Dear Parents & Guardians:
Ramadan Mubarak and a Happy Bengali New Year to all in our community who observe those holidays!
Spring has arrived and while we cannot let our guard down, now seems like an appropriate time to at least start thinking about life after the pandemic. As our new President has said, “to heal, we must remember.” In that spirit, we want to encourage the school community to think about how our experiences over the last year have affected us, for both better and worse. Our goal is to attain a better understanding of how our community was impacted by the events of the past year and to help inform how, as a school community, we may want to document and memorialize this remarkable period. We also hope to gain insight about how the future may unfold for Bronx Science.
Toward those ends, we are attaching a brief survey here which asks you to share some of those thoughts and experiences with us. We understand that some of the questions and your answers (should you choose to respond), may stir some emotions. If that’s not something you feel prepared to handle at this time, we completely understand. However, as the light at the end of the tunnel starts to shine brighter, we believe it’s important for us to more fully comprehend the impact of the year on our community.
On a more immediately pressing note, our forum at this past Wednesday’s PA meeting, Navigating Family Conversations Centered on Current Events, moderated by Assistant Principal Andrew Nasser and former School Counselor Vivien Ngai, was productive, albeit occasionally heart-wrenching. It was an opportunity for many of our parents to share their concerns, fears and hopes regarding issues of race, safety and bias, particularly as those relate to the recent experiences of the Asian community in NYC and around the country. You can view it in entirety here. Thank you to executive board members Ken Ho and Kaitlin Pan for their key contributions to making the evening a success.
Our next PA meeting will be held on Tuesday, May 11th. At this meeting we will be holding elections for Executive Board and School Leadership Team positions (see the list of nominees below). We encourage all parents to participate.
Finally, at the excellent suggestion of parent Elizabeth Sak, we would like to encourage all parents to check out the Facebook group Helping NYC Get Vaccinated. New York State just opened vaccination eligibility to all New Yorkers 16 years and older. The sooner we all get vaccinated, the sooner things will truly improve.
Stay safe Bronx Science,
Jerome Kramer and Cliff Stanton
PA Co-Presidents, president@bxsciencepa.org
