PS26 Jesse Owens PTA Executive meeting

August 28, 2023

Present: Sam Posner, Rachel Hills, Michelle Choi

PTA Class Dojo

• Sam has access to the DOE PTA email account. Now we need to set up the ClassDojo.
• Sam will check in with Ms Jones to make sure we have everything we need for this to happen.

PTA Office Clean Up

• Sam thanks Michelle and her family for spending a morning recently cleaning up the PTA office.
• Michelle says she feels like they just got started. Still things in there we should get rid of (eg, computer table, old flyers and paperwork etc) and things we could use (eg, an office desk with drawers). She hopes it will be easier to finish once the kids return to school.
• Sam: we’re supposed to save official records for seven years. Old flyers etc can be thrown out, or keep one flyer.
• Rachel notes that minutes from PTA and Executive meetings are supposed to be publicly available. They are currently available on Google Drive, but it would be good to have them printed out.

Fall Picture Day

• Sam made progress on planning for the Fall picture day. Reached out to Michael, the vendor we’ve used in previous years, and went ahead and reserved a date: Tuesday, October 24th. Need to confirm with the administration that it works on their end.

Wednesday 8/30 Orientation Morning

• Sam has revised the parent survey and made it shorter and more focused. Will distribute printed copies and a QR code on the say.
• Sam will also translate the survey into Spanish using ChatGPT and run it by a fluent Spanish speaker.
• Sam is also planning to prepare a version of his presentation in Spanish for Spanish speakers in attendance. Executive Board discusses the fact that there is also a significant Arabic speaking population at the school (which no one on Executive Board speaks), but agrees not to let the perfect be the enemy of the group.
• Executive Board discusses the need not to make the first introduction of the PTA too intimidating - eg, in discussion of volunteering, class parents, etc. We don’t want people to think that in filling out the survey, they are committing to volunteer - its primary purpose is to collect contact information.
• Michelle has purchased rainbow name tags for parents to fill out as they arrive, with their name and their child’s grade.
• ACTION: Executive board agrees to arrive at the school at 8:30am on Wednesday to set up table, speak with each other before the event, etc.