April 18, 2022 Meeting Minutes

HSA Meeting Minutes
April 22, 2022 9am

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12 people live, 8 participants via Zoom; Dr. Oates

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School Updates from Dr. Oates:

• Book of the Month: Hundred Feet Tall by Benjamin Scheuer. It is a great read aloud for our Earth Day theme! 
• Earth Day was amazing! The children attended two assemblies in one day. Fabulous Bill Kerwood presented a Recycling Assembly with key information, humor, magic tricks and illusions. Covered by the Recycling Department. The second assembly, given by the HSA, was the Health Barn. It was a taste test event with fruits, vegetables, milks and grains. The kids loved it! Each grade had their own Earth Day projects. Earth Art outside, planting, and building with natural materials. Our outlook for this is to possibly create a two day event in the future, when Somerville builds on this jumpstart to create a larger focus and event on Earth Day at Somerville! 
• Collection for the month: Shoe Drive collection and a one day Clothing Collection on April 30th, behind Somerville school. Supporting our reduce, reuse, recycle focus!

Past Events: 

• Boosterthon was a massive success! Thank you to Claudia Fortunato for your hard work. Boosterthon brought an amazing energy to the school!
• First Grade Field trip: to the Meadowlands
• Teacher assistant and staff Appreciation Week! 
• Spirit week : week of 3/21
• The Youth Art Month Event was held on March 23rd. 
• Somerville Children’s Theater: Peter Pan. Wonderful show and community event! Tanya Glassman will be the Director of SCT going forward!
• Wizards Games: Thank you to all the teachers who participated!  
• Spring Break: April 9th-17th
• Earth Day Event: April 18th
• 5th Grade Field Trip: The Liberty Science Center, today April 22nd. 

Upcoming Events:

• 5th Grade will be walking to BF on May 5th to see the BF Musical Production of Grease! Travell and Hawes attend as well. An invite to BF!
• 2nd Grade trip to Turtleback Zoo on April 26th.
• Art Docent Day on April 27th
• 3rd Grade Field Trip to the Botanical Gardens 
• May 2, 2022 No School: Teacher Professional Development Day
• Teacher Appreciation Week: May 2nd-6th. HSA will have special things planned for that week.

 

State Testing:         ELA testing grades 3,4 &5:  May 9th and 10th

                                 Math Testing for grade 3, 4 & 5: May 11th, 12th and 13th

The children will have a different schedule to accommodate for best testing times for all students. 

Testing begins by 9:00/9:10. Recommend students to arrive at school on time. Late students will have missed the testing window, and we have to take the test during a “make-up” time. 

Recommend eating a great breakfast especially on those testing days. Protein for energy. 

Testing is all online this year. Some tests are 60 minutes and some up to 75 minutes. Shorter than previous years of 90 minutes. 

Students with accommodations (IEP/504) will have a quiet location and extended time for the testing period. They will not miss any fun activities done in the class during that extended time. 

                               Science testing: Grade 5: on Monday and Tuesday, May 16th and 17th.

Make up testing will be on the week of May 16th. Grades 3&4 will be on Monday and Tuesday, and 5th grade makeups will be Wednesday-Friday, May 18th-20th. Sometimes the makeup tests can be taken in one day. One test in the morning and one in the afternoon. This reduces loss of in class learning. 

 

• Drive in Movie Night: May 13th to see the Movie Trolls. Tickets must be purchased online ahead of time. Not at the door. The lot opens at 7pm!
• Ben and Jerry’s Scoop Night: May 19th. Celebrity scoopers (Our Somerville Teachers)
• International Day and Night: May 23rd
•  Art Show: Wednesday, May 25th in person at Somerville! 5pm
• Spring Music Concerts: Thursday, May 26th. Look for the Friday Feature for all the concert dates and times. Traditional structure for the concerts.

HSA Updates:

• Social Services Donations: April/ shoe drive and clothing drive on April 30th. The goal for the shoe drive in conjunction with Travell is to reach 1,500 shoes. 

 

• The month of May will be cereal boxes and shelf life milk. Please donate a lot of cereal boxes to create a fun activity on the last day of collection, June 3rd. 

 

• Make your own Pizza Night: Held in March. Big success! 
• Boosterthon: HVAC System for the GYM! Thank you for contributing and making this happen for our Somerville community! Meetings have been held over the last several months, and it is moving along. 
• Plant sale will be canceled for this spring. Can always return in the future!
• Teacher Drop: March 30th
•  Wizards Game
• Green Fair for Earth Day: April 21st. Look at the Bulletin Board in the main hall created by Jackie Carter. 

• Ice Cream Truck today after school in celebration of a successful Boosterthon! Look for George in front of the school after school today! 

 

• • Art Docent Day: is April 27th with a focus on “Green Living”, Nature, and possibly poetry. 
  • Clothing Donation Drive: April 30th from 9am-12pm back parking lot of Somerville. 
  • Toiletry Tuesday: until May 3rd. All the schools in town participate to donate toiletries to Ridgecrest, a Senior Housing in town. Donations are collected until May 3rd! Look for the box in the main office. 
  • Teacher Appreciation Week: Liz Mazzurco and Suzanne Wert will be sending out emails about the plans and support needed for this special week! Traditionally K and 1st grade provide the luncheon for that week. Look for emails! 
  • Author Visit: Dan Santat coming virtually on May 4th.

• Bake Sale: May 6th. Donations welcome! 

• • Social Services Collection for May 10th-June 3rd will be cereal boxes (full size) and shelf life milk.
  • Drive In Movie Night: May 13th the movie TROLLS

• Ben & Jerry’s Scoop Night: May 19th. Bring your family to B&J from 6-8pm and a portion of the proceeds will go to Somerville HSA! 

• International Day/Night: May 23rd. Look for emails on future details on this awesome event! 
• Art Show: May 25th back in person at Somerville! It is a great evening with art work from each child displayed! Come visit that evening. Look for more details to follow. 

Auction 2023 is booked for Friday, April 21, 2023!! Save the Date! 

HSA Board Election: All positions approved

President: Beth Pfeil
Vice President: Miranda Soffian
Treasurer: Stacey Barsa
Asst. Treasurer: Courtney Morley
Recording Secretary: Melissa Bowley
Communications Secretary: Jessica Dowd

May is the transitional month for our HSA board.

 

Thank you to all who attended today’s meeting in person, for those who joined us on our Zoom call. Thank you Dr. Oates for meeting with us today!

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Next Meeting: May 13th at 9am in the old Music Room or the front lawn (TBD) and with a Zoom option.