Lea Express for Friday, March 22
IMPORTANT DATES
Friday, March 29 & Monday, April 8
PBIS Movie Trips for Grades 3-8 (March 29) and Grades K-2 (April 8)
April 3, 4, and 5
Report Card Conferences (Half Day Early Dismissals, 12:09 pm)
April 3
Academic Parent Teacher Teams (APTT) Meetings, Grades K/1/3, 5:00 – 6:15 pm
April 12
Half Day Early Dismissal, 12:09 pm
PSSA Pep Rally, 11:00 am – 12:00 pm
Spring Concert, 4:00 – 5:30 pm, Philadelphia Episcopal Cathedral (23 S. 38th St)
April 18, 19 and 22
Spring Recess: Schools Closed
SCHOOL EVENTS & ACTIVITIES
Academic Parent Teacher Teams (APTT)
Our final Academic Parent Teacher Team (APTT) meetings of the school year for Grades K, 1, and 3 will occur on Wednesday, April 3rd from 5:00 – 6:15 pm in your child’s classroom. Childcare will be provided, and we will serve snacks and refreshments during the APTT session.
We hope to see all of our kindergarten, first, and third grade families on April 3rd!
PBIS Field Trips
We will hold our third reward field trip for positive behavior. This PBIS trip will be a movie field trip during the school day on Friday, March 29th (Grades 3-8) and Monday, April 8th (Grades K-2 students). The cost for the field trip is 150 Lea bucks and there are only 100 spots available for each trip. Students should submit their Lea bucks to their homeroom teacher to reserve their spot no later than Wednesday, March 27th.
Testing
We are wrapping up our Benchmark testing for this quarter. Our students are phenomenal!
We have the following tests coming up. Please encourage your students daily!
- Naglieri Screening for Second Graders through May 24th
- PASA Testing for certain students through April 12th
- PSSA Testing for Students in 3rd through 8th grades:
- English Language Arts: Monday, April 15th through Wednesdays, April 18th
- Math: Monday, April 29th and Tuesday, April 30th
- Science (4th and 8th grades only): Wednesday, May 1st and Thursday, May 2nd
AFTER-SCHOOL PROGRAM INFORMATION
Lea After-School Program
Below are some reminders regarding the after-school program:
- The Lea After-School Program dismisses at 5:00 pm on Wednesdays for staff professional development. All after-school students must be picked up by no later than 5:00 pm on Wednesdays.
- The after-school program waiting list for Grades K-3 closed, and we will not be accepting any new application for the waiting list. Families on the waiting list will be contacted when space is available.
FAMI-LEA INFORMATION
School Advisory Council (SAC)
Our Lea SAC has had 5 new family member nominees and 1 community member come forward for the Spring 2019 SAC election. We will be announcing the new SAC members very soon in the Lea Express. We hope you feel welcome to attend our next SAC meeting on Wednesday, April 3rd from 4:30-6:00 pm in the Lea Library. Please feel free to bring your children, and snacks are provided.
Here is a summary from our March 6th SAC Meeting:
The Henry C. Lea Elementary School SAC met on Wednesday, March 6th to discuss the proposed school budget, potential reductions in school staff, ongoing facilities concerns, the state of transfers/kindergarten registration, and upcoming events. The biggest concern of this SAC meeting was the significant reduction in funding for the Lea school for this upcoming year. We have had great improvement in our test scores and the measures of school improvement, which means that we no longer have access to particular student intervention funds. In addition, concern was raised that our Title 1 funding might not be adequate given our student population. The SAC and Principal Savage will continue to work on making sure we have all the resources possible for our students next year.
The resulting budget allows for three K, three 1st, and three 2nd grade classes but only two 3rd-8th grade classrooms, which is a reduction from previous years. There is a concern that we do not want to loose teachers in the leveling process, as was a possibility this past year. Additionally, we looked at other places that the funding for our school has been shifted around, including a reduction in our climate staff. SAC discussed how we might request support from the University of Pennsylvania to help meet the difference in budget, or for Principal Savage to consider other strategies to keep the resources that our students need.
We also discussed the large number of Penn Alexander School kindergarteners (30) who did not get a spot in their school for next year. They were asked to let Lea know if they are attending Lea by March 15th, at which point Principal Savage will return to our very long waiting list and take students off that list to fill our proposed three Kindergarten classes for next year.
We also had a long discussion about the state of our facilities, especially the many leaks and problems with the L-wing, ongoing concerns with the cafeteria, and the need for a more centrally located main office. The SAC has drafted a letter for facilities to request that they address these concerns and we are waiting to hear what improvements are being proposed by the district.
Finally, our Lea SAC had 5 new family member nominees and one community member come forward for the SAC election of the Spring 2019 term. We will be announcing the new SAC members very soon in the Lea Express.
We hope you feel welcome to our next meeting on Wednesday, April 3rd from 4:30-6:30 pm in the Lea Library. Please feel free to bring children and yourselves, snacks are provided.
Upcoming SAC meeting dates: 4/3/19, 5/8/19
Home & School Association (HSA)
HSA meetings will be held on the third Wednesday of each month during the rest of the school year. The next HSA meeting is on Wednesday, April 10th at 3:30 pm in Room 106.
The HSA has a fundraiser planned on Monday, April 8th, from 4:00-8:00 pm at the Chipotle restaurant at 3925 Walnut Street. Bring the attached flyer with you OR tell the cashier that you’re supporting Lea Elementary School so that Lea can receive 33% of the sales between 4:00-8:00 pm!
The HSA is selling Lea swag as a fundraiser! We have “be-LEA-ve” t-shirts as well as Lea pop sockets and stickers! Ask an HSA officer or email us at leahomeandschool@gmail.com. Baseball T’s are $15, regular T’s are $10, and pop sockets are $3.
Upcoming HSA meeting dates:
4/10/19, 5/15/19
Updated SDP Volunteer Policy
The clearance requirement for chaperones attending trips was recently clarified by the Board of Education. In addition to there being clearance requirements for regular volunteers in your school building, all field trip and chaperone activities require Volunteer Paperwork to be on file in the school’s Main Office (see page 2 – bottom right corner – of the Volunteer Brochure linked below). The Family and Community Engagement Office provides the following resources to assist with following the correct process:
If you have additional questions or concerns regarding the volunteer clearance process, please reach out to the District’s Family and Community Engagement Office at volunteer@philasd.org or (215) 400-4180. You can also speak with Mr. Brown (antbrown001@gmail.com)or Mr. Rich (rjliuzzi@gse.upenn.edu). Please also note that all pending and future field trips will require accompanying chaperones to be in compliance with their clearances and required paperwork.
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