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The PTA has had a wonderful fall at TECA, creating opportunities for the community to connect, celebrating our amazing staff, and giving TECA students opportunities to learn and grow!


Events

Back for the second year, the PTA provided ice cream to the community at the Class List Reveal just before the school year started. Several parents got a great workout on their shoulder muscles scooping some very-cold Mitchells ice cream, but they prevailed and much fun was had by all.


Fall Fiesta was an absolute rousing success, and we're so grateful to everyone who attended and volunteered, especially our co-organizers Jamie Katz and Lauren Jeter. We had two inflatable play structures, free face painting, tons of games, and amazing food for sale, donated by TECA families. TECA's Folklorica Dance Club delighted us with several dances, and the Mission High Mariachi band serenaded and impressed the crowds.


We transitioned our regular PTA meetings to be exclusively in the evenings for better predictability, and added a separate dinner section featuring language exchange tables for anyone wanting to practice their English or Spanish. And we're so happy to be able to keep offering free childcare (donated by the amazing Mission Grads) during the meeting portion! Dinner highlights included La Med, Pica Pica, and


Communications

The PTA moved to WhatsApp for our online community, and we've had great adoption & participation so far, especially with the younger grades. The is a group for every grade, and several interest groups, like parents interested in organizing sports opportunities, and a yard improvement group. Not on the WhatsApp? Email president@tecapta.org with your kid's name & grade and your phone number!


This very website got an overhaul, and now has sections explaining the structure of TECA itself and its relationship to SFUSD, and what the PTA does. We also recently added a page linking to our monthly financial reports and our annual budget.


AND we also added a calendar to the website, which you can subscribe to, and as we add community and school events to the calendar, they'll show up on your calendar automatically!


Staff Support & Appreciation

The PTA expanded our teacher stipend program to be available to all staff, and have gotten a lot of appreciation from support and office staff for the help from TECA parents via the PTA. With our help, teachers & staff have bought a color printer for the classroom, books for classroom libraries, projector clickers, timers, and phoneme mirrors.


Did you know that the TECA staff didn't have a coffee maker? PTA rules prevented the PTA itself from buying staff a coffee maker, but several members of the PTA board chipped in to purchase a Keurig machine, and the PTA is supplying the school with compostable k-cups, which the teachers & staff are just WILD about. The PTA also provided a ton of snacks for the teachers during the week of parent/teacher conferences and those were also very appreciated.

Diversity & Inclusion

The PTA now features professional side-by-side Spanish translation at all of our monthly membership meetings, so that all members of the community have equal access to the content of the meetings. We also added an online component for families that aren't able to make it to TECA in person. You're welcome to join us for our next meeting on Feburary 11, 2025, in-person or online!


School & Community Programs

With one-time COVID funding running out, there were several pivotal programs that the counseling office had run for our Junior Academy (grades 6-8) students, and the PTA supported those this year. Those include a workshop for sixth grade called The Mask You Live In and an event called Challenge Day for the eighth grade.


We also helped with smaller programs, like sending the Dual Kinder classes to the Mission Cultural Center to see their ofrendas, passing out a billion pieces of donated candy at the Halloween parade, paying for inflatables at Mission Grads' Trunk or Treat program, and funding part of the amazing Hispanic Heritage Celebration organized by Mission Grads and TECA staff.


We've been continuing to up our merch game, and our merch lead, Megan Morse Steinwedel expanded our in-person offerings to include purple t-shirts, and also set up a ONLINE SHOP, where you can buy shirts, bags, and accessories with several different designs on them: https://teca.myspreadshop.com/. We also are giving away stickers!


The PTA also helped the fifth grade parents run an election day bake sale to raise funds for the fifth grade overnight trip to Point Bonita:


What's Next?

We're currently in the midst of our winter fundraiser, Fill the Jar, and would love your help supporting TECA! There are many, many programs we could help fund at the school, improvements we could make to the yard, and ways of supporting the broader TECA community that need support to be able to happen.


Don't forget to mark your calendar for our next PTA meeting, February 11, 2025! (Or just subscribe to ours! 🥳)

At last night's PTA meeting, Superintendent Anakarita Allen presented an overview of TECA's safety plan, how it's used, and how drills are run at TECA. Here's an overview of what she shared!


The School Site Emergency Plan is a long, living document that is a school resource for all things safety: prevention/mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery

planning and training. It's explicitly not a guide to be used during an emergency.


You can find the School Site Emergency Plan on the LEA/School Plans page of the TECA website. (LEA stands for Local Educational Agency; TECA is an LEA because it is a public charter school and has its own Board of Education.)


The plan is very long, and includes a LOT of sections, so Ms. Allen focused her presentation specifically on the disaster procedures that are most relevant to TECA:

  • Air Quality

  • Earthquake

  • Fire

  • Intruder on campus

  • Lock down & Lock-in


Air Quality

The air quality procedures primarily address smoke from wildfires. Parents can expect a message via the school email/text platform, BrightArrow, when the Air Quality Index (AQI) reaches a level where it's not safe to be outside as much. For example, playing outside is fine during Green, Yellow, and Orange levels, but at Red and Purple, activities need to be shorter or moved inside entirely. The school will follow an official source for the AQI like https://www.airnow.gov/.


Earthquake

The first earthquake drill of the year is usually part of the Great Shake Out, an event in which millions of people practice earthquake safety. This year's event is on October 17, and families are encouraged to participate at work or home as well!


After that first drill, earthquake drills will be run once per month. Administration will announce the drill over the intercom, and teachers will guide their students to duck, cover, and hold. For more specific on earth quake safety, see here!


In the Spring, TECA conducts one evacuation-based earthquake drill (as opposed to staying wherever you are).


Fire

Once a month, the SF Fire Department calls a fire drill at TECA, and it happens then. Ms. Allen said that at the most recent fire drill, the school was fully evacuated in 2 minutes and 15 seconds. When the drill is called, teachers grab theier emergency packs with roll sheets. Admin, yard, office staff and leads have walkie-talkies for communication.


Once a year, an SF Fire Department inspector does a proactive walk-through with Ms. Allen.


Lock-in

If there's a safety issue outside the school, a lock-in can be called, which means that school operates as normal, but the outside doors are fully locked and no one is allowed in or out of the building. This could happen if SFPD identifies an issue in the neighborhood (criminal pursuit, etc.) and asks TECA to initiate a lock-in. TECA has lock-in drills once per trimester.


Lockdown

In a lockdown, everyone stays inside their classroom, office, or bathrooms, and no one comes in or out of the building. There are three kinds of lockdowns:

  • Intruder on campus — this might trigger a lock-in or a lockdown depending on the situation. This might happen if an unhoused person gains access to the yard or building, for example.

  • General — this is usually informed by police activity.

  • Shooter — the staff is trained to handle a shooter with three strategies: evacuation, hiding, and disrupting or incapacitating the shooter as a last resort.


Since most school shootings in the United States are committed by people familiar with the school, the specific plans for handling a shooter are not typically published.


In order to avoid traumatizing students, teachers and staff do not talk about "active shooter" drills or mention why a given drill is taking place. Instead, TECA staff focuses on training the students to listen to adult voices and following directions without panicking.


How the Safety Plan comes to be

TECA has a Safety Planning Committee made up of administrators, teachers, parents, and community members, and it works in consultation with first responders like the fire department and police department to develop and improve the safety plan.

LA County Office of Education has a Campus Safety Group that reviews TECA's safety plan and provides feedback, and TECA is looking for a consultant to help train staff on the many different scenarios that they need to be prepared for.


TECA is also in the process of having the safety plan translated into Spanish so it can be accurate and accessible to the entire TECA community.







Calling all TECA parents and friends! Now that we can gather safely in person again, please mark your calendars for the return of our Spring FLOURISH FUNdraiser, organized by the TECA PTA. This annual event helps fund exciting and important programs for our kids, from weekend events to field trips and more! Get your tickets today at bit.ly/2022flourish! What: TECA Annual Spring “Flourish” Fundraiser When: Friday, May 13th, 6-9pm Where: Spark Social (601 Mission Bay Blvd, SF) Who: All TECA families of all grades, teachers, and other family and friends who would like to support your students too! Why: to meet other parents, to socialize for the first time in too long (!), and to support our kids’ learning and development through extracurricular programs not funded by TECA! "¡Llamando a todos los padres y amigos de TECA! Ahora que podemos reunirnos con seguridad en persona de nuevo, por favor, marquen sus calendarios para el regreso de nuestro FLOURISH Mixer anual de primavera y recaudación de fondos, organizado por la PTA de TECA. Este evento anual ayuda a financiar programas emocionantes e importantes para nuestros niños, desde eventos de fin de semana hasta excursiones y mas! ¡Consigue tus entradas hoy en bit.ly/2022flourish! Qué: Recaudación de fondos anual de primavera de TECA "Flourish" Cuándo: Viernes, 13 de mayo, 6-9pm Donde: Spark Social (601 Mission Bay Blvd, SF) Quién: Todas las familias de TECA de todos los grados, maestros, y otros familiares y amigos que quieran apoyar a sus estudiantes también! Por qué: para conocer a otros padres, para socializar por primera vez en demasiado tiempo (!), y para apoyar el aprendizaje y el desarrollo de nuestros hijos a través de programas extracurriculares no financiados por TECA!

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