These meeting notes were taken by Christie Gibson, a JQES Parent. She is also JQES CPC Rep and Communications Co-chair for CPC. To view the text in its original format, please use the following link:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uzca_w1Gn9vKOH01OLkFk3bCrSamyYCreAaVFKw0xJY/edit?usp=sharing
Citywide Parent Council Meeting Minutes
24 November 2020 6-8pm ZOOM
Highlights:
Very brief overview of CPC for newcomers, and invitation to a more extended separate orientation session
Reports from Committees, including the Boston School Committee Citizens’ Nominating Committee
Time to discuss reopening/remote learning issues
Time for Working Group breakouts
Zoom Roles:
Facilitator: Steve
Screensharing: Gloria
Note Taking: Christie
Monitoring Waiting Room: Ashley
Monitoring Chat: Nicol
Monitoring Raised Hands: Joanne
Present:
Christie Gibson, JQES
Gloria West, Henderson Upper
Wenling Ma, BLS
Joanne Freeman, BAA
Ashley Mahanama, Eliot
Steve Lewis, Lyndon
Betsy Yoshimura, Umana
Lauren Margharita, BLA
Suleika Soto, Blackstone
Angelice - Lyon K-8
Anna White - Henderson
Nicol Riley, Sumner
Emily Antonelli - Hale
Sarah Henderson - Lyndon
Sasha Abby VanDerzee - Mendell
Bethany, Perry K-8
Chris Martell, Kenny
Dionyssios Mintsopoulos, EBEEC
Kathy Schraffa, Adams
Erin DiCarlo - Adams
Katrina - Manning
Jun Xie
Jen Douglas - JFK
Jack Keleher, Warren-Prescott
Rafaela Polanco, Blackstone
Meghan Wingate
Kathleen Adams
Nicole DiMaggio, Perry
Sossegueda
Elizabeth Meagher, Umana
Welcome, Check-in (~6:00-6:10)
Especially new reps!
Introduce orientation resources, new rep orientation session Sat. Dec. 5
Introduce digital sign-in sheet
Statement of Norms: (6:10-6:15)
Group Norms
Be Respectful: Listen to and be open to the ideas of others; create a safe space to share
Be Mindful: Monitor airtime to ensure everyone has an opportunity to share
Be Engaged: Speak, share your experiences and let your voice be heard
Virtual Norms
Mute yourself when not speaking
Use the “rename” function to add your school next to your name in the participants section
Use the “Raise your hand” feature under “participants”
This meeting will be recorded and possibly shared on web site and social media
Presentations
No presentations this month
Old Business: (~6:15-6:45pm)
By-Laws announcement and statement of elections
Representation out of balance
Election for Finance Co-Chair
Nominations:
Suleika Soto - Blackstone parent
Wenling Ma - Boston Latin School
Election: Suleika Soto
Volunteering for External Committee Representation - no new volunteers at this time, but Wenling Ma volunteered for SQWG later
Volunteering to connect with schools without a CPC rep - no new volunteers
Review Agenda Requests for full-body Supt meeting Dec. 7 (were due Nov. 13)
MCAS discussion - working on statement from parent point of view around testing this year
Announcement about P-EBP benefits (need to be used by end of year) and Staples card (need to be used by end of Nov.)
Committee reports:
External Committee Reports
BSC Nominating Committee - will be meeting Nov. 30; 11 applicants so far; concerns about some applicants were brought to committee around biases of applicants; push for diversity and parents; Interest in making the student rep a voting member of the Committee
Wellness Committee - no meetings
BuildBPS - no meeting yet
CEAC - canceled meeting, has new dates for info sessions about exam school admissions process
SQWG - needs new rep - Wenling Ma
Internal Committee Reports
Health and Wellness - no news
BuildBPS - no news
Diversity and Inclusion - no news
Communications
Have circulated CPC directory
Coordinating with DELACs and language-specific ELACs - making sure all groups get all info from BPS
New Business:
Full-group Reopening/Remote Learning Discussion (6:45-7:15)
MCAS statement - Leadership Team met with rep from heads of school association (mostly high schools)
Dec. 2 protest being planned? A lot of parents upset that schools haven’t reopened and trying to organize protest
Dec. 12 - silent protest who feel there should be more kids with high needs in schools
Cameras: most teachers requiring that students keep their cameras on? Uneven, but have to participate either on video or in chat
Mixed feelings, lots of hours, burnout, but also demoralizing for teachers to talk to black boxes
Feels like another layer of disciplining students, circumstances different and people might want privacy for home life
Chromebooks can’t have virtual backgrounds
Document from district policy that teachers can’t force students to have cameras on - lots of issues have come up, including unintentional nudity; Gloria will share document
Looking to make remote learning better; keeping kids on task, even if they are home alone
Nervous both about full remote and hybrid - teacher capacities for juggling in-person and on-camera
What is plan for high needs students?
Feels like really big divisions between parents, the BTU,
→ Looking to raise questions about parental controls on chromebooks with Superintendent
Are teachers still having PD throughout the year? Support groups?
Concern around students returning to classroom but still being on chromebook
Logistics of having in-person and remote students include less class time
Sudden schedule changes hard for high-needs students
27 teachers in Canton in one school had to be out on one day - what happens when the teachers are out for two weeks? No subs for that many
Committee Breakout (~7:15-7:40pm)
Communications/Recruitment/Diversity and Inclusion
Possible topics for Information Sessions (ie, Transportation, Budget, High School admissions, etc)
How many per year?
Times of day/week?
High School Admissions!!
MCAS statement review
How would this affect Adams scholarship?
Exam school admissions
Does the CPC want to specifically support a permanent moratorium on standardized test for exam school? Depression, anxiety; anger that some families pay for tutoring; December 12th protest; Does the CPC want to specifically support a permanent moratorium on standardized tests?
→ Adding to Superintendent discussion
Equity Roundtables - sometimes characterized as town halls; trying to get more student representation; some principals have been doing it as part of the School Site Council; Lyndon has specifically a closed group for African-American/Black families; Blackstone has been having their roundtables
Health and Wellness
Discussion of current school environments, preparations
Issues around accessing the internet/connectivity - apply pressure to improve equity through Comcast
District should provide summer sessions
More autonomy for schools to talk to parents, with guidance from district
Need for movement to be incorporated in remote school days
Food distribution - EBT cards
Mental Health check ins - don’t seem to be seeing a lot of this in schools; how to deal with increased stress from remote learning?
Overarching need to think out of the box!
BuildBPS - no meetings, so didn’t include this time
Budget Analysis
How to support School Site Councils in their budget processes
Need to know more about budgets and process!
Supplies - not a lot, Staples cards; are EBT cards enough?
Blackstone - only had supplies for K0-2nd grade
Enrollment levels - having gone down due to covid; how will that impact budgets for schools? A lot of students have been temporarily lost
Dates from Gloria:
District Dates Dec. 19th Principals get budget; projected enrollment numbers went out in November
Enrollment Projections - Target Date: November 19
Budgets Released - Target Date: December 14th
Pre-Probable Org Meetings - Between November 30th - December 18th
Budget Collab & Probable Org Meetings (autonomous schools) - Between January 7th - February 1st
Budget Collab & Probable Org Meetings (traditional schools) - Between January 7th - February 7th
Report Back from committees (~7:40-8:00pm)
file:///C:/Users/Suleika/Downloads/Strength%20in%20Unity%20Budget%20Town%20Hall%20Dec%202020.pdf
Things to post at top of chat:
Change name to include school
One-sheet link
Digital Sign-in link
Group Norms and virtual norms in full
Announcement about recording