Notes from Parent Liaison Meeting with AU 1/17 Long and probably full of typos!
Sun, Jan 21 11:12am

Services:

 

A individual list of what services each child received for each family will be available soon to help everyone understand what was provided.

 

Current status of finding providers

-It is a work in progress. Recommendations are still being welcomed.

-Options discovered are being put into a spread sheet for good comparison.

-Budget new is good- every new possible option is less expensive than the old one! This means more services or other benefits will happen.

 

Communication with Providers

Plan for parent communication with providers might be a physical communication notebook, an online communication notebook, or direct email or phone access. Providers will choose which of these they prefer upon contract being signed. There absolutely will be a way to have direct communication with providers.

 

AU feels they went into the contract with Speak Learn and Play with a lot of collegial trust and good faith. They have reflected that they cannot do that again. Much more will be spelled out and in writing. AU feels this has been a big learning experience for them. They have spent a lot of time reflecting on how to improve their end of communication- they can’t really change other people’s. Example- the end of Speech services- AU received essentially less that 24 hours notice that the service provider would not return. There is no way they can communicate that any better to parents

 

Plans for next year?

-If the new providers prove to be excellent they will be the providers for next year. Continuity is good. If they are not excellent, providers for next year will be secured as soon as it is clear the current providers aren’t working out.

-We must have our providers be contracted service providers from a legal standpoint.

 

Process for following up on Service providers info

Emily will be able to start doing this- either a weekly or bi-weekly follow-up on the ongoing service provider hunt.

 

 

 

Communication:

 

Email and Phone call levels to AU are creeping back up. Again, please prioritize, send your communication in one format, figure out who you need to communicate with, and recognize that saying things like please and thank you really help.

 

Process for adding new students.

AU says the idea of checking in with parents when a new student was coming in was directly from the meeting in June of last year when parents requested that type of contact. It was suggested that this might be addressed in the parent handbook to reduce confusion. The newest student came in as a half time student who brings his own support person whenever he is in the classroom.             

 

What is the cap?

There could be one more Unicorn brought in but there are no plans for that right now.

 

 

Sharing educational materials used during the school day

-This is mostly happening for Unicons. Brendan acknowledges that he doesn’t have time in his schedule to do this but the hope is that other staff may be able to start helping with this.

-This will be much easier once we have the DOE charter as we will be able to get Google Classroom.

 

Instituting regular meetings for info dissemination.

-Yes! This year is a possibility. Next year definitely.

-Questions to figure out- how to split groups- by age? By Educational concerns Vs. Social/emotional? Learning Style? Parents should speak up on what they want.

-Monthly seems good. Except we would skip P/T conference months.

-Directly after school works best for AU- but there would be no childcare. Evening can be considered but there would be no childcare.

 

 

Fundraising:

 

-Emily is checking on Amazon Smile sign up.

-501(3c) is something Brendan will personally if there is a concrete plan in place and it is proven that the money will be well spent.

-Making a Go Fund Me page -Julia is moving forward with this. Katerina is providing video, Julia (or someone else brilliant) will write a voice over script, Can someone edit together the video? (a parent)

 

Morning Arrival and Dismissal Update:

 

Arrival

-You cannot drop off your child anywhere in the building until 8:55.

 

Dismissal:

-Last chance to get this right. Pick-up your child on time. Usually there is a child waiting for over 15 minutes and sometimes as long as an hour and a half three to five times a week. AU will implement a late pick-up payment plan starting after February break as follows

-At 3:10 we will move into a pay for caregiving situation.

-If you arrive anytime between 3:10 and 3:40 you will be charged $20. If you arrive between 3:40-4:10 you will be charged $40.

-We all know NYC transportation can be unpredictable so there will be one freebie per month if your train is delayed or there is terrible traffic. -THIS DOES NOT MEAN YOU GET FREE CHILDCARE ONCE PER MONTH! IF PATTERNS EMERGE THIS WILL BE ADDRESSED.

 

 

Finances:

 

-The pay schedule and structure plans for next year will be coming out ASAP so families will feel informed in time to sign contracts in late February.

-Families who are looking into other schooling options for next year should know that now is the time to do that, not in April as most schools are conducting their admissions process now.

-Transparency with AU about plans for next year is welcomed and encouraged. They will be supportive about talking with staff from prospective schools and want to be best informed so that they can offer contracts to new families in March. There are many new families interested in next year.

 

 

Upcoming Events:

 

-Parent/Teacher Conferences were a success for all! AU felt everyone got the same amount of time and there were no parent complaints that I was aware of.

 

-March 14th Parent/Teacher Conferences

-Same sign up procedure, same time slots will be available/

-We will be sending out a parent survey to better have each family cover their biggest concerns. Be prepared to say; same as last time, focus on social-emotional, focus on academic, subject of greatest concern.

 

 

Recruitment:

 

-Open Houses will be scheduled soon- there are many families interested. We can invite prospective families and talk up the school.

-Testimonials would be very helpful. I will be sending out individual requests for them soon.