MECA HS PTA General Meeting May 15th, 2024

Virtual meeting (zoom)

Attendees: Josh Ehrlich (PTA President), Shelby Banks (PTA Treasurer), Sarah Kaplan (Principal), Vivian Cruz (Parent Coordinator), Julia Tseng (Parent), Monica Soto (PTA Secretary),Marjory Campo (Parent), Janine Jackson (Parent), Joelle Washington (Parent), Shanon Andrew, Camille Danquah (Parent), Carmen Anderson (Parent), Tamika (Parent).

The meeting started with quorum of 11 parents.

PTA President Josh Ehrlich chairing the meeting indicating tonight’s meeting main business was the election of executive board members.

Monica Soto PTA secretary scribing the meeting notes.

1.      Principal’s Report: This item was moved to the first item of business to allow Ms. Kaplan to provide her report before leaving the meeting. She wanted to inform the parents about two incidents that happened at school today that caused a class lockdown in the school. Ms. Kaplan explained the two instances, one happened on the 3rd floor and the other one outside of the building.

2.      Approval of March and April Meeting minutes: Because there was no quorum during the last meeting, Josh led the motion to approve meeting minutes for both months. Josh shared the link to the PTA site where parents can review the meeting minutes at mecaHSpta.org. Josh went over the minutes while presenting the screen. The meeting minutes for March and April were approved by members without opposition.

3.      President’s report

Josh did not have a report to present but expressed a plea to parents attending the meeting tonight, specially those who are parents to not-seniors, to nominate themselves to any position or co-position of the Executive Board.

4.      Treasurer’s Report: Shelby informed that the PTA submitted our filling requirements with the IRS (Internal Revenue Services). Shelby is also working on the financial statements for the PTA and a financial report will be presented in the next month PTA meeting.

5.      PTA Executive Board Election: Josh provided background about the election of PTA’s executive boards in NYC schools. Josh added that we are mandated to have a minimum of three executive board members.

Nominations: At this point of meeting, Josh informed parents attending that we are taking nominations and adding it to the nominations received prior to the meeting. Josh explained that the most immediate position to fill is the PTA treasurer since Shelby, our current treasurer, is a parent of a Senior graduating this year.

 The following parents were nominated:

Name Position

Tamika Chapman PTA Activities Chair

Camille Danquah Co-Treasurer

Joelle Washington Co-Treasurer

Camille then withdrew her nomination to allow Joelle to hold treasurer position by herself.

Shelby also nominated the current president and secretary of the PTA, Josh and Monica, for their current board position.

PTA Treasurer: Shelby then provided an overview of the PTA Treasurer roles and responsibilities in detail. The PTA Treasurer is responsible for providing monthly accounting and budgetary information to all PTA members. Shelby also explained some of the regular tasks for a Treasurer and also the interaction with the other executive board members. Lastly Shelby also informed the treasurer is responsible for End of the Year Financial reporting for the DOE with collaboration with our MECA Parent Coordinator.

PTA President: Josh spoke about this role and responsibilities. Josh also added that the PTA president is a default member of the MECA SLT (School Leadership Team). The PTA president also sits on District PTA Presidents monthly meetings. Currently, Josh is the owner/main editor of the PTA Website and is the one that maintains and update the site.

PTA Secretary: Monica also provided an overview of the role of secretary which mostly records the meeting minutes and tracks action items from the executive board to follow-up.

Elections: At this point, Josh informed that we had closed nominations and confirmed the names of those nominated and the positions as follows: 

Name Position

Josh Ehrlich President

Joelle Washington Treasurer

Monica Soto Secretary

Tamika Chapman PTA Activities Chair

Josh then made a motion to elect the four candidates to their nominated  executive positions. The motion passed with 10 parents voting and no opposition.

Josh congratulated the newly elected board members.

6.      Old business:

No new items.

7.      New Business:

The meeting adjourned without any more questions.

Please reach out via email to ptainfo@mecahspta.org