Announcements

Campbell PTA Meeting
June 2, 2020

6:30 – 8:00 p.m. [virtual meeting]

Approx. number of participants: 33

1.       Welcome: Barbara Martinez, President

• Welcome to final PTA meeting of this very unusual school year – we also have a lot to celebrate: Campbell became an official EL school, Maureen was named Principal of the Year
• Acknowledgement of what a difficult week this has been – we should try to talk about it with our children in appropriate ways if we can. Barbara shared links to National Museum of African American History and Culture resources.
• Brief moment of silence

2.       Summer Reading overview: Mike Nelson, Youth Services Librarian, Glencarlyn Branch

• 30 Days of Reading: https://library.arlingtonva.us/explore/for-readers/summer-reading/– runs June 1 – September 1, doesn’t have to be consecutive – open to all ages – everything will be done online, there will be no in-person programming this summer
• Login and track your reading! Everyone who completes 30 days is entered into a raffle for prizes
• For each reader who finishes the 30 day challenge, Friends of the Arlington Public Library will donate $1 to AFAC
• Brief discussion re: library branch openings:
• Holds will be available for contactless pick-up at Central Library only after June 15 – please be mindful of social distancing, etc.
• All library books that are checked out should be returned by July 1 – they can be returned at any library drop-off

   

3.       Q&A on the Transition to Middle School: Chandi Krohl, Christy Pryzstawik, Gareba Ali

• Parents of former Campbell students shared their observations, tips, recommendations for ways to support rising 6^th graders in this transition – Chandi (Kenmore), Christy (TJ), Gareba (Gunston)
• Key takeaways:
• Big transition for students and for parents – the schools are much larger than Campbell, parents might feel disconnected since students have more teachers – one way to navigate that is for parents get involved right away
• Suggest getting a lock for students to practice using over the summer, since they will have locks on their lockers in middle school
• Each MS does some form of grouping of students into teams – groups take classes together, so that helps it feel more manageable
• Morning announcements are really important! That’s where students learn about after school/extra-curricular activities, etc. Prep students to take notes during announcements so they don’t forget. Parents can also check school feeds or sign up to receive announcements as well.
• Don’t miss Back to School Night! It’s the only time you can meet all the teachers
• Students may get overwhelmed with teachers’ different expectations
• Brief discussion about how many students have phones in 6^th grade – most of them do, it’s a personal family decision (some families like their children to have a phone for coordinating after school activities, others choose to have their children use the office to call home)

   

4.       Principal’s Update: Maureen Nesselrode and Karen Anselmo

• We’ve been in touch daily with 5^th grade teachers to see what students are asking about, what their needs are re: current events – if your student needs any extra support please let us know
• Staffing changes:
• Ms. Ammons is retiring after over 30 years in Arlington! She’s a longtime K/1 teacher at Campbell – Ms. Swartz will take over Ms. Ammons’ 1^st grade class in the fall
• Ms. Perry (4/5 teacher) and Ms. McBride (Interlude) are relocating out of state
• Ms. Laumann (FLES) will be an English Learner teacher at another APS school
• Picking up items from Campbell:
• Staff are coming in to get their own items, and will be bagging student items next week
• Contactless drive-by pickup/drop-off of items will be next week by grade level – you will receive your child’s personal items from their locker and classroom – bring library books, instruments, other school property but NOT IPADS (keep those) – please do not bring students to the pickup/drop-off, school won’t be open, teachers won’t be there – if you rented an instrument from a music store, you can return it directly to them
• Art teachers will be taking down the art that was on display, but they won’t be given out at the pickup next week – that will be at a later time
• All instruments students received through APS need to be collected and accounted for, even if students want to continue on their own this summer or next year
• WILL SCHOOL BE IN-PERSON THIS FALL? We will all find out together when Governor Northam announces it – if it’s a hybrid model or online only, we would use Google Classroom again (now that we’ve all figured out how to use it) and APS has said we will be introducing new material – Maureen has no other details at this point

   

5.       Treasurer’s Report and Funding Requests: Amanda Lowenberger

• All in all we drew down our reserve by about $10k this year, which was more or less our goal
• Funding request: in the past when a longtime Campbell teacher has retired we’ve purchased something for the school in their honor – Ms. Christy and Ms. Hill have requested $400 to buy something for the Outdoor Classroom in Ms. Ammons’ honor (TBD) – motion approved – it will likely be something like a canopy tent so students can use the outdoor classroom in any weather

   

6.       New Business and Closing: Barbara Martinez

• Bingo and Brick’s, June 17, 6 p.m.
• Musical online bingo! Information coming soon. It will be via zoom and is a lot of fun!
• Order Bricks Pizza and PTA will get 20% of proceeds that night
• Q: will there be a virtual Kindergarten information night?
• Usually we have an information session for parents, playdates for rising K families, and an open house before school starts – as of now, we don’t know what will be possible to offer – we will have time to figure things out as more time passes – Maureen did a virtual tour of a K classroom which is posted on the Campbell website
• Motion to approve PTA spending up to $3k during period after books close until new budget approved – motion passes
• Christy took home all of the Campbell seedlings (lettuces, beans, herbs) that were started in the spring – they were just harvested and will be going to families in need
• Yearbooks – still have to figure out how to get them to people
• Barbara thanked the current Executive Board for serving and the new Executive Board introduced themselves

Campbell PTA Meeting
May 5, 2020

6:30 – 8:00 p.m. [virtual meeting]

Approx. # attendees: 26

1.       Welcome: Barbara Martinez, President

• Congratulations to the unanimously elected 2020–21 PTA Executive Board!
• Electronic voting went very well with good turnout
• Current PTA Executive Board lasts until the June meeting, after which we transition to the new team – we’ll have a joint old/new Executive Board meeting in early summer

2.       Treasurer’s Report and Funding Requests: Amanda Lowenberger

• It’s been a quiet month. Teachers can still make requests for postage for students.
• Funding requests:
• Flexible seating – thanks to all the teachers who submitted requests ($2700 worth of flexible seating from 11 different teachers) – motion to approve $2900 for flexible seating passes unanimously
• Expenses still to come:
• Spring grounds cleanup – PTA normally pays for this
• 5^th grade promotion – hopefully we’ll be able to celebrate them soon
• Q: will we still be able to do the online auction?
• When things had shut down we only had about 10 items in hand, which isn’t enough to make it worth it for the spring
• We will talk to incoming Executive Board about doing one in the fall – we could also possibly do more raffles at the fall picnic

3.       Principal’s Update and Q&A: Maureen Nesselrode

• APS budget –
• Furlough no longer in the budget, however FLES program is being cut countywide
• Class size may impact Campbell – we are expecting to have 3 teachers at grade level for next year but we may need to take more students from the lottery
• Field trips have been eliminated for next year (it’s possible we wouldn’t be able to take students on field trips next year anyway) – cut from the APS transportation line so PTA can’t help bridge this gap (it’s not cost, it’s availability of APS busses) except for things we normally charter busses for, e.g. Jamestown – this doesn’t impact Outdoor Lab, but may impact swimming and/or planetarium trips
• It actually costs APS more to be closed since we don’t have any revenue coming in – this coming year APS is at a loss, and then obviously there’s less community revenue from taxes due to quarantine – so the budget will be a challenge for the foreseeable future
• Online learning is up and running K-5, using Google Classroom – we’ve gotten packets out to people, the Ed Center is prioritizing ESOL and SPED families in K-2 to ensure they can get online
• We will probably be up and running through June
• Still lots of discussion about whether we’ll be back in the fall – we really don’t know what this looks like
• Food site is M/W/F – families get 2 days’ worth of food – we served 375 families on Monday, each family gets 2 meals
• We also distributed school supplies to VPI families
• Groups continue to contact us about distributing supplies this way
• Q: will there be spring conferences this year?
• Unlikely – spring conferences aren’t even part of the APS calendar, it’s only at Campbell
• Most teachers have office hours, times when they are available on Microsoft Teams for parents to pop in and ask questions
• Q: would the school year end early? Will there be June packets?
• There will probably be some instruction in June, not sure for how long
• It’s a very top-down decision – we have no idea what will transpire
• Brief discussion about what the FLES budget cut means for Campbell teachers
• Campbell was one of the earliest schools to adopt FLES, it always was a nice fit for our school since we have such a large Spanish-speaking population – it ended up on the chopping block since it’s not required by law
• Reach out to Campbell’s Spanish teachers during Teacher Appreciation Week!
• Brief discussion about how to help distribute food – there are neighborhood and countywide efforts being coordinated, Barbara will circulate details to the listserv. The APS food site is only open to certain employees so it’s not that easy for non-staff to help with distribution.
• Q: will online apps be available to use during the summer? Will the activities and resources on Google Classroom still be available?
• Google Classroom has to be monitored by adults so it will likely not be available this summer since the teachers monitor it all the time – some of the things like book readings we have to keep within Google Classroom because of copyright laws, we can’t just put them on websites
• Some of the apps we pay for e.g. Dreambox and Razkids – are on annual contracts that aren’t necessarily lined up with the school year, so those subscription periods may extend into the summer and students will be able to access them
• Overall – we don’t know yet – we will still do something like our summer math packets
• Q: will the students keep their devices and APS instruments over the summer?
• 5^th graders will most likely be returning their devices because they won’t be taking those to middle school
• Instruments will probably be returned at some point as well, probably via some kind of drive-through drop-off
• Brief discussion about option school lottery
• Don’t know where the numbers landed yet in terms of higher or lower than prior years – almost all pre-K families applied, so there aren’t many openings for K – we are taking a few students in grades 1-5 – class sizes are in pretty good shape
• Maureen put a classroom tour, her “introduction to Campbell” PowerPoint and other resources on the Campbell website for incoming families
• Barbara: we’ll have to brainstorm ways to welcome new families, since we won’t be able to do the summer playdates
• Maureen: we’ll likely be able to have small groups get together before school starts (whenever that may be) so we’ll be able to welcome new families
• Campbell is being included in a book of EL case studies! Maureen is writing an article with ASCD about EL, about how we do parent engagement in a Title I, EL school – our EL school designer is very impressed with how well Campbell is implementing the model
• Q: do we know about safety patrols yet for next year?
• Typically students apply to be safety patrols, and the patrol sponsors get feedback from teachers about who has applied, and then they get selected – not sure yet whether the sponsors have had sessions with 4^th graders yet about what it entails
• Not going to patrol camp doesn’t eliminate anyone from being in the patrol – so even if that part doesn’t happen we will still have 5^th grade patrols next year
• NOTE: we have to be mindful about promising things to students for next year – we just don’t know what the new normal will look like (e.g. there may not be an overnight at the Outdoor Lab or swimming for 4^th graders or a huge celebration for 5^th graders next year)
• Families will likely not be able to come in and get students’ belongings until at least June/July – as soon as we know, we’ll work out a plan
• One thing parents may not be aware of is that with testing taking up so much of the 4^th quarter there isn’t as much new material introduced during this time anyway
• APS is standardizing how content will be addressed next year – no students will be held back next year – teachers will be given revised scope and sequence

   

4.       New Business and Closing: Barbara Martinez

• Teacher Appreciation Week is happening now! May 4-8
• Please remember to thank your teachers for all they’re doing! Any notes of encouragement are welcome, they are working so hard, they miss the students so much
• Cheers for Maureen as Principal of the Year!
• Next PTA meeting will be June 2, 6:30-8 PM
• Tammy: can PTA help think of resources/activities/etc. we can share to keep morale up over the summer – to help fill the void that teachers are filling for students now

Campbell PTA Meeting
April 14, 2020

6:30 – 8:00 p.m. [virtual meeting]

Approx. # attendees: 25

1.       Welcome: Barbara Martinez, President

2.       “Screen Time or Scream Time? A presentation to help empower parents to manage the screen use of their youth” Michael Swisher, Adult Outreach and Engagement Arlington Partnership for Children, Youth, and Families

• APCYF is putting together sessions on parenting skills – Thursdays @ 8:30 PM – upcoming session on incentives – also in Spanish at 7 PM
• Creating Responsible Digital Citizens: https://apcyf.arlingtonva.us/parenting-resources/
• Trying to reframe presentation in light of our current situation where everything is now online!
• Start with 1 question: what do we want kids to learn?
• Taking care of devices
• Going on approved sites
• Treating each other well when online

• Digital citizenship:
• Safe use – where they go, what they’re doing, not sharing personal info
• Common Sense Media, Netsmartz
• Care of others – how they treat each other online
• Means monitoring on our part
• Healthy and balanced use – amount of time
• What is the best way to help them learn digital citizenship?
• Informed parents
• How screens are used
• Education and learning
• Communications and social life
• Entertainment
• Creativity
• Setting/enforcing clear limits and expectations
• Where and when devices can be used, e.g. car, meals, bathroom, bedroom
• Max time per use – should be time limits on certain apps
• Max time per day
• 20/20/20 – every 20 minutes you’re on a device, take a 20 second break and focus your eyes 20 feet away
• Clear expectations
• When we give children screens to keep them quiet at restaurants/stores/etc. we are losing opportunities to teach them limits around expected behavior
• What kind of limits and expectations are we setting – how do we do this for ourselves?
• Think about creating a phone agreement (see “teen whisperer” website for ideas)
• healthychildren.org – create a family media plan – like a budget for spending time online
• Expectations – screen-time checklist – “before screens, you need to do the following things” (e.g. finish chores, read, play outside, do something creative, write, etc.)
• Clear limits – consequences – what are they doing that’s an issue for the family – a consequence is a decision we make based on a decision you made (“I didn’t take your phone away, you lost it because of your choices”)
• DEVICES ARE A PRIVILEGE
• Nuclear option = lockdown, i.e. taking away the device, shutting down the modem
• The goal isn’t to control our children, it’s to give them the ability to learn how to manage their screen use/screen time
• Discussion:
• Q: What do you recommend for children whose friends pressure them to use a device?
• F (feelings) – start with empathy – they are feeling left out, we need to acknowledge that
• L (limits) – explain “this is what we do in our family” and hold the line
• I (inquiry) – ask them what solutions they suggest, ask “how can I help you”
• P (prompt)
• There is a lot of pressure for students around having a phone, especially as they approach middle school
• Michael: Big believer in setting the expectation that parents will have access to their children’s devices to be able to see what their children are doing
• Q: How can we help our children monitor their time usage on APS devices? There are no monitoring apps on APS devices
• Teachers can see everything students do on their APS devices
• Maureen: overall we’ve been very happy with how students are interacting in the google classrooms – they’ve been very appropriate
• It’s okay to let screen limits go for right now (during COVID-19 quarantine) – be up front with children about why, and set expectations with children about how screen time will go back to normal after quarantine is over
• Michael’s contact information: mswish@arlingtonva.us

3.       2020–21 Executive Board Election Process: Barbara Martinez

• 2020–21 Executive Board as nominated at March 3 meeting:
• Tammy Bewitz—President;
• Rona Jobe—VP for Fundraising;
• Katherine Novello—VP for Communications;
• Monica Flores and Mecca Keller—VPs for Programs;
• Jenny Morris—Treasurer;
• Claudia Cuellar—Secretary

• Members may self-nominate by emailing president@campbellschool.org
  New guidance for nominating Board virtually (since we can’t gather in person right now) – between now and May meeting we will vote electronically
• PTA members will get email with link to vote – we need a quorum of at least 10 to vote to elect the new board – watch your emails for that! Results will be announced at May meeting
  
  

4.       Treasurer’s Report and Funding Requests: Amanda Lowenberger

• We’re in good shape for the rest of the year – we’ve drawn down our reserve as was our goal
• Since Spring Festival is cancelled – we need to decide whether we want to have a small online auction with the few items we do have – it’s quite a lot of work to do the online auction and then we have to figure out how to get the items to people – we will look at the inventory and see what might still be viable for auction items (e.g. summer camps?)
• Could look at doing some of the teacher items in the fall, or do raffles/auction at the fall picnic – will depend on when we’re able to gather again
• We have a large budgetary reserve, we’ve missed all of our opportunities to do community building activities this spring, so maybe we will be able to host the fall picnic
• Maureen: formal 5^th grade promotion is cancelled, but I’ve promised the students we’ll do the kickball game, even if it’s in October as a reunion, which PTA can fund
• Flexible seating initiative: all teachers should have received link to google form, can select up to $400 of flexible seating for their classroom which PTA would then vote on – aiming to get items to teachers for start of next year – any teacher that has a classroom space can order flexible seating, about 10 teachers have already responded

5.       Principal’s Update: Maureen Nesselrode

• Many people have asked how things are going, what the biggest needs are, and how to help
• Huge thanks to Karen Anselmo and Vasthy Delgado (sub for Ms. Sullivan, on maternity leave)
• While it is disappointing that the rest of the school year has been cancelled, we are fortunate that we know already (so many other districts are still waiting to see what will happen)
• We are asking parents to please have students participate in the online platforms so they can interact with each other and their teachers
• Most of the feedback we’ve received from parents has been positive, this will be a learning curve for all of us – we’re expecting a pretty minimal amount of work from everyone
• Q: will there be video class meetings as they are doing in Fairfax?
• No, APS isn’t allowed to use Zoom. Microsoft Teams can work but only for small groups, so this will be our general approach
• Q: how are we doing helping vulnerable families?
• Thanks to the PTA increasing funding for the emergency food pantry at the March 12 meeting we were able to get food to 30+ families before we closed as of March 13
• Since we can see when students access APS apps we were able to contact families whose students weren’t popping up online to make sure they were okay – we made another list of families who needed help and reached out to them
• There is a lot going on “behind the scenes” that parents might not be aware of, e.g. we got mifi devices to families with students in grades 3-5 who didn’t have internet access, special ed case managers have been reaching out to students to make sure they can access the work, Maureen has been connecting with families at the food sites
• APS budget process is well underway (usually wraps up in mid-April) – there is a huge budget deficit that will likely not go away – there’s no cost savings with schools closed since we’re still paying staff – looking at significant budget cuts – important for parents to be aware

6.       New Business and Closing: Barbara Martinez

• Teacher Appreciation Week: May 4–8
• Next PTA meeting: May 5
• Some interest in organizing a book/puzzle/game swap, perhaps to be conducted in conjunction with food distribution – to be discussed offline
• Call for Audit Committee volunteers

Campbell PTA Meeting
March 12, 2020

8:00 – 9:00 a.m.

Approx. # attendees: 15

1.       Welcome: Barbara Martinez, President

• This meeting is a make-up for the January 7^th meeting which was cancelled due to snow

   

2.       Treasurer’s Report: Amanda Lowerberger

• Normal expenses and income (report only covers first 11 days of March)

3.       Review of Budget and Priorities

• We still have money in the budget for end-of-year community event – brief discussion about what we could do for this

   

4.       Proposed Slate for 2020-21 Executive Board

• Nominees (recap from March 3 meeting):
• President- Tammy Bewitz
• VP Communication- Katherine Novello
• Programs- Monica Flores  & Mecca Keller
• Fundraising- Rona Jobe
• Treasurer- Jenny Morris
• Secretary- Claudia Cuellar and Andrea Ross

   

5.       New Business and Closing

• Project Discovery spring session April 15 – May 22, catalogue coming soon
• Spring Festival – May 2 at Campbell, 4 PM – 7 PM
• New things for this year: collaborative art project for teacher appreciation, drum circle, Project Hera, two student-led bands
• Book swap happening again – donations accepted now
• Teacher Appreciation Week – May 4-7
• Next PTA meeting April 14 (after spring break): “Screen Time or Scream Time? A presentation to help empower parents to manage the screen use of their youth” By Michael Swisher, Adult Outreach and Engagement, Arlington Partnership for Children, Youth, and Families
• Presentation will be repeated Friday, April 17, after Community Meeting
• Discussion about how Campbell is preparing for likely school closure due to COVID-19
• Students are taking home extra books, teachers and staff are putting together resources for families to use
• Discussion about Campbell’s emergency food pantry
• Motion to increase budget to $1300 to restock the pantry, because if schools close imminently (spoiler alert: they do!) Campbell would need to send food home with students today or tomorrow – motion approved

Campbell PTA Meeting
March 3, 2020

6:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.

Approx. # attendees: 27

1.       Welcome: Barbara Martinez, President

2.       Family Emergency Preparedness: Kelly Discount

• Kelly is a Certified Emergency Manager (CEM): Kelly@jonandkelly.net, 703-724-7853
• Important to have resources to sustain your family in a disaster – think about a plan if you are home, at work, or on travel
• There are things we should do and what first responders can do to save lives, protect property and bounce back from an emergency 
• Personal safety – reinforce with children the importance of listening to their gut instinct (“spidey sense”) – don’t go into fear mode, instead respond – e.g. “that storm looks scary, I should move away from the windows”
• Familiarize children with the idea that emergency workers may look big and sound scary when they are in their gear – children shouldn’t hide from them (fire fighters frequently have children hide from them)
• Teach children that if they smell smoke or see fire – get out of the building
• Trusted adult/Tricky adult:
• Trusted: uniform, nametag, police officer, doorman, parent with child or stroller
• Tricky: Someone you don’t know that looks like a stranger in an area where you have never seen them. If they try to take you away from where you are, run away from them.
• Personal Identification for children is available in the community – child ID kit/fingerprinting, DNA (can do fingerprinting at Arlington County Fair or police station) – always have a recent picture at your disposal – can get ID bracelet with your contact info printed on the inside
• How to build a family emergency plan – FEMA has worksheet available online
• Check out the ready.gov kids section on FEMA – has some great resources
• Emergency Plan-
• How will you communicate
• Where will you go
• Make sure it covers all family members *including pets
• Emergency Kit-
• COVID 19 mostly dangerous for 50 and up or compromised immune system – the flu is more dangerous for our children 
• Baby wipes are a great idea in case of infrastructure issue
• Put emergency documents in plastic enclosed folder in case you need to evacuate in bad weather
• Back up battery charger – solar is a great option
• Tips for staying safe in large venue or when traveling – take picture of family at the beginning of the day and determine meeting place, that way you have a current picture with what they are wearing in case they get lost
• Emergency apps for your phone (there are lots) – save documents and insurance policy info pictures in app- i.e. evernote

3.       Proposed Slate for 2020-21 Executive Board: Nominating Committee

• We will vote on the following slate in April: (can still take nominations from the floor)
• President- Tammy Bewitz
• VP Communication- Katherine Novello
• Programs- Monica Flores  & Mecca Keller
• Fundraising- Rona Jobe
• Treasurer- Jenny Morris
• Secretary- Claudia Cuellar and Andrea Ross

   

4.       Treasurers Report: Amanda Lowenberger

• Funding request: thank you gift to teachers who give of their own time / funds to support an extracurricular- $1200 to provide $100 gift cards to teachers who don’t get stipends. Approved!

   

5.       APS Budget Heads up: Barbara Martinez

• Suggest parents and teachers look at Arlington Public School Budget documents – there is a gap between proposed budget and what is being funded.  Don’t just write to APS, talk to county board and civic associations. The large cuts that will most impact us are the ESOL settlement agreement and FLES cuts are likely.  Special Ed and ESOL are two big priorities. 

   

6.       New Business and Closing: Barbara Martinez

• Teacher Appreciation Week coming up May 5-7
• Restaurant nights coming up in May: Pupatella and Chipotle (details coming soon)
• Spring Festival update:
• Diverse Book Swap with read early and daily for 100 books and 200 donated – students are welcome to bring back the books they got last year and write a note on what they thought! Donate in book box at entrance to school
• Next Festival planning meeting is March 15
• Request for help with auction items and raffle items, especially experiences
• Spring Project Discovery registration will be before spring break
• Next PTA meeting is Thursday March 12^th 8-8:45 am with the Thursday parents group 
• April PTA meeting on April 14^th – presentation on screen time vs scream time at PTA meeting and after community meeting on Friday the same week