10.7.21 CSA General Meeting Minutes

• Dr. Padberg Updates 
  • COVID restrictions: The School District has recently eased some COVID restrictions. As a result, parents will be allowed to attend the Mile Run, which will be October 13th. Details will be sent out later today (10/7). 
  • Mile Run: Will be October 13th. Students will walk to the high school owing to bus driver shortages. If parents attend, they will need to park on the blacktop at Conway and walk as well. 

• Co-President Updates (Cristina Tash and Pamela Audi) 
  • Halloween Parties: The CSA is sponsoring the parties this year (it has been organized by room parents in the past). Each class will receive a craft and a snack. CSA is working with school nurse Leah Schonert to settle on an allergy-safe snack. Crafts will be:

K: candy corn magnet craft

1st and 2nd: Ghoul bookmark

3rd and 4th: bracelet-making kits

• Rooms can identify which 1-hour window they would like to use for the party since it is an early-dismissal day. 
• Students are encouraged to wear their costumes to school and for the duration of the day to avoid congregating in the bathroom. No Halloween masks or costumes that are too scary for school. 
• Doughnuts with Dad Update (Cristina Tash and Sarah Sordo): Will be held on the Conway playground Nov. 13th from 9:30 to 10:30am. Doughnuts will be provided and families are encouraged to bring toiletries for donation to St. Patrick’s center. Specific toiletries will be designated by last name. Flyer with more details to go out soon. 
• Boxtops (Pamela Audi): Boxtops recently changed their process, shifting from needing to clip out the individual labels to just scanning your grocery store receipts. Money is automatically sent to Conway once you’ve registered. Stephanie to help room parents communicate what a valuable fundraising opportunity this is for Conway; it has the ability to raise thousands of dollars. Stephanie also posting to social media. Rachel to include in next newsletter.
• Calendar of Events (Cristina Tash): MTK will now include a calendar of events on its homepage

• Social Committee Updates (Jen Graves)
  • The committee is working to find a venue for a parents’ night out. Currently they’ve reached out to Lester’s, the Tropicana, Four Hands Brewery, Brio’s, and Bricktops. They are aiming to hold the event before the first week of November. 

•  Treasurer Updates (Maru Sanchez)
  • Currently, only 80 families have paid the suggested annual CSA dues. In the past we’ve had an average of 150. Trying to get the word out through our newsletter and flyers at the Pumpkin Patch event.

• Pumpkin Patch Event (Stephanie Margolis and Maru Sanchez)
  • Stephanie and Maru to look into creating a sign-up/opt-in for sharing parents’ information with room parents
  • Sign in will be by grade with color-coded name tags for each grade.
  • Students are encouraged to wear spirit wear or school colors.
  • New spirit wear items will be for sale.
  • Make a point to introduce yourself!

• Trunk or Treat (Rachel Holtzman) 
  • Currently pinning down a location. Temple Israel’s parking lot is available October 24th in the late-afternoon. Asking whether LMS will allow us to use their parking lot. Preferable because less paperwork.
  • Currently looking for volunteers to help with this event. Please email ladueconwaycsa@gmail.com

• Freddy’s Fundraiser (Hillary Dutcher)
  • Flyer as reminder, posts to Social (including LCC)

• Teacher Appreciation (Stephanie Margolis)
  • Committee plans to do something every month. October was cookies and coffee. Stephanie to promote on social media. 

• Parent District Council Updates (Leah Stutz)
• Welcome Geoff Macy to the staff, new CFO, 24 years of experience in education
• Standardized Testing: District is using data from the standardized testing and using the Map data to identify gaps. Kids are doing well! New anxieties due to Covid are being taken into consideration with social and emotional support needs being added.  MAP testing will not be done this fall.  We are using other tests to identify the gaps but so far there is nothing greatly disturbing.  Results from the MAP data from 2020 school year will being sent to families in October.
• Bus Updates: Concerns over the bus routes and Safe Stop App malfunctions were discussed. Our district uses an outside company for bus services which is different than the way typical schools operate and things got off on the wrong foot this year. An error was made in the bus routing department when a change was made the night before. Drivers received new routes that were made utilizing old data.  Insert trickle down affect and there was a lot of mess ups in the transportation department.  In addition there is a bus driver shortage nationwide affecting us plus extreme rain.  The district is hiring drivers as quickly as possible by offering perks to finding and hiring more.  Compared to other districts we are doing great! Geoff addressed the Safe Stop app not working was also due to the company needing new data.  The app was to be fixed ASAP with new communications due to go out as of meeting date (September 2) In a few weeks when the data based on this school year is available bus routes might be changed to make them more affective aka kids spending less time sitting on buses. They need this real data of who is actually riding the bus. If anyone wants to provide insight on their experience with their child the email is input@ladueschool.net  Emails will be addressed within 3-5 days but if there is an issue needing immediate help its best to call Geoff directly. 
• COVID Updates: We now know there is not a lot of in-school transmission for the virus, so rules are changing; we will see fewer quarantines.  Schools now have the option to deal with a positive case with either a modified schedule for individuals or the entire class.  The district will use a lot of contract tracing and treat each case on an individual basis.  Every decision is made while focusing on how to keep the kids in school.  A few scenarios were thrown out:
  • If an entire class is quarantined class will be live streamed.
  • If it is the teacher who is sick a possibility is a class quarantine with assignments and no live stream in the case of a sub shortage.
  • If there is a partial quarantine the teacher will work with the individual families affected to provide assignments and the absences will not count if the work is completed.  Live streams to quarantined classmates will not be used as they were deemed too disruptive.

• Parents will be informed of each positive case as needed and directed to a new web site for further information. This web site will have many links on the school’s plans for all scenarios regarding covid quarantines. 
• About 85% of the staff is vaccinated. It is difficult to get an accurate count on student vaccinations because it is not mandatory. 
• The Medical Task Force says younger students will be offered vaccines by end of November. In the meantime, clinics for 12 and up keep rolling. Next one offered is September 17^th.
•  Rumor of going virtual was addressed; no plans for this until the Health Department shuts us down!
•  What Parent Associations are allowed to do?
•  The district is constantly watching numbers and mitigating risk.  Parents need to work directly with their school principals for guidance regarding organizing events. The district priority is keeping kids in school.
• Prop L Updates: Safe room gymnasium.  We are working with the city because of our location on a flood plane and the issues that follow. Structural changes pending are energy efficient windows. There are a lot of discussions going on behind the scenes right now regarding use of old gym space. 
• District-wide New Strategic Planning Process looking for parent input: District is looking at what we want Ladue graduates to encompass.  The more the community participates the better more well rounded information we will have.  Stay tuned!
•  Community Book Club starting November 18 launching on E-Connect.
•  Concerns over phones being answered addressed.  Issues with last-minute changes to end of day transportation is an issue when phones go unanswered at the end of the day.