PTA Minutes April 21, 2022

MAURY FULL PTA MEETING Notes

Thursday, April 21, 6 pm-6:45pm

25 attendees at peak

President: Ross Kyle, Vice-President Lora Nunn, Treasurer Andrew Lyons, Secretary Elizabeth O’Gorek (Parliamentarian vacant office)

Principal Payne-Chauvenet and Assistant Principal Andrew Lardell also in attendance.

EARTH DAY cookie sale Friday April 22

In celebration of Earth Day the PTA is hosting an Earth Day themed bake sale with cookies decorated in nature themes. Come by the Constitution Avenue entrance after school! Cookies are $2 each.

UNIFORM SWAP Friday April 22

Donate uniforms! Help sort! Get new sizes. Coe to the Constitution entrance April 21 3:!5-6p.

RUN FOR PTA EXECUTIVE

C’mon you guys, no one has nominated themselves for the PTA executive yet. If you don’t, it’s just Lora (VP) and Liz (Secretary) next year. We’re looking for a President, Treasurer and Parliamentarian. There are 500 students in this school! Do we have 3-6 more folks willing to step up??? Email maury.pta.secretary@gmail.com

NEW: 2 people can share any one of this offices!! We passed two changes to the bylaws: one creating the office of Equity Chair, and another allowing up to two officers in any of the Executive positions. Share the load! Run with a friend !

Maury at the Market: M@M May 7

Our keystone fundraiser that serves to pay for our 5 teaching aides in the year that follows it, Maury at the Market is partially online auction + raffle, partially amazing party.

The online auction will open Tuesday, April 26 (watch list serv and Principal’s update for the links) and end at 8p the day of the party.

This year, teacher experiences are raffled (rather than auctioned); that raffle will end May 8. There’s a LIVE auction of six amazing prizes at the event, but there’s also just a good time to be had. BUY YOUR TICKETS.

THE PARTY IS AT 7p.m. Saturday, may 7 at Eastern Market’s North Hall

DJ! Dancing! Live Auction! Open Bar! Snacks!

BUY YOUR TICKETS RIGHT NOW, right here!! https://mauryele.ejoinme.org/tickets

VOLUNTEER for a discounted price. Sign up here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1WSLdo4wyPXstWKmihkfSCIIc6iOFVzDMm0Iw0FUCTag/edit

PRINCIPAL NEWS

Principal Payne Chauvenet  reminded us about Spring events, some of which are happening for the first time in years

  • PARCC Spirit week, April 25-29
  • PARCC Testing, May, dates vary throughout grades
  • Parent appreciation week May 2 (daily ways to appreciate your teacher will be sent out on the list serv)
  • Orientation for PreK3 and PReK4, May 12 at 6p, Kindergarten to be announced
  • Sneak Peaks: quick visits for parents to see what next year looks ike, June 1
  • Kindergarten Promotion June 15 930 a.m.
  • Fifth Grade Promotion June 17 9:30 a.m.
  • Field Day June 20 and 21* parent volunteers really needed

Re-enroll —you need to prove your residency. Enrollment website: https://enrolldcps.dc.gov or come do it in person at Maury Saturday April 23 from 9 a.m. to noon and grab and coffee and donut!!

National Foster Care Month: Visit from CFS

Ms. Kathleen Stines, a DC Child and Family Services Adoption Family Recruiter appeared. Did you know May is National Foster Care Month? It’s a great time to talk about needs for families in the city.

Sines is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. She’s a foster parent recruiter, recruiting families and increasing awareness that there is a need for resource parents —the parents who provide a safe space for kids to stay while their parents get back on their feet.

Always looking for partnerships to get word out about the need for families, and about the caseload of kids waiting to be adopted into forever fam.

Resource parents support reunification of the foster child with their home family. They provide a temporary safe haven for kids with goal of reunification. They keep kids safe and free from abuse.

There are currently 599 DC kids in foster care; there were more than 3K when Stine started, she said, partially due to an increase in front-end prevention services and that CFS themselves are doing a better job keeping kids with relatives.

Most kids are are 10-14 and coming from traumatic home situations. They stay with fosters until parents are on feet.

80% of kids come to CFS attention due to neglect, sometimes due to parental substance abuse which creates a lack of supervision or focus on child education; some of the parents are incarcerated. Often birth parents are themselves the product of generational trauma. Opportunity to put resources in place as a collaborative model; when resource and birth parents work together, success rate goes up.

Right now CFS works with 145 resource parents, most coming from wards 5, 7 and 8. Most kids are coming from Wards 5 -20% 7-26% and 8-30%.

What does it take to be a foster parent? You must be over age of 21 and a DC resident. Over 50% CFS resource families are in MD where a private agency contracts with them to support DC kids, but CFS wants to keep kids in the District with their friends and in their schools.

You need to have a bedroom space for the foster child. You have to be healthy enough to take care of kids; you can share your “comfort levels” about gender, age and behaviors. They want good matches because anytime a kid is reassigned they’re suffering another level of trauma.

It takes 150 days to become licensed. Orientations every second sat from 10-11:30. Call and a recruiter will respond. Gather info, move forward. There are a lot of resources for foster parents; monthly board payment for care of child; coordination for therapy and mental health services; day care vouchers for the littlest kids. 671-LOVE (5683).

FINANCIAL Report

Treasurer Drew Lyons reports that at the end of March, 70% through the year, we’ve hit almost 70% of our revenue target, and are under 70% spending. There’s still time to contribute to annual fund or pay your PTA dues. Technically, you are supposed to be a dues-paying member in order to vote.

At this point, we are really turning our attention to M@M and hoping that gives us a solid foundation for next year’s budget.

W6PSO

Ward 6 Public Schools Parent Organization Rep George Blackman reminds us that Bike AND ROLL to School Day is coming!

May 4, 2022, 7:45-8:15 AM @ Lincoln Park Bike and roll May 6 walkbiketoschool.org

Don’t worry we’ll be back in time for PARCC testing.

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