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.