Sea Cliff School Parent Community Association

Attendance:

Natasha George

Amelia Hecker

Cara Duffy

Sarah Regan

Jordan Loftus

Courtney Chambers

Lori Kilada

Claudia Ames

Richard Chen

Jason Stroot

Stacey Greenman

Lisa Cashman

Wesley Leach

Tannaz Balooch

Maria Mosca

Maria Mango

Kristie Leigh

Lauren Healy

Anke Grosskoft

Jessica Acetta

Sara Rao

Deb McDermott

Simone Sanchez

Patricia Weiss

Stacie Luciano

Deirdre Leder

Karla Dixon

Diana Ricci

Lisa Colacioppo

Lige Zhaomu

Opening:

Amelia Hecker: Welcome and thank you everyone for attending, if you can please take a seat. We want to get through this meeting fairly quickly so you can all go about the rest of your day. We appreciate you all being here, and understand many of you are heading to work immediately after this. We are in the works of perhaps creating some evening PCA meetings for those parents who cannot attend these early morning discussions.

Lisa Cashman: I would just quickly like to mention that I went to the Village Board meeting this week. There is lots of relevant information for parents, and if more parents were present at these meetings we would have more of a voice. We need to show up and make our opinions known, especially regarding roads around our school. Parents need to be aware of this, and perhaps moving the election site from the school to a church would be a better approach. Everyone in this room, listening to me now…please, if you can make the time and put forth the effort we can make a change in our community. I implore you to attend next Monday’s meeting at 7pm, at the village hall. I will personally be there and I hope you will too.

Meanwhile, in other news, Vanessa Marks and I are in the process of brainstorming some super awesome fundraisers for next year. There were talks of a poker night and other things. We are getting very excited about this. More info TBA. Stay tuned people!

Sara Regan and Lori Kilada: We had a super successful carnival this year, and thank you to all the parent volunteers who made the event such a wonderful experience for the kids. On that note, we would like to point out  that we are desperately seeking chairs to run events next year. Events such as movie night and playground & popsicles are still unmanned. We would like to remind you that you are not committing to an entire year, just one event!!! All events are listed on our website if you would like further information.

Natasha Gordon: At this point, I would also like to ad that this year’s book fair was a HUGE event, almost a record year for us. It brought in a lot of money for our school. Thanks to all those who helped out.

Ms.Zidel: I spoke with Ms.Hassani yesterday and she came up with a proposal and wanted you guys, the PCA, to review it. She’s been currently overseeing the Jordan Pond project and she now wants to bring in some bunnies or guinea pigs, maybe some chickens. She wants to update what is already outside and perhaps make an animal sanctuary for the children…build off of the pond that is already there by adding some fish, birdhouses and some other things. We’re going to include a sign-up sheet once this is up and running. The Kindergarten is currently hold due to the construction over the summer, and will resume next spring.

Grade Levels:  (Natasha ad)

Dr.Z

So I’m going to start….I would just like to give a quick thank you to Mrs.Gordon and Mrs.Hecker for letting me speak today. I prepared a little presentation regarding the state of our school. It captures a lot, but I don’t think it captures everything. If you have questions at the end please feel free to ask me. If you think of something later on, that door is always open.

In a lot of ways, I feel like our world and education system is set up more for those kids who kind of, move, are extroverted, speak up, are outgoing, enjoy debating and being in the middle of everything. And not to take anything away from these kids, they are great kids, but what I want to focus on is bringing in our more introverted kids, or kids that dont naturally fit into that and are gifted in other ways. And that is what the overall mission of Sea Cliff school has always been about, the last few years. Everything we talk about here today is with that being our lens. I’m going to give you a lot of numbers, but I think they’re useful and they paint a picture of our environment. if they’re less interesting, forgive me. Things like attendance- to participation in certain types of classes. After this presentation I’m going to show the film I showed at the Board of Ed meeting. Again, any questions my door is always open to you all….

*****SHOWS PRESENTATION*******(Natasha, I will leave this blank per your request. I have the video notes if you want me to ad anything)

PARENT CONCERNS

Several parents expressed concerns to Dr.Z regarding recent school lockdown and drill procedures. Anke Grosskoft pointed out that her kindergartener came home “terrified” and went on to have nightmares later that evening. Ms.Grosskoft feels that many children were left traumatized by these drills. Is there anything we can do to prepare our kids to better understand these procedures? Natasha Gordon’s 2nd grader felt like her son thought it was a “game” with Dr.Z pretending to be the “bad guy”. Another parent, Tannaz Balooch, pointed out that unfortunately this is a fact of our current life situation and as sad as it is that we have to worry about shooters, we need to make our kids aware by any means possible.

Other points of concern were voiced mostly by Kindergarten parents who were worried that their children did not have enough time finish lunch during recess. Dr.Z said this matter will be looked into. Every effort is made to encourage the children to eat in a timely manner, however they are little, and excited, and lunch is a social situation where many of them simply enjoy talking with friends. There is currently a “finishing table” where kids may sit and finish lunch instead of going out to recess (!).

Natasha Gordon:  OK! For anyone still left, we are going to wrap this up. Thank you Dr.Z for the very informative presentation and video. We very much appreciate you being here and for all your insights. Again, please everyone check the website for more updates and if you are interested in volunteering for a chair position the paperwork is by the door on the way out, or on the website. Minutes will be mailed to class parents who will then forward to your entire class.

 

*MEETING ENDED 10.37AM*