Parent Association
On behalf of the parent association executive board welcome to the Parent Association! Your membership helps support your children and our families.
Dear Families,
On behalf of the Parent Association for The Renaissance Charter School, we would like to welcome you to the 2024-2025 school year!
We’d like to introduce your representatives for this year’s Parent Association:
Co-Presidents: Zuzana Keeslar & Elizabeth Bermejo Lema
Cluster One Parent Rep: Cindy Vivaldo
Cluster Two Parent Rep: Sweety Shinde
Cluster Three Parent Rep: Karl Cerni
Your involvement within the school community is key to helping us provide a richer/better school experience to students and their families.
There are several ways to get involved:
- Donating some of your time to help at the school
- Participating in Parent Association meetings, activities and fundraisers
- Making a monetary donation to the Parent Association here, by cash, check or money order.
To learn more about how you can get involved, our goals for the school year, activities, fundraisers and more, we invite you to our monthly PA meetings.
The following are the scheduled dates for the Parent Association meetings during the 2024-2025 school year:
September 25, 2024
October 16, 2024
November 20, 2024
December 18, 2024
January 15, 2025
February 12, 2025
March 19, 2025
April 9, 2025
May 21, 2025
June 18, 2025
All meetings take place at 6:30 pm unless otherwise stated.
Zoom links for online meetings may be found on our Events page.
Past Meeting Agendas:
Our 2023-2024 meeting agendas can be found below:
September – September 2023 Parent Association Agenda.
October – October 2023 Parent Association Agenda
November – November 2023 Parent Association Agenda
December – December 2023 Parent Association Agenda
January – January 2024 Parent Association Agenda
March – March 2024 Parent Association Meeting Agenda
June – June 2024 Parent Association Meeting Agenda
October – October 2024 Parent Association Meeting Agenda
November – November 2024 Parent Assoication Meeting Agenda
Support your PA fundraising goals
Your annual membership has a suggested donation of $30 per student or $40 per family (2 or more students in the school). This will serve to fund activities and extracurricular opportunities for the students, as well as help the school partially fund events, supplies and other items as needed.
You can donate to the Parent Association in several ways:
- PayPal
- cash in envelope marked with your student’s name and grade
- check payable to ‘Friends of Renaissance’ with Parent Association in memo line
You can drop off the check or envelope w/cash at the school main office in the PA Dropbox or mail (check only) to:
The Renaissance Charter School PA
35-59 81st Street
Jackson Heights, NY 11372
PLEASE INCLUDE STUDENT NAME(S) AND GRADE(S) ON ALL CORRESPONDENCE
Sincerely,
Zuzana Keeslar
Parent Association President
Please click here for the 2024-2025 Parent Association form.
Let us hear from you! Reach out to PA President Zuzana Keeslar at zuzana.trcsparents@rencharter.org or zuzgall@yahoo.com or email parentassociation@rencharter.org.
Follow Us
Don’t miss activities, upcoming meetings, or events. Your time and support are truly appreciated and we are all looking forward to a successful and better school year!
Parent Association Spirit Wear Store
Click here to view our school spirit wear shop.
2023-2024 Parent Association Leadership
Executive Board
President: Zuzana Keeslar, zuzana.trcsparents@rencharter.org
About Zuzana
Zuzana has lived In Jackson Heights for 22 years with her husband, 6th-grader son, Holden, and dog. This will be their 3rd year at TRCS. Zuzana graduated from Hunter College, majored in psychology, and minored in education. She and her husband have owned a dog training and walking business for over 20 years. Her primary language is English, but Zuzana is from Slovakia and speaks Slovakian as well. She’s great at planning, communicating, and organizing. Her goal is to bridge the gap between the school and parents in order to create a community and foster an environment where parent involvement is encouraged and respected.
Secretary: Veronica Garcia-Lopez, veronica.trcsparents@rencharter.org
About Veronica
Veronica is a parent to a 3rd grader and Pre-K student at TRCS.
Cluster Representatives
Cluster 1: Juseph Villalta, juseph.trcsparents@rencharter.org
About Juseph
Juseph is a parent to a 1st- and 6th-grade student at TRCS. This will be their second year at TRCS. Says Juseph, “We are a new family in the Renaissance educational community. I am from Venezuela, I did my studies in my country. I speak Spanish. I am a housewife. I am a pastry fan and I love putting together puzzles, which I share with my children.”
Cluster 3: Elizabeth Del Pozo-Vidal, elizabeth.trcsparent@rencharter.org
About Liz
Elizabeth is a parent to a 12th-grade student at TRCS. She has been part of the TRCS Community since her daughter was in elementary school. This is her second year as a Cluster 3 Representative and has served as PA secretary in the past. Elizabeth also serves on the board of Friends of Renaissance, a non-profit association created to further support TRCS initiatives.
Association Meeting Minutes
October 2023 – Parent Association Meeting Minutes
December 2023 – Parent Association Meeting Minutes
January 2024 – Parent Association Meeting Minutes
February 2024 – Parent Association Meeting Minutes
March 2024 – Parent Association Meeting Minutes
April 2024 – Parent Association Meeting Minutes
May 2024 – Parent Association Meeting Minutes
June 2024 – Parent Association Meeting Minutes
- Renaissance, as a village, nurtures hearts and minds. Deep human bonds can be nurtured within a village that values respect and kindness. Students build open and trusting friendships with each other; staff members move beyond cooperation to the level of collaboration; staff members take on the role of mentors to students; parents are honored; and each level of the school communicates with each other. Minds open as hearts open.
- Renaissance values and protects the forums within its village. Important discussions take place in many of its centers: meetings of the Board of Trustees, the Collaborative School Governance (CSG), cluster and staff meetings, PTA, Student Council, cluster town meetings, and various committees. Informal discussions go on all the time, as well. It is only through participation in these forums that powerful and wise decisions can be made.
- Renaissance values the spirit of self-motivated and collaborative action. Renaissance was started by a group of individuals who wrote and submitted a proposal for a new theme-based school without the backing of any prominent organization. The group’s spirit that the impossible can become possible has continued to be a bedrock principle of the school. Renaissance honors dreams and gives full support to any of the members of the community—whether student, staff, or parent—who come up with ideas that they want to carry to fruition.
- Renaissance fights aggressively for the happiness and success of each student. With this commitment the school ensures that all of its accountability goals will be met.
Volunteer
Parent volunteerism has always been strong at Renaissance. In addition to strong parent representation on all of its governing boards, over the years parents have served on many committees: its playground was designed with parent input; the Arts and Spanish Language program has been strengthened by parent collaboration. Parents share their talents to improve communication and the school’s publications, help out in the office, assist with art for exhibitions—and sometimes bring their skills into the classroom. Your presence at Parent Association meetings makes them more vibrant and meaningful and sends a powerful message of involvement to your child.
If regular monthly meetings are not possible for you, there are many other ways to stay involved–including volunteering at school events and fundraisers, donating time for political advocacy when the call goes out to attend City council hearings or attending the annual Charter School Lobby Day.
If you are interested in doing more for Renaissance, please reach out to your PA cluster representative or contact Carolina Caicedo-Martinez, at carolinacaicedo@rencharter.org.
