Payne Wildcats News

LSAT Meeting Minutes – April 2023

Posted on by payneelementary

Attendees: Michelle, Mr. Creef, Liz, Josh, Rebecca, Principal Byrd

Draft Agenda

  1. Principal Byrd to discuss status of requests for assistance and final budget from DCPS
  2. Recent grant awards to Payne
  3. PTSA fundraising
  4. LSAT Elections for SY 23-24

Meeting Discussion Notes

Status of requests for assistance and final budget from DCPS

  • All requests for assistance above the DCPS initial allocation were denied
  • Several programs that are currently active which do yet have planned funding
    • Some programs have a path to alternative funding and others don’t yet

Recent grant awards to Payne

  • Through the hard work of parent and teacher authored grant proposals, Payne has received more than $40k in grants this year.  However, these funds are already designated for specific purposes and cannot replace DCPS Payne budget funding for existing programs.
  • Additional grant proposal opportunities are in progress

PTSA Fundraising

  • Saturday Academy and Afterschool Enrichment funds collected and paid are separate and not discretionary
  • PTSA fundraisers have discretionary funds that are typically allocated to:
    • Field trip bus expenses
    • Teacher reimbursement accounts for classroom needs
    • Working capital available to invest in upcoming fundraisers
    • Teacher appreciation allocations
  • Upcoming Fundraisers
    • Spring Carnival
      • Spring Carnival auction will be larger than last year
      • Introducing an “pay-as-you-can” fee for entrance
    • Walk-a-thon with Tyler
    • Possibly a separate auction planned for next year

LSAT Election Planning (DCPS toolkit)

  • Online form to accept nominations.
  • Voting planned to occur
    • online, 
    • at drop-off/pick-up tables, 
    • at table in PTSA annual meeting
  • New term begins July 1

LSAT Meeting Minutes – March 2023

Posted on by payneelementary

Note: this meeting was held February 24th in order to meet DCPS budget submission deadlines.

Attendees: Principal Byrd, Mr. Smith, Ms. Aloi, Mr. Creef, Ms. Brown, Ms. Chapman

Draft Agenda

  1. Principal Byrd to review budget
  2. LSAT Q&A

Meeting Discussion Notes

Payne’s initial allocations and submitted budgets for both FY23 and FY24 are available on dcpsbudget.com or through this direct link: https://dcpsbudget.com/datasets/?_schools=payne-es&_fiscal_years=2023%2C2024&_budget_types=initial%2Csubmitted

Principal Byrd walked the LSAT group through the initial allocation and her budget approach, petitions and requests to DCPS.

LSAT Advice

  • LSAT is generally aligned with the budget approach, petitions and requests
  • A few LSAT members emphasized the benefit of increasing Administrative Premium funding to support logistics for the Saturday Academy program

LSAT Meeting Minutes – February 2023

Posted on by payneelementary

Attendees: Mr. Gordon, Mr. Tackie, Ms. Brown, Principal Byrd, Ms. Hunt, Ms. Larracey, Ms. Chapman, Ms. Aloi, Mr. Creef

Draft Agenda

  1. Review of Comprehensive School Plan
  2. Principal Byrd to share school data
  3. Discussion of Payne LSAT Budget meeting logistics
  4. Discussion of how to gather school-wide input
  5. Review of “Schools First in Budgeting” bill (reference: https://lims.dccouncil.gov/Legislation/B24-0570)
  6. Mention of upcoming 2023 review of school boundaries https://www.dcpolicycenter.org/publications/school-boundaries/

Meeting Discussion Notes

Gathering School-Wide Input

The group discussed various methods for gathering school-wide input for the LSAT to reflect in its budget discussions.  A balance must be found between being open to input and also being realistic about the limited scope of the LSAT and the limited flexibility of the Principal in how budgets may be formulated given standard staffing profiles and restrictions on funding sources.  The group decided that at the next PTSA meeting Josh will provide a status update on LSAT activities and ask that any ideas be shared to the LSAT parent individuals over email.  

Status Update:

Parent emails: