Grace Church School

Parents Association Meeting Minutes

Tuesday September 28, 2004

The meeting was called to order at 8:37 a.m.

1.   Welcome Back – Cynthia Davidson introduced the P.A. officers.   She thanked the chairs of the New Parents reception and the people who helped with the welcome back coffee and the P.A. meeting refreshments.  

2.   General Announcements – Cynthia said that all the class reps who requested training on the GCS website email system will have a training session tomorrow.   She said the library needs volunteers to shelve and sort books, and to please talk to Mary Anne Orbe if interested.   She emphasized that Grade 7 class night is Oct. 6; Grade 2 class night is Oct. 12.

Cynthia also mentioned two ways to make money for Grace.   She said that if you're shopping on the Internet, use schoolpop.com before signing in; a percentage of your purchase goes directly to Grace.   She also said to cut out the Box Top$ from your products, and put them in the purple box in the P.A. Lounge and the school can redeem them for cash.

3.   Introduction of Committee Chairs and their Upcoming Events – Blanche Johnson introduced the committees.

Used and New Textbooks:   Vicky Ort explained that this committee, giving the ability to buy used textbooks, is for Upper School parents.   She said that unfortunately the math and science books changed this year, so the stocks are limited.   She said the benefit of the used textbooks is that the children can have an extra textbook at home, which helps if they forget one.   It also helps because the books are so heavy.  

Photo Day:   Lisa Arnold said they're looking for a few more volunteers to help with Photo Day.   All kids need white tops and navy bottoms/jumpers.   Girls in Upper School must wear navy skirts.    Boys can wear the crested polo or the tie.   Long or short sleeves are fine.   There are no skorts allowed on photo day.

May Fair:   Camilla Campbell said that May Fair is the first Saturday in May, and that the kids have the “best time of their lives.”   She said that part of Mayfair is selling your old goods.   The first Haul-it is this Wednesday from 8 am to 10 am.    She encouraged everyone to take their turn signing up to help on a haul-it day.    She said you need to bundle all your items, pre-sorted, which you will place in the appropriate pile.   She said that no longer can you dump off a big Hefty bag full of unsorted junk.  

Used Uniform Sale:   Camilla said the school needs used uniforms.   She said you can drop them off at the Haul –it.   The first grade parents are in charge of the used uniform sale on October 13.   You can contact them if you need a uniform separately from the sale.   

Diversity Committee:   The first meeting is October 13 at 6pm.   The committee's theme this year is privilege.   There is childcare for Grace kids and food.  

Holiday Shopping:   Joy Foskett explained that holiday shopping is held in December and that it's a fundraiser for the teachers and staff cash holiday gift.   She said that they ask everybody to donate 12 small gifts per child, or you can give a check.   They compile 5,000 gifts and sell the gifts to the children for $1-3, and they buy gifts for ten people.   The children come home with wrapped presents.   Their first meeting is next week.   

Auction:   Kathy Franklin is running it.   She welcomes and wants everybody's participation.   Her first meeting is Oct. 21 at 8:30 in the dining room.    She welcomes old and new parents.

4.   Admissions – Martha Hirscman explained she's here to enlist our help at joining the GCS “marketing team.”   She said she has brochures and information for you if your old nursery school etc. asks you to talk about Grace.   These include the Beat; the newsletter; the lower school times; the award winning, much loved Scribbler; and their new brochure.   You can take these things with you.   She also has fact sheets called “Grace Church at a Glance.”  

5.   State of the School – George Davison thanked everyone for coming.   He said some people have finicky email providers that think GCS is a spammer because it has a huge list in the CC line.    He also said some people get our email rejected automatically, and there's nothing the school can do about that.   He said Grace sends its emails out on Thursdays.   He said that if you go to the “contact us” page on the website, you'll see an icon saying:   “parent emails.”   If you click on it, and nothing happens because it's not working yet, he said not to give up, but to go down one step, where it says:   “check email.”   He said to then type in the word:   “enotices” and the Password [not here revealed for privacy reasons…] and it sends you every email sent out from the school that week and the week before.    Check the website on Thursdays.  

Mr. Davison also made a quick reminder about peanuts.   When baking for the Pecan Festival, he said, “please don't use peanuts.   Please don't use sesame seeds or oils either.   The older kids can navigate around nuts, while the younger can't.   So Grace designs lunch around that.”   

Re Photo day:   Mr. Davison said it's important for the kids to learn there are formal occasions that you have to dress up for.   There's always a teachable moment.  

A year ago Mr. Davison said that the church and school were in discussions about becoming separate legal institutions.   He said GCS has reached an agreement in principle on the economic principles, after having agreed in principle on the governance issues.   The school will purchase buildings that the school occupies, not including the two floors of the building including the cafeteria – i.e. the “loft” building - which GCS will continue to rent.   GCS will pay them $8 million.   The church invested money for the last 110 years into the buildings that the school uses.   The church is “realizing back” its historical investment in the school, and the school is taking responsibility for itself.   GCS also gained the option of building a gymnasium underneath the playyard and Huntington Close.   It must be underneath because it's a Landmark block.   GCS is not sure either Landmarks or the MTA will allow it.   He said it at least gives us leverage in negotiating for other sites.   At some future date, he said we could put a buliding up to 3 stories tall on the playyard.   He said we get the right of first refusal on the store currently occupied by Janovic Plaza.   So we are gaining the right to develop and use the campus going forward in the next century.  

Mr. Davison explained that we are not buying the ground; we are leasing the ground for $1 a year for 110 years.   He explained that if you're on the vestry of the church that's been in operation for so long, you feel uneasy selling off the land to a school.   Mr. Davison said this allows the church to do that transfer without “alienating the property.”   Mr. Davison said it's “tantamount” to ownership.   He said yes, we'll have to renegotiate, and hopefully the next lease will be for 220 years.   He said that helps the church politically and with their consciences.   But it doesn't change the dynamic that we can operate these buildings as the owner for the foreseeable future.   If the church chose to tear down both buildings it owns (which they are allowed to do after 20 years), they must “make us whole” and give us space during the construction project and thereafter.   When we put the new building back up, we'll have the same kind of spaces.   It's an important asset that belongs to the church.   We went into these two floors, including the dining room, under a leasing agreement 10 years ago.   The store beneath has a lease with about another 5 years on it.   Because we redeveloped these two floors, we are paying 40% of market, while Janovic paid 100% of market.   So everything becomes an economic decision.   If we have the money to do it, we can do it.   We no longer have to go to the church as supplicant/child.   Instead, we are creating a partnership where everyone knows what their responsibilities and rights are.   So, for instance, we wouldn't have to ask for permission to add a mezzanine floor to our existing gym.   We will continue to keep using each other's campuses.   Chapel will still be in the church; the church will still hold receptions in our gym.  

Mr. Davison said that the other advantages are that when GCS becomes an independent corporation it gets access to financing that our competitor schools have; the cost of any borrowing will go down.   Right now we have two corporations and three governing boards, which bankers don't like.   It will also allow us access to investment vehicles that are not open to religious corporations.   It will allow us to save money and make our financial operations more efficient than before.   Initially we thought the spread of borrowing costs for the gym on 12 th and borrowing costs if we were part of the church would break even, but we're getting a lot more than that.   More square footage, more flexibility in the future, and we're paying a little more for it.   He said we will finance the $8 million, so that burden will be carried in tuition by future generations of parents as well as current.   Our tuition is not cheap, but it's cheaper than other schools.   There will be a little catch up, compared to other schools that have already improved their facilities.   We also are focusing on faculty salaries and financial aid.   The more we can raise in the capital fundraising effort, the less effect there will be on tuition.   The capital campaign will get going to try to raise money for the gym and the endowment.   We were looking at what the best thing was for the next generation of students, and our current kids with the probable exception of the 7 th and 8 th grade kids, who will have graduated by the time the gym is finished.  

6. Parents in Action update – Ariadne Calvo-Platero said that she and Camilla are the parents in action reps.   She said it's a volunteer organization to advance effective communication between families and within families.   The brochures will no longer go home in backpacks, but Ariadne said you can access the information on their website, parentsinaction.org, or you can ask them to send the information to your home; Ariadne will also put it in the parents lounge.   There are seminars, and they facilitate discussion groups within each grade.   They send a facilitator and the parents get together and talk about whatever they want to, ranging from when kids go to bed, to internet and IM-ing and dating.   The school is very supportive of it; George is on the PIA board; and Ariadne and Camilla schedule dates.   The class reps should get in touch with Ariadne or Camilla to schedule a date.    PIA says to book early, because they get booked up.   Each class can have a discussion twice a year if they want, but PIA recommends doing it in the first half of the year if possible.    Camilla said there are two seminars coming up, which will be up on the bulletin board but will no longer go home in the backpacks.   The first is on Thursday Oct. 14, looking for relief, stress and its fallout.   The second is touchpoints of emotional development with Terry Brazelton.  

7. GO Project: Vicky Ort explained that the three minute film is not available today, but will be.   It's jointly run by the church and the school to help kids not performing at grade level, on Saturdays and there's a daily program in July.

Rose McSween, the director of development for the GO project, said the raffle will be Oct. 7.    She said they have identified three places within the campus of the church and the school that need to be painted.   So they are raffling off the idea of allowing our children to paint those spaces in a creative way.   We are only selling the raffle tickets at school during the Pecan Festival.   She said you can sell the raffle tickets to the community at large, because we are helping disadvantaged children.

8. Pecan Festival:   Vicky Ort said it's basically a major bake sale.   She said it's an institution.   In order to make it work we need people to bring in baked goods or buy Krispy Kreme donuts, and to volunteer to sell.   The gourds, or mini-pumpkins, are also a major seller.   The kids buy them and name them, etc.     Apples and apple cider are popular.   We also sell pies for $15.    Please send kids with small bills, not $20 bills.

Blanche said that the next P.A. meeting is October 19.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:40 a.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Caroline O'Neill, PA Co-Secretary