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Meeting Minutes
Meet and Greet • 17 parents in attendance, including HEDP Board Members and Noelle Ahern, Director of HEDP Program Policies/Update • One slight change to the policy last year, which had to do with inclement weather (since school was released early, HEDP contacted parents for an early release from the program) • 104 children enrolled in the program, representing 25% of the PK-6 (422) population at Heath; lot of growth since 2000 when there were only 35 children in the program • Program continues to struggle with space issues; still a concern even with the expansion of Heath Budget Overview/Tuition Assistance News • Balanced; not in a deficit • Each year HEDP gives a significant amount of money toward tuition assistance; done on a semester basis (2 semesters per year) • Able to help six children this semester ($3,750 in total) • Noelle encourages parents to apply for the 2nd semester • Extra teachers hired for the program this year • New programs, or clubs, have been added to the program—Jared Mael, one of the HEDP teachers, is heading up these clubs (Lego, Newsletter, Music, for example) Fundraising Team-School Store • HEDP has access to sell Heath clothing and other items, such as water bottles, pencils; these items used to be sold by the Heath PTO • Sell at school events, such as Mayfair, Book Fair & PTO BBQ • Currently, these items are not available for sale online • Noelle is hoping to order some additional items soon • If anyone is interested in promoting the products, Noelle would welcome it and asks that you contact her. • Question was brought up about whether HEDP has ever considered an annual appeal, like Heath PTO does each year. • Noelle explained that 6 or 7 years ago Milly Katzman , former Heath Principal, and PTO asked that HEDP not fundraise, except for the selling of the Heath school clothing and items (t-shirts, water bottles, etc.) since it was challenging for families. This was the same time when the PTO started the annual auction. Outlook on space • HEDP currently uses the Cafeteria (Grades 3-6); Pre-K room (Kindergarten); and the downstairs room next to the gym (Grades 1-2); and the upstairs room for special projects (Jared’s clubs) • During construction HEDP will likely lose cafeteria, although the timeline has changed and it is unknown at this point. We shouldn’t lose gym space. • Carrie Wilson, Principal, has been supportive of our needs so far, saying we can use the Library when the cafeteria isn’t available, although the Library is scheduled for the same time. • HEDP needs a space with a sink and cold storage because we serve (2) snacks a day. Our guidelines also indicate that we a locking office space as well as a sink and kitchen type area to prepare foods. • Always keeping special diets, allergies, and health conditions in mind. When Runkle school was under construction, parents brought in the snacks. This would be a concern for HEDP staff given these concerns. • Cafeteria is not our ideal space for the entire length of the day if we were to utilize that space, especially during the winter months; there’s also a storage challenge with the cafeteria. • Heath Library is not an option right now—Town of Brookline has a policy to keep school libraries open to everyone, 3 to 4 days a week, until 3:15pm. • Comment was made that Dr. Bill Lupini, Superintendent of Schools, needs to be part of the solution; he needs to be telling the principals that they need to find us more space. Maybe there needs to be a town-wide mandate about space for extended day programs. • Noelle let us know that she will be meeting with Dr. Lupini in January; he does an assessment of the afterschool programs. • Question also came up about how to change the territorial attitudes that some teachers have about sharing their classrooms—It’s our school, our community. HEDP needs study space, computer access, gym space. Other • Someone asked if we could look at the concept of integrating the extended days programs. • Noelle informed us that all extended day programs in the Brookline elementary schools (8 in total) run as a separate non-profit; each meet once a month—our representative at these meetings is Jen Mataraza. • Some of the extended day programs have coverage on Professional Development days, February and April vacations—Question was asked whether HEDP would be willing to look into offering this as well. o Many parents agreed that this is something we should look into & it was suggested that a survey be done to see how many parents, including non-HEDP families, would be interested. o Noelle informed the group that there needs to be at least 28 children enrolled per day in order for them to stay open on a non-school day per school committee guidelines. • Homework for 2nd & 6th Graders is online and becoming a challenge for HEDP staff (and parents) since there is limited access to computers. Matt Durant, the computer teacher, has classes every other day afterschool, so HEDP only is allowed to use the computer room once a week. o There are 24 or 25 laptops in the upstairs room that are currently not being used by anyone in the school. Noelle has inquired about HEDP having access for students during homework time, but has been diverted use. Jen and a few other 2nd grade parents will be contacting the principal for understanding and approval. o There is wireless within the school, although it doesn’t always work, especially in the cafeteria. o Parents agreed that we should try and get access to these computers, especially if they aren’t being used. Questions/Concerns for Principal Carrie Wilson • Parents all agreed that we should set-up a meeting with Principal Wilson as soon as possible to discuss our space needs and concerns. • Noelle will get in touch with Carrie to schedule this meeting. • Parents were asked to submit any questions for this upcoming meeting and to submit to Noelle via the notecards that were handed out or by email. Thank you to all parents in attendance! As always, HEDP appreciates your commitment and support.
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