January 21, 2022 Meeting Minutes

HSA Meeting Minutes
January 21, 2022 9am

9 people live, 18 participants via Zoom; Dr. Oates and Ms. Finnegan

School Updates from Dr. Oates:

• One School One Book: The Wild Robot. Please send your photo of your child or family reading together at home and enjoying the book. A slideshow is being created of the photos and will be shared. Don’t miss out! 
• Souper Bowl Drive is on til the end of the month: Collecting canned soup. The children are feeling pride in bringing in their soup cans to the office and feeling good about giving to others in this service project. Thank you for giving them this experience. On January 31st there will be a CAN-STRUCTION (can display) created by Mrs. Stankiewicz. A 3-D model of something using the soup cans to celebrate their successful soup drive. That day the HSA is also sponsoring fresh soup to be delivered to the teachers and staff from Chestnut Deli!
• Our Extended Day program is going very well. Held Tuesdays and Wednesdays after school grades 2-5 for children who need a little assistance to close up some of the gaps that may have occurred during the pandemic. Taught by our teachers in small groups.
• Link-It Testing is this week and next. Day 1 was English/LA on Wednesday. Day 2 was today (due to snow days yesterday), Math. The review is that Link-It is one of the best programs since Dr. Oates joined Somerville. Real time data and information on individual children and how to adjust teaching to meet the children’s personal needs. To be able to make changes to what is taught the next day after receiving results. The teachers are then meeting in teams to discuss changes to their teaching based on the class individual needs and to address what needs to be reinforced before state tests in the spring or before having the children move up after the summer break. We have seen such growth since September in the scores. The results being targeted has really been a strong support for the teachers. 
• Black History is in February.Teachers will be doing a range of lessons in their classrooms. In addition we do have a presentation sponsored by Dad’s Night on February 7th, Patrick Hunter STEAM ambassador. He will be speaking on Design Thinking with a DJ booth, and will produce a painting while with the children. 4th and 5th grade classes will have a STEAM, Superhero, Sneakers Challenge with Mr. Hunter. Thank you so much to Robin Davis for her help in coordinating this event. 

• February 1, 2022: Lunar New Year. This holiday will be taught in school with books and lessons given by the teachers. We will also be off from school on this day as a celebration of the Lunar New Year. Also a “ No Cook”- HSA Dinner Night is being worked on for this holiday. 

• Great events that have occurred since our last HSA meeting in November: Kindergarten Thanksgiving Feast, Holiday boutique, Winter Concerts grades 1-4, Assembly with Jared Campbell on January 10th, Art Docent Day.

• Upcoming we have Virtual Bingo Night tonight! Over 50 families are attending! Very exciting. Team Somerville Assembly on February 4th with the conclusion of our Book, The Wild Robot. We will be watching the movie WALL-E. 5th grade music concert on February 4th at 9:30am. Science Fair coming up in March. Details to follow. 

• Covid Updates: Everyone knows that Covid is everywhere right now. Most of the spread happens outside of school. A 5 day quarantine is in place. Close contact, day one begins on the day after exposure. Positive case quarantine begins the day symptoms occur. We are not considering changing the school day at this time. Our numbers of vaccinated are extremely high and or children who have had Covid. If your child is Covid vaccinated they do not need to quarantine, or have had Covid in the past 90 days. You can email Nurse Correll your child’s vaccination card when it is complete and you are two week out from the last vaccine to help the process of contact tracing.

• Kate Finnegan Speaks: January “New Year, New You” theme with the children. To build upon learning behaviors that may have a gap because of being home for 18 months during the pandemic. We are not seeing learning loss but learning behaviors loss. Learning at home with personalized learning is different from group learning and classroom structure and routine. Ms. Finnegan is working on this with the teachers and Ms. Kaplan. Ms. Finnegan and Ms. Kaplan  selected books to support the children in these learning behaviors especially in the younger grades. A lesson in 3-Carr by Ms. Finnegan was “What do we have  control over, and what do we not have control over”. The children are thinking through these ideas and topics to help empower them and free them at the same time. Also helping the children work through social conflict in a positive manner.

Two High Schoolers will be coming to Somerville 5th graders to work with the kids and share with them “How to Become Stigma Free”. How to react to someone who has needs without stimgimzing them.  

Leopard Leaders Club: Welcoming New Students. Thinking about how they can welcome new Somerville students and how to share with them Somerville Traditions. The kids have been brainstorming ways to do this. Pamphlets, ABC Book to show the new students around the school. 

HSA Updates:

• 5th grade fundraiser of Coffee and Refreshments during the 1st-4th grade Holiday Concerts. Thank you to the 5th grade chair Janine Gulya and the parent volunteers/ contributors, and to all the parents who purchased coffee from the 5th grade fundraiser in support of the “5th Grade Week” that takes place in June. 
• Art Docent Day: Huge success this year! Great volunteers and the kids have loved the Art lessons and activities that have been shared by the parents of Somerville! Thank you to all who have shared in Art Docent Day and to Devletsah Ozcan and Jackie Carter for organizing and being a support in this program! 
• Art Contest through the Ridgewood Community Program called Tic Toc for our 5th graders..Look to our HSA website for more details. 
• January Social Services donations of soup this month. Collecting until the end of the month. Thank you for all of your donations and to Katanya Schwartzberg and Stacey Barsa for leading this program! 
• BINGO Night tonight, January 21st on Zoom. We have about 50 families signed up for the fun! Thank you Bill Karins for leading Bingo Night! 
• 5th Grade Concert: February 4th, 9:30am in the gym.
• Lunar New Year: HSA “No Cook” Night. Look for details to come. 
• Teacher Appreciation Breakfast coming up on February 18th for teachers of 2nd and 3rd grader. Look for emails from Liz Mazzurco and Suzanne Wert. Thank you ladies for chairing our Teacher Appreciation committee. Thank you to everyone who contributes to the Teacher Appreciation breakfasts! We always get such a nice spread for the teachers and they are very appreciative. 
• Somerville Children’s Theater (SCT): Is moving along and has been so much fun for all the kids! Deirdre Costello, one of the three Parent Producers speaks: Parent volunteers are being reached out to this week to set the parents up with roles that they are fully able to commit to, and would enjoy being a part of! We are all so very excited to be working with the children, and now the parents, to put on 4 great shows at the end of March. The show will be Peter Pan! The feedback from the kids has been so positive! We also want to thank the parents for their support this year in SCT. 
• Boosterthon: Our largest fundraiser for this school year. It will begin March 29th- April 7th. The children will raise money by asking for donations to parents, family, friends to fund their school programs. The money goes to several school programs such as the assembly speakers we have come to the school. There will be prizes and t-shirts given to the kids during that week. We are looking to see if any local business would like to be our T-shirt sponsor. Their logo or name will be printed on the shirt. We can have several sponsors. Please contact Claudia Fortunato or Christine Lear if you have a business that would like to sponsor this event!   On April 7th we will have our Boosterthon Fun Run! The children will be running by grade level on the field behind Somerville school with a DJ and tunnel run through. It is a really fun day at Somerville! Stay tuned for further information. Thank you Claudia Fortunato for being our Boosterthon fundraiser chair this year! 

• Safety and Drop off Line: The drop off safety line is made up of parent volunteers. It is a role that is very valuable to our school and our community because it is  not only about keeping the children and families safe, but it is about setting the tone of following village and community road rules, that makes our community a positive walking experience for everyone. We are the “Welcome Committee” to welcome the children to school each morning with a positive outlook and we are there to help keep the drop off line moving but also safe. It is so important to teach the children how to use crosswalks, how to wait for lights to turn green and for crossing guards to guide when crossing. It is also important we model good behavior for the children now. They will be walking to and from school alone and around our village at some point and need to learn that everyone has to follow rules and safety structures. We are looking for other parents who would like to join in the Welcoming/Safety committee to offer 20 minutes in the morning to help move the drop off line and keep traffic moving while keeping the Somerville community safe. Dad’s Night has some Dads who are able to join while they drop off their children. Thank you Dad’s Night Volunteers! Please make sure you sign up for a day. Our current openings are Wednesdays from now til June. The sign up spreadsheet may be open to the public in the next coming weeks as well. Please contact Christine Lear if you are interested in joining the Welcome/Safety Committee.  Thank you to all who help with this simple yet valuable role.  
• Dr. Oates: We really need to model good behaviors because our kids are watching. Following rules is one of those things. If we don’t follow the rules, our children won’t think they have to follow the rules and then our community suffers. We all need to look at the big picture and work together to keep our community safe. Also, we do not have adult supervision on snow delay days before 10:30am or on regular days before 8:30am. Some kids come to the school early to see friends on the front lawn or because parents need to drop off to get to work. There will not be adult supervision so the safety of the children is very important and something to keep in mind. Maybe calling a neighbor or a child’s friend to have your children join them for the 15-20 minutes before school, and they can walk or go together in those times of being “stuck” or even on a regular basis. 
• Reading Marathon: Occurs in February. You will see more communication come out about this as well. 
• The Wizards Game for January is canceled. Their goal is to reschedule it for the spring.  
• Thank you to Liz Mazzurco for donating these amazing and beautiful cookies to give to the custodial staff to thank them for their extra hard work during this time in Covid. We need to remember to thank our staff and especially our custodial staff because they are working endlessly.

Next HSA meeting we will have Sheila Brogan as our guest speaker to talk about Super Science Saturday which will be virtual this year. Our Science Fair will be held in March and will most likely be in person for the children only. More details to come at the February HSA meeting.

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

Next Meeting: February 18th at 9am in the old Music Room (Room B1) and with a  Zoom option