Raptor Report

Okay, so that title is a little misleading. There’s not much of meeting to recap. We had a few updates on upcoming Master Classes, tonight’s event from the Raising Healthy Raptor committee (Managing Difficult Feelings, 6:15pm at Yarborough Library) and a plea for every one to buy tickets to the 3/8 All Grades Fiesta Happy Hour (https://pflasa.org/store/fiesta/). We ended with a QR code to our 1-question survey about why people do (or do not) attend PFLASA meetings. That information is crucial to our planning for next year. You can find it in a separate Raptor post from our VP Anna Land.

Our short meeting let PTSA get some crucial business done. Most importantly, it gave us time to hear from Trustee Lynn Boswell about the dramatic and severe budget cuts that AISD must make to stay solvent. At the moment everything is on the table including magnet transportation, 7 out of 8,* school closures (no concrete plans), cuts to programming, and larger class sizes. These cuts will hurt because they will impact student learning. Saying no to all these proposals is not possible. This is a time that calls for hard decisions. I encourage everyone to figure out what is the top priority and advocate for that. A few things to know: 1) The higher tax rate resulting from the election does not change the need for cuts; 2) The deficit is larger than anticipated because home values are projected to go down; and 3) no one currently knows if the Texas legislature is going to come in with more money (there are lots of bills being introduced on a variety of school and school funding issues but many will not advance further). And here’s where I get just a little bit political, because if your student is at LASA you are obliged to be invested in public school funding—this is an excellent time to advocate for public school funding with the Legislature, especially if you have friends or family in other parts of Texas. Our incredible PTSA will be more than happy to help you figure out how to advocate if you have questions.

Finally, there was quite a lot of talk about Rally Day (which was Monday) from PTSA, Trustee Boswell and Principal Crescenzi. In case you do not know, Rally Day is the day that PTSA’s from all over Texas come to the Capitol to advocate for public education. LASA was able to take two buses of students to participate if they underwent the proper training and some students were able to have meetings with a Representative. This is one of those glimpses into the best of LASA: the incredible kids who attend here, the learning opportunities available, the passion of our staff and teachers, and the dedication of our volunteers. Thank you to all who participated in making this event happen.

Please advocate now,
Ellen Stewart-Klein
PFLASA President

* 7/8 refers to teachers having to teach 7 classes of the 8 periods. This means middle and high school teachers have a planning period only every other day. There is also a discussion about going to 6/7 which decreases the availability of 8 classes to 7.

At the last PFLASA meeting, we shared a link to a one-question survey that asked, “What the top 2-3 reasons you attend PFLASA meetings?” Responses we have collected so far have begun to give us even more information about how PFLASA meetings can best serve our members.

If you haven’t had a chance to fill it out yet, there’s still time! The survey remains open and we need your input. The survey link is: https://forms.gle/nUMkPtDcYWHsjn6g9

By the way, all parents and legal guardians of current students along with teachers and administrators of the school are welcome to participate in PFLASA. We do not have a membership application or fee. PFLASA generally meets twice a month during the school year but meeting attendance is not required. We are a resource to LASA teachers, parents, staff and students and there are lots of ways to participate. We need your voice!