HSA Minutes – February 2025 Meeting Minutes

HSA Meeting

February 21, 2025

Attendance: 14 in person, 9 online

Teacher Presenter – Ms. Fabish, 3^rd Grade Collaborative in 3F

Presented on 3^rd grade Social Study marketplace project. Kids sold and purchased products, learned to manage their own budget, keeping track of their purchases with a bank ledger. It was a great hands-on project and a good crossover of math skills and social studies.

School Updates  – Dr. Oates presented

• Theme: Safety. A refresh from this theme in October. Kids are reminded of the importance of walking in the hall and keeping body to yourself. Encouraged parents to reinforce these behaviors and rules when in public and at after school events to create consistent boundaries for the kids.
• Parent Book Club: Coming up on April 10 at Paris Baguette. Book: Never Enough.
• Donation of the month: Pasta, is off to a great start with donations
• DEI updates: Podcast club will be next Friday, Feb 28 at 9:00 AM. Discussing “Southlake” A report was given of the district meeting held yesterday led by the Superintendent. Leaders in schools were invited to participate. The meeting was the beginning of a conversation to address people’s concerns surrounding the topic of DEI.
• Curriculum Corner—originally planned to present on Link It but recently learned their could be potential changes to their assessment system. The district is opening up a parent portal in September 2025 that will allow them to see their student’s progress on whatever assessment system RPS plan to use.
• OSOB – shoutout to Ms Kaplan for picking Brambleheart, a big hit and the LEGO assembly was really special.
• Highlights: 5^th grade winter concert, Black Artists & Scientists assembly was really great and provided hands on experiments for kids.
• Events coming up: Science Fair, Monday Feb 24; Super Science Saturday, March 1 Somerville Squad Assembly March 4; End of Marking Period March 14, No school Monday March 17 for teacher professional development.
• Potential Summer Start Packets—presented to gauge parent interest in purchasing summer workbooks for kids designed to prepare them for the next grade.

HSA Updates

• Lunar New Year Holiday Docent
• Art Docent—all but one class was able to participate, TicToc is changing to Art Pop, there is a contest for kids to design the new logo
• Truly Sichuan No Cook Fundraiser- great experience working with them
• Staff Souper Lunch – Billy at Chestnut did a nice job and is easy to work with
• Career Day – Michelle did a fabulous job organizing, everything ran smoothly, HSA provided bagels and coffee for volunteers which was appreciated
• Glow Party – great fundraiser, raised $2,700, learned a lot moving forward. Dershna suggested a gym teacher with a whistle to provide structured activity for anyone who didn’t want to dance. Recommended that it just be 1^st grade up for next year.
• Lip Sync – Beth, Lara and Chrissy ran a great show in record time, consider making more inclusive for everyone next year
• Staff Appreciation Breakfast – good turnout from 2^nd & 3^rd grade parents to provide food
• DIY Pizza kits is today
• Katie shared the Treasurer’s Report— account is in good standing. Working on playground enhancements, In January we received: $6,000 through Corporate Matching from Boosterthon, $2,000 from picture day in the fall, and $2,700 from the Glow Party. We spent money for the earth day assembly, bagels and coffee for career day and Somerville Cares needs. With the surplus donations, we are planning to update the Faculty Lounge.

Looking Ahead

• Wizards Game – 2/23
• Science Fair -2/24
• RHS HSA Smartphone Meeting – 2/25 panel sharing their experience with phones 7:00 PM
• Podcast Club – 2/28
• SCT & Dad’s Night coming up in March
• Bingo, Friday April 4

Questions/Concerns

• Dershna had a follow up question re: the security concerns raised last meeting. Dr. Oates shared that a district funded audit of the buildings is currently being done and includes a safety assessment. Recommendations will be made and work done will be covered by the district. Anything additional will need fundraising and work is in progress to determine what that will include.

HSA MEETING:  March 21 @ 9:00am