PTSA Meeting Summaries

February 25, 2020

3/4/2020

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Langley Elementary
PTSA Meeting
Feb 25 2020
Decisions & Action Items

Summary & Decisions

The committees gave updates about their progress. We submitted 15 grant applications this year and just won $3,000 from the Whole Foods Foundation for the Garden. Some classes were also able to visit the newly opened Children's Museum. Our wonderful chair of the Garden Committee is moving to the West Coast. We are therefore looking for three new leaders to ensure our garden remains beautiful. The family engagement committee will help the school to organize a health & wellness fair in the Spring.
Pr Dumm shared that enrollment of students is projected to increase for next school year. This is great news and means that Langley was able to keep and slightly increase its school budget for school year 20/21. As a result Langley was able to add several new positions, such as making the music teacher and another social worker full time, and adding 3 new positions (inclusion teacher, EEL teacher, 1 floating educational aid). The school will also invest heavily in technology, such as smart TVs and ipads next year. They will also supplement DCPS curriculum and requirements by investing more in literacy and science by buying additional resources and training teachers. This year DCPS made World Languages optional and the school decided to not continue with the half-time Spanish position. Pr Drumm explained that having one hour of Spanish every other week will not help kids to develop their foreign language skills. However, the school is looking for partners to offer after-school clubs and enrichments in Spanish. The school is also starting a partnership with McKinnley Tech for tutoring students.
The PTSA will support the Langley Cheer Team by purchasing over $3,000 in needed equipment, co-sponsoring a ski trip for 30 kids, doubling the budget for staff appreciation week, continuing to improve the garden, and improving the playground with wood chips.

Detailed Minutes

Committee Meeting Updates (Kathrin)

Grants (Lauren)
- This year we applied for 15K grants aligned with school priorities; aftercare, literacy, garden
- We raised 3K from the Whole Foods Foundation for the garden
- Made a partnership with a group in MD that provides us with a lifetime of access to a facility that has Sports Equipment
- We need more volunteers for this committee
Family (Meg)
- Meeting next Wednesday, March 4th at the school
- Committee will do a uniform drive and is also asking for new underwear
- Cmte will assist Mr. Dwaine Carr with the Health & Wellness Fair - tentatively planned for April 10
- Meg also coordinates room parents who help get information to the classrooms
- Events in SE where many of our kids live who come via bus. We will do another fair with Martha’s Table to target families in this area.
Garden (Dawn)
- The garden is nearly complete
- Handicap accessible path still needs to be built. It’s a major expense (over 10k)
- We will have a chalkboard for use during outdoor classroom - kids get to paint it.
- Started to plant cover crops which will look really nice.
- There is a Garden Club at McKinley Tech. Dawn & Foodprints teacher, Courtney, met with them & are planning a partnership. They have a greenhouse which we hope to use to grow seeds for our garden.
- Dawn is moving to Westcoast - trying to get leaders for committee
  - 1st Garden Position: Food Forest Liaison to be in touch with Lincoln for coordination/meeting about the Food Forest
  - 2nd Garden Position: The Chair of the Committee: organizing volunteers, maintaining email list for committee, weeding, harvesting, upkeep of garden.
  - 3rd Garden Position: Neighborhood Steward: an interested neighbor, who would help with upkeep of the garden, knowledge of gardening, harvesting, watering, and weeding over the summer.
  - In the summer - every three days we need to water the plants!
  - Next big gardening meeting is Sunday, March 8 at 2pm - meeting in the Langley Garden.
    - Agenda is to set up a plan for Wednesday afternoon & Sunday afternoon garden maintenance for spring-fall.
  - We will have a list of tasks month by month
Fundraising (Christina)
- Tiger Trek: Raised nearly 16K, online fundraising went well, also great learning experience - so can adjust the actual Walkathon next time. We got a Langley banner and a selfie-station that school & PTSA can reuse.
- Boundary Stone (Meridith): Our goal is to raise 5K. Last year we raised about 4K. Will have a silent auction. We have 40 donations. Our family band will be playing & Drumm City. We sent out a sign up genius, pls help with set up and clean up. We expect up to 150 adults.

6.20 Pr Drumm & team updates

FY20/21 school year budget
- 2 week turnaround, 2 LSAT meeting, teacher input.
- Enrollment growing: 317 students projects for Oct 1 2020 (this year we were at 308). This comes with more funding and we did not have to make any cuts
- We get ESSA money for one more year but then it will stop b/c we got our 2nd star.
- The Connect School Budget is separate from the Mayor and can hopefully keep it for many more years.
- Next year focus on academics & positive school culture.
- Academics: Tech focus: removing smartboard (costs 6K) & invest in smart board, will invest in ipdas & other tech (document camera, laptops for teachers) as we can keep this for coming years. Invest in furniture b/c it will last even after ESSA ends. Continue literacy intervention, writing workshops (starts in K) which is a writing curriculum - it’s an extra thing that we are doing that goes beyond DCPS requirements & teachers get trained in it, scient kits for science curriculum, reading interventions to get them to grade level & level literacy intervention in small groups - all research based: they are the best ones and are expensive, we trained teachers.
- Additions
  - 0.5 social worker - making it 3
  - 1 inclusion teacher
  - 1 floating educational aid
  - 1 EEL teacher
  - 0.5 Music Teacher making it full time at Langley for first time
- Deletions
  - 1 kindergarten education aid to share between the two classes. We will have partners from universities and foster grandparents to help as well.
  - Deleting World Language from our curriculum: Students are not getting the exposure needed with a part time position for it to be successful. The curriculum was less interactive than we had hoped by DCPS.
    - If families are interested we can offer a Spanish after school club several times a week.
    - School is looking for an afterschool partner to offer Spanish or another language
    - Move towards learning music or another language in Spanish or another language
- Questions
  - Big next step would be 400 kids, school hold over 500 kids
  - Big turnout for open houses for prospective parents
  - We try to keep classes around 25, often below 22.
  - Retention is improving
  - Langley is geared towards younger kids: what are we doing for older kids? We open some seats for older kids and in-boundary kids are guaranteed. All of our classes are now around 20.
  - Test scores: strong instructions, training for teachers, investing in intervention for kids and teachers. Teachers have been trained. Will start in January.
  - Any aftercare support for teachers: We have tutoring after school that is optional for teachers & they get paid. Also starting that 10 high scholars/students from McKinley Tech are coming to tutor. We learn from Cleveland and Langdon and other schools based on our needs.
  - PARCC testing will start the Wednesday after Springbreak.

6.40 Upcoming Events (Kiyana)

Black History Month
- Feb 27: Dress like your future self; Feb 28: Living Museum
Open House for Prospective Parents: Feb 28, March 13
Boundary Stone Make Some Noise: March 7
Next PTSA Meeting: March 25
Volunteer Day with North Highland Consulting Firm - April 4
- Bathroom refresh
- Spread Wood chips in playground
- Weeding front of school
- Touching up paint
Enrollment Saturday Playdate: April 25

7.00 Budget Update (LaChelle)

Tiger Trek: 15,725$
Boundary Stone - hope to raise 5K
Spending:
- Ski trip: 1,500$, partially selfpaid (25$) for 30 kids
- The PTSA will fund the key items needed to have a Langley Cheer Team
  - Tumbling mats ($292)
  - Cheer floor mats ($992.80)
  - Cheer floor mat fasteners ($45.10)
  - Wedged Mat ($320.80)
  - Tumbling Trak ($1,325)
  - Pom Poms ($179.76)
  - Total: $3,155.46

Garden expenses
Will will spend 1,500 bi-annually for mulching.
Pathaway - looking for a better deal. The two current bids are around 11K

Staff appreciation
- Increased budget to $2K as staff has increased since last year.
We want to support teachers/classes/grades by providing PTSA funds for enrichment/after school activities.
- We hope next year teachers will ask for more support from the PTSA.

7.15 Any other matters

Playgrounds
- We will add wood chips to the playground to replace all the sand and dust.
Update to bylaws
May elections

7.30 End

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