Searching for seeds during STEM Day
Dear PS 107 Families,
I’m writing to you having just left STEM Day, another fantastic community event that we are so grateful to have been able to bring back this year. I cannot thank parent Reem Berro enough for her incredible event planning skills, bringing together such a wonderful group of organizations, as well as 107 and PSACC staff members, to share with our community the magic of science, technology, engineering, and math. Thank you Reem and thank you to the countless parent volunteers who made STEM Day such a huge success!
I am also writing to you following yet another tragic mass shooting at a school, this time at the Covenant School in Nashville, TN. These horrific events have become far too common in the United States, and after each one, we wonder and worry about our children’s safety in school. Dr Harold Koplewicz, the founding President and Medical Director of the Child Mind Institute and a strong advocate for children’s mental health, wrote in a letter this week, “all of our children are in a house with a gun, and that house is called America.”
Unfortunately, Dr Koplewicz’s words are not hyperbole: Gun violence is now the leading cause of death for children and teens in the United States. While school shootings are the most visible reminders of this, they account for only a fraction of firearm-related deaths. Still, the regular exposure to incidents of gun violence, or even the possibility of gun violence, is affecting all of our mental health. For tips on talking to children about school shootings, please take a look at these resources from the Child Mind Institute.
At PS 107, the safety of your children is our highest priority. We have in place a Building Response Team (BRT) who are trained to use the NYC Department of Education’s General Response Protocols for emergencies. We conduct regular drills for evacuations (fire drills), as well as soft lockdown drills. We recently conducted a soft lockdown drill and will conduct one more before the school year ends. These lockdown drills are presented in developmentally-appropriate ways and children are told that, similar to fire drills, which we practice in the unlikely event of a fire, we have lockdown drills in the unlikely event that a person gets into our building who shouldn’t be there. It provides time for our safety agent and BRT to sweep the building and ensure everyone’s safety.
Many parents have asked why the main doors to our school building are unlocked. This is the current NYC DOE policy. We are not permitted to lock the main doors of our school building unless we are in a lockdown or a shelter-in-place. However, following the shooting in Uvalde, TX last year, the NYC DOE began investigating the possibility of locking school doors and installing intercom/buzzer entry systems. In February, the Panel for Education Policy, the NYC DOE’s governing body, approved a $43 million contract with Symbrant Technologies, Inc, that will provide schools with video cameras and buzzers monitored by school safety agents. While the timeline for installation remains unclear, we feel that this is a step in the right direction.
Following the spring break, we will hold a Town Hall for parents that will detail our safety protocols at PS 107. Please keep an eye out for a date and time for this meeting. We also strongly encourage parents to get involved in advocating for common sense gun reforms and recommend donating to and organizing with Everytown for Gun Safety and Sandy Hook Promise. We cannot allow politicians’ inaction to dull us, for it is only sustained public pressure that will lead to change.
Spring Break starts this week on Thursday, 4/6, and we are hoping to once again avoid the dip in attendance that we often see in the days prior to (and following) a school break. We will have full days of instruction this Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, and encourage you to send your children to school. We understand that families have travel plans and suggest that, if you are heading out of town before the end of the school day, that you send children to school for a partial day and pick them up early. As a reminder, our after-school program will be closing early (at 5 pm) on Wednesday, April 5th, so that staff members can attend the first Passover seder.
Please note that this week, we will also be sending home 6 COVID tests per student — this includes two tests per student to be used before returning to school on Monday, April 17th, along with each student’s regular four-tests-per month allocation. These tests can be used by anyone in your family.
I hope that you and your children have a relaxing and restorative spring break. Happy Passover and Happy Easter to our families who celebrate! These holidays mark the beginning of spring, the season of renewal and rebirth. Though we face many challenges as a society, being part of the wonderful PS 107 community brings us comfort, connection, and joy. I’m looking forward to sharing this season of new beginnings with all of you.
Warmly,
Ms Joanna
PS Our Science program needs some basic supplies! Can you help? Check out Ms Abby’s Amazon wishlist.