May Council Meeting
BUSD Technical Room - 2020 Bonnar St.
It’s time for our final meeting of the year!
Council always aims to present you with engaging and interesting topics; the last thing we want is to waste your time away from your family on a weeknight. Once again, we have some very interesting topics planned for the evening. Don’t forget - members from your school community are welcome to attend - not just PTA leaders!
DYSLEXIA SIMULATION WORKSHOP: Parent volunteer Dini Chandra will be running a dyslexia simulation workshop using special equipment paid for with a grant from Peralta District PTA Council, written by Council Treasurer Mimi Pulich. Ever wonder what it feels like to try to read or write when you have dyslexia? Dini has been holding these workshops at schools around Berkeley to build awareness and improve teaching. They’d love to share them throughout the district, including at YOUR school - check it out, and spread the word! (Normally, a workshop takes 2 hours, so for Council we’ll have a condensed version.)
BSEP MEASURE: The School Board will be voting on the final draft of the next BSEP measure on May 18th. BSEP revenues pay for ⅓ of all of our teachers, and 20% of the total BUSD budget. I have served as a Policy and Oversight Rep for BSEP for the past two years to ensure that I had a place at the table when the new measure was written, and I can personally attest that it is a solid and well-written measure. We will be sharing the full draft of the measure with all of you in the next few days, as soon as it is available, as well as an “FAQ” sheet. Please take the time to read it, review it, and ask any questions you may have about it, so that you can comfortably share it with your members. We anticipate holding a vote to endorse the measure on May 23rd - please come to make sure we have a quorum!
In addition, there will be a BSEP campaign kick-off event on Sunday, June 5th at 3 p.m. at Frances Albrier Community Center in San Pablo Park, at 2800 Park Street in Southwest Berkeley. Mark your calendars - we hope you can join us there!
As usual, the meeting will take place in the technology classroom on the ground floor of BUSD administrative offices in room 126 at 2020 Bonar Street. Pizza will be served!
And as always, we will have a chance to introduce ourselves, and share what’s going on at your school site. We are here to collaborate and support each other, and we appreciate how much time and heart it takes to be a PTA leader.