Grace Church School

Parents Association Meeting Minutes

Tuesday November 16, 2004

CALL TO ORDER

The meeting was called to order at 8:34 a.m.   Cynthia Davidson led a round of applause for international family night.   She also thanked Frederik Woden and Susanne Bober Kahn for last week's book fair.  

COMMITTEE ANNOUNCEMENTS

•  Holiday Shopping update

Joy Foskett announced that the raffle tickets will come in the backpacks on               Thursday. Sign-ups for helping out will go up today.   She said they would prefer gifts to checks at this point, but that either is fine.   She said they're always low on father and teenager gifts.   Holiday shopping is Wednesday Dec. 8 this year.

•  Auction Committee Meeting

Kathy Franklin announced that they were looking for volunteers for the auction.   They have a meeting this Thursday, and then the Thursday after Thanksgiving.   They have tons of jobs available, little and big.   They need people with cars to do pick-ups.   If you have time in February they could use you.   They need servers and cooks and people to make phone calls from their home.   They would appreciate gifts sooner rather than later.

•  Diversity Committee Meeting

Dana Foote encouraged everyone to attend diversity meetings.   Yes, she said, every single one of you is “diverse” enough to attend a diversity meeting.   At the next meeting, on November 30, Paula Rothenberg is speaking on white privilege and the “other side” of racism.

•  Video/DVD production of school events

Lisa Douglas announced that a professional videotaper will be at the school performances and offer videos for sale to parents.   She explained that this is not a fund raiser, just a service.   Lisa is the liason.   Any show with more than two classes will have this service – the smaller shows can have the service only if most of the parents sign up.   She said that the Christmas pageant will not be taped, but the holiday choral performance in the church will be taped.

•  GO Project books

Cynthia Davidson encouraged everyone to give books in good condition that you no longer need to the GO Project office.   She said you can also buy new books and donate them.   She said that you can find the GO Project office by going through the gym out by the church kitchen.

STATE OF THE SCHOOL - GEORGE DAVISON

Mr. Davison introduced our new CFO, Frank Kamenar.   He said that Mr. Kamenar has email, but that he also does get the former CFO's email.  

Mr. Davison extolled the virtues of the book fair people.    He said he thinks it's great that the entertainment for the kids on conference day is to think about what books they're going to read.  

Mr. Davison said that last night's family event was fabulous.   He said they are looking for volunteers for next year's international family night.   He suggested Irish night or Hispanic night.   He said to talk to the PA co-chairs if you're interested.   The sooner you start planning, the better off you are since the event happens so early in the school year.  

Mr. Davison noted that the pots and pans do not stay in the kitchen after an event like family night.   When cleaned, the pots and pans go into the little hallway between Mr. Davison's office and the nurse's office.   The kitchen is not a good place for storage because it is used first things in the morning, and because the staff is afraid of losing your prized pans.   Mr. Davison claims to be able to leap tall piles of dishes in a single bound.  

On the issue of dogs:   Mr. Davison said that you must pick up your dog when you're inside the building.   Dogs should not be on the couch in the parents' lounge.   They should not be on the ground at pick up because some of the kids are afraid of dogs, even little dogs.   If the dog is too big to be picked up, it must be tied outside.   If you're worried about the dog when you tie it up, alert George White or whoever's working on the orange door and they'll keep on eye on it for you.  

Mr. Davison reminded parents that when there are birthday parties out of the building,   you may not organize a pick up of the kids at school unless all of the kids are going.   He said there have been several instances where 8 to 12 kids are picked up at the kids.   He said that it's okay to have exclusive parties, but please have parents and caregivers not do a collective here, because there are hurt feelings.  

Mr. Davison clarified that whenever the parties are here in the dining room, it must follow the “all of” rule.   He said the school is going to recommend - not require - that parties up at school be a “no present” party.   He said it would make the parties more accessible, which is one of the reasons they open the dining room up for parties.   He said it's only a recommendation, as he knows some people are “serial gift givers.”   He also said that if not everybody is going to the party, please don't bring the party gift to school.

Mr. Davison announced that there is no early childhood chapel on Wednesday, and also the week before the Christmas pageant, because of the 11 o'clock services.   He said that next Wednesday, all children must be in the formal school uniform:   early childhood and lower school girls with white shirt and navy jumper; boys with white shirt and navy pants; girls in upper school with white blouse and navy skirt.   He said that on the first Wednesday of each term, we have an all school chapel instead of an early childhood chapel.  

Mr. Davison devoted the last portion of his talk to the exciting news on the new gym.   He announced that the board voted to build the new gymnasium underground.   It will run from the gothic wall to the entryway of the chantry, beneath the playyard and Huntington Close.   He said they hope to have the architect identified before we break for the holidays.  

Mr. Davison said they chose the underground gym option for several reasons: (1) he said that the final numbers they got for the 12 th street site were at least $1 million more than to do it here.   (2)   He said that barring unforseen occurrences, they could have the gym ready one to one and a half years earlier here, because we control it.    He said they hope the gym will be ready roughly two years from now – i.e. for the '06 - '07 basketball season.   (3)   Finally, they felt it would be much better to have the gym on site. It would mean the children wouldn't have to cross the street or put on coats for inclemate weather.   He said there would be more flexibility for using the gym for recess.   He said the program piece was probably the most compelling piece.   He said they want the locker rooms to be down here as well.   He said they'll be able to load the buses on tenth street, which is much safer, and the buses will be pointing in the right direction.   He also said that there is the future potential of having a two story building on the playground.   

Mr. Davison also discussed the temporary disadvantages.   He noted that there are three trees that would have to come down.   He said that two of those trees are not in good shape.   He said they expect that the two trees on the Broadway end will remain untouched, although there are always uncertainties when construction is involved. He said they expect to landscape the whole thing.   He said that the playground equipment will leave and come back in a different form.   It's about 18 years old.   He said there will be new playground equipment.   The wrought iron fence and the hedge are part of the landmark, and so they will come right back in.   

He said that the whole thing is about 7500 square feet.   It's one floor, but you have to go down to a two floor depth.   He said that Trinity School has an underground gym which is our model.   Trinity's space is longer, but we have the ability to go a little wider.   The locker rooms will be down there.  

He said that one of the big costs is that we will lose the use of the play yard for next year.   He said they'll use the gym more often.   They will put younger kids up on the playyard roof.   They will try to accomodate schedules so that instead of having recess and PE, we'll try to get them scheduled together so they can go to Union Square if the weather is nice.  

He said that when the yard is done, Tuttle Hall will remain a space for PE.   The basketball hoops will go away and we'll put in a sound system so the performance space becomes more user friendly.   They will discuss ways to put theatre seating in there, since they no longer need every inch for basketball.   That space will work as a theatre performance space.   For Sundays after church it will be a nicer place for them to do coffee hour and receptions after funerals and weddings.   The space will be ours, but the school likes to work with the church at all times.   He said that our ace sound engineers have already designed a sound system for us.  

Re construction noise:   He said that with the exception of the third grade Egg classrooms, almost all of our classrooms do not face the construction.   So the noise will be a relatively minimal disruption.   They hope to do as much as possible in the summer.   They'll have to rework the circulation through the front doors.

He said that the school is intending to pay for this through capital fundraising, but there are inevitably start up costs; even though you have pledges you don't have the cash in hand.   So they will borrow.   In the first two years, there will be some impact on tuition, but Grace will not be more expensive than Friends, for instance.   They hope to be able to rent the new gym out during non-school times, so people can gain access to it without going through school buildings.    He said that that should generate an income stream to cover the operating costs of the space, once they've built it.   Yes, they'll have program costs, such as an additional PE teacher, since they'll go to smaller PE classes.  

He said they've gone to Landmarks with a preliminary meeting, and they said it sounds alright, but they can't give final approval until they've seen the plans.   The community doesn't have the right to stop us, but as good neighbors we've gone to them to help them know we're being faithful to Landmarks and the community.   We've explained that we'll dig a hole; we'll fill the hole.   We'll take some trees down; we'll plant other trees.   As a value centered community institution, they thought it best to let everyone know what we were doing.   Their hope is to be in the ground in July, depending on all the bureacratic pieces.   They have a financing team that feels the money should be in place in terms of borrowing by June.    Apparently you can't pour concrete below a consistent temperature of something like 45 degrees.  

A parent asked if there would be natural light and air.   Mr. Davison said that it is dubious that there will be natural light in the gym, because you can't play basketball and volleyball with skylights, because you don't want sunlight in the children's eyes.   He said they can't do a clerestory window because it would have to be above ground.   Natural air is for the architect to work on, but there's a higher likelihood of that.  

TECHNOLOGY AT GCS - COMPUTERS AND RESEARCH

Akbar Ali and company

Mr. Ali gave a slide show on the work of the Technology Committee.    He showed how he upgraded facilities.   JK, K and First Grade do not have much exposure to the computer labs, because the emphasis in their education is on a more tactile experience.   A list of all of the software being used for the children is on the website.   i.e. Kidspiration is a concept mapping program that Mr. Ali said is fantastic.  

Mr. Ali said that by 2 nd , 3 rd and 4 th grade, there's a shift.   He said that the children have computer folders they use until 8 th grade.   He said the 8 th graders are encouraged to burn those folders on a CD, so they can keep a library of their work.   He said that guided internet research begins by second grade.   Teachers identify websites that supplement their lessons, on Egypt for instance.   He said that the school does not at the moment use a filter.   He said the school's approach is to teach the students what to do and what not to do.   He conceded that this approach does not guard against mistakes.   He said they are considering some light filter to guard against that exposure.   For lower school, he said the focus of computers is to link into the classroom.   The children begin keyboarding/typing skills in second grade and continuing into third and fourth grade.   They use Type to Learn software.   They are in the process of considering how rigorous that program should be.   He said it is an ongoing discussion with us, every year.

In 5 th through 8 th grade, the technology program focus on internet research, programming, graphic and digital multi-media (7 th grade), and project work.  

Mr. Ali explained that the school has a floating lab of 20 laptops that are connected to the wider system.   He said teachers can sign up for the floating lab.   He said that lower school uses it a little; upper school uses it every week.   The science department also has a wireless lab that it uses constantly.  

He said that the school uses MacIntosh computer, but that it's not necessary to have a Mac at home.   He said they will have a blurb about suggestions for home purchase online.  

Next, John Plenge walked the parents through some pages on the GCS website.    He said the calendar lists the school events two years back and a year into the future.   He said that Camille updates the calendar daily.   In the parents section, he showed us a host of resources: uniform policy; school forms, including student health forms.   He said that they are at 98% delivery on the email notices each week.   He said that to cover the gap, they put the enotices in the parents section, into the link that says “gcs parent email notices.”   He said that all of the notices are “streamed” from the email system to this website.   He said the enotices self-destruct after twenty days.   He said you can read all of the notices in digest form.   He then showed us that the homework site is off the parents page.   He said our kids visit this daily to check on their assignments.   He said that the parents can create their own account.   He showed us that the summer reading lists are on the website.   He said they were working on building web pages for each department.   He also showed us that there is a digital blues page, where you can hear the music kids created.   Finally, he showed us the place where Sheri Halter has made a digest of past PA minutes.  

Mr. Ali told us that all parents are welcome to come to the technology committee meetings.   They are on the first Friday of every month at 7:45 a.m. in the library.

Mr. Ali said that the school has a program called the Tap program, which lends computers with internet access to families who need them.   He said to please see Mr. Ali if you need it.   This program applies to all grades now that we need access to e-notices.

The next P.A. meeting is Wednesday December 1, at 8:30 a.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Caroline O'Neill

PA Co-secretary