6/13/2018 PTO General Meeting minutes

June 13th 2018

BSI PTO General Meeting Minutes

30 parents attended, including board members

Carlie Steen, co-president, thanked current board members, grade representatives and other parents for their time.

May minutes were approved unanimously.

Mr Havlik: It’s been helpful to be at this meetings through the year. Thanks for being a part of it.

Coming events: June 18-22 is Senior Week; June 21-22 is the 7th grade Outward Bound trip; June 20 graduation.

2018-19 Hiring plans. BSI is interviewing for the following positions: Spanish, Elementary Science, Middle School Humanities, Special Education, Elementary Classroom.

The school would like to make hires before the end of the school year.

Slides: DOE budget, 2018-19 PTO Enrichment/Staffing Budget

Some explanations of enrichment spending for next year:

Instead of Kids in the Game, the school will bring on Coach Brown. This will save about $20k.
Chess budget includes having the chess teacher, Ms Olga, attend three chess tournaments with the chess team during the year. School would like to have a bigger connection between the school chess instruction and chess team.
PTO is contributing more toward cluster teacher salary this year. DOE funding is down because BSI will lose a class, plus teacher salaries are up. DOE pays an average teacher salary per teacher, so if a school has experienced teachers who earn a higher salary, the school must make up the difference.
Teaching Assistant (TA) spending is less for next year because we didn’t spend as much as expected this year.
Brooklyn Conservatory of Music will continue to be K-2.
Debate is $1k more because the team will go to two more tournaments than this past year.
BEAM: had a great experience with their programs this year. Will continue to be grades 1-2.
Band: will be an after school program for middle school.
Architecture Design program came highly recommended by teachers. Will continue in 2nd grade.
Consortium for Research and Robotics is a new 7th grade enrichment we are trying out this year. Will consist of two off-site visits to a lab and three on-site visits from instructors.
Face Lab: new 4th grade enrichment this year. Subsidized by DOE, so relatively inexpensive, plus BSI will keep the materials after the program. Introduction to robotics for 10 sessions. Will need two parent volunteers for this program.
Together in Dance: will continue for 5th grade. They wrapped up the program today and it was a great experience for the kids.
Child’s Play: 4th grade social-emotional learning through Shakespeare. Will continue next year. The students see a performance of a play and then discuss it with the actors during subsequent lesson visits. It was very successful this year.
Lunch club supplies: This year we offered coding, art, sports. We’ll plan next year’s clubs based on what the kids are interested in.

Total Enrichment budget is $501,898

Question from parent: Can band be extended to 4th and 5th grades? It’s hard to have middle school kids ready for band if they haven’t had instruction in earlier years.

Answer from Havlik: If we don’t have too many students and it works for families, we may be able to offer to other grades.

Question: Why isn’t a teacher free now that an 8th grade class is leaving?

Answer: The DOE doesn’t pay teacher salaries directly. BSI was very creatively and cheaply staffed this year with substitutes and part time teachers in Spanish, 3-5th science and media literacy. We are seeking full time teachers for these positions next year, which is much more expensive. That’s the big difference in the budget next year.

Question: Are there other 3rd grade enrichments for next year?

Answer: It may be possible to expand the robotics program if there’s money.

Question: Will there be music instruction outside of Brooklyn Conservatory of Music and band? Is a teacher offering music like Ms Cintula did this year?

Answer: Together in Dance and capoeira have a musical component. No plan to have a music teacher next year. We have consciously been choosing enrichments that have a musical component.

Question: Is a middle school band a goal? It’s hard for kids to be ready to join a middle school band--and eventually a high school band--if they haven’t had musical instruction in lower grades.

Answer: I wish we could afford a band teacher.

Question: How much does a band teacher cost?

Answer: A teacher salary can cost up to $126k.

Question: Why aren’t there TAs in 2nd grade?

Answer: We have paraprofessionals in those classes.

Question: If we don’t raise enough money for these programs next year, what will be cut?

Answer: We will try to shrink programs rather than cutting entirely. BEAM, lunch club supplies, Face Lab could be reduced.

Report from fundraising committee by Mai Hoang, co-VP of fundraising:

The gala was great. We had a lot of fun and made good amount of money. Save the date for next Spring: BSI will celebrate 10 years.

Fundraising is at about $382,000. That’s pretty good, but it’s not where we need to be if we want to fully fund enrichments and staffing for next year.

We went to John Travolta’s appearance at Lenny’s pizza in Bensonhurst this past week. We had a sign and we think we were able to get a fundraising pitch to his PR people. Mr Havlik’s college roommate’s step-dad works for him, so we even had a personal connection! And Lily Ruan’s family’s restaurant is next door, so they helped connect us to the folks at Lenny’s.

It would be great to get to 100% participation in the Direct Appeal. (Shows horse race slide with 1st grade in the lead). The top class is still only at 61% participation! There are 17 days left until our fiscal year ends. We tend to be a last-minute crew. Let’s get closer to our goal.

Mikael Sheikh, treasurer’s report:

Financial activity since the last meeting. We brought in $18,420 in the Direct Appeal. Gala brought in about $90k, for a total of about $114k for the month. Expenses were $7,954.

Shows forms about income from camp auction, movie night and gala, which must be filed by the PTO. Any PTO member may view these forms, which are available by email. Just be in touch with the treasurers.

Because some PTO money went unspent this year, the deficit for next year’s spending budget is about $50,000. That’s what we need to raise in June if we are to have all the enrichments outlined by Mr. Havlik. Typically, the PTO raises about $70,000 in Direct Appeal in June, so we are hoping that goal is within reach.

VOTES:

$700 for the new parent gathering on June 21st. This is a new PTO event this year. Michelle Anderson has offered her home as a location. Unanimously approved spending.
Vote to pass enrichment budget of about $502,000 as proposed by Mr. Havlik. Unanimously approved.
Board members and SLT members elected:

Co-Presidents: Carlie Steen and Mingchin Claire Lin

Executive Vice President: Maura Minsky

Treasurer: Valerie Konstantinova

Assistant Treasurers: Mikael Sheikh and Lisha Chen

Recording Secretary: Willow Lawson

Parlimentarian: Anna Len

Vice President of Fundraising: Matt Kovaleski

Vice Presidents of Community Building Events:

Leyla Dursunova and Anna Zinder

Vice Presidents of Communication: Holly White and Jennifer Lara

Vice Presidents of Parent Involvement: Annie Thoms and Shana Norberg

New Members of the School Leadership Team:

Anna Levitskiy and Teresa Mendez