MECA HS PTA General Meeting September 18th, 2024

Virtual meeting (zoom)

Attendees: Josh Ehrlich (PTA President), Patty Edwards (Assistant Principal), Vivian Cruz (Parent Coordinator), Monica Soto (PTA Secretary), Ms Ingram (9th grade teacher), Tamika Chapman (PTA Activities) and 21 other parents/caregivers (list available upon request).

The josh started the meeting after confirming a quorum of PTA executive board members and parents.

Monica Soto PTA secretary scribed the following meeting notes.

1.      Approval of June Meeting minutes: Josh shared the zoom screen to show the PTA website and navigated to site where to find all the PTA general meetings minutes and opened the June meeting minutes. Josh scrolled and read thru the main items from the June meeting notes and mentioned it was a short meeting. Josh motioned to approve the June meeting minutes, after a member seconded the motion. Members voted and approved the June minutes without opposition.  

2.      Action item- Change of PTA General Meeting Dates: Josh reviewed the scheduled PTA general meeting are the 3rd Wednesday of each month until June. Josh shared that due to holidays and other event, 3 of those months are conflicting with holidays, and school breaks. Josh proposed and set a motion to change the 3 dates with conflicts as one vote as follows:

From - To

November 20th, 2024 - November 21st, 2024

February 19, 2025 - February 26th, 2025

April 16th, 2025 - April 23rd, 2025

         The changes were approved by members without opposition.

3.      Principal’s Report: Ms. Edwards represented Ms Kaplan who could not attend the virtual meeting. The following items were part of the report:

a.      Today public announcements of recognition of Borough of Manhattan Community College ranked # 1 Community College in New York State and # 20 in the states. Ms Edwards reflected on the 60 Associate Degrees (2-year cert) and 5 Certificate programs BMCC offers which include the pathways our MECA students take.

b.      Update about the new cellphone policy and the positive reviews from students and staff. The goal of the new policy is to improve classroom instructions and communication with students.

c.       Ms Kaplan is asking for parents to bring questions about Hudson River Lab initiative MS Chapman brought up to her. Ms Chapman explained that the Lab is a place kids can learn about science, environment while exploring technology.

d.      Ms Kaplan is looking to plan our own MECA college fare in coordination with Ms. Ciara Diaz, our College Coordinator.  Tamika suggested that Ms. Diaz starts working on Bragg sheet earlier than Senior year and suggested to share samples of the Bragg Sheet showing other students’s write up that might inspire them.

e.      Student Safety Plan: Ms Kaplan received an idea for a plan for student’s mental health. It is a proposal by Ms Chapman to teach students more about where to seek help and what to do if they are having a crisis and who to reach out.

Ms Chapman added that she can inquired with Riverstate Park as a place MECA can host a College Fair.

4.      President’s report

Josh shared the PTA website MECAHSpta.org and provided a tour of the website. Josh shared where and showed parents where to find resources. Among those resources are:

·         links to MECA school,

·         form to request recording of prior meetings,

·         Recording of Parent workshops

5.      Treasurer’s Report: Joelle is the new PTA Treasurer but she could not join us today.  She was reporting a current balance of PTA bank account is $2,334.

6.      Old business:

Nothing to report.

7.      New Business: no new items

The meeting adjourned without any more questions.

Please reach out via email to ptainfo@mecahspta.org