Recent Events

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