. Need to rely less on word of mouth to pass on knowledge.
• We need someone who knows how to fundraise.
• What can we offer wealthy people to incentivize donations. (ie name Library, brick on the wall, etc)
• Programs covered by school - Ballet, 3rd St music, School sounds recorder for ⅘’s, People should be open to partnerships - music enrichment program. Need new ideas.
• Health Education - Best person is called ‘The Talk’. The rest are zoom. Tina is trying to manage coordinating with 4/5 ‘s to bring someone in. Malia - might know someone who can do this. Also for music.
• Review of Budget - itemized descriptions reviewed.
*
Jun 5, 2024
• Budget
• Who to discuss budget with Dyanthe
• Goal to vote it next week / before end of year
• We have a meeting with Dyanthe
• Make sure everything is there in terms of Dyanthe’s needs, we vote on it s a Team Issue is Dyanthe’s needs will change by next year
• What is in actual bylaws deadlines to keep with those? Is it end of this year? If it’s not, it is better to be topic of first PTA meeting next year
• Do we just do it and vote every time something comes up? Or do we wait til Sept? Can we approve something and then change it in Sept?
• Check the bylaws
• Ask Amy and discuss what Dyathe thinks is best - better picture of needs in Sept., better to not rush it
• We voted this year’s like a month ago
• Brooke is speaking with Dyanthe after this and will check
• We need a copy of the bylaws - no one has seen the actual doc. Can’t find on the drive
• Events
• Tatiana not on Events next year - just the bake squad :(
• Not sure if there will be an Events committee - Tatiana thinks we need Events Coordinator - in charge of Konstell calendar, events calendar, in charge of sending out the WhatsUp
• Tatiana will make an Events calendar for next year to hand off - if we have dates set before hand then we shouldn’t have to switch around so much
• Major Events Outline (not set in stone) - Talent Show, Auction, etc. We have to make sure we can staff these and head them up
• Elena will take care of calendar and it is worth setting it up with her. She will take this over in the Secretary role.
• Discussion of talent show and how that came about…
• We need people to commit to dates before hand and commit themselves
• We shouldn’t have May & June have so much that attendance goes down. Auction should be Feb/March for better attendance and get more for the auction earlier
• Problem was people said they would do it but then didn’t. We need people to head up committees and get things done. Now we have that! :)
• Sarah and Talent show people want to do it, maybe even in the fall
• Tatiana to talk to Elena to get a draft calendar
• Treasurer Report
• Mario shared the report
• Goal will be every month spreadsheet to give current picture
• We are not in bad shape once we factor in the Auction profits
• We have 148 K in bank now
• May have money in paypal account
• There was a 14K camp grant that went on DOE account of school.
• So office couldn’t transfer to PTA account
• 14K went to TAs instead of transferring to PTA account
• That was the deal cuz the PTA would have paid it anyway
• Not remembered at office level
• We thought we had it. The school disagrees.
• Alex will talk to Dyanthe about it today
• We’ll probably meet budget
• Fundraisers made over $5K
• Photos made 5K
• Next year we’ll do Quickbooks
Apr 3, 2024
• PTA Newsletter
• Clubs, involve kids
• Not cut & paste from DOE
• What is happening - Newsletter
• Trans Kids & Families - D2 Issue
• Be a voice of TNS
• Maybe distribute via email vs. Konstella
• Konstella
• Some classes not using this at all
• 117 families not using Konstella
• Events
• Neighborhood Day - soon!
• Run by committees, get people to join by committee; strong committees to lead events, etc.
• Spin Art, Bounce House
• Food - theme International Neighborhood, similar to Rhythm & Rice we used to have. Get people to donate food from their counties to celebrate their international neighborhoods.
*
• Talent Show
• Get a better governing structure around events - why aren’t movie night & talent show called an Event?
• Led by committee not Events, people can do their own thing.
• Each committee can lead its own things
• Holiday Fair & Neighborhood Day are school-wide.
• Alex proposes we dissolve the Events committee and it all goes to committees. But we need one person to manage everything so events can’t stack on top of each other. Tatiana is in control of the calendar. Someone needs to manage that.
• 3 people - 1 calendar, 2 for specific events (Halloween, etc)
• What if we had a scheduling officer in the PTA? That would be a good job to add.
• June 14 Randy Weinstein Event
• Problem that committee heads are not in charge of committees.
• Neighborhood Day
• Original idea:
• Committees head tables to sell committees to new parents
• Tatiana to make a QR code
• Hoping to up engagement for next year now
• Asking parents for food that represents their culture
• Tatiana to follow up on needed volunteers for set up etc.
• Opt Out
• Will not hit 95% opt out rate (6 families are hardcore on testing)
• Might get 92%
• Head to the media with that number and hope we can generate good will should the DOE come after us
• Treasurer Filing
• Looking for clarity on taking reports to the office or DOE directly.
Jan 30, 2024
• Events
• Auction still needs people to volunteer
• Asking people to fill out forms
• Talent Show
• Bake Squad is behind on fundraising
• Was hoping to raise 5,000 but only have 1,000.
• Participation is lower after Covid district-wide
How can we engage new parents more?
• Advocacy meetings are bumping!
• Opt Out
• Looking for 95% opt out rate so DOE won’t look at our #s
• Bad #s hurt our enrollment/reputation
• Focus on 3rd Grade. The younger grades need to be reached with this message
• Google Doc to be distributed at end of Feb/beginning of March. It will be up on Konstella etc.
• We need to have it in paper in the schoolyard
• Teachers/Dyanthe aren’t allowed to weigh in. But we can say it’s part of our culture to opt out
• FAQs about what’s better for your kids and school
• Title One: Let’s Get it!
• Creative ways to get people to fill out forms?
• Blue card is still paper but the other form is online ONLY
• If there are access issues, could the library be a place?
• Treasurer?
• Adriana is still stepping in but Stephanie and Mario are transitioning in
• They need access to PTA box and accounts etc. (just ask Dyanthe for the key. Don’t wait for Michelle)
• Cleaning the PTA room
• We are going throw away a bunch of stuff. Let people know!
Jan 2, 2024
• Nicole Stepping back to focus on ⅘ grade more
She will remain close with Treasurers, sign checks, etc
She will invite Brooke & Alex to the meetings w/Dyanthe & Shaquanne
• Mario - was a budget submitted end of last year? Have to check for compliance.
Urgent - Mario needs access to PTA debit card & wire transfer - Nicole will check
Invite Stephanie to the Exec meetings
Access to PTA venmo
• NC REcommendations
Duets - better communication who does what, tighten communication & execution
Some schools do this with the Parent coordinator (Denise) to be the glue
• Exec Planning - Budget Planning
• Account Planning - Mario - 30 mins monthly with Michelle
• Communications with Community Engagement Process - Denise & Brooke or Alex
• Calendar Management - Denise/Tylynn & Phoebe/Shannon
• Class Level Planning - Shaquanne/Dianne & Matilde (parent engagement)
• Events - Matt & Tatiana
• Class 313 New teacher - School & grade to pull together
July 19, 2024
• Calendar
• What are the main things
• Holiday fair
• Sing
• Friday 6th- meet and greet in garden with Dyanthe and Shaquwan.
• Friday 13th- PTA breakfast (in library so people can come into the building)
• Picture Day October 1st (Tuesday)
• Communication between PTA and Admin
• Who should Admin send info to?
• Can we get a list of committee heads and participants
• We do have Exec on Konstella so Brooke will add Admin to that.
• Denise can then archive the year
• Konstella- Who manages the calendar updates?
• Admin puts it on Google Calendar but it doesn’t update
• Brooke will assign someone to own this
• Set up calendaring time with Tatiana
• Brooke will check Tatiana’s availability
• Pre-K/K Meet and Greet
• Cute, informal event
• Should we make a PTA one sheet?
• Make a “welcome” doc to pass out inviting people to participate in the PTA
• Based on the PTA sheet from the handbook
• Librarian
• New hiring going well
• Cheryl will be there for a couple days
• Chance to celebrate her
• Kindergarten Teaching assistants
• The PTA needs to send check to DOE who then pays “School Professionals”
• Need $ by Sept 5th from PTA
• We can do it payment plan. Quarter by quarter
• Dyanthe and Stephanie to work on this
• How much more $ do we need to raise?
• 40,000 more to meet goals
• 168,000 in bank now but we need to commit to raising the 40,000 and if the $ leaves we must replace it
• Grants Pending:
• Stephanie talking to 3rd Street Music School
• Possibly violins in the school?
• 15,000 to Studio in School
• 10,000 Notes and Motion scholarship
• Sex Ed
• $1,900 for Sexually Smart
• Recommended by Earth School
• PTA meetings being more inclusive
• Alternating evening meetings
• Minutes need to be available to parents
• We need list of who the PTA is
• Parents felt unwelcomed at meetings
• More events/meetings after 5 PM
• Sharing agenda ahead of time would help inclusivity
• Make 2 documents
• One is agenda
• One is minutes
• Summer Mailing
• Welcome back
• Used to be an event day before school
• It was very casual
Jun 11, 2024
• Intro
• Teacher’s Report - Erin
• Window Situation - Alex talked to Carey
• Dyanthe got a date, not for several months but there is a commitment from Anna (custodial contact), one guy does all of the windows but there is a tangible date to hold Mark to account to. Not before Summer Rising starts. Alex to email Carey that they said before summer rising. Dyanthe to get date.
• Dyanthe’s Report
• Pbats - every 5th grader does this in math
• Req’s multiplication, division, fractions, calculating area, culmination of skills. Work independently. Design a playground. Present to teacher & staff member. Next year have families participate. Reflective process. Marries math plus social emotional.
• Pbats are part of how they think about assessment.
• PROSE days
• Agreement b/t UFT & DOE, started in 2016. Allows flexibility for skills who were accepted into Prose. Collaborative. We applied with 5 other prog schools. 5 year thing. Allows additional prof. Dev. time. On Mon’s they meet after school (always have, not just in contract). This allows additional time.
• Days for next year: Oct 25, Dec 13, Jan 17, Mar 14, Apr 4, May 23 half days. 13 June (no anniversary day next year) & June 26 full days.
• Don’t coordinate with other prose schools but maybe that would be a good idea.
• Preliminary Budget
• We don’t get actual budget from city yet so this is the Prelim Budget
• Budget almost doubles this year’s - 70k >> 128k.
• Teaching Assistant: Usually rely on Paras to have a second adult in the lower level classroom but next year there won’t be enough paras to cover this.
• This year PTA didn’t have to cover any teaching assistants bc they had paras to help with general classroom.
• Next year no children entering K/1 with paras. 2 classrooms w/no paras.
• DOE doesn’t provide $ for this; PTA has to cover this.
• Teacher burn-out.
• Choice we have to make -
• We need $40k for 2 - we don’t have this extra money put away for this
• Erin - State has passed lower class size law. NYC gradually implementing slowly (20%, 40%...). Corrently 20 for K and 32 for older.
• There are many high need situations that happen every day in the classroom for K/1 kids. Big need for another adult in the class to help.
• Alex checked old tax records, our biggest year we raised 98k. Most schools are all struggling to raise money. PS11 will raise 600k this year! That is not coming from the school.
• What we do not have and have not had is a person who is dedicated to fund raising and an expert at fundraising. Person we rely on doesn’t have to be a parent at TNS.
• Mario - we raised 95k this year. Short ~30k.
• We have 416 parents at school - marketing - works out to be ~29 month. Get people to sign up in Sept. for monthly donations. Konstella shuts off at end of year and need to re-up.
• We have no play book - need to have one so we know who the connections are with. Need to rely less on word of mouth to pass on knowledge.
• We need someone who knows how to fundraise.
• What can we offer wealthy people to incentivize donations. (ie name Library, brick on the wall, etc)
• Programs covered by school - Ballet, 3rd St music, School sounds recorder for ⅘’s, People should be open to partnerships - music enrichment program. Need new ideas.
• Health Education - Best person is called ‘The Talk’. The rest are zoom. Tina is trying to manage coordinating with 4/5 ‘s to bring someone in. Malia - might know someone who can do this. Also for music.
• Review of Budget - itemized descriptions reviewed.
*
Jun 5, 2024
• Budget
• Who to discuss budget with Dyanthe
• Goal to vote it next week / before end of year
• We have a meeting with Dyanthe
• Make sure everything is there in terms of Dyanthe’s needs, we vote on it s a Team Issue is Dyanthe’s needs will change by next year
• What is in actual bylaws deadlines to keep with those? Is it end of this year? If it’s not, it is better to be topic of first PTA meeting next year
• Do we just do it and vote every time something comes up? Or do we wait til Sept? Can we approve something and then change it in Sept?
• Check the bylaws
• Ask Amy and discuss what Dyathe thinks is best - better picture of needs in Sept., better to not rush it
• We voted this year’s like a month ago
• Brooke is speaking with Dyanthe after this and will check
• We need a copy of the bylaws - no one has seen the actual doc. Can’t find on the drive
• Events
• Tatiana not on Events next year - just the bake squad :(
• Not sure if there will be an Events committee - Tatiana thinks we need Events Coordinator - in charge of Konstell calendar, events calendar, in charge of sending out the WhatsUp
• Tatiana will make an Events calendar for next year to hand off - if we have dates set before hand then we shouldn’t have to switch around so much
• Major Events Outline (not set in stone) - Talent Show, Auction, etc. We have to make sure we can staff these and head them up
• Elena will take care of calendar and it is worth setting it up with her. She will take this over in the Secretary role.
• Discussion of talent show and how that came about…
• We need people to commit to dates before hand and commit themselves
• We shouldn’t have May & June have so much that attendance goes down. Auction should be Feb/March for better attendance and get more for the auction earlier
• Problem was people said they would do it but then didn’t. We need people to head up committees and get things done. Now we have that! :)
• Sarah and Talent show people want to do it, maybe even in the fall
• Tatiana to talk to Elena to get a draft calendar
• Treasurer Report
• Mario shared the report
• Goal will be every month spreadsheet to give current picture
• We are not in bad shape once we factor in the Auction profits
• We have 148 K in bank now
• May have money in paypal account
• There was a 14K camp grant that went on DOE account of school.
• So office couldn’t transfer to PTA account
• 14K went to TAs instead of transferring to PTA account
• That was the deal cuz the PTA would have paid it anyway
• Not remembered at office level
• We thought we had it. The school disagrees.
• Alex will talk to Dyanthe about it today
• We’ll probably meet budget
• Fundraisers made over $5K
• Photos made 5K
• Next year we’ll do Quickbooks
Apr 3, 2024
• PTA Newsletter
• Clubs, involve kids
• Not cut & paste from DOE
• What is happening - Newsletter
• Trans Kids & Families - D2 Issue
• Be a voice of TNS
• Maybe distribute via email vs. Konstella
• Konstella
• Some classes not using this at all
• 117 families not using Konstella
• Events
• Neighborhood Day - soon!
• Run by committees, get people to join by committee; strong committees to lead events, etc.
• Spin Art, Bounce House
• Food - theme International Neighborhood, similar to Rhythm & Rice we used to have. Get people to donate food from their counties to celebrate their international neighborhoods.
*
• Talent Show
• Get a better governing structure around events - why aren’t movie night & talent show called an Event?
• Led by committee not Events, people can do their own thing.
• Each committee can lead its own things
• Holiday Fair & Neighborhood Day are school-wide.
• Alex proposes we dissolve the Events committee and it all goes to committees. But we need one person to manage everything so events can’t stack on top of each other. Tatiana is in control of the calendar. Someone needs to manage that.
• 3 people - 1 calendar, 2 for specific events (Halloween, etc)
• What if we had a scheduling officer in the PTA? That would be a good job to add.
• June 14 Randy Weinstein Event
• Problem that committee heads are not in charge of committees.
• Neighborhood Day
• Original idea:
• Committees head tables to sell committees to new parents
• Tatiana to make a QR code
• Hoping to up engagement for next year now
• Asking parents for food that represents their culture
• Tatiana to follow up on needed volunteers for set up etc.
• Opt Out
• Will not hit 95% opt out rate (6 families are hardcore on testing)
• Might get 92%
• Head to the media with that number and hope we can generate good will should the DOE come after us
• Treasurer Filing
• Looking for clarity on taking reports to the office or DOE directly.
Jan 30, 2024
• Events
• Auction still needs people to volunteer
• Asking people to fill out forms
• Talent Show
• Bake Squad is behind on fundraising
• Was hoping to raise 5,000 but only have 1,000.
• Participation is lower after Covid district-wide
How can we engage new parents more?
• Advocacy meetings are bumping!
• Opt Out
• Looking for 95% opt out rate so DOE won’t look at our #s
• Bad #s hurt our enrollment/reputation
• Focus on 3rd Grade. The younger grades need to be reached with this message
• Google Doc to be distributed at end of Feb/beginning of March. It will be up on Konstella etc.
• We need to have it in paper in the schoolyard
• Teachers/Dyanthe aren’t allowed to weigh in. But we can say it’s part of our culture to opt out
• FAQs about what’s better for your kids and school
• Title One: Let’s Get it!
• Creative ways to get people to fill out forms?
• Blue card is still paper but the other form is online ONLY
• If there are access issues, could the library be a place?
• Treasurer?
• Adriana is still stepping in but Stephanie and Mario are transitioning in
• They need access to PTA box and accounts etc. (just ask Dyanthe for the key. Don’t wait for Michelle)
• Cleaning the PTA room
• We are going throw away a bunch of stuff. Let people know!
Jan 2, 2024
• Nicole Stepping back to focus on ⅘ grade more
She will remain close with Treasurers, sign checks, etc
She will invite Brooke & Alex to the meetings w/Dyanthe & Shaquanne
• Mario - was a budget submitted end of last year? Have to check for compliance.
Urgent - Mario needs access to PTA debit card & wire transfer - Nicole will check
Invite Stephanie to the Exec meetings
Access to PTA venmo
• NC REcommendations
Duets - better communication who does what, tighten communication & execution
Some schools do this with the Parent coordinator (Denise) to be the glue
• Exec Planning - Budget Planning
• Account Planning - Mario - 30 mins monthly with Michelle
• Communications with Community Engagement Process - Denise & Brooke or Alex
• Calendar Management - Denise/Tylynn & Phoebe/Shannon
• Class Level Planning - Shaquanne/Dianne & Matilde (parent engagement)
• Events - Matt & Tatiana
• Class 313 New teacher - School & grade to pull together