October 9th, 2014 PaP Meeting Minutes

Parents as Partners minutes 10.9.14

The meeting opened at 6:30 pm with eight in attendance including Coordinator Sathya Amouretti. 

Principal Laurie Singer reports an amazing start to the school year.  The lack of a rush to prepare for NECAP exams has made a big difference in the atmosphere.  Students have had a Town Meeting to come together and share positive things that students and staff have done.  Each Team will have a turn planning and coordinating a Town Meeting over the course of the year.  The theme of this Town Meeting was Kindness, which relates to this year’s overall Wonder theme.  Team Alchemy will run the next Town Meeting on 11/17. 

Parent/Teacher conferences are coming up next week, along with a limited-time opening of the PowerSchool program’s Parent Portal for parents to access information about their children’s progress on line.  ADL is looking into a different reporting program called Jump Rope that’s more compatible with standards-based assessments and may make more sense for the school in the future.  Parents appreciate all the time and effort teachers are putting into learning about PowerSchool and the reporting process with standards-based assessments. 

The Prudential Committee will meet at ADL at 3:30 pm next Monday. 

Assessment scores for last year’s 8^th graders dropped significantly compared to previous years, and the staff is working on ways to make changes that will address some of the possible root causes of that result. 

Seventh graders made posters for Empty Bowl Night, which is the culmination of an intensive study of hunger and homelessness.  Students make clay bowls to sell at the event, make soup and bread to serve, and create songs and raps to perform at the event.  They also visit Heavenly Pantry and have guest speakers who can bring a face to these issues.  Proceeds from the event go to local non-profits addressing hunger and homelessness.  This event happens on the same night as a band concert and the book fair.  Sathya will check with Mr. Sawyer to see if we still need desserts for after the concert.  Empty Bowls runs from 5:00-6:30, and the concert starts at 7:00.  Parents can visit the book fair before or after the concert. 

The book fair is our only source of income.  We have the option to take part of the profit in Scholastic Dollars rather than real money, but the group decided to take the profits in real money only.  There’s a Scholastic promotion this year related to purchasing the right to wear a hat on a special “Hat Day,” with the proceeds going to book donations by Scholastic to a national organization.  Chris Catterton will get in touch with potential volunteers by e-mail to have people sign up for shifts. 

Sweatshirt order:  order forms were handed out at lunch, information went out in announcements and in the Essex Reporter.  

We’re looking for a technology person to help our Coordinator get messages out and facilitate communication. 

The Snack Cart hasn’t started up yet because of a lack of volunteers.  One person per day is needed from 2:30-3:15. 

We have enough volunteers for the dance, and snacks are all set for the Audubon trip. 

Gabrielle Smith needs box tops before 10/23 for this round.  Barb will take them in the front office. 

We had a technology information night last year and may repeat it in March.  

September 4th, 2014 PaP Meeting minutes

Parents as Partners minutes 9.4.14

The meeting opened at 6:30pm with 23 in attendance in addition to our Coordinator and our Principal. 

Coordinator Sathya Amouretti welcomed attendees and expressed her hope that we will have a fun year and facilitate some fun activities for the kids.  She reinforced that Parents as Partners is not a fundraising organization.  Its primary focus is to coordinate activities and opportunities for students.  The group does get financial support from the annual book fair and the after-school snack cart.

Principal Laurie Singer also welcomed attendees.  The Parents as Partners page on the ADL web site includes how-to for all of the group’s usual activities and events to make it easier for new facilitators to jump in. 

She reports that we’ve had a very smooth start to the school year.  Students are immersed in a Year of Wonder, with themes focused on kindness, diversity, and acceptance of others.  In May students will go out into the community for service learning projects.  This year’s social contract for the school will come from student suggestions based on the book’s themes. 

ADL will not have NECAPs this year – students will take the SBAC (Smarter Balance Assessment) instead, which is totally online and has a responsive component that will play off of student answers to make the testing more rigorous and more specific to each student.  This year’s students won’t have a Common Core foundation, so scoring may look low as a result. 

The Powerschool Parent Portal will become available to parents sometime this year.  Progress reports will assess habits of learning more than content and grades.  The portal will be open at the end of the first trimester.  The goal is for each student to be “Secure” in each content area by the end of the year.  Some standards are only assessed in one of the three trimesters, some are assessed in each trimester.  Benchmark rubrics will be included to indicate what each assessment level means for each subject.  Students will self-assess as a way to create personal goals. 

Sathya welcomed Diana Ferguson, the Executive Director of Essex CHiPS.  The group works directly with youth and also works on community initiatives related to teen issues.  The Teen Center opens on 9/9 and is open after school from 3-5:30.  Tween Center for 4^th and 5^th graders has more structure.  Teen Center is a more open format.   New this year the Center will have a quiet space for homework and staff who can help with homework.   Participants will also have the opportunity to work on community service projects and.  6^th-8^th graders nominated by school staff can participate in a program called FriendCHiPS, which is a mentoring program with adults with similar interests.  Essex CHiPS has some federal funding that will end after this year that can be devoted to programs for parents.  They would like input about how to use those funds – guest speakers?  Workshops?  Support for school initiatives? 

Sathya reports that she registered ADL at Price Chopper.  We’re also registered at Hannaford, which has a program through December 6 that gives school funding points for purchasing particular products.  Gabrielle Smith will be the coordinator for the box tops program who can work twice a year to cut out box tops and make sure they’re not expired.  Chris Catterton is willing to coordinate the book fair again, and could use the help of a 6^th grade parent to learn the ropes.  Leah Joly volunteered as the sweatshirt sale coordinator who would collect the order forms, get them over to the printer, and then pick up the sweatshirts.  The snack shack will be affected by the new federal policy related to food in schools.  Approved items are more expensive than what the cart has charged in the past.  To keep the shack items the same the sale wouldn’t be able to start until 30 minutes after the end of school. 

First dance will happen on 9/19.  Nikki and Lori will work on the snacks for the dance.

Team representatives:  Teachers can contact reps to contact other parents for special needs for trips and other special events.  Parents as Partners will provide contact information for parents who have volunteered to provide items when needed. 

Alchemy:  Sathya and Leah Joly

Alpha: team representative needed

Discovery: team representative needed

Infinity: team representative needed

Nova:  Laura Cunningham Firkey

NRG:  Lori Jensen, Nicole Stevens, and Amy Barbarow

Other volunteers:

Box Tops Coordinator:  Gabrielle Smith

Hannaford Coordinator:  Sathya Amouretti

Price Chopper Coordinator:  Sathya Amouretti

Costco Shopper Coordinator: Melanie Tupaj

Book Fair Coordinator (11/10-11/13):  Chris Catterton

Sweatshirt Sales Coordinator:  Leah Joly

Snack Shack Coordinator: volunteer needed

Concert refreshment coordinator: Sathya Amouretti