Come chat! Come listen!

Community Convo - 1st

Hello HTMS families!

The first week of the 2020-21 school year is complete! “Whew!” But, we have got a lot of work to do to ensure all families are supported. Please join us for a PTSA Community Convo with the HTMS community, teachers and community partners! These meetings are virtual and will be made available to families who cannot join.

Thursday, Sept. 10th at 10 am and at 6 pm through Zoom (Link below).

Both meetings will provide space for families, teachers and partners to talk about everything Harriet Tubman. The goal of these meetings are to listen to everybody connected to HTMS and identify what is working and what isn't working. Two times are offered to help support families available in the morning and those in the evening.

These meetings (morning and evening) will happen on the Thursday before the week of the “Hard Start” and the PTSA would like to hear the views of the community to find ways we can work together. We will talk about what is working so far and what isn’t working. We are in the period of the “SOFT START” and this time is meant to see how we as a school can provide the best support possible as we move forward with Distance Learning into the rest of the year.

We will leave these meetings with some things we can try, a chance to hear what others are experiencing, a greater network to connect with for support in the “HARD START” and you will be more informed to what’s going on at HTMS. Additionally we will create a list of appreciations and concerns that the PTSA will submit to the administrative team to help support their need in hearing what the community wants and assisting the school to find ways to wake things work.

We will also have various representatives from the school, including teachers, counselors and community partners at this meeting to speak about programs, support systems and speak about programs and things going on in the school.

We will talk about, but not limited to:

• Soft Start (Pro's and Con's)

• Distance Learning, How is it working?

• Devices, internet connectivity

• Communications between teachers and students, school and families

• Fall curriculum, lesson plans, soft start material vs hard start material

• PPS Food program

• Attendance and other structures

• After school programs, in school support

• Community partners - SEI, Maurice Lucas Foundation and The Coalition of Black Men

• School electives and programs such as Color Guard, Black Student Union, Dance etc..

• Virtual mentoring / Tutoring

• What can we expect from the hard start / How will things change

• School Counseling

• Multi-Lingual family support

• School Swag - Sweaters etc...

• Fun Fridays / Exciting opportunities for school engagement

• And anything else we want to talk about. It's the community's time! Feel free to let me know if there are other subjects to cover.

Additionally we will give more information about becoming involved with the PTSA, PTSA election in October, begin the groundwork for parent committees, /grade level committees /affinity groups and groups that work on projects (Not long term commitment), fundraisers and addressing unresolved projects from last year such as our Yearbook from last year that needs to be completed this year and our Family Care Package program which can still reach out to families.

The morning meeting is 10a -12p and the evening meeting is 6p-8p but may end sooner or end later dependent on community need.

Both meetings will be recorded and posted on the Harriet Tubman PTSA YouTube channel.

Our last meeting with Mr. Mair is already online!

Please join us and let’s work together! :)