Pierce School PTO Minutes - January 2008

Attendees: Laura Bradford, Eileen Regis, Jim Fleming, Lisa Goldblatt Grace, Eka Maraneli, John Murphy, Valerie Emmerich, Stacey Irwin Downey, Rhodinne Wang, Nicole Lapidus, Roberta Udoh, Julie Leitman, Jessica Roland, Deb Abrams, Deborah Heffan, Charlie Walsh, Peter Sacks, Pipier Smith-Mumford, Joshua Frank, Chandlee Dickey, David Szeto, Martha Huntley

COCHAIR REPORT:

Our Wonderful Kids: 6th grader, Aaron S., and 8th grader, Adrian K. both did really well at the 5-8th Geography Bee. Congratulations Aaron (winner) and Adrian (runner up)! Twenty-four 5-8 grade students participated.

1. Superintendent meeting: Override vote coming. Feb 12 public hearing for the override vote—parents encouraged to attend to hear about the vote. An override will increase taxes to help fund education. Without it, we may need to cut programs given the raising healthcare costs and fuel prices.
2. Fund drive update
• 82 out of 400 Pierce families have contributed
• Over $15,400 donated. Our goal with the fund drive is $30,000.
• This will be extended as we are not having an auction this year.
3. Funding requests:
1. 5th grade trip to MFA $120, parallel their Egypt curriculum
2. Joan Hamilton, for 6th and 7th grades, for an author to visit $425. She writes about multicultural themes
4. Outreach:
• Movie night (Jan. 25th): volunteers needed to help this fun community event, it is a free and fun event, 3 movies will be offered as well as popcorn
• Skating night proposal: see Martha Huntley if interested. $350 for 2 hours, skating at Lars Anderson. This would likely be in late February
5. Auction letter: We will not be having an auction this year due to the lack of volunteers. A letter sent out explaining this change. If we want to have an auction in the future, then we need folks to step forward and offer to chair the efforts.

Principal’s Report

1. Basketball season has started—both girls and boys teams beat Driscoll
2. 5-8th participated in geography bee—first time ever. Kids did well in the bee, and, more importantly, encouraged each other.
3. Winter Sings were also terrific.
4. Security @ Pierce
1. In the past there are been people found photocopying who aren’t part of Pierce and others found wandering around. Teachers and students have had things stolen and there has been vandalism. Teachers are often here early in the morning and late at night, and, at times, don’t feel safe.
2. Swipe cards will be installed in all town buildings. This is not a Pierce choice, but a town decision and will be funded by Capital Improvement funds voted on by Town Meeting to be used to address “Life Safety” infrastructure improvements at school and town buildings. An initiative that is ongoing for all Brookline buildings.Heath and Runkle already have swipe cards. Outside the building swipe cards will be needed to enter during certain times. Within the building we will be securing the library and several other areas. Our building is very open so that we have a challenge to balance the openness and safety for people who are here outside of regular hours. Another challenge is that we are the only elementary school with two buildings and an open floor design. We will be deciding what “regular hours” are. Only teachers and staff will have swipe cards, not students or parents. This will inconvenience some people so we will need to figure out a plan that maintains our “openness” yet offers a secure place for our teachers and students. This is not new, the town has been talking about it for over 2 years, and Pipier as tried to hold off the town in order to preserve our unique “openness” while also responding to concerns of safety and security.
3. Staff are always working to help identify kids who need more support to help them feel connected to Pierce and less alienated.
4. Visitors need to use guest passes so that we know who is in the school.
5. Phones with outside lines will be installed in every classroom and in key areas throughout Pierce so that people can call if they need help. Phone installation is more complicated than one would predict, however, and will not be happening as soon as we had hoped.
6. Other ideas were suggested such as having a greeter at the door to monitor who is entering the school.
7. These logistics and other ideas will also be discussed at School Council.
8. Additional exit doors which aren’t used could be alarmed.
9. Pipier will be sending out a letter to raise awareness and discussion about these issues to the community.
5. Homework follow-up: Pipier still needs to talk with upper-grade teachers about homework-free weekends and connection with curriculum.

Additional Information

Feb 13th PTO Meeting will have a discussion on fundraising

Superintendent Lupini: will be visiting us at community breakfast on Feb 14—parents are encouraged to attend. That evening of Feb 14 he will be submitting his formal budget to the school committee.