Raptor Report

It’s time for one of the teachers’ favorite events! Every year before Thanksgiving, PFLASA collects pies and thank you notes to give to teachers and staff (including the afternoon bus drivers, the janitorial staff and admin). Everyone gets a pie! But to pull this off we need a lot of pies and volunteers. If you can, please donate pies or sign up to help.

Our first topic was the Project Graduation Auction which by now has ended. Perhaps you were among the lucky bidders? It was a great effort by the Class of 2025 and a preview of the work ahead for the other classes. We also covered our Giving Thanks Pie event and signups, which gets its own post here in the Raptor. Please read and donate, and if you can’t donate a pie, kindly write a note of appreciation. Those notes mean a lot to teachers.

Our Great Gatherings Fundraiser announced two events coming up soon. An All-Class Fiesta on December 12th and Class of 2025 Craft Beer Showcase on January 11th. Thanks to the hosts and the attendees for supporting our seniors. We also had an update from Grants, the Raising Healthy Raptors chair, and PTSA. I have plans for a post from Grants as an end-of-semester summary of all the things we’ve been able to do with your donated dollars!

After we adjourned, we had an update from Principal Crescenzi. These are always interesting, but this one talked about AP Research and their first semester project into the history of Johnston High School. For those of you who don’t know, our building opened as Johnston High School before becoming Eastside Memorial and now LASA. As part of this discussion, Ms. Crescenzi shared that for years, she’s been asked about the “Disco Ram” (the Ram was the Johnston mascot), but she had no idea what they were talking about. In an exciting development, the team found a picture of the “Disco Ram,” and perhaps someday this image can be incorporated into LASA. For those of you interested, the research is being posted (and updated) on the LASA site.

Our next and only December meeting is December 6th. As we wrap down the semester, I’m planning to have a light agenda and then open the meeting up for socializing and questions. Freshmen parents–come ask about finals! As always, everyone at LASA is a member of PFLASA and is welcome to attend.

Wishing you a restful Fall Break and Happy Thanksgiving

-Ellen Stewart-Klein, PFLASA President

At a recent PFLASA meeting, there was a discussion about academic dishonesty. One of the many factors brought up was the discrepancy between the relatively high percentage of students who have observed academic dishonesty and the relatively low percentage of students who go on to report the acts they observed, even though students know that cheating is “wrong.”

Here is an interesting, open-access study in the June 2024 edition of the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology entitled “Don’t be a rat: An investigation of the taboo against reporting other students for cheating.” Take a deep dive or a more superficial read of the introduction and discussion sections to get further insight into some of the nuanced reasons for the lack of reporting. It might then be interesting to ask your child for their experiences, dilemmas, and personal thoughts on this issue, which hopefully will give you some ideas about how to best support them.

Hello,

Did you miss me last week or do you want less info from me? This year is an experiment where I’m trying to be more informative and transparent. I also realize my posts are long. If you have strong feelings either way, feel free to drop me an email at president@pflasa.org. I can change directions in the new year if warranted.

Our next meeting is this Friday, Oct 15, at 8:15 am in the PFLASA Portable. Join us, we have coffee and tea! You can leave at anytime, and we rarely draft anyone into service. This leads to my next point- volunteering! One of the ways that PFLASA operates so efficiently is the work of our wonderful volunteers. And we really do have opportunities for everyone. Evenings, weekends, fully remote, appreciation, recruiting, etc. If you are interested, write me at the email above, and we can find something for you.

Or if you really want to save us money block out one day between May 5–9 or May 12-16 so that you can volunteer during AP Testing. Why am I talking about May in November? April and May are our busiest times of year, and nothing requires more volunteers than administering the insane number of AP tests this school offers. To further complicate things, we can’t have parent volunteers on a day your child is testing which really limits the number of Junior parents who can volunteer. But using parent volunteers over paid proctors is a huge cost savings.

What have PFLASA’s magnificent volunteers been up to lately? If you are under a rock, the Project Graduation auction is in full swing and goes through the weekend until 8 pm Monday 11/18. Please shop and support our seniors and our community. Next, LASA’s recruiting season has begun and PFLASA was present at the first and second LASA info nights. And the Great Gatherings have begun with more parents signing up to host, check out the store on pflasa.org to find events to socialize.
Finally sign ups should be going out soon for donations and volunteers for the Thanksgiving Pie Event. PFLASA asks for donations of pies (any kind that doesn’t need refrigeration), store-bought or homemade, any size. And then on one of the last days before Thanksgiving break, we ask for volunteers to stock our pie giveaway room and staff come by to pick out their pie. This event is a huge hit with the whole school staff.

Regards,
Ellen Stewart-Klein, PFLASA President