P.S. 9 School Leadership Team Minutes January 13, 2014

P.S. 9 School Leadership Team Minutes
January 13, 2014

Present:
Principal Sandra D’Avilar (Principal/Instructional leader), Kirsten Cole (parent), Duane Domutz (parent), Gillian Mitchell (parent), Cynthia Fleming (parent), Diandra Verwayne (teacher/UFT chapter leader), Wendy Blum (parent), Christopher Diamond (parent/PTO co-president)
Guests: Mary Wade (district rep), Liz Solomon (parent), Jen Chapin (parent)

The meeting started at 4:20 in the library. Ms. Cole and Mr. Domutz called the meeting to order.
The proposal to approve the minutes from the December meeting was approved.

•KINDERGARTEN ADMISSIONS: This discussion began with the goal of helping neighborhood/community parents navigate the admission process. Mr. Diamond brought up the PTO’s outreach plans to have an informal, private (not at PS9) get-to-know PS9 event.

The attendant policies and politics led to a heated discussion ensued about how to retain families. This went quickly to the need for in-school arts instruction (i.e. dedicated specialists) in movement, music and visual art. A great deal of information was shared about the research, benefits, parent desires and more about increasing the presence of the arts at PS9.

Inspired by the publicly available CEP of PS321, Mr. Domutz brought up the idea to include dedicated arts instruction as goal #5 in the next iteration of our CEP (for next year).

We discussed costs – vendors, arts partners, consultancies, cluster teachers and arts instruction.

We discussed the need to clarify the budget. Then we will be able ask the PTO to raise funds for some of the consultancies which could then, in theory, make school funds available for the salary/benefits for certified arts instructors/cluster teachers.

We discussed the presence of the arts as a key element in PS9’s commitment to the Whole Child. And we discussed the possibility of surveying the parent body to find out what is most desired in terms of arts instruction.

We aimed to set clarity around the budget as a goal for our next SLT meeting. The challenge of having lost one third of our financial backing with the loss of Title I funding was reiterated.

We discussed the desire for two cluster/arts teachers and in addition, our need/desire to budget for substitute teachers and a librarian.

• WELLNESS COMMITTEE: The committee is waiting for our feedback to implement their plan. We will discuss this at our February SLT meeting.

• PLANS for LOWER GRADES DURING TESTING: We briefly discussed plans underway for the lower grades to get out of the building on field trips, neighborhood walks or recess at Underhill playground during testing times for 3-5th grades.

The meeting ended at 6p.m. The next meeting is February 10th at
4pm in the library.

Respectfully submitted,
Wendy Blum
Co-Secretary