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.

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?