Individuals Present: Megan L, Stephanie F, Dell S, Mr. G, Rachael G, Krissy K, Rich L, Laura H, Adam W, Mike K, Aynna R
Introductions / Welcome
Fall school opening
Updates:
Getting more SDP info this week. This week is the admin training week.
Google classroom is still going to be the platform, though we have a team working on making sure our Google Classrooms are very accessible. We’re also working on making the school website a hub for all information. Working with the person who designed Penn’s online learning as a consultant. Also working on designing training for parents as well as staff - both concurrent trainings and instructional videos. Focusing a lot on making sure virtual learning is very streamlined for everyone.
Google is adding additional feature for Google Meet, such as breakout rooms and muting rights for host.
Zoom may be available this year -- not sure if it’s staff to staff or if kids can be allowed.
Fridays will be “half days” for school -- teachers will teach the first half and second half is PD.
All SpEd and classroom assistants will have laptops
Want teachers to work a full day but given that kids can’t persist on the screen for more than 3 hours a day, so it’ll be a mix of live classrooms and asynchronous work. Next step is to create Lea’s school schedule. There are both challenges and opportunities in creating the schedule. We want to keep the potential for in-person instruction in mind as we make the schedule.
K-2 instruction: The teachers brought up concerns about too much digital-focus here. We want to talk about getting manipulatives into the hands of our K-2 kids. Mr. G needs to meet with those teachers to hammer out what that will look like.
Website: Dell thinks it’ll be SO MUCH easier for parents to manage their kids’ schedules. Mr. G: The website will function as the school. E.g. We may have a digital library linked to the site.
Racial Justice work group working with a group at Penn. Planning on doing something in October - professional/personal development to better develop racial literacy.
Communication issues: We text, email, School Messenger, Parent Portal, Dojo, but usage is inconsistent and many parents don’t even know about all the modes. We need to reconcile the information at some point. Can we put a web form on the website to give families the ability to submit their contact info if they’re not receiving updates from the school?
Pivoting HSA in light of virtual fall
Supply drive: Mr. Gerwer asked the K-2 teachers for a list today. SDP did order disposable workbooks for kids, so we can include that in the kits.
How to raise the funds (or collect the materials)?
Given how things are going right now, should we just collect money?
Let’s collect the pot, make a bulk order, and have it delivered to Lea.
Once we have a list, we can kick this off.
How to get the materials to staff?
School would be a distribution center. We could have the supplies delivered there.
Scholastic balance - Can we purchase books for individual book study? Do a bulk order Get Mr. Gr a specific number and he’ll ask teachers what they want. $7475.98 as of 8/4/20
Community building projects
Room parent (or grade parent) system?
School would probably be the body to organize this, not the HSA. They would provide oversight and guidance.
Teachers could advertise for a room parent and ask parents to volunteer their contact info to the teacher.
Could we get a parent rep at the supply distribution list to sign up for these parent distribution lists?
Seems like we have enough people in this room to get things started at least per grade band.
We’ll wait on the supply distribution logistics to be worked out and then we’ll start figuring out the grade parents/room parent situation.
Creating systems for families to support each other
How do we do better outreach?
Room parent / Grade parent system seems like a promising start.
From the school’s perspective, it’ll be important to get guidance from the District before jumping into creating any formal systems.
There is a group of 2nd grade parents trying to figure out a system for people.. We can learn from that if it gets off the ground.
Bring back lawn sign idea? Derek is happy to design the sign! He just needs some guidelines.
Distribute at beginning of year with other distribution projects?
Krissy and Aynna will chat!
“We love learning with our #famiLEA”
Supporting Lea families in need: Updates and further work needed
$9,243.12 raised (as of 8/5)
18 $275 gift cards purchased (17 needed, 1 extra)
Balance: $3,683.32 -- We’ll keep the rest of this for more families that come forward and potentially 2nd installments. Let’s direct anyone else who approaches us going forward toward the supply drive.
Raising money via paypal and check worked fine. Megan will be out of town but she has a tenant who can collect checks that Adam can deposit.
Request for an update on total raised and where the money went. Website? Garden Court wanted an update on how much we raise, where it went, etc etc. Let’s put this on the website.
HSA recruitment/involvement
We have this conversation each year, but an important question to keep coming back to, how do we invite/recruit/make a more welcoming space for all families to be involved?
Let’s decide on a first meeting date and do a big recruitment drive. Mid-late September timeframe. We could promote at back-to-school night and through room parents, teachers and all the other modes of communication. Can we slip in a packet in the K-2 kits?
Elections? We were due to re-elect spring 2020. Adam will reach out to the home and school council.
Next Meetings:
When does SAC meet? We don’t want to conflict.
Wednesday is generally a good day. Let’s do 4th Wednesday of each month - first to be Sept. 23
We’ll do a smaller group meeting for logistics - Tuesday, August 18 at 7pm
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