We hope you had a relaxing week off. A few important things happened during the break. On Wednesday, February 19, the DOE and WXY released the new timeline for the D28 diversity process as well as the names of the working group members. For more information, please see the letters below from the working group and DOE.
https://d28diversityplan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/200218_D28DiversityPlanProcess_WorkingGroupLetter.pdf
https://d28diversityplan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/200219_DOE_D28ProcessLetter_FINAL.pdf
Simone would like to express her sincere appreciation to the AEA community for keeping her name confidential (until the list was made public) and for supporting her in every possible way!
The very same night, Mayor DeBlasio and Councilwoman Koslowitz held a townhall meeting in Forest Hills where topics such as bike lanes, jails, homeless shelters as well as the D28 diversity plans were addressed. For full coverage, please watch: https://youtu.be/5le6DCaxiG8
Additional news article for your information (covering the D28 diversity plan and townhall meeting):
· https://foresthillspost.com/facing-backlash-school-district-28-integration-plan-extended-6-months
· https://chalkbeat.org/posts/ny/2020/02/19/facing-backlash-queens-middle-school-integration-plans-are-tweaked/
· https://www.qchron.com/editions/queenswide/doe-reveals-names-on-diversity-panel/article_7909e78e-f910-5076-8bf9-c54f5eb308ac.html
· https://patch.com/new-york/foresthills/timeline-district-28-diversity-plan-extended-end-year
· https://www.wsj.com/articles/de-blasio-delays-plan-to-diversify-some-queens-schools-11582235999
Thank you to all the AEA families who came out on Tuesday night to eat dinner at Panera Bread. It was lovely to bump into you and have dinner together! We believe it was a successful fundraiser.
We also wanted to shout out a big Thank You to our AEA families who raised large amounts of money in the Double Good Popcorn Fundraiser. It looks like we raised about $3700!!!
During the February PTA meeting, we formed two committees: the nomination committee and the bylaws committee. Please send your PTA nominations as well as suggestions for amendments to our PTA bylaws to 303pta@gmail.com. We will forward it to the respective committee members.
We also agreed to form a middle school committee. We encourage parents to volunteer on this committee so we can streamline and disseminate all information about middle schools. A flyer will be sent home in your child’s backpack soon.
Our Miss Chocolate Sale is going on until March 9. Feel free to share the catalogue with family, friends and co-workers. Please reach out to us if you need an additional order form.
Pre-K applications opened Wednesday, February 5 and will end Monday, March 16. If you have an older child at AEA, you must add his/her student ID number to your application to make sure your application gets sibling priority. https://www.myschools.nyc/en/
Wishing all our families a great week!
The PTA of AEA
This week’s events:
Wednesday, February 26: Pre-K Non-Attendance Day. NO SCHOOL FOR PRE-K STUDENTS.
Looking ahead:
Thursday, March 5: Early Dismissal for all students at 11:30 am (pre-k: 11:20 am).
Parent/Teacher Conference Day and PTA Bake Sale. The sign up for donating baked goods and table volunteering is up. Please sign up, if you can. https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20F0B4BA4AA23AA8-bake1
Monday, March 9: Deadline for Miss Chocolate.
Monday, March 16: Pre-K application ends.
Wednesday, March 18: D28 Parent Workshop at PS 303 (organized by Ms. Jainnie)
Saturday, March 28: Archery Parents Night Out