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`FxI N 17 Stedman Road ❖ Lexington, Massachusetts 02421
Anna W. Monaco, Principal Office: (781) 861 -2450
Jennifer E. Turner, Assistant Principal Fax: (781)674 -2043
Jonathan R. Wettstone, Assistant Principal
School Site Council Meeting
January 17, 2013
3:15PM
In Attendance: Anna Monaco, Principal; Kristen Rangel, Teacher, Tessa Riley, Guidance Counselor, Kelly Manor,
Teacher, Dana Silverberg, School Psychology Intern; Suzanne Cherenson, Parent; Sandra Mayo, Parent; Lorelle
Yee, Parent; Jonathan Schechner, Teacher, Krystal Bavin, Teacher, Jonathan Wettstone, Assistant Principal
1. Meeting Minutes (December 2012)
o Minutes approved from 12112
IL Questions / Concerns
• Parent - announced a presentation at Cary Hall regarding AP courses at Lexington High School.
• Budget Update - Mrs. Monaco mentioned the budget went to School Committee on Tuesday.
Clarke is asking for additional FTE in Music, Engineering, and in the ILP program. This was
shared with the staff on Monday during the faculty meeting. Once approved, we can begin the
hiring process.
• Parent - what has been the follow -up regarding the Sandy Hook Elementary incident?
• Monaco - The staff may have had a tougher time with the incident. We reviewed
Lockdown and safety protocol during the Monday faculty meeting, and generated a list of
improvements for the building itself, including front -door buzzer, card - swipe, etc.
• Parent - is a card -swipe system in the plans for Clarke?
• Monaco - Yes, we put in a request and anticipate movement on our requests in a timely
manner.
• Parent - we just want to make sure we are doing what we can to help our kids and school
community.
• Monaco - we look at all aspects of the student. We are lucky to have a lot of student
supports within the district and school.
111. Survey Questions
• Monaco distributed copies of both Parent and Student survey generated by Dana (psychologist intern).
o Student Survey - Intern described the creation of the survey. First page is demographics.
Second page allows the student to rate their experience, as well as dives into Rachel's Challenge,
questioning them about their knowledge. The survey
• Monaco - let's place a definition of bullying next to the `bullying" question. We need to
identify what specific information we are looking for.
• Teacher - perhaps include a question - "what do you perceive as bullying ?"
• Parent - what about including - `Do you feel that you can resolve conflicts that come up ?"
• Parent - how will it be given to the students?
• Parent - can we re- examine the race question? Is it possible to include others?
• Intern - Yes, you can select more than one, so we can put that language into the survey -
select all that apply.
• Teacher - looking at the experience question - perhaps it should be the overall experience,
which would include home and school?
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• Parent - perhaps we should clarify that the activities are specific to Clarke, as they typically
do activities outside school as well.
• Monaco - even if they don't read it, I think we should put the bullying definition with the
question. Is there a way to have a comment box pop -up if the student rates bullying as a
five or above?
• Teacher - how about adding `bathrooms" to the list of bullying locations?
• Parent - I'm wondering if resolving conflict is bigger than outright bullying. A lot of little
subtle things going on. Is there a way to capture a way to collect and find a way to talk
about it.
• Counselor - how capable are you at resolving conflict?
• Intern - we need to make sure the survey is measurable.
• Parent - aren't we trying to measure student resiliency?
• Teacher - is there a question asking - `have you been a victim of bullying or witnessed
bullying? If so, did you report it - why or why not ?"
• Teacher - `Decline to Say" - is this an easy out, not giving us the information we want?
• Monaco - let's keep in mind the length, wanting to ensure student completion.
• Teacher - maybe the "do you feel safe" question goes with the bullying questions?
• Intern - confidentiality - students should use their name. If they write something of high
concern /troubling, we want the ability to check in.
• Teacher - should we get rid of the "other" category in the gender question? Yes - remove.
• Parent - how do you analyze the data? Intern responded that she could either pop it into
excel or utilize specific software to aid in the analysis.
• Monaco - we are looking for general trends to help us focus.
Parent Survey -
■ Intern - very similar to the Harrington survey - added a few things that we had talked
about.
• Monaco - after the Rachel's Challenge questions - do we want to ask any follow up
questions?
• Monaco - take "send paper home" off the list - not something we do.
• Intern - added the thing about the website.
• Parent - `are you satisfied with Teacher Web ?" Can we add that under the website
section? Should this question appear on the student survey as well? Perhaps near the
homework section. Ask - ways you keep track of homework with checklist.
• Teacher - clarify the "comment on areas that are effective ?" Do we need to further frame?
• Teacher - perhaps a question about cheating /copying, which is a sign of stress.
• Parent - do you talk to kids about cheating /copying as a school? Response - each teacher
talks about it differently, but it is also in the handbook.
Timeline for implementation
• Counselor - ideally give the survey twice in a year. Let's shoot for March /April, giving us
some time to discuss and analyze the data.
• Monaco - can they take the survey more than once? If they took the survey on a different
computer - yes, it remembers your IP address.
• Teacher - would one or both parents take the survey?
• Parent - thank you so much for making this a priority.
• Monaco - we can use this data as we develop our goals for next year - exciting.
IV. Next Meeting: February 28, 2013