Hey, good evening. Welcome everyone to the no, as Jenny said, to the November um President's Council meeting for District 25. It's 6:32 and we will officially begin the meeting. Um this is today's agenda. Um we do not yet have
quorum, so we will um table the minutes and bylaws until we do have do we do meet quorum. So, we will go ahead and jump to uh Dr. Mike with our superintendence report. You have the
floor. >> Thanks so much. Good evening everyone. Hope you guys are all doing well. Uh going to share my screen and talk to you a little bit about um some of the updates. Uh, you know, last time we were together, um, I shared, um, some of the
data regarding our schools, but I want to give you a couple of little updates in in regards to it and some things for you guys to think about and hopefully provide me with some feedback on. Um, so I'm going to share my screen.
Give me one second. Oops. Sorry. >> Okay. >> Hey, sorry I'm late. Okay, you guys see my screen? >> All good, Ma. Yes, we see your screen. Yes. >> Okay, perfect.
Alrighty. So, good evening everyone. Um, so a few things just connection before content. We will do another uh very quick connection before content. And if you don't mind, this time I'm actually going to just quickly pop you into your into a small little breakout room. Hope you'll entertain that just to have a
quick little chat. um so that we can uh participate in something that I'm asking all of our schools to do as I mentioned during our last session. Um talk about a few things that have been happening in our schools, a few things that are upcoming that I'm hoping that you'll be a part of uh in
the district and then just sharing some additional information on our goals. Uh so October has come and gone crazy. We are in the middle of November and getting ready for Thanksgiving. Hard to believe just 10 days from now. Um, but we did have a number of things that did happen in October. You know, kids
celebrating all of those fun things, i.e. the pumpkin patches that were in our schools from the the costumes that they were able to share uh and engage in, you know, breast cancer awareness for our schools engaging in that and the kickoff to a number of our fall activities including our basketball
leagues. Um, you know, so really exciting times for for us here in district. And just wanted to give you a quick little snapshot of some of the images from uh from October. Uh, and I share that because we do have an October news a newsletter that goes out every month that includes all of the things
that are happening inside of the district. We encourage you as PTA presidents to to continue to share that with your with your parents across um your schools and during your PTA meetings so that they know that there are access points for them as well around so they get an idea of what's
happening across the district and not just your school. And you'll notice that there are things that are very much in common for what we talk about at the district level to what you wind up seeing at the school level. So just making that space of awareness for you. Uh we encourage all those that that can to subscribe to that newsletter and
you'll get it on a monthly uh just celebrating uh the month of November uh for our Native American families here in district. So it is Native American heritage month um creates opportunities for us inside of our schools to celebrate uh all of our
um you know uh ethnicities, but in this particular case for the month of November uh is Native American Heritage Month. So encouraging all of us to make sure that we're valuing, appreciating uh those that are around us. Um and this month particular for our Native American
families. Um upcoming event and this I would love for as many of our families to be a part of. I'll be sending another message out to our communities. On Thursday, we'll be hosting a thanks for giving walk um at Bound in Bound Park. Um the goal of this is to really just
promote that space of community um as well as opportunities for our students and families to give a little bit um back in the form of canned goods. These canned goods will be picked up by a pantry uh so that it's accessible to some families that may need um some of
that support uh moving forward. So um we do encourage as many families as as possible to participate. Um there will be an opportunity for those that do to enter into a space where they earn a prize at the end of the walk. Um you
know each year we we've managed to to to get a really good number of families present um at the at the walk and it's given us the the chance to give give out a great deal of food uh to our local food bank. So for those of you that can, I'd love to see you guys there. I will
be there uh wearing my my D25 gear. So, I'm hoping that you guys will be present as well. And if not, hopefully you can encourage some of your families to do so. Also, uh upcoming events, um we do have a series of of opportunities that are
upcoming for our families, particularly our English language learner families. Um there are there will be one presentation that's that's provided to all of our families in Mandarin. Uh so, any of our Mandarin speaking families will have opportunity to engage in this work. really really important to promote
language across our district and the other being in Spanish. So we we do have um two sessions that are available specifically for our multilingual learner families uh to gain access to really important information. Um we also have our first in our series of three in
regards to our special education series. So we're hoping to see any of our families there that do need more information about the IEP uh and what's inside of a child's IEP. Um, you know, there's nothing more important than for families that that that may that have children that may need um an
individualized education plan to know what it is that goes into it. Um, you know, to to build and empower our folks to know what questions they might be able to ask and the knowledge that's necessary for them to act. So, really important that for those that you know in your community that might benefit,
just again continuing to encourage our folks to be part of it. They are recorded and are available for anyone else afterwards. Uh but we always love to see our families present to ask those questions in the moment and not necessarily afterwards. Uh virtual parent um workshop uh for
mathematics that is upcoming this week as well. Uh so we encourage our folks to to be on board excuse me to really focus on the space of sensemaking which is what we're focused on as a district community. So, as you know, connection before
content is a an area that we're looking to to build across our uh across our schools. Um, creating that space where we're able to build relationships. So, I'm going to ask you guys to entertain me just for a for a moment and we're going to pop into a uh a breakout room
with this small little conversation card. So, would you rather go back in time or into the future to meet someone? If so, who would you like to meet? So take a moment just to be in that space of reflection. Would you rather rather go back in time or into the future to
meet someone? If so, who would you like to meet during that time? And a little bit of reason why. So take a moment, reflect on that. And I hope you guys don't mind, but I'm going to pop you into small little breakout rooms
with three participants in each just to have that quick little chat. Would you rather go back in time or into the future to meet someone? Now, some of the people that you might meet in this room, you might not be familiar with. So, please start off with just a brief introduction as to who you are. Uh if
you are a PTA uh president, what school you represent um and just have a little bit of fun just for a couple of minutes um inside of these inside of these groups and we'll be back uh in four minutes. The timer is set for four minutes. So, very quick round and we'll
see you in a few moments. So, thank you guys in advance for entertaining this. Okay, four minutes and I'm opening the rooms. Hi all. Thanks again for entertaining that. Did uh does anyone have um anything that
they heard in their group uh that they like to share out? Anyone have anything that they'd like to share out or they heard from um from one of their uh one of their peers? Anyone have anything fun? Um, well, just to give you a heads up, you managed to pair
up um my sister-in-law in the same room. >> Oh my goodness, that's so funny. >> I'm assuming it was alphabetized. I don't know. >> It was completely random. Completely random. Oh man, that's so funny. So, uh, but we were able we're very very comfortable and, um, I I I loved her
idea where going back going into the future. Um, going into the future to, uh, to check on on her kids. So, I I love that. Um, and then myself was to go, it's funny, hers was future and mine
was the past to go see my mom >> because she's in, you know, up in heaven. So that at least we did the opposite. So we spoke >> I love that. Thank you so much Rosanna and Nicole. Thank you for for participating in that. Um I would I would agree in terms of the the going
into the past. I would love to have a little bit more time to hang out with dad. Uh would certainly be one that I would love to do uh if I had that opportunity. So kind of you know um echo your sentiment Rosanna and being able to do that. Anyone else have one that they'd like to share?
I I'll share real quick. So I I have the same opposite. One said f two of them said future and I said past and they said future for the most remarkable reason and I don't disagree. Um I said past because I want to tell myself that
I am I'm okay, right? You know like given the resources that we have now that I see my kids how they struggle but we have the resources. If I had that back then, I I'd probably be in a different place and I would tell myself it's okay. But my my other two
teammates, the reason why they said that like literally brought tears to my eyes and I'm like I agree too. >> I appreciate you sharing, MNA. It's um you know the the it's interesting where just a small question like that can bring folks from you know really
reflecting on on uh you know your your family to who knows where that those others that brought you to tears were but you know it allows you to kind of get perspective around um you know each individual and where what's what's in their mind and in just the smallest
exercise you get to learn a little bit about um about each other and that's what the goal of it is. So, I do encourage you as uh PTA presidents, where can you find time and space to do these small little activities with your families just to engage them in a small
little space of conversation? You get to learn who each other is and you know what they're about and you know you know what they're thinking about uh as well and that helps build community. So, um you know I'm I'm hoping that you take these small little activities and I can give you the entire list. There's a
whole bunch of them that your kids are going to do. And, you know, I'm selective. I don't, you know, there are some there that, you know, can lend themselves to being a tearjerker. There are others that could be just something that's fun and and, you know, um, fun-filled just to bring everyone to a
space of, uh, of of laughter. So, um, I will absolutely share them with you and I hope that you you do take advantage of using them inside of your own space at your own schools. So, again, thank you for entertaining that. I'll hop back into uh the the deck for for tonight. Uh
this I said to you, I would mention every single time just so that no one loses sight of what the enrollment reminders are. Um so it will be repetitive over the next couple of months. So I apologize for that, but it's important that we stay connected to these enrollment dates for your uh
families inside of your schools. Um high school reminders, obviously we've come and gone with with um high school applications and uh SHSAT. Uh the application window closes for high schools and LaGuardia applications on December 3rd and then releases are on uh
March 5th. Um so high school application for LaGuardia and Specialized high schools was October 7th. So that's coming on uh SHSAT closed on the 31st, but uh the the window for applications are Wednesday, December 3rd and offers released on March 5th. Uh middle school
applications window opened on the 15th. Uh applications for Mark Twain and District 21 talents uh closes on uh the the 3rd, which is come and gone. Uh Friday, December 12th, middle school applications close. And Wednesday, April 15th, middle school offers are released.
Uh kindergarten, uh Tuesday, December 9th is when the kindergarten application opens. The closes on the 23rd of January, and then releases of uh offers will be released on March 31st. 3K PreK, uh, Wednesday, January 14th, applications open. 3K PreK applications
close on February 27th, and then releases occur on May 12th and the 19th. Uh, and then lastly, Gifted and Talented, um, grade 1 through four. Grades 1 through four, Tuesday, April 21st. 1st, the application window opens,
closes on May 8th, and then offers are released on June the 11th. Um, so couple things. These are our goals. These were mentioned during our last um last meeting. This data is something that I shared as well comparing I Ready and Acadians. Remember
just quick refresher K to2 um is Aadian reading 3 to 8 is I ready reading we did see a small change from one year to the next. It's about 1% difference in terms of starting point in terms of baseline. Um what we have noticed is that for our
Arcadians um output, our English language learners over the last three years have seen us have seen quite a bit of change from where they were in terms of 14% in 2023 to beginning the year off at 31% at the at the start of the school year. And similarly for our students
with IEPs, we saw a um a mark change from two years ago to where we are now. Obviously, that's not nearly enough in terms of where we want to start, but it is demonstrating improved baseline information, which means we're starting the year at higher rates than where we
uh we have previous year. So, that is a good thing uh for our other two targeted subgroups, our black learners and our Hispanic learners, uh consistent with where we were in past years. So, we do have lots of work that we have to do uh with our targeted subgroups. Um for I
Ready, very similar pattern in terms of previous years. You'll see about a 1% change from where we were in past in terms of to where we are now with our targeted groups. About a 5% difference when we look back two years, two years ago to where we are now. So a lot more
room for improvement that we have to make. And I want to talk to you a little bit about what we're doing inside of our schools to support this. And I'm going to ask you to engage in a little bit of an exercise in just a moment. Um, so for our multilingual learners, real emphasis on building background knowledge, and
I'm going to show you why in just a moment. Really talking about explicit teaching, which I'm also going to show you why in a moment, which is not just important for our multilingual learners, it's important for all of our learners. Um, we are also piloting a program
called English 3D uh for our multilingual learners, particularly those that are entering and emerging. Those are children that are brand new to the English language um or they've been a multilingual learner for quite a while. The vast majority of our multilingual learners that are in the
entering and emerging are within their first couple of years of service. Um but it's important for us in the sense that we need to to accelerate the outcomes for our L's. Um our multilingual learners make up 26% of our district.
Um, and it's a subgroup that needs more attention uh, every day. Um, and I say that because we are in this space of making sure that by the time they leave us in eighth grade, we built enough of that language muscle to prepare them for high school. Unfortunately for us, we do
get some of our L's that come to us brand new in sixth, seventh, and eighth grade. So that acceleration is how do we get that foot on the gas pedal as quickly as we can to make sure that we're preparing our kids for the next level. Now, here's the exercise that I want you to go through. I'm going to ask
all of you, and I'll go into slideshow mode for this. All of you to take a moment to read what this example says. I'm seeing some facial expressions. I love it. So, I'm going to come off of share just
for a moment and just to ask you just the the the simplest of questions. Can anyone tell me what this is about? or take an take a guess as to what you think that this particular paragraph is about. Any thoughts? And Eden, you can't share
because you know what this is about already. >> Totally not what you would think. That's all I could say. >> Showing us what our LC when they read. I love that, Stacy. Thank you uh for sharing that. But do you think this is just about what our LC?
>> It's a trick question somewhere. It's it's the words. >> I don't know. That's very tricky. >> Yeah. So, you know, how many of you had a hard time reading it? Just reading it in general. Was the text difficult to
read? >> Karen, I'm not sure if you was that. Yeah, >> I'm not difficult. It's just it's hard to follow what the story is trying to tell me. Right. Agreed. >> I feel like that's probably how a lot of our students feel when they're reading
certain material. My my eighth grade are included in some terms. >> So, what if I was to share and show you this next slide? Does that help contextualize what this particular paragraph was about? So if I know as a reader that you know
what a cement mixer is in relationship to surfing. I have a lot more contextualized un understanding of what this passage is about versus if I don't. If I don't know that when we're talking about the back door, I'm talking about
the specific wave that I'm in. I wouldn't have context for that unless it was shared. I would not know that the lip is referring to the top of the wave. I wouldn't know what the tube was, the impact zone, you know, all of the or what a grinder is in the context of of
this passage, which is why there's so much importance for us as um as leaders and teachers to really help support our kids in building some of that background knowledge prior to them engaging in the text so that we're helping build some of
that academic language. So that text that becomes a little bit outside of my comfort zone is is supported a bit more than what it would be. So um this is just an example that is certainly on the extreme side of of looking at a piece of
text but is not an unfamiliar space for some of our learners. And a few years back, I had asked one of our um team members that is um fluent in Mandarin to teach a lesson to all of us as adults in
Mandarin. And I told her, do not start the lesson in English. I want you to start the lesson in Chinese so that we have an understanding of what it is like to be an a in this case a Mandarin
learner. Um, and what what was very interesting is the discomfort that we felt is very similar to the discomfort that some of our multilingual learners and children that struggle with language feel when they see text. But what it made what made it available to us was
then came in some of the scaffolded support i.e. the images that she was able to provide, the total physical response, the the gestures and the connections that she was able to make to us as uh as learners to give us entry into the lesson. So, the lesson that she
taught us that day was only in Chinese, but I can tell you I know exactly what it was about. I know it was about over fishing and how it was impacting the turtle population in the particular community that she was talking about. I don't I can't speak a word of Chinese,
but I was able to grab that from the lesson because of the supports that we were able to provide. And for for me, I just want to give you a snapshot of the things that we really encouraging our schools to think about and do so that our kids have more access. And this is English language learners and academic
English learners alike because we're all academic English learners. Uh to give access to the key pieces of text that we're going to see. Um, so I just wanted to thank you for going through that small little uh exercise as well. It's just important for us to have a little bit of an understanding of what we're
talking about as as a district. We're also going to be really digging into our students with IEPs. Real focus on specially designed instruction. How are we making sure that we're breaking apart big pieces of of big concepts into smaller chunks? Uh, giving more making
it more accessible for our learners that really need it to be that way. um more visual resources and uh you know steps that are not only oral but are visual and written. Um I don't know about you but I can guarantee you in the time that I'm speaking some of you have
already thought about did my kids have their dinner yet? Um you know were we able what do I have to do tomorrow just because that's the way our our brains work. You know we're able to stay stay intent and focused and then our our minds will wander and then we can come back as adults. Sometimes, you know, for
our kids, we need to make sure that we we keep it very very um concise and make those multiple steps into smaller ones so that it's more digestible for some of our learners that need it. Uh so we're going to be spending a lot of time talking about that as well. Um the physically emotionally safe, this
one I did talk to you guys about with the idea of connection before content. I do want to give you guys a small little update on uh on the output of of these um of the survey that we sent to our uh students across the district. Uh what we do know is that there's still a bunch
more work that we have to do in relationship building. And you'll see the progression from children in third grade in terms of their response rates of of of feeling agree or strongly agree starts to slide as they get older. So our third graders to fourth grade and
fourth grade to fifth grade and so on. You'll notice that there is a steady decline in terms of the number of children that either strongly agree or agree. And the one part of this that is really important for me is around that space of relation relationship building and responsible decision-m
um really important for for our kids. And one of the ways that we're helping do that, just so that you all know, is um we have all of our middle schools and K to8 schools are have sent to us a group of children that are going to be participating in peer mediate in a peer
mediation program. They're being trained as peer mediators. My feeling is is that um while there may be some some uh conflict that goes on in our schools, I do believe it's important for our kids to weigh in and help support in the problem solving rather than us as adults
consistently putting it on putting, okay, let's do this, let's do this, having our kids take a responsible entry point into this space. So, um you will see that happening across each of our middle schools with the goal of expanding this out into our elementary schools as well. uh so that we're
creating opportunities for uh for our kids to become problem solvers. Um when conflict arise, it's not if and I I don't have to tell you guys this as as adults. It's when conflicts arise, how do we make sure that we are providing the supports necessary? Uh so just so
that you're aware of that. Uh that is something that all of our schools are doing as well as a partnership with the office of safety and youth development uh in creating you uh restorative practices across our schools. uh particularly in our middle schools to begin so that uh we're creating
opportunities for our kids to know how to solve problems without it escalating to a place where um it results in conflicts that none of us want to be able to see our kids engage in. Um so really important for me that we're building the muscle of our kids uh to solve some of their own problems.
Obviously with our guidance it's not just go ahead and and take care of yourselves kids. It's about with our guidance but um giving them opportunity to solve some of these real important relationship skill building uh issues that are going on in some of our schools.
Uh mathematics what you'll see here uh and this I did not share during our last session but you you'll see a progression here in terms of starting place for our learners. uh it's pro progressively seen our starting place improve uh over the past uh four years for our for all of
our learners across grade levels. It's about an 8% difference when we look at 2324 to our starting place. Now the goal is to continue to ever improve that starting place so that um the gaps narrow for our kids. Again, we're not expecting all of our kids to be on grade
level at the start of the year. The goal is by the end of the year we get as many of our children on grade level as possible. things that are interesting here. While geometry is um you know one of our lower elements, it doesn't end up that way by the end of the year. But the
spaces that we do need to continue to grow in are number sense and operations and algebra and algebraic thinking around kids, you know, exploring expressions and equations. Um and for our elementary schoolers, fractions always something that winds up becoming
an area because it's very abstract for our kids. um is an area that we're going to continue to spend time growing in as a district community. Uh one of the ways that we're doing that is something through the do the math protocol where we're lingering over standards getting an understanding of what it means for us
as teachers to help our kids particularly our targeted subgroups, our students with IEPs and our multilingual learners in particular. Really super important for us. Um, and we have this ongoing roll out of the Amplify curriculum in middle schools and some of
our pilot elementary schools. So, a lot more work that we're going to be doing in this area and we'll update you as the year goes on in terms of our progress. Um, civics work is underway. We're expecting a lot of our schools um to have already started with the project soapbox and if they haven't started,
they'll be starting within the next week or two. uh kids organizing their speeches um with the with the goal of hopefully making the main stage at the uh the citywide level. Uh that's what we'd love to see for our kids to be able to to attain. Uh but really to engage in
these take action projects as I visit schools. I already am hearing kids talking about things that they want to improve in their communities. So, um I'm happy about that and with my my ultimate goal is that our kids leave us with a point towards the seal for civic readiness. Uh so that when they go into
high school, they entering high schools with the opportunity to earn that full recognition um at the high school level to earn both of those points towards a seal for civic readiness, which is in my opinion an important thing. Aside from the seal, it's just about producing um
opportunities for our our young learners uh to be able to think and make decisions, but also to make positive change in their community. And you know, I think sometimes in the the world today, we don't always see that. You know, what's what's out in the public
doesn't always show all of the things that have to happen for positive decisions to happen uh be made inside of our communities. So, this is why I'm pushing this as a as a district so that our kids could really look at things that are important to them and get their voices out there to make a positive
change. So, more to follow on that. Um, the safer college, uh, I'm really excited Jenny and one of our CEC members are have booked themselves to get into all of our elementary schools to really push um, the safer college program. At the end of the year last year, we were
under 40% of our families participating. This is open for our kids in K through four. So at your PTA meetings, I would love it if you can just share and raise awareness. If you're not sure how to raise awareness, ask myself, ask Jenny, our
team will be happy to connect with you and the Safe for College group. Basically, if you're not sure what that means and you haven't been part of one of these meetings, is a $100 is added to a savings account for all of our kids in K through four. All they need do is um
is activate an account. um and they activate an account, $100 is added to a savings account for each individual child that is within grades K through four. So, we are in the process of raising awareness across the district and we'll continue to follow and share with you updates on a monthly basis so
you can see how we're progressing. And now, this goal is really uh something I'm curious about from your perspective and would love your feedback. So, we did share a survey um with parents. Uh we did get,00 responses. I would love it if we had 23,000 responses. That's the number of
kids that we have in the district. But we did get 1100. And what is very interesting to me in amongst the 1100 700 plus parents indicated that they would love to get some additional support whether it's through workshops or training around parenting and social
emotional learning. You know, so that's nearly 70% of our parents indicated that that request. So, we at the district level have the contact information for all of these families that required it and we are in the process of organizing
a series of sessions to support some of our families that do feel like they need that. Um, but my wondering is what does this make you think in regards to your own schoolwork uh and PTA supports that can be provided for our families? Now,
this is,00 amongst 34 schools. Um, some of you might have a close to close to a thousand families in your own school depending on the size of our schools. Um, but I'm wondering what does that make you think when you see that 700 of our families indicated that they would
like to have more support around SEAL and parenting. I'm just wondering what what it's making what it makes you guys think as PTA presidents. And I'll come off share because I only have one more slide and I can talk to that one rather than having it put up. Does
anyone have any thoughts on that? Suggestions? Um, you know, anything it's making you think that would benefit, you know, uh, the community as a whole, things that you feel like we can do, uh, to support it in in specific ways. Would love to
get some of your feedback on that because, um, we want to be able to offer all that we can. And listen, I I mean, I can't speak for all of you, but as a parent, parenting is not easy. you know, making sure that we're meeting all the needs of our kids seal needs.
Not easy. I have a 14-year-old. I have a 16-year-old. And uh, you know, my 16-year-old is uh, Emily. She's my daughter. And her needs are very different than Matthew's, you know, and, you know, she's very confident. He's not as confident, you know. So, how do we
build the, you know, those muscles for for for each of them in their own way? And it's not an easy thing, you know, when you're when you're mom or dad and you want to make sure you're leading them down the the right path of of building them, you know, and I'm been an educator. This is my 28th year and still
raise those questions, you know, it's, you know, there's nothing easy about it. But anyone have any thoughts on this? Um, if I could jump in, I mean, the first thing that comes to mind is, >> you know, it's almost like the playground talk, right? Those parents you're comfortable with. Sometimes
you're venting or complaining about a common occurrence, whether it's with a teacher or something that happened with your with your child and you kind of share what you did in that situation. They're like, "Oh, I never did that. I should try that." It almost makes me
have like that aha moment that maybe having some com time whether it's at the general meeting or a different time then I'm also thinking who has more time to get together to talk about those things right um so maybe using the space that
we already meet on a monthly basis take 10 or 15 minutes for a parent topic or just like we have parents you know send slt topics um maybe like I don't know parent support topic that they want to talk about. Um
>> yeah, I love that. >> I don't know. That's what comes to mind right now. >> And those are things that we we can certainly work to support as well at the at the district level. You know, even if they're in these small little chunks around can you give us anformational thing on this to springboard our conversations. We can certainly work
through that too. But I I love that that suggestion of maybe adding it as an opportunity within one's agenda to support it. I love that. Any other any other comments or thoughts? >> Um I have I have a question. >> Yeah.
>> Or a comment so to speak. Um I think if and I'm comparing with my high school student um principal. Uh something simple as tea with a principal or coffee with the principal. It literally gives you that individual
connection. And I know how some schools, and I'm gonna speak upon my school, and I know this is being recorded. It is what it is. Um, when everyone is involved in every single thing, there's no right time or appropriate time to
talk about your child's needs. when you're in the middle of a PA meeting or a pitcher day or when you're literally into every single thing. I think um some set time aside with the person that you can talk to is important because then
your your your concerns are actually being heard and not overlooked. >> Yeah, thank you for that ma and I think you know listen time is always an issue right there. there's always going to be time issues with time and where do we
fit it in and you know how do we do that and you know so whether you know whether it's coffee with the principal or you know tea with the principal I mean all of our schools have you know a range of entries when it comes to that um I think those are opportune times but I also think there is there is there is time
and space to be able to um you know really really talk through some of the actual needs it doesn't have to be about me showcasing something that's happening with my kids is a wondering how do you guys go about doing X Y and Z um you know because there are lots of those
that come up and you know you can't do all of them at once but if there's a series over time then maybe it becomes a little bit more manageable that we can certainly help with and and I'm not saying that that you know that's the best answer or not but I'm just floating it to you because this is what we've seen 70% of respondents indicated the
need for additional you know parenting and support now we're going to drill down And I'm going to share with you next meeting what those students were. Yeah. >> Sorry to interrupt you, but so we come from a uh smaller school PS130. There's
only about 380 or so students in our school. And um I I think overall for the families who are actually raising their hand saying that they want parenting classes or advice, they're already doing a great job,
>> right? most likely because they're actually concerned about and thinking about how to be better parents. >> Um, one of our challenges in our school is um, hearing their feedback, getting that and then creating the workshops
either virtual or in person and we get like five people attend. >> Yeah. And um it's both frustrating and discouraging for the admin team and for us PTA to create the space and then we
don't get the turnout. >> Um it's kind of like well what are we not doing correctly? Like how do we get into more of the families in their home? >> Yeah. and how can we really reach out to them in a way that's meaningful, sort of
um gets the point across, meets their expectations, um and just kind of, you know, able to check fulfill that sort of need that they want. But it's it's been a big struggle here.
>> Yeah. And I don't think that's unique uh to you at 130. I think uh we do in general when it's not tied to to children, when we do events that are tied to children, you get I'm sure a huge turnout at 1:30. When it's I'm coming there as a parent to do something with my kid
>> there in general there typically is a great turnout across our district schools that is >> pretty common place. But I think it's when it's a workshopish kind of scenario. Um, you know, it's less inviting, you know. So, how do we
make them more relational? Um, and connecting things with our kids, >> you know, and that becomes hard too, right? Because not everything needs to be my child sitting next to me. Sometimes we just need some information. >> But that's what I always have found is that when we do things with our kids, we
always get a huge turnout. when it's about just me as a parent, you know, I planned on going, but then life happens. >> It's just on the back burner, right? Exactly. >> Yeah. But yeah, I know. I hear you. And I and I do think it's something that we we can continue to work on um you know,
collectively to to message out for for families at the district level, too. But thank you for that. That's really great feedback. Um anyone else before before I before I wrap up? Um, one thing I do notice when trying to
get parent involvement, um, or even to come to workshops, it it's like if they hear that teachers are there or they're it just it helps a a lot with that and and but the teachers do a lot and have a lot on their plate
already, but for some reason just knowing that their child's teacher what may be there or having more of that faculty involvement, it's like more it's like magnetic for them to want to be there. So that is difficult because like I said out of respect I'm a teacher
myself so I I understand >> um but being on the parent part and the PTA aspect I see it in all three different point of views but for some reason it just knowing that their teacher is there it just helps. So, I don't know. >> That's something.
>> Yeah, I I agree. And listen, if we're we're talking about community engagement and it involves all constituents, right? It's not just, you know, a parent or just a student. It's it's the collective community. And that's a big part of my message, you know, this year really is how do we make sure that we're
embracing, you know, uh the collective community to help improve things across our schools, you know, whatever that thing is. Every school's got their own entry point for that and um which is why I've challenged our SLTs to really think about you know what is wellness kindness
community look inside of our buildings what does that look like and how do we do that um and you know so I listen more to follow on this but I would love your your ongoing feedback if you think of things that we can be helpful with you know where I am you know where where Jenny is certainly uh you know Rachel
anything that you want to share with Rachel and then can come to me it's it's fine how whatever direction you want take, but I would love to hear your feedback on that because um you know, the better we get at connecting with our families, the better opportunities there will be for our kids um in general. Um
so, thank you for entertaining that. And the last thing I'm going to put into the chat is Oh, let me just make sure I've this is accessible to all of you. Okay. Yeah. The last thing I put into the chat, so our CEC and district uh collaboration, we've um landed on, you
know, working on community- based projects um that promote this space of wellness and kindness across our schools. So, what you'll see in the in the chat is just a series of opportunities that we could, and I'm not saying that all schools need to, and I
don't want anyone to think that I have to go back and take this list and say we we need to do all of these things, but what I want us to think about, begin thinking about what are some communitybased activities that we can say, you know what, let's let's really extend our our
arm and our reach so that parents, students, you know, teachers, building leaders are all thinking about how are we doing something together um to really push out a positive message around mental health around physical wellness
um you know around um around seal around kindness now these are just a series of examples they're not the end- all beall but there are options that we can bring back to our schools to say what why can't we do something like kindness kits where we have our grade levels creating
these kindness kits for our community you know those are just little things about building up um community events to to make sure that our kids are doing something that's going to benefit someone other than themselves. Um and I I I say to my kids all the time. I said, "How many times are we going to use the
word I and me around me, you know, I I don't I don't want to listen to the, you know, this is something for me again." said where does the Wii and others come into the conversation you know so I do think it's important for us to think about um so I pose them there for you I
would love your feedback the next time that we meet in December so that as with the year is going on would love to say that here is what PS130 is organizing to promote community here's what 32 is organizing to promote community um and I think the more that we do that the more
engaged some of our families will become over time don't know that the five will change to money in a in a um you know in a one one-time event, but maybe over time we start seeing a little bit of a positive change when our kids are doing something that is connected to improve
something that's that's part of their school. So that's the last thing I I wanted to say to you. I'm hoping that um I can get some of your feedback on it. I would appreciate it. Um you know, Eden and I work on this with the CEC on a monthly basis. Um, and we plan on organizing at this next meeting in
December to start pairing down some of the thoughts that we can share as recommendations for our schools. So, I thank you guys for your time. I know it probably went way over tonight, but um, you know, I'm definitely not one who's short on words, so I apologize in advance. Uh, everyone have a have a great night.
>> Thank you, Dr. Mike, as always for all the information. It's always pleasure to have you with us. >> Thank you so much. >> You got it. Thank you. Okay. So, we now have quorum. So, we're going to go backtrack in our agenda to
the minutes from our October meeting first. So, the meeting was called to order at 6:31. We approved the September minutes. We had Dr. Mike's uh superintendence report. He talked about connections
before content, various celebrations throughout the district for the month, upcoming parent workshops, um just like tonight, he had enrollment updates, assessment updates,
um different things that affect all of us such as the parent engagement survey, peer mediation pilot, specifically talked about the SLT training, and then Lewis Lotito gave us a Zoom training on how to schedule meetings, how to use the
recurring meetings, um using AI to generate meeting minutes and um translation support options. Then we had a review of the bylaws
um a reminder that they should be reviewed and updated every 3 years. Um we pro presented the updated president's council bylaws without any changes and we will um vote to adopt those bylaws tonight. Just some reminders about
reports and data. Um pack and CEC meetings that were upcoming. Um then we had a lengthy policy fundraising policy discussions based on the changes from the chancellors. We had an election of our recording
secretary who um Charlotte from PS 163 was elected as recording secretary um planning for November meeting and then adjourned at 8:19. Does anyone have any questions,
admissions, I mean additions or omissions that are not reflected in the minutes? If not, if I could get someone to make a motion to accept the October meeting minutes and state your name.
>> I'll make a motion, Rosanna Galia. >> Thank you. If somebody could second the motion and state your name. >> I second Lisa Lamb. >> Thank you, Lisa. So the the mo the minutes from October have been approved.
Now we will transition to uh our bylaws. This is for district 25 to have current bylaws. There were no changes um from the previous bylaws that were on file. So this is just simply updating to make sure they're in compliance with the
answer the chancellor's A660. Click on Okay. So, you'll see a lot of the um things in the bylaws are the same as our PAPA bylaws, just um uh specifically for
uh the president's council. Um, again, none of these are changes from the existing bylaws that were in in um effect. So, there's no individual motion or changes to be approved. It's just a
matter of looking them over and approving the overall um bylaws for adoption. And the bylaw can be found on the district website under um meeting resources. So it's available to everyone
if you want to um review it. I'm going to stop sharing. Are we voting on the bylaws tonight, Rachel? >> Yes. Yes, because we presented them at the October meeting and so now tonight we'll be vote to adopt >> um the minutes. >> Okay. And once it's voted on, we can
update it and then we will have Rachel, you know, sign it. So, does anyone have any questions before we move to adopt the the the bylaws? Feel free to either put it in the chat
or to unmute your um mic and just speak up. Okay. In that case, if I could get somebody to make a motion to um adopt the bylaws that were presented for President's Council of District 25 and
state your name. >> I make a motion. Lisa Lamb. >> Thank you, Lisa. And if somebody could second the motion and state your name, please. I second. Annie Thank you, Annie. Now, in order to have
a vote, if you could all put in the chat um use your or use your reactions to give a thumbs up if anyone has any um or a thumbs down if you do not approve.
You can either put it in the chat or use your reactions. >> Okay. So, no one is opposed. So the bylaws um for are adopted effective as of this meeting and then they would be reviewed every year and in 2028
which sounds so far away but we'll be here before we know it. Um we will uh make any changes or um update them again. Thank you all. Now we can go back to our agenda
and next up is um Eden from the CEC. Eden, >> thanks Rachel. So I just have a couple of quick things. Our next meeting is going to be Wednesday, December 3rd. And at that meeting, we have uh Office of
School Nutrition coming. We have our capital planning and district summary being discussed. and we are probably going to have an SEA representative there because of capital improvements since we're going to be voting on that. But I did just want to share with everyone also an event that we're collaborating with the uft on. I don't
know if you've gotten this yet. It is going out to all principles and parent coordinators, but it is an district 25 family night at Madison Square Garden. It's going to be St. John's against Old Miss and it's also teacher appreciation day. So if you sign up to come to it,
tickets are not that expensive. Um Lamar can help with sign up or if you need some help, reach out to me. Um but we're looking to just have a fun night, get the people to be there, support their teachers as well as like the district and just kind of have some fun for a
change. Um not just always be stuck on like, okay, we're we're reporting on this, we're reporting on that. We want to actually get out there and share with everyone and have a fun time. So that event is Saturday, December 6th from 8:00 to 10:30. and your principles, like I said, and parent coordinator should be
getting that flyer so that people can register. The other thing is, I know I mentioned school visits uh at our last meeting last month. Um, if you still have not heard from anybody, please send me a message privately on here or shoot me an email. I'll put my email in the chat so I can make sure I follow up with
our uh council members to make sure they're doing the school visits because at this point, we need to have those in place because we have capital improvement decisions to make. So, thank you. Thank you, Eden. Are the representatives
supposed to be contacting the PATAs or are they um so the representatives were connected with the parent coordinators who was then hopefully going to coordinate with the principles, but a lot of the visits um they do try to stop in to sometimes an SLT meeting or a PTA
meeting or just do a separate visit if that wasn't doesn't work out. Sometimes if there's a special event going on at the school that day, they will jump in and come to those events. so that they could show their face and be part of the community for your school and be supportive. So, anything and anything
could be as long as they do a visit. Great. >> Thank you so much. >> You got it. >> Okay. So, next up on the agenda um we have a visitor here from a vendor who is
going to give information about um their experience. So, the game show experience with Mike Hope. Mike, you have the floor. >> Yes. I've been waiting. I'm so excited about this. So, guys, thanks so much for having me. Uh, Jenny, the whole gang. I
really appreciate you hanging out so much. I appreciate that. So, friends, in a nutshell, it's called the Game Show Experience is the name of the company. My name is Mike Hope. I'm the founder, just one of the hosts. We have multiple hosts. It's a interactive game show that comes to you. So, it's just like a TV game show, but it's a lot more fun
because the students, the teachers, they are the players. So, everybody gets involved. So, I'd love to tell you more about it, but like a picture is worth a thousand words. I have a video to show you as we go through it. That fair enough. Is it okay if I share my screen?
I'll take that as a as a hard yes. I'll tell you all about it. All right. So, yes, it's called the Funtastic Game Show. It's the mobile game show that comes to you. So, again, we come with everything, the backdrop, the lights, the um the TV screens. The
game starts as soon as everybody walks in, they see the game, they get excited just from that. So, is it just for the people that are on the stage or just the people in front? No. Everybody plays. We have multiple segments. This one segment you're watching right now is called Flappy Bird. This is good for elementary
schools from first grade, even kindergarten kids even play it. Um, and it goes through it's like a giant video game. We do ask that some teachers get themselves involved in the game because it's fun to have your teachers on the stage with them and they also help us pick out the kids that are going to be on the stage because you know your kids
the best who are going to be interactive. So, there's multiple games and multiple segments. Some are fun interactive games that from the stage fun physical challenges and there's also educational component of course something like this is called the fast
five showdown where we ask students to come to the stage and we of course separated by grade we're going to have first grade versus sec first grade second versus second third versus third and as you can see we have real game show podiums this is not the buzzers you get from Amazon this is real deal
equipment so again we have teachers versus teachers teachers versus students. And of course, students versus students. We can incorporate any information you want. Like last um year, we went we did a whole big civics week at some junior high schools. We asked all civics questions as well as multiple
choice fun questions, things they know, general knowledge questions. Are you smarter than a fifth grader? Well, you're in fifth grade. You should be. So, again, it's a lot of fun and kids getting super involved. They're cheering on their team. So, again, I forgot to say that uh we separate the group into
teams. So, there's going to be uh blue versus red, red versus green. So, they're cheering on even if you're not on stage at that moment. You're cheering on because they're representing you up on the stage. There's also games that everybody plays right from where they're standing. I remember trying to get on a
game show as a child and I was very disappointed I didn't get in the stage. This alleviates that because everybody participates. This game right here you're watching is called Super Combo. You have to partner up. And again, you're not sitting down there in the entire time. You're standing up. Sometimes there's
spontaneous dancing. Sometimes there's spontaneous singing. But again, everybody gets involved. This one you have to partner up with a friend and do different poses. And the person with the best pose or the right pose, they win extra points for their team. So, we have dance party. We have battle games. This one's called greetings where everybody
has to team up. They're going to pick whether it's a high five, a low five, a fist bump. And it goes back and forth. And at the end, the team with the most point wins. Some people ask, "Oh, do you do prizes?" There's a thing called playing just for fun and for bragging rights. I'm a big
believer in that. Can we give away prizes? Yes, we can. But you're a kid, you don't have to win a prize for everything. You can just have fun. So, we go back and forth between uh fun physical challenges and the fast five showdown, which has which is our educational component. And again, we can
feature anything you want. Would you, Mike, would you like to do some more English questions? Can you do more geography? Can you u reinforce history? Anything you would like. Last week we were at a school and they had a big Egypt thing. So we we did all about Mesopotamia. I never had so much fun saying Mesopotamia in my entire life,
but it's a lot of fun. We do a lot of events in Long Island. We're in Manhattan, New Jersey. So being in Queens would be fantastic because I'm actually in Queens. I grew up in Queens. I went to PS 165 right not too far from here in Fresh Meadows.
So again, we go back and forth and we bring everything needed for the game show. How long is the show? It can go anywhere from an hour up to two hours. We like to do one hour segments. If you have a extremely large school, we like to break them up into grades, first and second. They'll leave. We'll come back
for third and fourth and then we do fifth or fourth and fifth together because trying to do the elementary school I mean the uh kindergarten and sixth grade fifth grade at the same time can be challenging because it's a real big audience. So we like to separate them into different groups if possible if you have enough time. So it's called
the game show experience. It's a fantastic game show. It's a ton of fun and I love to come to all your schools. So I know somebody has questions. I'm here to happy to answer all your questions.
Okay. So if you guys have questions, you can pop them in the chat or you can come off mute and ask your question uh directly for Mike. Yes, I can see the chat, but I will be answering you verbally because I don't want to with a room full of educators. I do not want to get my spell
checked. >> Hi, Mike. I I want to say first of all, hello neighbor. Uh I live down the block from 165 and my son goes to 219. Um what is your contact information so that I can run this by my board and my principal because this sounds like a lot
of fun. >> Sure. Thanks so much. >> I'll show it. I'll show it. I'll have it on the slide. >> You can show it in the slide or you can just put it in the chat. It's inflow togo.com. >> Perfect. I like to screenshot a lot. So >> that works too. >> Everyone here has access to this slide
as well. Will be, you know, on the district website. >> Well, thank you, Mike, for visiting us tonight. You brought the fun, you brought the energy, you brought the kids having a great time. So, we um hope you'll make some great connections here tonight from District 25.
>> I appreciate you having me. >> Thank you. >> Okay, so back to our agenda. So, just a few reminders um based on some of the um things that have come up within the district. Um PAS and PTAs
should be sharing monthly financial reports with the membership that should be approved um at each meeting provide that your quorum is met. Um, also a reminder that all PA PTA checks require two signatures. Checks cannot be signed
by someone with a direct interest in the check. So, if I'm getting reimbursed for something, I even though I'm the president, I cannot sign my own check. Check signers cannot be related to the payee as laid out in A660 or um related
to one another um whether it be by marriage or by blood. Also a reminder, January 31st is coming up quickly. We're already almost to Thanksgiving. So your one of you your two annual financial reports. The interim financial report will be due and
then your annual financial report would be due on June 30th at the end of the school year. Um just like we did tonight for the president's council, your PATA bylaws must be reviewed every year and updated every three years. And all PAs
and PTAs are being asked to provide copies of your current bylaws to your parent coordinator so that they can make have a copy um as well as the school. If you do not have them or cannot find a current copy, um
Jenny is going to share some links and some uh resources from the city for where you can find um bylaw templates. Yes. So if you do have your bylaws ready and it is updated, please give a hard
copy to your parent coordinator because here at the district um we do collect a copy as well. So I will be seeing them next week, next Friday in person. So everyone were asked to bring a copy of the PAP bylaws. Thank you.
Okay. So, some of the questions that were raised at last month's um president's council meeting, we have answers to. Um so, what should PAPAS do with remaining inventory? Since the candy and soda sales are not permitted in schools as
long as it's not on school premises, you can the school can continue to sell candy and soda. Um bake sales are not permitted in the school cafeteria. It can take place um elsewhere such as the hallway or
outside of school hours and that is fine as long as it it is not in the cafeteria. Can candy sales take place outside the school building after school hours or be sold during after school programs? Yes, as long as it's not in the school
premises um during school hours um or it's up to the CBO for your afterchool program if they are willing to sell um to to the students fundraising activity limit. Each PAPA
um may hold up to 14 fundraising activities. Is there a minimum number of required fundraising activities? Um there's not a minimum uh in the regulation. So the ways does not specify.
Um multi-day events would be counted as one fundraising activity. And the school question about school staff allowed to sell snacks is not a question for face um to answer. That would be a
question for the school. Um, schools can ask legal. >> Yeah, I forgot to add that. Principal can ask legal if you know >> for clarifications. >> Okay. So, those were the answers that um we
received from FaZe regarding some of the questions um that were raised at the last president's council meeting. All right. Thank you so much, Rachel. And I'm going to take over the PAP resources. So, um, PAP financial is coming up. It is two
months away, but you know what? Time goes by so fast. And parent coordinator knows they will be, you know, reminding you around December, the month of December to have to make sure you have all the financials, you know, statements ready. And I'm going to go and show you
some PAP resources that's going to make your job um easier hopefully. So these resources are there for a reason. So please utilize them. I did in insert a hyperlink into PAP resources. So let's me try to click on it. Last time I
clicked on it, it did not allow me. Oh, okay. It did allow me. So the hyperlink would help you um access these resources but let me show you where you can access them because I did hear that some people cannot you know this link wouldn't
wouldn't open up on some computers. So if you go on the let me open a new tab. If you go on the DOE's website this is the deal website. My everything looks small on my end. Let me make it
bigger. Oh, this is okay. On the do website, if you go on if you um click on get involved families, parent parent and parent teacher associations and then again parent and
parent teacher associations. It will bring you to the DOE's website and then you scroll down and then under PAP resource folders. This is how I access access the um resources. And this is the link I inserted into the hyperlink. Hold
on. It takes a little bit time to open up the folder. So the DOE's website was the family facing website. You will have access to all these resources. So please utilize them. Um PAP resources. What? So here is
the bylaw template. Let's say your school never had a template or you for some reasons you can't find it and the new board needs the template. So this is the bylaw that you can use. This is the template that can you can use to create your bylaws and it comes in different um comes in
different languages translated languages. when financial uh time comes January 31st uh please utilize these forms or documentations that's already been created um under financial reporting
this is the one that you will be re uh uh using during your January um financial um for financial report the reason I know is number one it's called interim number two the date is already you know on top of this sheet so you you
don't mix them up. So, this one is already dated for you. All you need to do is make sure you wait for your bank statements because the bank statements will verify and confirm your amount, right? The beginning balance and then you will um submit all your incomes. If
you're doing any fundraising, make sure you write the topic of the fundraising. It could be a big sale, it could be a picture day. So, this is your amount on the expense sheet. You will list all your expenses. Make sure you keep all
your receipts for the expenses. Okay? Because this is what you need to prove that you know the amount is been used for certain um things. So make sure you keep your receipts for as a backup and then you add them. You would take the
income minus the expenses and you will give you know you will have the total balance. So, please uh you utilize these sheets and make a copy for your parent coordinator when January 31st comes and then make sure to sign it before you um give them a copy. Okay? Because
sometimes they will hand us she does not sign and we will ask we will hand them back and ask them to make sure they get a res you know a signature from um from the president and the treasurer. Does anyone have any questions about the
PAP resources? All right, I'm going to move on. Um, PTA Link is um, so PTA links is a nonprofit organization um, hosted by parents and these parents are just
volunteers. They are very knowledgeable and I know they also work very closely with um, New York um, Apple Seed and FACE. So they have open uh office hours every Thursday from 10:00 to 11:00 and
this open hours flyer we receive them on a weekly basis and I forward them to the parent coordinators. So if anyone's have any questions you are also able to join this office hours. It's not only for school staff is also for our parent
leaders. You can subscribe. They are also on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. DPAC meetings. So every title one schools are also conducting monthly DPAC meetings just like the PAPA. Our next
DPAC meeting will be held on Tuesday, November 21st, 25th. It's also a virtual meeting. Um schools are asked to have their title one meetings maybe right after P PAP meeting. This is where they
get the most you know um audience. If you have a PTA PTA uh if you have a PAT meeting in the beginning of the month and a DACA title one meeting in the at the end of the month you might the out the audio might not turn out as great as you know one meeting because parent do
not have that much time to come to so many meetings. So if you can piggy back them um on the same day that would be great but make sure one meetings ends and the other meeting starts. Parents have to be notified through flies is two separate meetings. CEC meetings uh CEC meetings um are in
person. Uh they follow the open um open uh what is it called? Open law. I I lost the word. >> Open meetings law. >> Open meetings law. Just like the SLT. So them their meeting must be in person. That's a hybrid link on the D25.nyc's
NYC's website, which is our website for you to listen in if you would like to, but the members must attend in person to meet coral. So, that's being held here at Lynen Place. And then, of course, our president's council meeting also um conducted on a
monthly basis. The next one will be December 15. So, please mark this on your calendar. um district 25 event >> before Jenny. Um also this meeting is open to all members of your PTA
executive board. So some of the information that we share is great to um take back to your treasures like the financial information we just shared. But all of your board even if they're not um design are welcome to join our
meeting. So keep that in mind. When you receive the invite, you may want to forward it to your board so everyone knows that these meetings are available for them as well. >> Thank you, Rachel. Um, just want to show you where you can um find our district
25 events. Our website is d25.nyc. The domain name cannot get more simpler, easier thanks to Lewis. Um, events. If you click on events, you will see our
upcoming district 25 events. So, please feel free to share this information with other parent leaders or other parents in your community. They are always translated in in uh Mandarin and Spanish.
Um, another thing I want to show you is our meetings where you find the meeting documentations. I know I've been showing you um before but in case we have new parent leaders on this call. So public meetings if you go to president's council meeting
all our meeting documents are being you know uh submitted into meeting documentations document documents make sure you click on the right year and then the right month if you can
always go yeah so if you uh would like to have a copy of Dr. presentation or this presentation or just review the minutes again or review the bylaws. This is where you can access all those documents. It's access accessible to everyone here.
So, please share. Does anyone have any questions? Okay. So, the floor is open if anyone has any questions, anything that um you'd like to share about what's going on at your school or anything that you've come across that you're not sure
exactly what to do, we're here to help you, Jenny and I. Um and the rest of the President's Council board. Um so, you can either put it in the chat or you can unmute and ask your questions.
Hi, I'm Lisa from PS130. Um, I am starting to plan for our school's carnival um for in the end of May. And I wanted to know now that inflatables are not allowed in
the New York City parks because our school is is quite small. We have to utilize the the neighboring park which is which belongs to New York City. Um, and I from last year I was I was told that we
are no longer allowed to have inflatables. Um, I don't know if other schools and PTA um members have any suggestions on um party companies that they used or alternatives to the inflatables. Um, I'm just kind of
sending out feelers to party companies. Um, but just wanted to see if anyone has any experience. So we we um so at 209 we've always had inflatables. That was an end of the year thing that we've had that we had to >> stop. It was this this past last June
was the was the first time that we didn't have any. Um apparently it depends on the size of the inflatable um and the height. That was uh the problem of it to get the clearance for it. This is even in the it's the large
public schoolyard that we have that we couldn't even have that. If it's smaller, you can it has to have a certain dimensions. I couldn't if anything I could help look into that. But I think that that's what it was. The only thing is doing such smaller ones.
It's more it's geared for a lot of the younger children versus like the fifth and the fourth graders. So, um, that was the only issue with the inflatables, uh, safety precaution. >> Yeah. What did you end up using or doing?
>> We ended up using, um, we ended up doing just Carnival Games. So, we I worked with um, a company. Uh, it was so funny. He does game shows normally, the the other one. But, uh, I'm trying to remember the name of the company. I apologize. I'm like
going blank out of the blue, but it was uh pretty much like blowup carnival games or they were uh backdrop carnival games. And it we had an amazing time. We had food trucks come uh prizes, raffles,
uh the the prizes for each carnival game, which was like very nice ones. Not just those like little like the tin cups or uh the hoops and whatnot, but they were very nice large backdrop ones and blow up um games and the prizes was a
raffle and then their raffles were pretty much combined and it would just and it was a large it was a DJ so it was pretty much a party outside and food trucks came. So we were we're were expanding on um different ideas. Uh, I
like the idea of uh the person that's actually I wanted his information. I was going to look into him for the end of the year. Maybe something like that would be nice. I just have to see how many people could accommodate because we did have we had almost 600 people in our school. >> Wow. >> Yeah.
>> So, it's uh we're looking into different ways, but um that we ended up opening it to the community versus just the school. >> After school hours. school. It was an after school hours school communitywide school just
>> not outdoors. Um not outside because we used to do it during the day and then have classes come for 45 minutes, go from inflatable to inflatable like stationwise, but we ended up doing more of like a two-hour event. Um opening it
to the families and it was a free we had vendors come. So this is just an idea if to work. Oh, it was free. >> Yes, it was a give back >> concessions. >> Okay. >> Like um popcorn,
water. You sold them or that was free as well? >> No, it was like an end of the year in June give back um celebration. So, um kind of we fundraised and whatever we had um available in our funds and we
just did a little give back to the families. >> That's amazing. Do you remember what company you used? >> I'm trying to remember. I feel like Deborah, are you on? >> Holly Rock, >> huh? >> Holly Rock. >> Holly Rock. That's it. I don't know why I went blank. I've been programming for three years. I'm like, what?
>> I put it in the chat. >> Thank you. >> Oh, that's it. Awesome. Thank you. How did you do the food truck? You pay the food truck to to >> for the two hours that you were hosting it? >> No. Um, it depends. Like we I got lucky with the pretzel person that just came
and gave us a percentage which we didn't even ask for anything. It was just supposed to be a give back, but families would purchase from the trucks. >> Okay. >> We didn't pay for it. So that's the other thing. The families, it was just more like of a coming attraction. And then we had the ice cream truck come that we didn't pay. It was just there as
an attraction. Um we just kind of made it more just laidback and it was only because we didn't know what else to do. So, if you do have any other ideas other than inflatables, I'm looking for that idea also. >> Okay. >> Um, but it was very successful,
shockingly enough. I mean, Deborah definitely left us with a bang. >> That's awesome. Thank you. I'll try them out. >> But I do have a question. I'm sorry. Um, so, uh, we're having a lot of the we had like a election day bake sale and we had
a vendor event this past um, weekend and we, you know, we we tried having, uh, tables for the PTA and so forth. Um, as far as I noticed some schools have QR codes for like zel and VMO. Um, we're
just I I I didn't want to touch that. I wasn't sure what the rules were as far or any like guidelines that we need to follow if we're looking to use that or do that. How does that work? Cuz I just kind of like don't I'm afraid to like I don't know do it.
>> So we zel is okay because it directly comes into your bank account. Um Venmo is a no. Cash App is a no. Um PayPal is okay as well. So, but zel is the
preferred because it comes directly into your bank account. Um, it's a matter of if your bank allows, some banks don't allow zel for business accounts or, you know, things of that nature. So, you
would need to check with your bank to see what um what support they can give you as far as zel. >> So, is there like a max or anything? Has anyone here have used it and come across any issues or um little hidden?
>> Our school has had zel since I've been president for the last four years. And the only thing is you have to make sure you receive your notifications. And you have to always remind your families to put what it's for in the notes so you
can make sure you're allocating it correctly. So whether right now, for example, we've got various things going on. We've got our membership drive. We've got multicultural fees. So um your bank statement is only going to show you that you got a zel transaction from this
person. It's not going to say why. So you have to make sure to keep track of the email notifications with the um the notes that say what that money is for. So you can keep track of your membership dues which has to go on the interim
report and the annual financial report and um you know to allocate it correctly um based on the um sorry my battery is about to die. based on what it's for basically just make
sure it's clarified and that makes 100% sense. Thank you because I have so many things going on this month too that I could see the confusion. Okay, >> I want to pick it back on Rachel says um so when you if you have sale, make sure it's only to receive. Okay, we cannot make any payment through sale. It's only
to receive the money. Just make sure. Thank you. >> We we do both. So we we just open up Zho and we always have PayPal. So when we're doing a bake sale in the month, let's say October, we the donations that we
get, we know it's from bake sale and then I do the transfer and then I know that transfer for that month was for our bake sales because we try not to run too many fundraisers at the same time. I wish that was possible like with the
election day bake sale the vendor event it was like and so we have I would say about three to four different five even the membership some late stuff like that so >> I I trust me I would like to not have it overlap
>> yeah so I I do have like a membership like envelope and with the QR code and I I drill it to the parents head to let them know like when I get an envelope I have a spreadsheet and I make sure that it's marked down as, you know, donation. Um, I print out the envelope from my
home. For some reason, the the printer at school doesn't register the envelope that I have, so I don't mind doing that, but it literally has our QR code on it, and then parents will just say send money QR code, and then I have a record of it, so it helps me. But just drill
into the parents heads like, hey, we need to make sure that it's documented. uh say what it's for, a t-shirt, a snack or whatnot. And it's a lot to take in. Um but then you have to just be mindful like if you have a fundraiser that day,
um kind of like consolidate yourself, see who paid what, and you literally have to be like on top of it. It's it's work, but at least it's like work that's earning you money. >> Yeah. >> Thank you so much. Thank you.
Does anyone else have any questions? >> Does anyone have um a particular bank that their school is using? We currently use TD and they limit our deposits per month. Anything over 5,000,
they would take a percentage. There's a there's a deposit fee which is ridiculous. >> The deposit fee. I was going to say we use TD Bank and we deposit more than 5,000 a month times and there is a fee, a service fee.
>> It's not huge though. >> I huge but it makes no sense to me. >> Yeah. >> Um bank for my PATA and we when we had our Scholastic book
fair we had a cash deposit fee but it was like $4. So, um I don't know if that's um you know, just a it's not a law. It's nominal, but I just
hate paying fees for no reason. Like for me, I'm I'm thinking for nonprofit, there shouldn't be uh we should be exempt from from this. >> I would say talk to your banker because that's happened to us twice and our banker kind of waved it. So if you have
that relationship with, you know, your banker, then sometimes they would normally wave it like I I have it waved like three times last year. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Anyone else have any questions? >> Uh yes, I do have a question. Uh this is
Christy from PS 107. I want to know are we allowed to change bank because we are with flushing bank for the longest and they charge a monthly fee around I don't recall the numbers less than $10 like around $8 every month regarding we have
deposit or not and they don't have zel so we thinking about switching bank is that something that we can do >> yes you allowed to do that um actually mirna and I both use Chase Bank. Um have the same
>> uh representative that we both use. Um it's on Main Street and 72nd or 73rd. >> Um >> so we could provide you a contact, but yes, you would just need to contact the bank to see what documentation they would require. Um generally they would
need your EIN of your form with your EIN number. Um, some banks are requiring articles of incorporation. So, you would just need to find out what the new bank would would you require and make sure you have that documentation so
you can open a new account. >> Okay. Just don't go to TD because they'll charge you. >> Okay. Know that. Yes. >> Yeah. Chase sounds good. And we do have one that is walking distance uh from the school. So we can definitely um yeah ask
about that. Thank you. >> We have Rachel, right? >> Yeah. For president's council, we have TD. >> Have we ever gotten charged? >> They're charging right now. I don't know if they're charging. I don't get the statements, but they're
>> them. We have them. We get charged for paper fees for paper statements. Yes. Yes. And I told Rachel, Les, you know, let go, you know, we can cancel the the statements, paper statements. >> Go paperless. >> I know. I go paperless because I hate
seeing those fees go away, too. >> Yeah. I hate paying fees. >> I remember. Let me hold on. >> But she mentioned you have Chase for another school. Do they charge you fees?
>> Only fees. Chase has ever charged is the cash deposit fee. >> Okay. >> And that was we deposited like over $5,000 in one shot. I don't know if it had been different amounts over different days if it would be um
>> Rachel, you're muted. >> She muted herself on purpose. >> Okay. I want to make sure you needed to yell at your kids, huh? >> My husband, >> I found Oh, I found the paper statement. It's $3 for paper statement. And on the
top, it does give me a QR code to go paperless. We just need to scan the QR code and then proceed from there. So, I'll try that. So, we can go paperless. >> The only right now we can't Well, well, that that's a conversation for and me and Ma.
So anyway, I would say go Chase. Chase has been reliable uh so far. And like I said, if you have a good um working standing relationship with your banker, uh fees can be waved. So I think you should
speak to our banker, uh Rachel, if you have like a $3 fee because he is amazing. The worst you can get is a no. So just ask. Yes, just email um the president's council email and I'll send you the um
card information for George Andrionis, our um our Chase banker that we deal with for the PTA. And he's very easy to work with, you know, doesn't ask for crazy things like
we've heard from some banks. So it's we've had and they do zel. Chase definitely does zel. Um so that's that's a non-issue. Are there any other questions?
Okay. Well, this has been a great meeting. I'd like to thank all of you for sticking around. Um, I'd just like to ask if there's no other questions if somebody could make a motion to adjourn the meeting. >> A motion to journ. >> Thank you, Ma. Somebody could second the
motion. >> Second. >> Second. >> Thank you. Okay, so it's 8:10 and the excuse me, the November President's Council meeting is officially adjourned. Thank you all for your attendance tonight and we'll look forward to seeing
you in December at December 15th for our December meeting of President's Council. Have a good night and >> thank you so much. >> We'll see you in December. >> Thank you. Have a good night.