2: Middle School Parent Rep Meeting Minutes

HS Redesign. Wednesday, 1/19. 6:30. For 6 – 10 grade families. Please join Phil at Charlton Street for a lively discussion on the future of LREI HS.

Karamu. Friday 1/21. Tickets are on sale now. Sustainable tie-dye bandanas on sale now. Please volunteer to work. Please bring a dish. Karamu is a community event and needs your help to make it successful. Sign ups in lobby. Please remember that parents need to keep tabs on their kids during Karamu. Also, please note that not only will Margaret Andrews be the Karamu emcee, she will also e tap dancing during the event!

Spirit Week is next week. Class Reps have devised a great week.
Monday – Crazy Head Gear Day
Tuesday – Bring Lunch to School
Wednesday – Twin Day with judging during meeting
Thursday – Dress Up as a Figure You Admire Day
Friday – Pajama Day, 8th graders read and cookies and cocoa provided. Spirit
Games After School. MS Dance that evening.

• This Friday 11/19 — the 7th grade DISC dance will be held at the high school beginning at 6PM.  Permission slips came home with your 7th grader yesterday, along with a request for $5.
• Wed 12/15 — the 7th grade Colonial Museum project, at 6PM in the classrooms, followed by a potluck in the cafeteria.  An online sign up sheet for the potluck will be forthcoming.
• 1-Can, 1-Child / Canned Food Drive for St. John’s Pantry: beginning this Thursday and until Wed 11/24, the Middle School is collecting canned goods.  The goal is 100% student participation of at least 1 can per child, but more is of course welcome.  Students will be bagging and delivering the cans after the Thanksgiving break.
• Book Week 12/6-10 Author visits for each grade will take place mostly on Friday 12/10.  The annual Literary Evening is Wed 12/7 at 7PM (tickets will go on sale the week before).  The Book Fair will be held from the afternoon of Wed 12/8 through Friday 12/10.  Look for credit card pre-authorization forms to come home with your child: you can authorize him/her to purchase books at the fair; there’s a $25 minimum for credit card — no AmEx.  You can also send a check for a lesser amount with your child.
• Tues 12/14 — the Winter Concert at NYU at 6PM
• Progress Reports — Questions or comments about the process can be directed to Mark.  Individual questions by subject may be directed to the specialists.
• Other subjects:
  • Lateness — A student is marked late when s/he arrives at school after 8:20.  S/he is marked late for homeroom after 8:21.  If your child is at school on time but stops to see a specialist or the nurse, please remind her/him to get a note so s/he won’t be marked late for homeroom.
  • The computer lab is open on school mornings from 8-8:15AM for access to computers and for printing school work, and after school until 5:30PM.
  • Gabrielle noted that the Coat Drive was a success: over 100 coats were sent to Hudson Guild. Thank you to those who participated.
  • Beautifying Little Red Square: an ongoing discussion on the subject of planting the tree wells in front of the school on 6th Avenue.  Because of budget constraints, the Parks Department can no longer offer seasonal plants (although the department may be able to do the planting if the plants are supplied).  Members of the school community continue to express interest about volunteering to organize and/or underwrite the project.  One idea is to do a 2-season annual planting of hardy, long-lasting flowers.

Minutes Middle School Meeting
October 19, 2010

1. End of Term Family Conferences and reports
   • Sign up for an appointment with your advisor
   • Sign up for appointments with teachers other than your advisor
   • Reach out to teachers all year in person or email
   • Don’ t turn your Family conference into a Parent/Teacher conference
   • If you get surprised, in a negative way, on your child’ s report let Mark know
   • There is a new system for delivering reports (info to follow from Mark)
   • Next year, school with have a new website that allows access to individualized information.
2. Professional Day Speaker
   There was a brief discussion about a professional day speaker and whether LREI had changed aspects of the program in response to the meeting. Mark and Phil said that there were no official changes, but that the school is always studying and evaluating the process for most productive and beneficial ways to support student learning.
3. Big Auction
   Date is set for May 11th. Donation forms have been email and are available online. Start soliciting early and check with Brook in Development it you are unsure about conflicts.
4. The meeting ended early so that reps could participate in Phil’s presentation about the EE Ford grant that will provide for envisioning and planning to support develoment of cutting edge progressive approaches for educating high school students.

Minutes Middle School Meeting
September 21, 2010

Dean’s Report

Gaby:

• Community Service – ongoing
• St. John’s pantry continues
• We no longer get bulbs from the city and Gabrielle would like to get parents/committees involved in planting Little Red Square.
• Unicef Boxes will be handed out for Halloween

Lynne:

• Talked about DISC Dances, Middle School Dances and how she will liaison with parents about this.
• Literary Festival during ERB week is in February. If you know anyone who might want to teach a seminar that week (writers, illustrators, online movies, etc) please contact Lynne

Fifth Grade Rep Cushla Kelly:

• Discussed partnership of LREI and Go Project which provides academic support for at risk public school students
• Goal is to use resources of a wonderful private school on off days (weekends) to support these kids educational learning needs
• Families are downtown, lower income, many with English as second language
• 100 volunteers, several of whom are our teachers
• Paid staff as well
• 6 to 1 ratio in classroom
• Social worker addresses family issues
• There is a five week intensive summer school as well
• Volunteer opportunities for parents
• Need people to support teachers to help make ratio smaller. This is on Saturdays 12:30-3:30 (after tutoring)
• Weekday tutoring in public schools 4pm-5pm at Earth School
• At risk student work
• Go serves kindergarten, rising first grade through fifth grade

Upcoming Events:

• Tomorrow is Photo Day, September 22^nd
• Curriculum Night – 9/28. Childcare is available. Please let Mary Shea know as soon as possible. (Mark will send something out and parents should respond right away)
• Conversations facilitated by Parents in Action Group are a valuable opportunity. Upcoming dates are:

• Tuesday, October 5^th 6:30pm – 5^th grade
• Tuesday, October 12^th 6:30pm –  6^th grade
• Thursday, October 14^th 6:30pm –  8^th grade
• Thursday, October 25^th 6:30pm –   7^th grade

Our job as parent reps is to encourage people to come. Most likely there will be dates in the spring as well. Mark and Andrew will lead discussions in the spring.

• Mark will be running meetings to talk about report cards on Tuesday, October 12^th at 8:00am for 5^th grade and Wednesday, October 20^th at 8:00am for 6^th grade.
• Anna’s 5^th grade Math Breakfast to let parents know about curriculum on October 18^th at 8:00am.

Mark:

• Start of the year is really great. Ashokan trip for 5^th/6^th grade went really well. Any feedback from parents would be appreciated.
• Also, as parent reps, parents may bring concerns to you.  If it’s an individual issue ask parent(s) to go to Mark or a teacher directly.  If it’s a group issue you can represent the group.

Susan Noonan – Middle School VP:

• Reminded us about grade wide cocktail parties.  Please find set dates and  a host or we use space at school.
• Joanne McGee is out on medical leave

Judo Club:

• Starts this Friday. Frank and Larry teach this and will walk the kids over to Thompson Street. Parents pick up at 5:30pm

Robotics:

• For 6^th, 7^th and 8^th grade starts Wednesday

Model Congress:

• Held on Fridays in school  (6^th, 7^th, 8^th) and culminates at event in spring at Packer Collegiate (kids write and debate Bills)
• 5^th graders can be legislative interns.

Comic Book Club, Yearbook and Band : all meet during Friday Activity Period as well.

Note: – 5^th and 6^th grades are not supposed to be in the Library or Lab without an adult. 7^th and 8^th grades are allowed.

Minutes Middle School Meeting
March 16, 2010

AIDS WALK – May 16th – Sunday

• Gabrielle announced she is again organizing this years’ walk. 5th & 6th graders will need a designated adult to walk with but 7th & 8th graders can walk in the group. She is hoping that an 8th grader “social justice” group will help to organize the students so there is a LARGE group representing LREI.
• Students and parents should perhaps be made more aware, if they’re not, that AIDS is still a very important issue and that the AIDS walk is a great way of showing support as well as raising money for research etc.

April 20th & April 21st – Adolescent Issues Parent Nights

• Agenda to follow from Mark – also requests for areas of concern and or interest will be made by email to the parent’s prior to the evening.
• The 20th is for the 6th & 7th grades parents and the 21st is for the 5th grade parents.

May 10th – Monday Parents Meeting with a representative from The Freedom Institute.

• 7th and 8th graders kids will already have met with the representative/s from the institute in their adolescent issues classes to discuss substance abuse and prevention topics.

April 28th – High School Preview Night for Everyone – 7th & 8th graders are invited to attend

May 7th Arts Festival at High School for 7th graders – This is an opportunity for our Middle Schoolers to participate in classes at the High School.

April 29th – Middle School Art Show – This years’ evening event will be well publicized and parents will be encouraged to attend with their students.

• Added to the traditional art show will be highlights from the Performance Electives that the 7th & 8th graders have been attending.
• They will be performing in various venues throughout the building – such as Jazz Band, vocals, drama, etc.

Family Conferences – Friday April 16th and Friday April 23rd. NO CLASSES EITHER DAY

• By now every parent should have received an email from their kids’ advisor with a list to reserve time for their meeting.
• Specialists sign up sheets can be accessed through Mark’s blog.
• Parent’s are encouraged to sign up with specialists, especially if they have specific concerns.
• Report cards should be emailed out by 4/13 Tuesday at the latest so parents and students have time to review before conferences begin.

There was a lively conversation about the validity of 4th quarter narratives on reports written by students ( with their instructors help ) versus an end of the year final report from their teachers. As of now, the reports will remain with teacher’s commenting appearing on the 1st and 3rd reports.

Teacher/Instructor Updates:

Susannah Flicker  – learning specialist is on maternity leave and her replacement Mala Beckoff is already in place.

Steve Neiman  – will be retiring after 32 years at LREI. Imagine all the images Steve has accumulated over these many years. A search for a new technology teacher is underway.

End of Year Teacher Gifts – A vigorous conversation including the frustrations of parent reps in collecting money from families for these gifts.

• Frustration included figuring out the money, gift, etc. We talked about the $25 maximum requested amount from each family. Some families want to give more while others can’t afford to give, but would like to. It can become awkward for some parent reps.
• It was suggested that, perhaps, Mark or Kasey send out an email to parents’ letting them know that their individual reps will be contacting them for this and their timely reaction would be greatly appreciated. It was stressed to reps if they are having any difficulties they should contact Mark directly.
• It was clarified that each grade is responsible for their 4 advisors as well as assigned specialists and that the specialists gifts should be different than the advisors.

In Middle School each specific grade has a theme end of year potluck. Check the online calendar for your class potluck date.

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Minutes Middle School Meeting
February 9, 2010

ERB’s: Start today, 1pm, and will run through Friday (if there is a snow day on Wednesday)

Literary Festival: Wednesday afternoon workshops

Intergrade Olympics:

• Organized by the class reps. On Friday February 19th, 8 teams of 20 5-8th graders @ Thompson St., tug of war, skill games, afternoon only.

Pennies for Peace: Through March break – considering “non penny week”.

Project Cicero: March 1st – 4th math book drive, French Language books to Haiti. Karen received Barnes and Noble certificates as a donation. Bring on 1st day or so.

Middle School Dance: Was successful. February 19th – Sixth Grade DISC Dance @ VCS $7.00 with $1.00 to Red Cross/Haiti.

Progress Reports Out – use time before next set of reports to communicate with teachers on an as needed basis. Next conferences on April 16th and 29th.

In the second half of the year because of lost Mondays and Fridays, on a few select days we will run a Monday or Friday schedule on another day. This will even out the lost days so no one class is adversely impacted. Kids/families will be notified when this happens.

Basketball: 7th & 8th grade attend Thursday game vs. Birch Wathen Lennox – determines playoffs – February 11th

Visibility: Talk up program. Friday is the deadline for submissions. Opening is Monday the 8th of March at Sixth Avenue

Art Auction: March 3rd and 4th – Art Auction previews

Sports Practice: In case of cancellation on day of practice Peter will send something out. Peter will send out by 6:00am if cancelled. Snow days follow Public School closings.

FSA Template: 11-2pm on the 28th. Reps will send template and show up on the 28th.

Room to Grow: Please encourage all to contribute on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, February 17, 18th and 19th. New and gently used items will be sent to Parent Reps. (1 box of equipment.) Flyer will go out on blog.

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