Hillside PTA/SATp Meeting Minutes
April 7, 2022
7pm
(Zoom Meeting)
- Welcome
- Approval of minutes from March 11, 2022 meeting – Recording Secretary Amber Reed presented the minutes from the March 11th meeting and they were approved unanimously.
- President’s Report (Yvette Frazier)
- Commemorative T-Shirts – special edition on sale! T-shirts $25, Raglan shirts $30: Pre-order only.
- Spring Cleaning: Organized lost-and-found items. Please pick up if you can (last chance).
- Middle School 101, Kids Edition (82 attendees): Invited students from all three middle schools; seemed like a great event for all of the 5th graders. Thank you to our moderator, Mr. Jon Fortt.
- Smashburger Fundraiser: Total raised is not in yet, but many people participated.
- 2021 – 2022 STEM + Families Science Festival Grant, Sponsored by Bayer Fund
- PTA assisted Ms. Barton in assembling Science Day take home activity on April 1st.
- Nominating Committee update (Christina Joseph Robinson)
- Two information sessions were sparsely attended. Received some responses but still short of a full slate.
- Hope to have full slate by May meeting.
- Have VP of Events and Treasurer candidates.
- Need President, Recording Secretary, committee chairs. Please get in touch at nominatingcomm@hillsidepta.org if there’s any interest.
- PTA Treasurer’s Report (Jacqueline Ahern)
- Finished Explorers with net of $4700.
- Have presold over 25 commemorative t-shirts so far with proceeds to art department.
- Popcorn fundraiser raised over $1500.
- Expenses coming up include hospitality, beautification, possible field trips.
- Principal’s Report and Q&A (Dr. Samanthaa Anglin)
- District policy now requires someone NARCAN-certified for K-12 field trips; may require additional funding.
- International Night is coming up, along with Field Day and the Spring Concert.
- We also have NJSLA testing for two weeks. Self-contained students will take the DLM. At the same time, building leaders are planning for the upcoming school year.
- Having conversations with Aesthetics teachers about programming and content next year. Work needs to happen now because teachers will not be available after June 28th.
- Eblast tomorrow will remind parents to check in with their children on their stress levels and mental health. Dr. Anglin and Mr. Adamo are seeing a lot of atypical behavior with regard to social skills and conflict resolution skills. The pandemic has taken a toll on kids. In 9 years of being a building administrator, feels like the most behavioral issues Dr. Anglin has ever seen. Working with kids in non-punitive way using restorative justice approach.
- Social media is playing a role in the behavior of 5th graders; having to approach students about conflicts and being told things like, “Well, they posted this video on Tiktok.” Please have intentional conversations with your children and make sure you know how they are using social media and what they are posting.
- Administrators’ and educators’ time that could be spent working on instructional matters is instead having to be spent on behavioral issues and education around social media.
- 5th graders are having conversations around dating and being in romantic relationships at much higher level than pre-pandemic.
- Dr. Anglin and Mr. Adamo understand students may need devices to stay in touch with parents. There are ways of managing settings so that social media use can be monitored.
- Special Guest – SEPAC (LaNa Jones-Jules)
- The Montclair Special Education Parent Advisory Council is a state-mandated, volunteer-run group working to provide network of parents and caregivers of children with IEPs and 504s. They collaborate with district professionals and community members to encourage understanding, acceptance, and inclusion. They offer advocacy and resources for families of students with disabilities and special education needs. They meet regularly with administrators to share input and concerns.
- There are parent liaisons in each school building to facilitate connections and help resolve building-based questions or concerns.
- You can join SEPAC if you are the parent/guardian of a student who receives special services of accommodations, or if you think your child has a learning challenge or would like to learn about special education.
- Benefits of joining:
- Supportive network of other parents and caregivers
- Share your own experience and expertise
- Learn about services available and how to advocate for your child’s needs
- Advocate
- Monthly meetings (currently on Zoom) feature experts, community members, opportunity to share with each other.
- Schedule is on calendar on district website and on SEPAC’s Facebook page.
- To learn more and be added to confidential email list, visit https://montclairpta.org/sepac/ or www.facebook.com/montclairsepac. Email montclairsepac@gmail.com or sepac@hillsidepta.org.
- Goal of 504 plan is to remove obstacles for students with disabilities to participating fully in public education.
- Individualized Education Plan (IEP) is plan/program to ensure students with identified disability receive specialized instruction and related services. The IEP is developed by a team of individuals from various educational disciplines, the child, family, and designated advocates.
- District offers in-class support, pull-out support, resource centers, self-contained classrooms, extended school year, and in some instances home instruction. OT, PT, speech, social skills, and counseling also offered.
- Hillside provides array of programs and can individualize a student’s schedule, always keeping in mind least restrictive environment. Programs offered are based on needs of current students.
- If you think your child may need services, please talk to your classroom teacher first. Every child in Hillside is considered as an individual on a regular basis. There is an I&RS process for children working below grade level. Hillside tries to exhaust all GenEd interventions and supports before additional testing is done.
- Parents can request evaluation at any time by writing to Dr. Goldblatt.
- PTA Calendar Review/Event Planning (Betty Shvetz)
- Fundraising events:
- Commemorative T-Shirts – special edition on sale! Pre-orders – changed to 4/14.
- May Fundraising Events – Car Wash, Movie Night, Mothers’ Day Plant Sale, My Adult and Me Paint Night (tentative).
- Committee and other May events updates:
- Hillside School Tour 4/28 @ 6pm & 7pm: Need a few more volunteers.
- May Fundraising Events committees (see above)
- Cyber Committee – May workshop TBD
- Teachers Luncheon 5/4
- International Night 5/19: Keep an eye out for SUG.
- SATp Updates (Dee Thompson)
- Skate date was great success and raised $2000 for SATp. Would like to repeat next year.
- Double dutch and soccer stuff event on May 13th (free event).
- Hillside Rocks! Pride Month Display: Collection in May for display in June. Hoping to make heart of painted rocks on Hillside lawn.
- Hillside Community Rainbow Cupcake Sale in June
- Juneteenth celebration in collaboration with Nishuane.
- Social Justice updates (Jenn DiLullo):
- 2nd year of Student Voices book club, led by Ms. Graham and Ms. Solo with two parent volunteers. Focused on racial equity and continuing lessons of BLM Week of Action. Lesson plans to Dr. Anglin by 4/11, book club will start in May.
- AAPI Heritage Month: in-school “Discover India” assemblies for each grade on May 6th, using SATp and AAPI Montclair funds. Lesson plans will also be refreshed.
- Volunteers are also putting together lesson plans for Jewish American Heritage Month (in May).
- Hillside/Nishuane collaboration for Caribbean American Heritage celebration on June 3rd; will ask people to sponsor tables with info about their country of choice.
- Actively seeking 3rd and 4th grade families to support this work next year.
- Huge thanks from Dr. Anglin et al. to everyone driving the SATp work.
- BOE Updates (Allison Silverstein)
- Budget will be introduced at next Wednesday’s meeting and be adopted May 9th (tentative).
- Long-range facilities plan: have authorized architects to make applications with DOE.
- Two new members sworn in yesterday. Three more will be elected in November.
Meeting adjourned at 8:15pm.