PA Minutes March 12, 2004

Grace Church School

Parents Association Meeting Minutes

Tuesday, March 12, 2004

The meeting was called to order at 8:32 a.m.

1. CO-PRESIDENTS' REPORT

There was a huge round of applause for the auction workers, especially Robin Canter, Tara Liddle and Rose McSween. There was a record breaking amount of money raised.

Caroline Antonacci reminded everyone to cut and bring in BOX TOP$ for education. She said to drop them in the lavender box in the p.a. lounge and that the money goes directly to Mr. Davison.

There is a new uniform committee in formation. Contact Darcy Bradbury if you want to volunteer for the uniform committee.

2. AUCTION REPORT: ROBIN CANTER, TARA LIDDLE, AND ROSE MCSWEEN

Robin Canter reported that the auction has already grossed $450,000, and has more outstanding. She said it was “wildly successful.”

3. OVERVIEW OF PROCESS AND BY-LAWS FOR APPOINTING OFFICERS, CLASS REPS. AND LIAISONS FOR 2004-05 G.C.S.P.A.

Pamela reported that the p.a. appointments will be placed on the p.a. bulletin board for sign-ups after spring break. If you are interested in the vice president position, you have to come as a pair and sign up together. It's a two year commitment, because you will be presidents the following year. There are also many chair positions available, including: photo day, upper school textbook sales, GO project liason, holiday shopping, the auction, Mayfair, book fairs, sailabration, p.a. event coordinator. Dana Foote clarified that the p.a. event coordinator position means doing things like putting muffins and fruit out at the p.a. meetings, and doing the welcome back coffee. It used to be called “hospitality”, and maybe should be again. Pamela said that the communications chair is now related to email. She said there are three division heads, and class reps. Pamela said she works full time and has found the president job fun and not overwhelming. “Come one, come all,” said Camilla.

After the sign ups are taken down, then the executive committee meets and goes over the list. If there are too many volunteers, they pick out of a hat. With class reps, they wait until the classes are divided, so you won't know until the beginning of the next school year. Pamela encouraged anyone to ask questions, either by email or phone.

4. MAYFAIR: JOHN COOPER AND BLANCHE JOHNSON

John Cooper said his goal was to get more father's involved in May Fair. He said there's a lot of heavy lifting involved. The sign-up sheet will go up in mid-April. The fair itself is May 1. Strong volunteers are also needed on the night before the Mayfair. Blanche Johnson said they really need more people to help on haul-it days. She said to please be discrete about what you're bringing in, and to sort it before you give. It's taking a big toll on the people there every month.

April 8 and April 21 are the next two haul-it days.

A parent asked what sells and what doesn't. Various people reported that clothes in good condition sell. Books. Toys. The Mayfair workers said that while we are always left with things at the end, Goodwill comes and takes what doesn't sell. People come and buy bundles of clothes. Things that don't sell: shoes that are really worn. Ripped t-shirt, children's clothing with stains – no one wants them. The rule of thumb is: anything that makes you say, “uck” … makes everybody say, “uck.”

If you sign-up for shifts, please be there! It's really stressful when people don't show up.

5. GO PROJECT: DANA FOOTE

Dana Foote reported that on Thursday April 22 there's a great benefit for the GO project. This year it will be a cocktail party at a nightclub called Plaid. There will be tasting tables from Tamarind and the Harrison and Gonzo. There will be a little bit of a silent auction. Pamela added: please bring in magazines to the GO-project office. They use it for their art projects in the summer.

6. STATE OF THE SCHOOL: GEORGE DAVISON

Mr. Davison began by saying that the auction was a great night. He said that everyone who went was thrilled. He thanked everyone who worked so hard to make it so wonderful.

Mr. Davison reported that after the food forum, the school decided to have each of the division heads take a look at every meal served this year and decide what they thought fewer than 50% of the kids ate. If all three agreed, they struck it off. By this method, beef stew, meatloaf, yellow split pea soup, cream of tomato soup and minestrone got struck off. They also noted the meals that less than 50% of the kids in the first lunch ate. Mr. Davison pointed out that with soups, there's always been a cheese platter. So they added cold cuts to the cheese platter. For the older kids, they added cold cuts to the salad bar. He also said that Anstice Carroll is going to visit four schools who reputedly have good food: Trevor Day, Birch Wathen, Nightingale, and Town. He said that Trevor Day has a smaller kitchen, 1000 kids, and yet the kids like the food. He said there's a big operation called Flick, all over town, but that he didn't think we want to go that route.

Mr. Davison said that the uniform committee will have another meeting after break. He said that the uniform committee is actively looking at pants options for the lower school girls in the winter. He said that if you have strong feelings, go to uniform@gcschool.org . He said they were also talking about shorts in September for the boys. He said if you want a one stop shop, there'll be a GCS sweatshirt at Lands End as well as ACU. He explained that Lands End can't do the screening, just the embossing. He said Grace originally used ACU because they used to be cheaper than Lands End. He said Lands End doesn't do the pull-over hooded sweatshirt. He said that all of that will come out in April. Finally, he said that the new Lands End catalogue won't reach us until June, so they'll send it then.

Mr. Davison reported that they did yeoman's work in admissions. He said they thought they were essentially full as of yesterday. He said that the JK is finished. He said that it was an incredible set of applicants. In kindergarten, they only had ten spots. In the end, he said they got a good group. He said that in JK, half will be siblings, and half new. The JK this year is tight primarily because everyone was so fertile.

Mr. Davison said that on the placement end, they don't have complete statistics yet. He said that this year, the day schools closed their admissions on the day the boarding schools gave their admissions. He said that the kids did fabulously. Trinity seemed to be the big winner, with four or five going there. Otherwise, he reported that it's spread throughout the city. He said we have one girl going to six of the seven girls school, as opposed to last year when a lot of girls went to the same girls school. Scholastic said we have seven awards given to six students, in the categories of short stories, poetry, memoirs, etc. These are national awards.

Mr. Davison said that George Whyte, the security guard, said there are parents exiting via the tenth street gate. Mr. Davison asked people not to do that, because it puts people at risk. He said that someone backed into the gate, and it's not closing properly. It's an accident waiting to happen if kids were to run and push against the gate and run into the street. They try to remember to open the deadbolt on the second door during dismissal.

If there's no security guard by the orange door, please don't prop it open. The neighborhood is much safer than it used to be, but it's still New York.

Mr. Davison said that the total amount of money available to financial aid is frozen at 12.9%. If we didn't have the auction, financial aid would be growing at the same rate as tuition. In the past six years, tuition has gone up 40%. Financial aid has gone up by 60% over the same period, and annual giving has gone up 11%. The auction is what's pushing financial aid forward. There are slightly more students than there were six years ago. People who need financial aid need more of it, just to stay in place if their income hasn't changed. We have more smaller grants than before. Our smallest grant is $3000. The largest grant is $22,000. Mr. Davison believes it's healthy for us, that no matter what your income us, to send your child to GCS you pay something. Everyone is invested in the school.

Martha Hirschman said that the average grant is $13,000. There are 89 children in the school who receive financial aid – an average of 8 children per class. It's remarkable for the school that it's well balanced.

George Davison said everybody has to reapply every year for financial aid. Your award is based on your financial status, not on your child's academic success or failure. Otherwise you'd be setting up a dichotomy that was ultimately destructive to the cohesiveness of the school, because you'd be saying that the rich children didn't have to perform to stay in the school, but the less wealthy children did.

Mr. Davison said they did find that if you wanted financial aid at the ninth grade level, you were somewhat at a disadvantage this year. If you were one of the top kids in the class, money was no object. We are one of the few schools that are truly not need blinds admissions. We decide on financial aid before we look at the admissions folders. When we offer a place, we offer a grant at the same time. So they know right away that they are accepted, and how much they get. Some schools have merit based scholarships. But we have kids here all the way through. Some of our financial aid kids are in the middle or bottom – someone has to be! At some schools, only the top kids get financial aid plus – i.e. pay all your books etc.

The auction money goes into an endowment. We don't just take the auction money and spend it. So we don't sweat what the auction gets. Anything the auction gets is a bonus. It sets us up for next year. Yes, we encourage you to bring your wealthy friends to the auction. It's like getting a foundation grant – it's outside money. Mr. Davison believes there's a finite number of dollars out there.

Rose McSween interjected that we had a number of donors who've never given to the auction before, and don't even live anywhere near here. Once we explained that the proceeds enabled kids to come to school here, people were so generous.

This year the total budget was $1.3 million. Our hope is we will be somewhere around 394 or 395. We like to have financial aid pool left over as a cushion because we don't want anyone to leave the school because of a temporary cash flow problem – i.e. because they've lost a job.

12.9% of tuition – how does it compare to other schools? There are three ways of looking at it. There are schools that pay for most of their financial aid through donations and for them it is not an issue. There are those who use financial aid to attract students to fill empty seats, and for them each student is extra money. Grace forgoes income with each financial aid dollar, and Grace feels rightly or wrongly that there is a limit to what you can ask people to pay for others, and that is where the 12.9% comes from. If Grace is to continue to support financial aid, the auction is crucial.

Leonard Foote from Freedom from Chemical Dependency will be at the next P.A. meeting. He works with upper school kids throughout the year. He talks to them about substance use and abuse for four years. The classes take place with no school person there, so they have an open dialogue. Leonard gives Mr. Davison a pulse of the school at the end of the year. There have been times when we've had to do an intervention in a class, and Leonard is a resource for us, and he has the trust of the kids. He can and will speak to you all about what's going on all around the country, and give you insights into what you should look for as a parent. After he meets with the kids, he comes to us at the end of the week. He doesn't name names, but he'll say there's something going on with a certain grade, keep an eye on it. If he thinks it's serious, he recommends an intervention. It helps the kids be open and talk about what they know is a taboo subject. He also gives them a lot of information.

Our only staff change for next year at this point is that Susan Sterman Jones is pregnant with twins, and will not be here next year in her regular capacity. She will still direct the plays. She's due in the summer. Dot Antonides will teach all her courses.

NEXT MEETING DATE: TUESDAY APRIL 20

SPEAKER: LEONARD FOOTE

The meeting was adjourned at 9:30 a.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Caroline Coleman O'Neill

Co-secretary