August 20, 2012

Dear Parents and Staff,

As sitting President of the School Site Council, I wish to invite your participation on the “New 

and Improved” SSC at Albert Einstein Academies. The role of the SSC over the past year has 

been in some flux, as many of the former tasks of the SSC were moved to the Strategic 

Planning committees currently considering the future of AEA. However, after much thought and 

discussion with the Principals, we have developed a new structure and purpose for the SSC that 

really helps forward the educational and growth (both individually and institutionally) of AEA.  

We believe this new structure will make the SSC a more focused and effective group, one that 

takes on both old and new challenges, and provides a more open resource for concerned 

parents to communicate with the school. 

New structure of the SSC

The two main changes to the SSC this coming year will be the member composition, and the 

topics on which we will focus, at least initially. The changes in membership are minor, but are 

intended to make recruitment easier and integrate the two schools. We feel this integration is 

very important. The Elementary school kids will eventually become the Middle School students, 

and the Middle School benefits from students well-prepared in Elementary School. 

SSC Members

The SSC will be composed of 10 parents and 10 staff members (50:50) drawn from both 

Elementary and Middle School. Also, instead of having two separate SSC groups, we will have 

a combined Elementary and Middle School SSC. As the Middle School prepares its eventually 

move, it will be important to continue to have a committee that connects the parents and staff of 

the two schools.

Meeting Organization

The SSC will begin the meeting as a single group for direction, summaries, and listening to 

parental concerns. We will make sure to invite parents to come to the SSC to share concerns 

that they have about issues at the school. After this, we will break into several subcommittees to 

deal with important topics at the school that are not currently being addressed by other groups 

or seem to need more attention.

Some of the issues outlined below are under the direction of those strategic planning teams. 

Therefore, our efforts in these committees will be to support their work and help out in other 

areas to address needs not being met.

Subcommittees:

a. Parent University/Curriculum/Academic Achievement Committee: The Parent 

Universities in particular need attention and direction. The SSC will likely be put in 

charge of managing and organizing them. We will also deal with helping to 

implement Academic Achievement ideas and Curriculum issues.

b. Communication Committee: Facilitating communication between staff, faculty and 

parents is an ongoing struggle. This committee will help find ways to enhance 

information flow to parents through websites and other media (social networking), 

as well as make sure that communication happens (minutes from Board, 

Information about Middle School, Teacher website updates). There is also a need to 

make sure that parents know how the staff and faculty are addressing concerns 

brought up by the parents in the previous school survey.

c. School Safety/Campus Climate This subcommittee will deal with the constantly 

evolving issues of school safety campus climate on both campuses. Uniforms, 

bullying and comfortable learning spaces will be likely topics.

d. Human Resources/Hiring (As needed): As new teacher hires become necessary, this 

committee will make sure that parents, teachers and staff are all involved in this 

critical process.

Again, we welcome and encourage your participation on the new and hopefully improved SSC. 

If you are interested in becoming a member of the SSC, please contact Birgit Schafer at 

bschafer@aeacs.org.

Yours truly,

Scott T. Kelley

President AEA School Site