We hope this letter finds you and your families getting ready to enjoy your Midwinter Break!
It was a busy week for the PA leading up to the break, with a PA meeting on Tuesday, Feb 13, followed by Coffee With the Principal on Thursday, Feb 15.
Due to the inclement weather, we quickly pivoted to a full remote meeting on Tuesday. It was a packed business segment of the meeting, with several updates.
First, congratulations newly elected Spring Nominating Committee members Elaine Cipriano, Ellie Rabinowitz, Allison Rogovin, Jodi Solomon, and Lucy Yang. They will be taking nominations for Executive Board and SLT candidates in the coming weeks for our remote election on May 15, 2024. All positions on the Executive Board are open, and one SLT seat is open for current 9th-11th grade parents. Watch this space for more information coming soon!
We also received Annual Appeal updates from our VP of Fundraising, Yan Yu. Please see the post below for exciting news about our progress toward our goal.
Then, we heard from Gala Chair Gabrielle Koelbel. Tickets for the Rock-N-Raise Spring Gala on April 11, 2024 are on sale as of last Wednesday. Don’t delay! Our 50 Early Bird tickets are already sold out, but there are still regular-price and VIP packages available. Buy your tickets here for this epic celebration! Have a kid looking at summer camp? Don’t miss our upcoming online Camp Auction, beginning this Wednesday, Feb 21. Links will be in this Wednesday’s Gala newsletter.
We were delighted to present not one, but two main events. See pictures below! In the main meeting room, parents and guardians had the opportunity to learn about the course selection process via an encore presentation led by Assistant Principals Andrew Nassar and Allison Davis. After the presentation, which 9th and 10th grade students are getting in advisory, Mr. Nasser and Dr. Davis answered questions and helped parents become familiar with the process. To access the presentation slides, please see the email sent out by Parent Coordinator Rebecca Barreras on Feb 15.
In a breakout room, parents of older students were treated to a panel lead by former PA Co-President and Bronx Science alum, Cliff Stanton ‘81, featuring former parents Karen Bischoff-Babich, Ken Ho, Jerome Kramer, Jayesh Patel, and Jean Lee Yamner on What I Wish I Knew Before My Kid Went To College. The panel offered sage advice and set many minds at ease about letting our children develop their independence and learning to let them find their way.
Coffee With The Principal Presentation
The silver lining of the snow was that so many of you were able to make the meeting and enjoy the presentations. We were sorry to not be able to welcome you in-person, as that in-person element is utterly essential to our sustainability as an organization. But we do understand the access challenges that many of you face.
As grateful as we are to rock-steady tech manager Bryan Liff, we cannot run either remote or hybrid meetings with only one tech officer. In order to offer a hybrid option or to maintain our ability to hold remote elections, we MUST build our tech team to at least 4 members. The tech team must work in-person at Bronx Science to run a hybrid option, but if we can fully build out this team, then members will only need to be in person around 4 times per year. If you are interested in joining our tech team, we are working to hold a training session after break. Please email president@bxsciencepa.org to be part of making our PA both sustainable and accessible.
On Thursday, we were pleased to serve refreshments at the Coffee With the Principal presentation, featuring Dr. Allison Davis with information about the Bronx Science research program. Thank you to Lilach Bar for the advance work and to Karah Rempe for the day-of work of hosting the event. We are continuing to build our hospitality team and are now looking for a core group of members to work with our chairs on manning events.
Enjoy your break. We will be taking next week off and look forward to welcoming you back at the end of the month.
Sincerely,
Elizabeth Polkovitz, Christine Kattan, and Jennifer Allen-Cheng
PA Presidents
president@bxsciencepa.org
