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Joint Parent Student Representative Meeting Minutes 2008-2009
October 30, 2008
January 29, 2009
May 21, 2009

Minutes of Parent and Student Representatives’ Meeting
The Chapin School
Thursday, October 30, 2008, 4:15pm

Guests: Ms. Spillman, Director of Student Life, Ms. Mireya d’Angelo, President of Parents’ Association

Diane Discenza, Community Service Director, Sabina Wu, Chair, Holiday Carnival: Reviewed the list of booths by the schools. Reviewed the schedule for Carnival, set-up at 1pm, Carnival at 2pm, pizza and cleanup at 3:30p. Markers, tape, poster boards will be provided during set-up. Students needing supplies should contact any of the Chapin parent reps, as they are assembling the prizes, food, and miscellaneous supplies. Browning wanted to do spin art but no machine is available. Diane will check on whether Spence has one that can be used. Discussed the distribution of prizes. Last year was unacceptably chaotic. Decision was made to put some prizes, the larger or more expensive ones, in the goody bags so that every child is assured of getting a reasonable amount of goodies, and some will be handed out by the JSA students at the booths. Stamps will be provided to each booth so that the students can stamp the child’s hand after an activity. This will ensure that everyone has a chance at limited activities such as cupcake decorating. Discussed doing “Pepsi cola” or freeze dance towards the end of the Carnival. A mom will lead the kids in Simon Sez. The JSA students were encouraged to advertise this event.

Diane Discenza: Safe Haven took place on Saturday, Oct 25th, 27 volunteers from 7 schools participated.

Ritu Banga, Chair, Voices, Vision: Ritu reviewed Voices and Visions and encouraged the students to advertise these events, especially for participants. Chapin student rep mentioned that she learned of Visions too late to participate, and there was some confusion as to how the works were selected. The Parents rep committee will try and disseminate the information as early as possible so that students know to get started on their submissions. The suggestion was made that we issue a “Deadline” calendar so that everyone will know when items are due.

Sarah Barish-Straus, Student Coordinator: Students should feel free to contact her, and she looks forward to getting to know each student. She hopes the students will really be pro-active in JSA.

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Minutes of Parent and Student Representatives’ Meeting
The Nightingale-Bamford School
Thursday, January 29, 2009, 4:15pm

Guests: Mr. Paul Burke, Head of Upper School, Ms. Liz Hay, President of Parents’ Association, Nightingale-Bamford School.
Diane Discenza, Community Service Coordinator, Fundraising status on behalf of EviAnne Cowing: Hewitt dues have been received, now awaiting only Trinity’s. We have also received $250 from Columbia Grammar from their fundraising activity. Dwight, Nightingale, and Calhoun have yet to plan a fundraiser, Chapin plans a bake sale or guess-the-candy-in-jar contest, Spence plans a candy-gram for the day before Valentine’s Day, and Sacred Heart plans a bake sale. Marymount raised $250 from a candy cane-gram in December.
Diane Discenza, Wendy Van Amson, Martha Leitner and Barbara Wallner: Service Saturday: Scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 7, 12-4 pm at Columbia Grammar & Prep. There will be music, refreshments and pizza. Student reps are asked to publicize this event, get sign-ups, and submit the number of attendees and names to Diane. Collecting efforts for hotel and airline size toiletries are underway. These will be packaged during Service Saturday and later distributed to teenage shelters, Ronald McDonald House, and any other charities that have a need. Nightingale and Chapin have finished collecting toiletries; Dwight, Marymount, Sacred Heart and Calhoun are still collecting. Sacred Heart is doing a cookies-for-toiletries swap. Students will also be making birthday cards for clients of God’s Love We Deliver and, in collaboration with Project Sunshine, assembling journal kits and “surgi” dolls for hospitalized children. A big thank-you to Pam Michaelcheck for introducing JSA to Project Sunshine and for underwriting the supplies.
Colleen Pike Blair, Diane Gallagher, co-chairs, Independent Voices: Scheduled for April 3rd. It was agreed at the last parent-student meeting to publish the poetry on the web. The pros and cons of how to do this were discussed. Even though some teachers and parents will miss having a hard copy, printing the booklet is no longer an option as the deadlines have passed and we have no underwriting to cover the expense. It was agreed that poetry will be published on the JSA website in PDF format, we will not make CDs, the book cover image previously used will continue to be used on the web version. Parent volunteers are needed to help take photos and greet people at the poetry reading. Sarah Barish-Straus volunteered.
Monique Pettit, on behalf of Ritu Banga, Visions: Tamarind Gallery, on East 39th Street, has been secured for Saturday, May 2nd, 4-6pm for the reception and Sunday, May 3rd, 12-4pm for exhibition. Many schools, including Browning, Collegiate, Calhoun, Marymount, Nightingale, Sacred Heart, and Trinity, have responded. We have the name of the new photography teacher at Dwight, who has not yet responded.
Sarah Barish-Straus, Student Rep Coordinator: Publicolor will be definitely done. It will be in February, early March or early April, from 9a-3p. Only a maximum of 10-15 can be accommodated so it will be first come, first serve.
Other Matters: Nightingale has a circus-themed dance on Friday February 27th; Interschool Arts Festival, an exhibition of students’ artworks is Monday Feb. 9th; Marymount announced an “80’s” themed dance for Friday, Feb. 20.

Minutes of Parent-Student Representatives’ Meeting
The Dwight School
Thursday, May 21, 2009, 4:15pm

Carmen Knoepffler, President: Students who participated in at least 3 meetings and one event will receive Certificates of Excellence. About 20 Senior student reps are graduating this year. Visions was a great success, with about 150-200 people attending the reception. Big thanks to Marguerite and Kent Charugundla, a Marymount family and owners of Tamarind Gallery, for providing the space, and to Rupa and Roseanne, staff members, for their assistance. The Charungundlas have offered to make Tamarind Gallery available again for next year’s Visions. The video loop shown at the reception will be posted on the JSA website. Orchids were sent to the Gallery and Visa cards to the staff as a thank you. Website: Garrett Park, son of Helena Park, and Oliver Fisher, Collegiate student rep, will maintain the JSA website for next year. Calendar items:

Carmen and Oliver from Collegiate for Sarah Barish-Straus Publicolor: Six students, from Spence, Columbia Grammar, and La Scuola, participated. The project took 6 hours and involved painting the walls and doors of an entire hallway. Publicolor arranges for volunteers to paint lower and middle public schools in the Bronx and Brooklyn.

Carmen, Next Service Saturday: First fall 2009 event will be Service Saturday on October 24th at Nightingale. Students should start collecting toiletries right after school starts. Anyone who knows of charities that would like toiletry donations should contact Barbara Wallner or Martha Leitner. A lot of parent help will be needed to drop off the donations.

Oliver from Collegiate, JSA Facebook: JSA has a Facebook page but it is not used, only 1 posting. He will send an email with a link to Facebook.

Carmen, Annual Mailing: Sabina Wu and Michelle Larsen, outgoing and new incoming recording secretary, will work to get the annual mailing out before the end of this school year. Parent reps should forward the names and contact info of new PA heads for next fall to Monique Pettit.

Diane Discenza on behalf of Evianne Cowing, Treasurer’s Report: For the 2009-10 year, Income and Expenses are projected to be $6,050. Membership dues of $5250 and fundraisers of $800 comprise total Income. The largest single expense of $1700 is for Liability Insurance. Community service project costs are projected to total $1300. Independent Voices ($1500) and Independent Visions ($500) are estimated to total $2000.

***Next Meeting: Marymount School
                                1027 Fifth Ave at 84th St.
                                Parent Rep Meeting: Wed. Sept 23 8:30a
                                Student Rep Meeting: Thurs. Sept 24 4:15p