JFK Parent Council Meeting/Reunion del Consejo do Padres
13 de enero/January 13 7:30 pm
Meredith Sandiford
Sara Smith
Amy Gusefski
Jen Douglas
Brendan Levy (interpretation, Boston Interpreters Collective)
Sarah Horsley
David Juralewicz
Mahamud Aden
Jenna Figueiredo
Jessika Arroyo
Krista Magnuson
Morgan Hayward
Nadine Desharnais
Seth Kroll
Shannon McManus
Tracy Triplett
7:30 pm: Introductions/introducciones
7:40 pm: informe del consejo de padres de la ciudad/Citywide Parent Council Report
Jen and Sara did not attend the most recent meeting but discussed some of the recent discussions that have occurred over email among CPC members around education/information about standardized testing, particularly around equity issues (the CPC has come out against standardized testing this year).
7:45 pm: Treasurer report/informe del tesorero
The SPC continues to have around $3,500 in the bank. Nothing new to report.
7:50 pm: JFK School Site Council Report
The next SSC meeting is tomorrow, and the agenda includes the school’s discretionary budget and the planned re-start of in-person learning at the JFK. Tracy reported that at the December meeting, she informed the SSC that the SPC would like to reduce the length of parent member positions to two years (from three years) in order to encourage more parents, and those more representative of the school community, to consider volunteering for the positions. The SSC is supportive of such a change.
8 pm: salas de reuniones: se centran en la ciencia/Breakout rooms
8:15 pm: Return to Main Meeting, share summaries/volver a la reunion principal, compartir resumenes
How are you feeling?
Queasy/anxious, exhausted, frazzled, overwhelmed, hopeless.
Paralysis.
It’s a weird time.
It’s really hard to accomplish things and make progress right now.
What difference does it make to us personally to have representative, broad engagement of the JFK family community in the SPC?
It would allow the SPC not to miss issues that are important to the families at the school. We would be a more effective parent council.
The SPC provides support and reassurance and a sounding board for other parents and it is an important resource that everyone deserves to benefit from.
It’s good to hear perspectives other than your own.
Whenever there’s a new person at a meeting we hear something new.
It is important to understand what actually is a consensus belief, rather than what we are guessing is such.
One of the reasons we sent our kids to BPS was for them to experience a diverse community, and as parents we want that for ourselves as well.
Coming as an immigrant from a country with 30 years of civil war, then seeing the lawlessness of the current US administration over the past 4 years, hoping that the right people will show up to clean up the mess. It’s everybody’s responsibility to take their share of contributing to the community.
It’s difficult to join a group if you don’t know someone in the group already. It’s hard to meet parents right now because there’s no playground time, field trips etc., and it can be hard to join the SPC if you don’t know anyone else in it already.
What to do about it?
It would be useful to have a breakout room type of format continue when we are back to in-person meetings.
We need to come up with ways for people to participate without having to be in leadership roles
8:20 pm: BPS reopening
Nurse availability. Nurse Beth has set up a virtual nurse’s office (https://jfkelementary.org/virtual-nurses-office/) on the school’s website and is available to talk and meet with families regarding their health needs. As in previous years, certificates for free eye glasses and eye exams are available through Nurse Beth.
Reopening. The reopening procedures from the fall have been reposted on the website. In preparation for the upcoming SSC meeting, a list of questions regarding reopening was developed by the attendees:
- Will all the administration, teachers, etc., be back and will they be vaccinated before the kids go back?
- Or will this be taken into planning the starting date
- Is there any sense in our school of teachers who will or will not come in before a vaccine?
- Is the school doing any planning to account for teachers who want to be all remote?
- What’s the plan for teaching in person and remote so that it’s not just simultaneous teaching?
- Could we re-do the town hall that we had at the beginning of the year? Can Dr. Copeland walk through what is really going to happen, what’s learning going to look like? How can we support the teachers?
- Are the teachers feeling like they want to go back, what’s the plan for the ones who don’t want to go back?
- Is there an opportunity for parents to re-decide what they want to do?
- Are they still using the tents even though it’s cold, what’s the plan?
- Testing – is pooled testing coming to BPS? What’s the testing plan?
- Refresh on the protocol for a positive case etc. – both for close contacts and the family and student.
- How much of this planning has been going on in the new strain?
8:25 pm: anuncios finales y fin/Final announcements and End
Upcoming important dates:
Reunion SPC/SPC meeting 2/11 7 pm
February break/vacaciones de febrero 2/15-19
Reunion SPC/SPC meeting 3/10 8 pm – ELECTIONS
Reunion SPC/SPC meeting 4/15 7 pm
April break/vacaciones de abril 4/19-23
Reunion SPC/SPC meeting 5/12 8 pm
Reunion SPC/SPC meeting 6/10 7 pm