*News

Bryant PTSA Anti-Racism Resolution and Call to Action

Kathy Austin
Dear Bryant Families and Community,
 
In our General Membership meeting this month, our PTSA passed a resolution on anti-racism which we encourage everyone to read.  Thank you to our PTSA Advocacy co-chairs for shaping this powerful statement in collaboration with our neighbor school PTSAs.
 
In the resolution, we commit to direct and substantive action and we’d like to elaborate with these immediate actions:
  • Building a lending library to promote anti-racist learning for Bryant families with a $500 grant from the PTSA budget
  • Forming a Families of Color Resource Group this summer, led by two PTSA board members and members of the Equity Committee (contact Equity@BryantSchool.org) 
  • Sharing an Anti-Racist Resource List here to support meaningful action in our community
With the strong leadership of our Advocacy and Equity committees, we’re redoubling our efforts to advocate for the eradication of structural racism, with a focus on educational justice. Our newly elected Bryant PTSA Board for the 2020-21 school year has more people of color represented. Going forward, our Board will work to bring a lens of equity and belonging to our decision-making and conversations. To hold ourselves accountable to these commitments, we will discuss our progress and additional actions in each PTSA Board meeting.  

We commit to this work as individuals, as an organization working to become anti-racist, and as a PTSA working toward an environment where our marginalized communities are centered and thriving.

Wishing you a safe and restorative summer,
-Bryant PTSA Board

References: 
Check out the resource list and the resolution on Anti-Racism. 
 
We also support these statements made by:

Passed: Bryant PTSA Resolution on Anti-Racism

Kathy Austin

Want to know why Minneapolis is burning?

Mama. He called Mama.

At least that’s why I want to burn, why I feel like I could scream until flames rip out of my throat. He has called up great power. I want all of us to turn, all of us who have heard Mama in a store and thought it meant us. It’s time to turn. White mamas, mamas with privilege, you have been summoned. And any of us who have ever cried out Mama, we hear it too, down in our bones. It’s a cry that can’t go unanswered anymore. So Minneapolis burns. And we need to gut all the spaces in our lives where systemic racism has quarter.

I think of the other mamas who turned a tide: Emmett Till’s, for one. We speak out of the deep mystery from whence all life springs. My white people: Nurture antiracism in your life like you would a child in your arms, even if you’ve only just heard it named. Learn what it means and how to foster it. Care about it, give it space in your life. Come to understand it, even if it’s difficult and challenges everything.

Mama is coming. And the men who make order in the world should be very afraid.

~Mary Helen Kennerly

PTSA Resolution on Anti-Racism

As PTSA leadership we are parents; many of us are Mama.  We have been summoned, and now is the time to answer, not simply with platitudes, but with action.  In PTSA that action takes the form of resolutions and policy.  It is time for us to acknowledge that we can be racist or anti-racist, but we cannot be neutral.  It is time for us to acknowledge our power, as well as the existence and pervasiveness of systemic racism.  It is time for us to fight for the education of our children in the hope that doing so will save the lives of our black and brown children and all children furthest from educational justice.

Whereas “the most fundamental right is the right to live” 1 and that right is being denied to black people across this country and in Seattle;

whereas systemic racism is embedded in every aspect of this country, including public schools;

whereas systemic racism in our school system is a major factor in the opportunity gap between white and black students;

whereas  we must choose whether to be a racist or anti-racist organization as there is no neutral space;

whereas PTA moves toward “every child. One voice,” but the voices and needs of black children continue to be left out and unheard;

Resolved, that Bryant PTSA commits to being an anti-racist organization.

Educates our PTSA members on issues related to anti-racism through hosting parent education events, providing anti-racism books and resources for families, and by including information on anti-racism in every PTSA Board Meeting.

Actively works to center the voices of our families furthest from educational justice by engaging with families.

Actively works with our school, Seattle Public Schools, the City of Seattle, and the State of Washington to provide opportunities and funding for professional development for anti-racism work.

 1Ibram X. Kendi https://www.facebook.com/ibramxkendi/

2019-2020 End of Year Letter from the PTSA Board

Kathy Austin

Dear Bryant Community, 

As the school year comes to a close, we wanted to express our immense gratitude to each individual in our Bryant community for supporting one another in this extraordinary year. We miss seeing you in person and look forward to reuniting in the future. We’d like to recognize our many leaders and volunteers for their great contributions and accomplishments in Bryant’s 2019-2020 year. 

First, we’d like to recognize our students who have been engaged all year in learning, helping and growing both at school and at home. We want to thank the parents, grandparents, siblings and other extended family who are supporting our students’ learning from home. Your commitment is an awesome inspiration.

Thank you to the Bryant Administration and Staff for creating memorable experiences for our community, including Multi-Cultural Night, the Bryant Misses You video, Bryant Parade, Fifth Grade graduation. We recognize all the ways that you’ve engaged our students and families and shown such resilience in difficult times.

Thank you to the many donors who have supported our successful fundraising programs, including the Annual campaign, Supplies campaign, silent Auction, and the Hunger Intervention and Hunger Prevention programs. We’re especially appreciative of your generous support of local schools in need via the September supplies campaign and the spring Hunger Prevention program. The Hunger Intervention Program (HIP) continued throughout the year with monthly grade-level food drives, and virtual fundraising after the building closure. And the Families in Need (FIN) program at Bryant continued to receive generous support from the annual PTSA budget. Thank you to the leaders of each of these vital fundraising and support programs.

Bryant has a long tradition of amazing volunteerism and community leadership. We want to recognize our PTSA board, committee chairs and leaders, and especially our individual volunteers. You create the rich community that we cherish. This year saw the formation of an Equity and Inclusion Committee in the Bryant PTSA to further inclusion and belonging for all families at Bryant by recognizing and celebrating our community’s diversity and addressing the needs of those furthest from educational justice. The PTSA was proud to pass an Equity resolution to declare the aspiration of equity to be core to its values, purpose and action and to put equity at the center of our endeavors, partnerships and collaborations. Our Advocacy chairs hosted a Meet Your Politicians event, including an unprecedented seven state, city and district political representatives at Bryant. There was a renewed commitment to Community Service this year, with families participating in multiple events, including the MLK Day of Service hygiene kit event. We also saw the introduction of new community building events and the continuation of the community speaker series. All of this wouldn’t be possible without our communications platform and team, including Facebook, the Weekly and BryantSchool.org. Thank you to the leaders and volunteers in these Equity, Advocacy, Community Service, Community Engagement and Communications roles.

We’ve been so inspired by the entire community’s continued commitment to our students and our school. As we look forward to next year, we will be working with the Administration toward a smooth transition in the fall. We wish you all a safe and healthy summer.

2019-2020 Bryant PTSA Board

Join us for the last PTSA General Meeting of the 2019-2020 School Year

Kathy Austin

All are welcome to attend our Last PTSA General Meeting of the 2019-2020 School Year on Tuesday, June 9th at 7:00 pm!

The virtual event will begin with Volunteer Awards then followed by the General Meeting. The agenda includes voting in our 2020-2021 Board and Reviewing and Approving the 2020-2021 Budget.

Join Microsoft Teams Meeting
+1 206-800-4787 United States, Seattle (Toll)
Conference ID: 424 096 594#

Lunar New Year Assembly – February 14th

Kathy Austin
Dearborn Dance Troupe performing Lunar New Year celebration
Dearborn Park International Music & Dance Troupe performing Lunar New Year celebration

Please save-the-date for a special guest performance assembly by Dearborn Park International Music & Dance Troupe on Friday, February 14th from 10:00-10:45 AM before we leave for Midwinter Break. Dearborn Park will be performing their Lunar New Year Celebration program for Bryant students. Their Lunar New Year Celebration performances include the traditional folk dances, as well as trending pop from areas all around Asia including China, Vietnam, Korea, and Japan. The dance styles will range from Wushu Style Shaolin Kungfu, K-Pop, Breakdance, Acrobatics to the traditional Chinese-Vietnamese Lion and Dragon dances. The purpose of the performance is to celebrate the Asian culture surrounding the Lunar New Year along with the differences that each culture has towards the holiday.

We hope you can join us!

Thank you,

Michaela Koerner Storkman

K-5 Music Specialist

Volunteers Needed – Roller Skating in PE

Kathy Austin

From Mr. Adams – Health & P.E. Specialist

We are roller skating in my PE classes in the gym, January 13-31. Students are welcome and encouraged to bring their own helmets and/or skates/rollerblades . They will need to mark their equipment with their names before they bring it to PE. Student helmets and skates cannot be left in the gym.

Parent volunteers are especially needed to help with Kindergarten-1st grade classes from 12:15-2:25 p.m. 

We are looking for anyone that would like to donate Small or X-Small Helmets ( new or used) to the P.E. department at Bryant Elementary. 

Thank you for your support.

Popular Author, Zetta Elliott, to Visit Bryant!

Kathy Austin

Author Zetta Elliott will be visiting with all of Bryant’s students on January 22 in the library. Her popular fantasy novel, Dragons in a Bag, is one of the Global Reading Challenge selections this year, and she’ll be telling us about the next installment, The Dragon Thief. Zetta visits us from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where she has a lively career as a Black feminist writer of poetry, plays, essays, novels, and stories for children. Additionally, she has taught at several outstanding colleges, including Ohio University and Mount Holyoke.

Third Place Books will be here to sell some of Zetta’s titles. Click HERE for an order form and return to us by 8:00 AM on January 22.

WELCOME, ZETTA!