Mather Parent Council Minute Notes
Thursday, June 19, 2014

**Thanks to Lynne Chevoya who took notes, Ms. Washington who came as support and Drew Eshelson for coming to answer questions and support our efforts.

Welcome and Introductions
Name, childs grade and summer plans; approximately 18 parents attended

Year in Review: Please see the MPC accomplishments of this school year. Sierra guided through the list as well as the overwhelming effort that so many families have made towards the Mather in a positive way, including, but not exclusively, the newly formed Environmental Committee and all the families who went above and beyond to make the Mather greater!

Sherman facilitated an exercise of breaking into smaller groups to discuss successes and areas to improve for: 1. Our own family, 2. MPC and 3. Mather. After breaking into three small groups, we convened into one large group and shared the thoughts.

1.  Parent/Family Member
*Successes:

• -getting our kids to school on time
  
• -see kids growing and developing, coming out of their shells, social emotional skills
  
• -volunteering in classrooms and going on field trips
  
• -feeling like a fresh start 
  
• -email and text to communicate with teachers

*Improvements

• -get to know other parents better esp. parents in your child’s classroom
  
• -make homework more fun
  
• -desire to know who child’s teacher for next year will be sooner if possible
  

2. Mather Parent Council
*Successes:

• -fundraising events ie. Blarney, wine night
  
• -raising profile of school
  
• -partners/outreach with community, sponsorships
  
• -parent retreats to hammer out details
  
• -our group is not/should not be perceived as a “clique”- worked hard on tone of inclusion for all, many different ways to contribute
  
• -teamwork ie. two parents joining up to lead a particular activity/group ie. Boxtops, wellness committee
  
• -teachers who talk up MPC have more parents participating in MPC
  

*Improvements:

• -fill in new members on the events of past year to get up to speed
  
• -get more diverse group involved in monthly meetings
  
• -online forum to crowdsource issues and solutions
  
• -meeting agenda to be posted sooner online ideally a week in advance
  
• -foster culture of inclusiveness, no matter whether they come to meetings or not
  
• -spread out events more evenly over year
  
• -level of sustainability of the amount of work we do- will growth be able to keep momentum going
  
• -building afterschool and extracurriculars
  
• -cut backs ie. Ballet Rox 6 hours instruction limit so only K1K2 next year- how do we supplement or foster this
  
• -coordinate with teachers to avoid redundancy ie. Ms Washington music activities 
  
• -170 parents filled out slips saying they wanted to hear from MPC, but 20-30 of them don’t have emails- using telephone messages about meetings for them- should we include text option next year? 

3. Mather School
*Successes

• -communication with teachers and prinicipal
  
• -teachers sending home lots of good info about events
  
• -school celebrates diversity
  
• -Open Circle curriculum success
  
• -Mather more “on the map” positive word of mouth
  
• -Kim Connolly position very helpful for partnerships
  

*Improvements

• -some people don’t feel heard, hence “the letter”- think about ways to create more dialogue around challenges
  
• -faculty senate may be avenue to foster more communication between teachers and parents
  
• -K-8 pathway stalled- how to keep momentum going
  
• -are staff concerns/levels of trust prohibitory to innovation status? and will they affect our kids?
  
• -should we create periodic open forums to get more people out to raise their voices? or have topically focused forums? how to include more of our community?
  
• -”overtesting” noted by parents and families- can quantity be decreased
  

Drew Echelson, Network Superintendent spoke to group

• -Contact him if you have questions (email dechelson@bostonpublicschools.org)
  
• -Review of letter
  
• Similar letters have happened at 10 of 16 schools he has worked with this school year
  
• Wonder if related to changing landscape in schools?
  
• Difficult to understand motives since the letter is anonymous
  
• His dept did interviews with school educators here and he received multiple emails from teachers supporting Emily Cox and endorsing their overall satisfaction with school despite a few operational concerns
  
• - Emily Cox has been receptive to his discussions with her about these operational concerns. There are formal grievance processes which are not being utilized. 
  
• -Can we contribute to help with these operational concerns? He gives example if teacher out on a lengthy leave, principal wants to know if they are coming back- principal should not call directly- better to have HR call. He does not think any of them are in our realm. 
• -New superintendent talking about eliminating the achievement gap, more accountability systems. 
• -Drew is one of six network supervisors, so they are more involved with lower case load to go more indepth, will be asking tougher questions, acknowledging strengths and giving direct feedback ie. teacher performance
• -Constructive criticism not always well received ie. feel being treated unfairly may have resulted in more letters being generated
• -He acknowledged question over whether too much data being collected ie. testing seems excessive
• -Principals now having more autonomy to select teachers approved by site council (Jenny Miller is our parent representative on the hiring committee)
• -Drew described the ways they are working to bring constructive and transformative feedback to schools:
• First step going thru school when teachers/students not teaching, to see what is in the classroom being taught, and have teachers talk to them about the work they are doing
• He is in schools 4 out of 5 days a week supervising; he is at Mather once a month
• Principal intern has been recommended for next year as well
• We plan on inviting him to MPC meetings more next year ie. 1-2 extra times
  

MPC member noted though having a negative effect in short term, in the long term the increased oversight is in the best interest of the school

Question about “what is best practice?”, framed around opportunities to observe classroom prior to child’s entry; Drew invites this parent or others with individual concerns to discussed details with him directly.

-K-8 pathway will be discussion soon about master plan; district looking to move in direction toward more stand alone K-8 schools. Will Mather be stand alone K-8 school or will alternative pathway be needed?

-“Next generation” schools are same thing as innovation schools- how can schools retain autonomy around influencing their own schools; accepting application letters (not full proposals) in September

Committee and MPC Updates:

• -Due to budget cuts:  No Bell (intensive academics focus) next year. Playworks is potentially gone.  Coach Dawn is moving up leadership chain so would be new person if able to get 23K to fund it

• -More extracurricular would still leave an academic void for afterschool

• -20 boys from Catholic Memorial interested in coming to afterschool 5 days /week. Ms Marshall concerned that they may need supervision so will consider further before accepting. 

• -Question raised whether colleges would be willing to volunteer academic help as part of their curricula requirement

• - The Dorchester Day parade was amazing!!! Thanks to the efforts of Stu, his family and all the other hands that made it all possible. We had almost 100 walk with us and we got incredible feedback on the float and all other parts of our procession. Everything we made will be used next year. MPC paid for a portion of the parade construction which was mainly funded through Mather 375.

• -More info will be sent out about October MPC week of events, incl. parent council funding an appreciation luncheon for staff 

• -MPC paid for the dirt for the new raised beds in the k1/k2 playground area. 5th graders planted flowers there already. 

• -600+ participants in Spring Fling, first year we had sponsorships- without their money we would have lost $875, with their sponsorships we made $1300

• -MPC will again be funding the new laminated student folders for next year for all Mather students; currently content is being updated.

Mather Parent Council Minutes Notes
March 20, 2014

Kim Connolly, Director of Partnerships and Development official work days at Mather are Tuesday and Thursday

Barr Foundation funds Kim’s position which involves:

• Coordination with Mather partners once a month, share grants and training among partners; grant writing of grants $1,000 or more and supporting teachers and parents with smaller grants; 
  
• Implementation of assessment tools to measure partnerships’ impact on students; 
  
• Assessment of student needs; 
  
• Mather375
  
• Wellness Committee (with Katie Lee); 
  
• Redesigned the website; 
  
• Wrote grant proposal to Brown Fund for outdoor space $25,000 design grant next round is $75,000 
  

After-school and Communications: Bell Program, America Scores (soccer and poetry, Lemonade Day teaches Entrepreneurial Skills with Babson College program), Brookline Literacy Project; Guitar, Spanish and Boston City Singers are new programs added this year. Website will be the place for school-family communication.  Some of the programs for older students and coincide with MCAS testing so end in April. After school program run by Ms. Marshall then becomes overwhelmed with children.

Question: How much say do parents have in deciding on how school funding is used? A walk around the building and outdoors was suggested.

Tag Sale Advertising on Facebook and signs around neighborhood; 14 tables are reserved; Dorchester Reporter Ad last week and this week; neighborhood groups; keep getting the word out; yard signs will go out late next week; Wednesday on 4 per intersection; Columbia Rd, Freeport, Morrissey Blvd; arrows will be assigned later. 

Open Forum concern when children come into the building there are collisions happening; adults can speak to children about slowing down.  Someone will look into who the hall monitor is and whether they there at breakfast time.

School Site Council Report (Sherman) Mather Pathway is being discussed; K-8 is a possibility in a different building; talks with Central Office and community members; An official letter needs to be submitted; Emily Cox is discussing this with teachers because the plan needs a ¾ vote by teachers. Henderson got approved to be an Innovation School and will have grades K-12.

Environmental Committee (Katie Lee and Lynne C.) Healthy eating and movement, exercise, school building, meeting was with the Wellness Committee, mice have become a major problem so an emergency meeting and pest management company came to put sticky traps out. Weather strips were added to doors, vents that are no longer venting will be sealed, holes are being plugged using emergency funding. Parents need to write a letter with specifics of where the holes are. April 8th is Healthy Schools Day maybe parents can come help teachers clean classrooms; BPS Recycling person has bins with lids to give us. K-1 classes will eat snack in cafeteria and not classrooms. Dumpster is right next to K-1 classrooms.  Katie is creating a Google Doc that will replace the pest log that is in the office.

Playworks Fun Run Saturday, May 3rd 1 mile or 5k, $25 per person, Coach Dawn is the Playworks coordinator, people can run for Mather Playworks or for Playworks in general.

Wine Night Fundraiser May 2nd tickets are $25 but if people sign up for Fun Run they get $10 off ticket price.

Intellijam March 22nd with Brookline Literacy Project this Satuday at Brookline High School. Bus will leave from Mather at 2:30. Mather families are free.  Notices have not gone out to all classrooms. Ms. Washington’s band will be playing. It’s a great partnership and lots of fun so please try to attend!

MPC Retreat broke up into 4 workgroups: 1. Intellijam, 2. Tag Sale, 3. Wine Night, gift baskets will be auctioned off, each grade will put together a basket with a theme (pedal power/biking/green basket, organizing/spring cleaning, baseball, Red Sox basket) MPC should try to help solicit things or $5-$10 gift; Hilary will play jazz music; take posters and postcards but don’t send them out until after Tag Sale! 4. Dorchester Day Parade Mather kids marching.

Tag Sale March 29th volunteer tag sale sorting Friday, March 28th; volunteers will also be needed on Saturday. Annette is the volunteer coordinator. Teachers and volunteers can shop at 9am.

City Sprouts wants to do a garden cleanup next Thursday but that conflicts with Mather375 so will be postponed.

Mather Parent Council Meeting
February 26, 2014

• Thanks to Jack Pelletier, Lynne Chevoya and Melissa Curran for providing food
• Introductions

• Guest speakers: Alice Gomes & Zahra Ohldin – Family Nurturing Center of Massachusetts   Discussion of family support services provided.  E.g., parenting, early education/literacy, social worker, parent-child playgroups at UP Academy, infant massage classes.  Focus on helping all families – not just families in crisis.  New law – “Child Requiring Assistance” – by law must be in every county.  Zahra Ohldin (also present and speaking at meeting) is the new liason to Mather (started 1/1/14) – this is a new position and still defining scope of duties, therefore welcome comment from parents/families as to what needs are.  Zahra works w/ school support staff to ID families in need.  Zahra works to coordinate family needs w/ available community services.  Also works to help schools relate to various cultural groups.  (This is state-funded program, that is currently funded for 2 years and then will be reviewed.)  MPC recommended that Alice/Zahra attend tag sale (1st annual in March) and/or Spring Fling to set up resource table.  617-265-8900 x231.  zohldin@familynurturing.org and agomes@familynurturing.org  617-474-1143

• Site Council update.  Last Site Council meeting was canceled due to weather.  Next meeting (3/15), Site Council will discuss K-8 pathway.  One option is to have k-8 entirely in this building, but Site Council prefers two buildings (to keep same number of strands here at Mather).  Another option is k-12 in two buildings.  Current plan is for 2015.  This will be presented to staff for 2/3 vote (likely a vote in December 2014).  The school might have to become an “innovation school”, which will affect staffing/union rights.  

• Fundraising – Box Tops – recent tally is approx. $750 (twice-plus last year total).  Ms. Settles’ class is winner.  Box Tops collection boxes will again be placed in classrooms for collection for remainder of year.  Stop and Shop cards – total generated this year is currently $282.  No tally yet as to Target card revenue.  

• Intellijam – Mather Parent, Corey, is attending tonight Brookline Literacy Partnership Board Meeting.  When MPC receives info of Intellijam concert this year, we will circulate in school.

• Updates to Mather website – Marie & Sierra are working w/ Kim Connelly to add MPC relevant materials/info to website.   Sierra pushing for calendar to have info of complete range of school activities (e.g., field trips)  Kim Connelly will attend next month MPC meeting for feedback for website. 

• Playworks:  Concern that BPS will not fund PW at all next year.  Coach Dawn asks MPC parents for statements of support – tonight – for continued funding of PW.  Also, Playworks Fun Run is scheduled for May 3.  

• Parent Retreat:  At Zemler-Wu home scheduled for March 9th.  Evites went out a few days ago (if you haven’t received it, check your “spam” folder.)  Topics: possible Dot Day Parade involvement for MPC.  

• Afterschool: (Alicia)  Looking into possible National Arts Foundation grants.

• Tag Sale:  Sierra, Marie & Annette working on it.  Date is Saturday March 29th, but there will be MUCH set-up activity Friday evening, March 28th.  Likely will ask Mather Ambassadors to help w/ set up.  MPC will sell food.   

• 375 Updates:  This spring - tons of planning for events this fall.  Hopefully the invite-video made it to Pres. Obama.   Soon there will be social media blitz to create buzz.  Fundraiser Breakfast in Feb @ Ashmont Grill.  Went well. 

• City Sprouts/Whole Foods: Shop at Whole Foods on 3/11, and 5% of all sales will go to support City Sprouts.  (There are 4 BP Schools in the program, so Mather will get ¼ of that $).

• MCAS ELA testing:  March 18-28th.   MPC has supported testing in the past.  More info to follow.

• Next MPC is March 20.  

• The inaugural meeting of Wellness & Environmental Committee will be soon.  (Lynne Chevoya will attend and will report back to MPC.)  Rodent concern in the building.  Discussion that this is matter to be referred to Facilities Dept.

Our next meeting will focus on Mather and Partnerships

Meeting Guest Speakers: Brookline Literacy Partnership, Kim Connolly, our new part time  
Director of Partnerships & Development and our new  'School Liaison' from the Family Resource Center through Dorchester Cares, Zahra Ohldin. 


February 27th   5:30-7:30
Childcare provided

January 16, 2014

MPC Minutes
Theme: Environmental Health at the Mather
Food was provided by Lynne Chevoya, Annette Glendon and Sierra Rothberg
Secretary: Mary Grady

1. Sierra introduced Al Vega from Mass Coalition for Safety and Health (MassCOSH); a worker’s rights organization formed after OSHA was passed Immigrant worker center helps workers gain skills and rights Union support Teens Lead at Work Teens train Teens about work skills, sexual harassment, safety and rights Healthy Schools Initiative; started because of teachers concerned about asthma and other health problems in schools Healthy Schools Taskforce focuses on policies; Green Cleaners Policy; Integrated Pest Management Environmental committees are at schools; Curley, Trotter, Holland, Hennigan, JFK Elementary. At the Mather:

• Karyn Stranberg, Randy Shepard and Al Vega and teachers did an environmental walk-through; environmental audit; basement level is of primary concern; dust on light fixtures, environmental ducts with holes or dust, rodent issue in 2011, report can be made available, windows could not be opened in some classrooms, some of these problems have been solved. Public report is on school’s website; more complete report was given to Ms. Cox and she can share with Wellness Council.

• Capital improvements budget was cut by 50% in 2008 so there is a backlog of reports that have gone unfixed. 

• Current process is that teachers bring complaints to school secretary who files the report with BPS facilities department. A parent complaint to Ms.Cox which she forwarded to facilities resulted in an immediate fix. This is often the way to expedite the process.

• Every school is required to have a Wellness Council and Wellness Plan; Environmental Health can be a focus in the school plans.

• Al Vega said that the Trotter (Trotter’s Nurse Margaret is a wellness champion) has had great success by working on their environmental plan for 6 years. Trotter School won an award from the American Lung Association and MassCOSH staff have been able to release responsibility to teachers and other school staff.
  

2. Jenny reviewed Norms for MPC meetings: Be present and engaged; assume best intentions; be open and willing to change your mind; be solutions’ oriented; be mindful that everyone’s experience are different, yet similar in some ways; one person speaks at a time.

3. Committee reports: 

• Lynn: Ms. Stranberg is suggesting a raffle of nice toys and backpacks to raise $ for MPC; 50c/raffle ticket? Annette suggested a tag sale where people can bring their donations of clothes and toys; Jenny suggested that the toys be used for prizes Positive Behavior Insentive System (PBIS); Sierra suggested that MPC help organize the toys; Tag Sale is another option for distributing toys, students could bring canned goods or gently used things to exchange for something new.

• Sierra: Winter Carnival is a relaxing event for families because of the work of the Catholic Memorial students and 5th a good amount considering we did not cook or do a potluck. Low effort for a very positive event. Thank you notes have been sent to CM. 

• Sherman: School Site Council (SSC) meeting report; Mather will lose .8 FTE. The school does not have as many students with special needs as predicted. The school also needs teachers with ESL certification; MPC might be able to support teachers in taking tests; this could save 2.8 FTE positions (students who are ELLs are currently being taught by teachers who are not certified in this area). 

• School is working on K-8 two school model (K1-4 and 5-8 is one possibility); same children in both buildings. Drew Echleson is our network superintendant and is helping SSC. Lilah Frederick is the current pathway. Another question SSC is working on: Can the Mather design a unique advanced work program for our students who might otherwise leave for AWC at another school?

• Marie: Mather375 update: Wednesday, January 22nd Menino at Ashmont Grill sponsored by Staples. There are 20 significant donors coming including Herb Chambers, and CFO of Putnam. Kim Connolly is working with the planning team; Mather Ambassadors will be there along with a small group of teachers, staff and parents; Emily Cox will give welcome and give info about 375th resources. Mayor Menino will give closing remarks. There will be networking done at the tables. We want investers to be partners and networkers with us.

• Staples made a video of Mather students inviting President and Michelle Obama to October 2014 anniversary event; Mayor Walsh will be meeting with Arne Duncan next week and he will bring the video to the meeting. Mayor Walsh is excited about our anniversary plans. 

• Mather375 Committee will meet in February. 
  

4. Next month’s meeting on 2/27. Guests are Brookline Literacy Project to announce Intellijam and Kim Connolly to talk about school partnerships. Meeting will be after February vacation. 

5. February 14th

6. Alicia said teachers and parents feel that crosswalk behind school is currentlya problem because the crossing guard has been out sick. Robbie Chisolm has been doing the job but it is not a safe situation. grade Ambassadors; MPC made $265, breakfast with Mr. Tom Menino anniversary and why we need to raise 

7. Teacher Appreciation Breakfast Sherman and Andy will lead?