PTA meeting

November 9, 2017

Meeting Notes and Record of Decisions

In Attendance: Jennifer Greenberg, Eliana Mandel Carsen, Julie Ross, Jamie Mitzmacher, Danielle Benchimol, Neil Gottheil, Marina Petel, Jen Zaret, Tracy Hartman, Tamara Anber* and Ariella Mintz*(* indicated attendance via teleconference)

It should be noted:

This is the second PTA meeting of the 2017/18 school year.

Roles and responsibilities are still being established.

An agenda was provided at the time of the meeting.

Discussion:

New PTA Format- This new format will have committee heads to overview the individual work.

The following are the committee heads

Bond Committee - TBD, Teacher Appreciation – Eliana Mandel and Tamara Anber, Lunch Program – Amanda Slipocoff, Holiday Committee – TBD, Fundraising Committee – Tamara Anber and Eliana Mandel, Sign Up Genius – JaimeeMitzmacher, Governance Committee – Julie Ross and Ariella Mintz. Sub committees (No lead) Lice Squad and Class parent.

Decision:

  • Individual Committees will meet monthly
  • Larger open PTA meetings will meet every second month.

Survey:parent body, Ranker -

Discussion:

occurred while we were trying to connect phone participants because Marina Petal has to leave by 9:30am.

  • Discussion around open ended and closed ended survey questions
  • Discussion as to who to survey the people at the PTA vs Random selected participants
  • Once PTA is organized and has direction, more people will want to get involved

Decision: Marina Petal will work on questions

Bond Committee Representative

Discussion:

  • PTA will be helping to create a calendar of Bar/Bat mitzvahs in order to prevent duplication and overlap between Bar/Bat mitzvahs and other affairs and school functions.
  • This is an important community building exercise.
  • A parent from Grade 4-6 would need to work with parents, synagogues and the school on this committee.
  • Need a leader
  • School vs Community program, synagogue involvement
  • Should we have children outside our school committee join the Bond Program
  • Should we start the program in grade 4
  • Pros and cons of inviting entire class
  • People can opt out and not participate

Decision:

  • We need a lead person for this role
  • Lead person will build a relationship with synagogues
  • The committee will decide if they would like to invite children outside of our school community or if we should find a contact person to build a relationship with who will look after children outside of our school
  • For now we will concentrate on our student body until committee is established
  • bar/bat mitzvah dates can be submitted starting in grade 4
  • Those who participate in the Bond Program must be invited to bar/bat mitzvahs for student’s grade
  • Must explain that it doesn’t have to be a standard bar/ bat mitzvah (ie. dinner and dance party) the party could be small informal gathering.
  • Students will sign a conduct form

Teacher Appreciation Gifts

The PTA is looking to define its role and change the way the school handles teacher appreciation day as well as end of year and Chanukah gifts.

The PTA discussed the following options:

  • Have parents contribute a specific amount to the PTA and have the PTA buy all gifts(for next year).
  • Have a teacher appreciation gift arranged by PTA (and other gifts parents can do by themselves)
  • We can do a beginning of the year survey to learn more about what our teaches preference are so they can have a more personal gift.
  • Discussion on class room versus school wide gift
  • We have to make sure the general studies teacher in the lower grades are not the only teachers who get a gift
  • We can create a survey and send to teachers to find out likes and dislikes, shopping habits and favourite stores.
  • Issues: relies heavily on parent involvement and volunteers, classes my not be cohesive enough to organize, seems to require lots of time and effort.
  • Student driven gifts that they create as a class. Issues: relies heavily on parent involvement and volunteers, classes may not be cohesive enough to organize, seems to require lots of time effort, younger classes will require more supervision than older classes

Decision:

  • This Chanukah do whatever – as it is too late.
  • End of year school gift school will organize, PTA letter to be sent out
  • Class parent can take on this role or find a parent in the class to do so.
  • A portion of the money should be set aside for support staff
  • Consensus was gift would be done by class. If needed PTA could top up
  • This is optional participation
  • Cost to parents was NOT determined

Governance:

General comment that Terms of reference and mandate needs to be redefined for 2018-19 school year.

Decision: Ariella will work with Julie (Julie will be the committee chair).

Kipah Project:

The PTA will be selling Kippahs to the students. This will be part of the fundraising committee.

(Tamara will be the committee chair and work with Ariella on this project)

Tamara will work on other fundraisers with her committee and report back to the PTA.

Decision: Email samples will be sent out to those who attend the meeting once complete.

The meeting was adjourned at 10:00