The PA General Meetings

The PA’s General Meetings feature key members of the Stuyvesant community, including Principal Contreras and Parent Coordinator, Dina Ingram, and guest speakers who give seminars and Q&A sessions on subjects including college admissions and financial aid.

Meetings are every month, September through June, in the theater, with simultaneous translation in Mandarin Chinese. Meetings start at 7:00 p.m. Refreshments are at 6:30 p.m. in the lobby. For details about the meeting programs, please check the PA’s weekly email announcements or the calendar on this site.

Missed a meeting? Get the summary and minutes here.

2018-2019 School Year

September 17, 2018

2017-2018 School Year

Minutes

September 26, 2017
October 17, 2017
November 28, 2017
December 19, 2017
January 23, 2018
February 27, 2018
March 20, 2018
April 24, 2018
May 22, 2018

2016-2017 School Year

Minutes

September 27, 2016
October 25, 2016
November 15, 2016
December 13, 2016
January 24, 2017
February 15, 2017
March 28, 2017
April 25, 2017
May 23, 2017

Recaps

March 2018

At the March meeting, Jake Neuberg, president and CEO of Revolution Prep, explained what Growth Mindset means for your child. Growth Mindset is a hot concept among educational psychologists these days. Developed at Stanford University, it stresses the connection between self-image and academic performance.

February 2018

At the February 27th meeting, Eric Grossman, AP English discussed how students can get an “A” in English and shared this helpful grading rubric.

Jed Applerouth gave a presentation on SAT Subject Tests, what they are, how colleges use them, and how they fit into the admissions process. If you missed this helpful presentation, or if you still have questions, you can view the full presentation here.

January 2018

At the January 23rd meeting, Principal, Eric Contreras and Parent Coordinator, Dina Ingram, gave brief updates on current events at Stuy, and the PA treasurer gave a snapshot of current spending and Annual Appeal fundraising. The second round of appropriations was presented to the membership and voted on.

Special speaker, Harvey Blumm, gave an in-depth presentation on Summer Opportunities for Students. A one sentence summary of that great talk is: Make sure your student starts working on summer internships and other opportunities, now and reach out to Harvey if you need help.

November 2017

There was a presentation from the Appropriations Committee to explain funding decisions for various clubs and requests.

Smart Alec Tutors gave a presentation on preparing for the SAT/ACT tests. Their deck can be found here.

May 2017

Michael Turner from the New York State Higher Education Services Corporation (HESC), New York State’s higher education student financial aid agency presented Student Financial Aid and Paying for College: What Parents and Students Need to Know. This session will provide an overview of how the student financial aid system works including the federal, New York State, college and private programs that are available to help families pay for college. In addition, he discussed the FAFSA, New York State TAP and CSS Profile applications that need to be completed for need-based aid consideration. His presentation on Excelsior and NYS Aid can be viewed here.

Elections for the 2017-2018 Executive Board and School Leadership Team were held.

April 2017

Screening of the movie Tested, a 2016 documentary which follows a dozen racially and socio-economically diverse 8th graders—several of whom are currently at Stuyvesant—as they fight for a seat at one of the New York’s top high schools.

March 2017

The PA membership at our March 28 PA General Meeting voted to approve spending $180,386.78 on equipment for The Innovation Center. The Innovation Center will be a place where students will work with up-to-date equipment, computers, 3D printers and more, in the subject areas of Computer Science, Engineering, and Drafting. Click here to see the presentation from the PA meeting..

An additional $600,000 in grants for the Innovation Center comes to us courtesy of Manhattan Borough President Gail Brewer and Margaret Chin, District One Council Member, each of whom awarded Stuyvesant $300,000. These grants are a result of a strong cooperation between our Principal, Assistant Principal Scott Thomas, and our grant writers.

Guest speaker Anna Levy-Warren, PhD, discussed Executive Functioning and how to help your child develop skills for excellence in high school, college and beyond.

Executive functioning (EF) refers to an interrelated set of cognitive processes that govern goal-directed behaviors and enable us to effectively manage everyday activities. EF skills allow students to effectively process information, maintain focus, organize thoughts, adapt knowledge for particular situations, screen for errors, and manage frustration. Extensive research indicates that proficient organizational and EF skills provide the foundation required for success in academic, occupational, and social-emotional realms of life.
February

Testing expert Jed Applerouth clarified the details about the SAT Subject Tests, in terms of when to take them, how many to take, and what college admissions offices are looking for. He discussed how they connect to the SAT, ACT, and AP tests, and how to help your child make a testing plan and timeline that work.

Click here to view his presentation from the meeting.

January 2017

Guidance Counselor Harvey Blumm discussed how Stuy students can make the most of their summer break. Harvey, a former Stuy parent and former parent coordinator, has a wealth of useful information and has been helping parents and students navigate summers for years.

December 2016

Important information and useful resources on applying for college scholarships was shared with parents during this meeting. Take a few minutes to check out the slides here.

This month we had a special speaker: Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist and Professor of Ethical Leadership at New York University’s Stern School of Business and the bestselling author of several books, most notably The Righteous Mind and numerous articles, including the cover story in The Atlantic in 2015, The Coddling of the American Mind.

November

The PA membership voted to approve the first-round funding for Stuy’s clubs, publications, and other activities. They also voted to approve the chairs of various committees.

Academic Programming Presentation: This month’s special presentation was about Academic Programming. In the last week or so, all students received information about how to register on-line for next semester’s classes. Our APs and Harvey Blumm from Guidance gave a presentation to parents so that they had a better understanding of class availability and requirements.

James Johnson, AP Math and Computer Science, spoke about the courses available in his departments. Here is a list of the Math and Computer Science courses with details of requirements needed to be given a seat in each class.

Jennifer Suri, AP Social Studies and Human Geography, also spoke about the courses available in her department. Here is a list of Social Studies courses and the class requirements.

Elizabeth Fong, AP Biology and Earth Science, spoke about the the courses available in her department. Here is a list of Biology and Earth Sciences courses and the class requirements.

October

Research projects: Eric Contreras, our IA Principal, announced that 20 Stuy students had entered the Siemens Competition in Math, Science, and Technology and that 4 had gone on to become semi-finalists and 1 has gone on to the finalist stage. He also told us that 20 students who have entered the Regeneron Science Talent Search (previously known as the Westinghouse Science Talent Search, and then as the Intel Science Talent Search) had been paired up with Stuy alumni mentors who would help with the review of their research papers. Eric also said, “Thanks to Mr. Econome our research coordinator and the dedicated Stuyvesant teachers who mentored the students. I am also appreciative of the support from the families and alumni association.”

Elections took up a good part of the PA meeting with each candidate given a chance to speak to the attendees.

Finally, Michael Motto, guest speaker, gave a talk on the college application process which included the importance of extra curricular activities, how college applications have changed over the last decade, and how college admissions officers assess the applications. Michael gave parents plenty of good advice and answered lots of questions from the auditorium.

September

We kicked off our school year with a very informative and well attended PA General Meeting (PAGM) on the evening of September 27th. Our PAGMs are held on the third Tuesday of each month – unless notice is given of another date. They are a great way to meet other parents and share information as well as to get to know what is happening in the school from the Principal, the Parent Coordinator, Guidance Department, staff, and special guests. For those that could not attend, here is a brief summary of our September meeting:

Our co-presidents, David and Heather opened the meeting and reminded parents about the upcoming elections and need for nominations (see article above) as well as about how important fund raising is and how it benefits the school.

Eric Contreras, our IA Principal introduced himself to the parents and explained his vision for Stuy which included – a new engineering program, linking up physics and computer science; encouraging more entries into the science competitions like Regeneron; An open door policy to enable easy communication with parents; Keeping in touch with the community by visiting classes in action each day. Eric announced a new set of classes created with Casey Pedrick in Guidance for 9th grade students which teaches them time management and how to acclimatize to the Stuy academic and social environment. He also announced the appointment of Lynn Chen (PA Copresident 2014/2015, 2015/2016) as special Parent Liaison volunteer who will come to school twice a week to help out, starting in November, 2016.

Dina Ingram, our new Parent Coordinator, introduced herself and encouraged parents to subscribe to her Parent Update bi-weekly newsletter subscription via the Stuy.edu website.

Casey Pedrick, AP Guidance, gave parents an in-depth presentation on the help our students can get at Stuy from our guidance counselors, our Social Worker, Big Sibs, ARISTA tutoring, SPARK outreach and more. Casey also told parents how to contact teachers should any issues arise (cc the Guidance Counselor), and gave news of upcoming student events such as the Clubs and Pubs Fair (October 5), and the Big Sib Little Sib dance (October 7, 5:00-8:00 p.m.). Casey also spoke of the cell phone alert system, School Dude Crisis Management on behalf of Brian Moran, AP Security / Health & PE, who could not attend the PAGM.

2015-2016 Minutes

September 29, 2015
October 27, 2015
November 17, 2015
December 15, 2015
January 26, 2016
February 9, 2016
March 8, 2016
April 19, 2016
May 24, 2016

2014-2015 Minutes

September 23, 2014
October 28, 2014
November 18, 2014
January 27, 2015
February 24, 2015
March 24, 2015
April 28, 2015
May 26, 2015

2012-2013 Minutes

September 27, 2012
October 16, 2012
November 20, 2012
December 18, 2012
January 22, 2013
March 5, 2012
April 23, 2013
May 21, 2013
June 11, 2013

2011-2012 Minutes

September 20, 2011
October 18, 2011
November 15, 2011
January 24, 2012
March 20, 2012
April 24, 2012
May 22, 2012
June 12, 2012

Guest Presenter Materials

October 18, 2011 Slide Presentation by Kal Chany
March 20, 2012 Slide Presentation by Dr. Kimberly Williams

2010-2011 Minutes

September 21, 2010
October 19, 2010
November 16, 2010
December 21, 2010
January 18, 2011
February 15, 2011
March 22, 2011
April 27, 2011
May 24, 2011
June 14, 2011

Guest Presenter Materials

Listen to the presentation at the Pre-College Night on 4/28/10