School Leadership Team (SLT) Members

- Co-Presidents

Maureen McGarvey -Parent

Christine Dai -Parent

Kasia Malinowski- Parent

Gina Sclafani- Parent

Agata Mojica- UFT Chapter Leader

Jennifer Farley-Chairperson

Victoria Kataev- Secretary

JoAnn Trani-Principal

Eva Petrolekas-Assistant Principal

School Leadership Team Meetings at 3:30pm

    Dec 14 , 2023 

Jan 18, 2024

Feb 15, 2024

March 21, 2024

April 18, 2024

May 16, 2024 

June 20, 2024 

SLT Minutes – 9/20/23

1. We will now be offering the Regents exam to all the classes in 8th grade.

2. Envision Math will be used in 8th grade now.

3. Funds so far have been used for supplies – Access to Envision Math, HMH – full online access, after school programs etc. We ordered lots of material last spring for various subject areas. Materials are still coming in.

4. The Horizon program started in our school – beginning with 6th grade.

5. The DOE visitor policy is still in place – please send an email prior to visiting the school – there is still only one safety agent.

6. Double and triple parking during the AM drop off and PM pick up.

7. Cell phone policy is still in place – same as agreed upon last year. One warning and then the phone is taken away and must be picked up by a parent.

8. Dress code policy and proper shoes must be worn.

9. Times and dates for future meetings

10. Thursdays at 3:00 PM will be our meeting set times moving forward.

11. October 19th at 3PM will be our next meeting.

12. Concerns with class placements – teachers are the ones who work on placing the students for the following year based on various components.

13. Due to the number of classes we currently have for each grade the honors program technically does not exist for grades 6 and under.

14. We had our first PTA meeting this week and our fall festival is coming shortly.

15. “Honors” classes no longer exist but that has nothing to do with student performance but rather our currently small student population.

16. Supply lists should be updated or “suggested only” since some students may not necessarily have that class but changes in programming constantly take place.

17. Concerns dismissal of the small children and small doorways.

18. Greater Ridgewood has started this week.

19. Further guidance will be sought to make sure meeting minutes align with distribution to the public and PTA.

20. Bathroom policies for certain teachers are limited – please reach out to your child’s teacher for their individual bathroom policies. Staff members do monitor the hallways almost every period of the day.

PTA Board Members 2023 -2024

Co Presidents

Carmen Torres

Graceann Faulkner

Co 1st Vice Presidents

Caroline Baretta

Merima Asanovic

2nd Vice President

Nilifar Akkas

3rd Vice President

Deanna Zito

Treasurer

Maureen McGarvey

Secretary

Kasia Malinowski

 PS/IS 128 PTA  email- 24q128pa@schools.nyc.gov

Meeting Dates 

Monday, January 8th, 2024

Monday, February 5th, 2024-In-person

Monday, March 4th, 2024

Monday, April 1st, 2024

Monday, May 6th, 2024

Monday, June 3rd, 2024-In-Person Voting

There will be a PTA meeting Monday November 6th 7pm via Zoom. 

You are invited to a Zoom meeting.

When: Nov 6, 2023 07:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Register in advance for this meeting:

https://nycdoe.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJAsf-mhqD0sGdPBwoBBwcSV7wLZqeovIURs

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

SLT Minutes: Thursday, 10/19/23

Arrival and dismissal

1. Arrival and dismissal concerns: Early morning arrival is at 7:30-8:05 (2- minute transition needed before letting students in at 8:10)

2. Double parking, triple parking, and illegal U-turns are a safety concern for staff and students.

3. Potentially close the street for 20 minutes (Juniper Valley Road—road where bus route is)

4. The local police department has been notified

School Lunch

5. Quantity (Portions) and taste of school lunch: Being worked on by Ms. Pierson (Manager)

· Are there any guidelines for portioning based on grade/age?

6. Share table: Wrapped food or anything with a hard peel that will be thrown out to avoid waste. (Additional for food for students who need it)

Health Screening

7. Screening for migrant students: Students must register and are required to provide immunization documentation. Students must show documentation within 30 days of attending school.

8. DOE open arms: All students are accepted. Personal information cannot be shared.

9. Zoned students will all have a spot at our school—migrants do not interfere with that.

Multilingual Program

10. Should we offer more than one language (Spanish currently being offered for 6-8)?

11. Certified teachers needed to teach these courses – budget concerns.

Additional Programs (Academic)

12. Additional programs to support academics (Special need and Gen. Ed.) instead of language programs

13. Dual language program? A survey out during this time—there was not a large interest in it at that time (2018-2019) -- The 50/50 program would also bring in students from different zones.

14. Intervention Programs: TBD (Budget)

15. Orton Gillingham (Training received for some teachers)

16. Lexia Program (Purchased)

Parent Teacher Conference

17. Date changed to Thursday, December 7th (Virtual)

18. Parents can make an appointment during the weekday to meet in person.

Budget

19. Unknown until the beginning of November

3K

20. A request was put in last year, but they did not need the space. Ms. Trani will continue to put requests in since we have the space.

Possible after school programs

1. Academic Intervention?

2. Possible second language clubs?

3. Dual language programs in the future for the school?

4. Teacher availability?

5. Per-session (overtime) pay for teachers would be necessary

Renovations

1. We have the allocations, but no dates have been agreed upon yet

2. Auditorium – new flooring, sound system

3. Playground - new equipment

4. Gym

Coat Drive and Food Drive

1. We hope that dates for collection will be agreed upon

2. Possibly we can set up boxes in our school for donations of coats as well as non-perishable food

By laws

1. We will meet every 3rd Thursday of the month

2. Time will be 3 PM

SLT Minutes: Thursday, November 16th

- Not all members present: Kaisa & Falkner

Monthly Meetings

1. In-person meetings going forward

2. Members could potentially bring their children to avoid meeting conflicts—accommodations could be made

3. 3rd Thursday of the month @ 3:30 p

School Lunch Update

1. More seasoning added to food to give more flavor

2. Share-table has been utilized

Discipline Code and Lateness Policy

1. Lateness: 5 late arrivals amongst all classes = lunch detention (Late: Arriving to class after the late bell)

2. Lunch Detention Protocol: TBD—Tentative on what teachers are available to host lunch detention.

3. Detention is not allowed after school (Only allowed in HS)

4. Lunch detention is only allowed in middle school

School Events

1. Cultural events typically take place inside the classroom

2. Lunar New Year Event?

3. Events: $10 per kid is allocated for events, but parents need to be on board for how the money is spent.

4. Possible Cultural Potluck (Heritage tables with food) Concern: Food insecurity

5. Concern: Home-baked goods due to safety concerns and allergies.

6. Pre-packaged goods as an alternative?

7. Concern: Volunteers—send out a survey to see who willing volunteers would be.

8. Incentivize teachers with per session or a paid prep.

9. Events are easier to plan if done during the school day in a classroom.

10. Create an event committee to run events that the PTA does not have the time for.

PTC

1. Extended to Dec 7th – Half day of school

2. Teachers/Staff will send out links

3. Remote PTC

4. Elimination of progress reports

5. Possibly not extending PTC to December—parent concern with 3 months of school and little to know feedback given unless communication between parents and teachers is there.

Bylaws

1. Revisit meeting time and place next month (vote needed)

Budget updates

1. Waiting for mid-year adjustments.

2. 128 basketball team (New)

3. Lexia was purchased

4. HMH curriculum and supplies purchased

5. Supplies purchased

6. Allocate $$ for clubs (before & after school—possibly during lunch with pay), paraprofessional, assemblies, dance program for dance festival, professional development for staff.

7. Look at #’s for budget next month

Renovations (Possibly more information in January)

1. Gym

2. Auditorium

3. Schoolyard and playground

Contract for Senior Trip:

1. Parent/Students -- teacher meeting

2. Contract must be signed to confirm that if behaviors persist, they will not be allowed on the senior trip (Also applicable for any other school year trip)

SLT Minutes 12/14/23 

PTA (Parent Teacher Association) President Role 

• Open-meetings law: Meetings must be in person 

• Deanna PTA representative sitting in for PTA president (PTA president is not able to attend in-person meetings) 

School Budget Updates: (Mid-year adjustments) 

• Per-session for planning time (Teachers) 

• December Month events: National cookie day, brownie day, cultural days, and events (K-8) 

• Box out Bullying 

• Plan for February: Respect for All assembly  

• Move forward with clubs: Enrichment for students, Theater (Musical), Open-Access one morning a week, Beautiful Me by Ms. Rattner during lunch, Polish club (Agata—TBD), Study Hall during lunch periods (Middle school), etc. 

• Basketball team  

• Math, Science, and ELA (English Language Arts) online components  

• Look into Power Up (Middle School/High school) -- We already pay for Lexia. Do we have access to Power Up? 

• Dance program for Elementary grades K-5 

• PTA: Breakfast with Santa 

• Gingerbread house contest with the upper grades 

Events 

• Lunar New Year: In the works (Author visit and presentation?) 

• Reach out to Ms. Chi for suggestions 

Staff/Student Privacy Training: 

• We are not allowed to share any personal information about children. 

Discipline code 

• Redirecting the same behaviors—not a danger, not a concern, or worthy of suspension, but disruptive: Restorative practice is the approach.  

• Basketball Team: Exclusion from events based on behavior—will confirm after review of guidelines. ** Behavior and grades must be accounted for to be on the basketball team—Follow up with Mr. Whitney to flag students. 

• 8th grade contract: Must ensure it is not “double jeopardy” cannot be punished for an infraction twice.