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Home My WebLink About2021-01-14-CLARKE-min W 71 PUBLIC MEETING NOTICE � N�prep Jonas Clarke Middle School School Site Council Meeting January 14, 2021 3:00 PM Zoom Meeting, Jonas Clarke Middle School 17 Stedman Road Lexington, MA 02421 Meeting Zoom link: 1 A, ,ca„ „1.11n..0„I ,,,,,,,,,,,,, „ 2.2.2.�i.2.,....4,,, „ ,,,,,,,,,, „M. „,1 ,IC,,,, „a„ „ ,,,,,,,,,,11,,, , ,,,,, „ „u „IC,,,,;,II „ „U„� ,ir, , „ „ , II I i g Agenda Attendance: Dane Despres, Principal; Mary Barry-Ng, Assistant Principal; Jonathan Wettstone,Assistant Principal; Michelle Wright,Nurse; Rachel Athens, Liaison; Dana Silverberg, Psychologist; Nataliya Paquette, Teacher; Emily Sayre, Parent; Melanie Tanionos, Parent; Kimberly Hensle Lowrance, Parent; Hongmei Zhang, Parent. I. Call to Order, Welcome, & Public Comment I1. Approve Minutes from November 10 and December 15 2.020 Meetings: • Principal asked for comments and questions, before approval vote was held. III. Staff Notes - none added. IV. Parent/Guardian Notes • Parent question - what was the process (SBRC) like for teaching staff? • Swiszcz - SB grading has been in use for a few years now for WL Dept, so move to SBRC was rather smooth. • Athens - pleased with outcome - more insight into student skills. Interested in how parents would view- more questions or did it provide more clarity? Student struggling - what is a SB grade, as they were so used to getting letter-based grades. • Paquette- forces teachers to look closely at student work, to assess their progress. • Despres - surprising to hear 6th grade, as they had them in Elementary. Aspen access was less than ideal - needed to work with Aspen to make report accessible to "run" from home. • Parent- we spent time talking about it at home. I understand the need for the change, but still see a connection to letter grades. I kinda miss the old way, but open to see how this will work. • Parent- I miss the letter grades. That's what we're used to. Is "progressing" good? It took stress out of the RC. I love the notes the teachers wrote. I didn't always understand the context. This whole year is about survival. • Parent- agree with sentiments. Wondering if this will be the system for the next few years? Some kids need to be encouraged. If they got a "progressing,"what else do they need to do? Is LHS using the SBRC as well. ■ Despres - no, LHS has not shifted to SBRC. • Parent- was this in the plans before covid? ■ Despres - yes, this was a long term goal. This felt like the right move for this year. We need to determine what next year looks like. The process was sped up a great deal, as it could have been rolled out over a 3 year period, so things may have been more confusion. • Parent- positive experience, as we had a parent-conference before the SBRC came out. It met my expectations. Some kids thrive on the letter grades, so the daily/weekly assessments and numerical grades were settling. Many parents wondering - what's on tap for next year? ■ Despres - importance of using next stage to gather information before making a decision. • Parent- appreciate the "Taking the Blues out of Blue Week" Idea sharing model was great and hoping they host again. Sharing an idea or website - very helpful. Parents still really thinking hard about how to fill the void. Feedback from RLA- feeling lack of connectedness- like an island off the coast of Clarke. Question for nurse - know families traveling out of state, but no plans to quarantine. ■ Nurse- ethically not right to "tell," but perhaps ask them if they've notified the school. V. Principal's Notes • Blue Weeks: • Principal Turner and I spent time working with CO to brainstorm around the "blue" weeks, which had been brought up in parent surveys- more needed. Not a great deal due to structural constraints - can't move gold to blue - would leave gaps there too. What we can do- opt in programming for families that feel it's needed. • Math Guided Study will be pushed out as an option in an email to family shortly. This is a chance for the student (added to their schedule- opt in) to get more content specific work in Mathematics - licensed teacher, who can help with the async assignments, ask questions or re-teach as needed. • Social Emotional Learning -working with counseling dept to develop interest based sessions. Places where kids can meet with their peers and be supervised by a staff member. This can also be an avenue to introduce other topics- confronting world issues, how to make friends in remote, coping strategies. These would be opt in, but added directly to the schedule. Hoping to have this out and moving early February. • Agree - will look into expanding upon the Take the Blues out of Blue Week programming. • Surveillance Testing has begun -this week for staff. • Cohort A- Tuesday pick up with Wednesday drop off. • Cohort B - Pick up day on Thursday with drop off on Monday. • Continue talking it up positively. • The 2 weeks in remote has given some families the opportunity to travel, which makes this screening tool even more essential. We'll need the whole community to do their part to keep things safe. • Parent- was wondering if testing this week would determine IF we would be back in person next week? ■ Despres - No - we'll be in person next week. However, if we have a critical number of staff out- that could affect our ability to hold in-person learning. o Nurse - highly encourage to have students participate. Important to note - schools have been safe and families have kept kids home when sick. • RLA Concern o Despres - important to think about the RLA community and how we can make more connections. Currently thinking about a postcard activity. o Barry -there are so many WIN opportunities that are available for this very purpose. Teachers are getting very creative, but only 30% are taking advantage of it. o Despres - when we build Blue week opportunities - they need to be opt in. VI. Reviewing the School Improvement Plan (see link below) • Despres -this is an orientation - what it should contain. We'll walk through the SIP - chance to see what it entails. We want to maintain the SIP as a way to stay focused in our decision making. I'll pause at each section to answer questions. In the 3 key areas -where you see our top priorities for next year. • Yellow- last year. Blue - this year • Goal 1: Improve Academic Performance for All Students o Create and implement a new schedule -focus around o Professional Growth and Development (missed) o Technology Education - very important this year as we adjusted to this new reality. This is ongoing work. o RTI - developing and refining the process, making sure they have what is needed to be successful. A great deal of work within departments and committees that examine student data, see trends and provide interventions. o Questions about focus areas? • Goal 2: Improving Social & Emotional Supports for All Students o School Culture - build relationships and make students feel safe and welcome at Clarke. Some of these are not viable due to the pandemic, but counseling staff working hard to increase opportunities. o DEI - promote growth and development - acceptance and understanding. The first part (goal 1) comes through professional development- many offerings through the district. Next is through departments and how it shows up in the curriculum. Most recent- more diverse representation in texts. ■ Without letter grades - how do we have a fair and equitable course registration/recommendation system at this time? ■ Continue to examine conduct and discipline data- what trends show up? Committee examining the data and working to align across the district K-12, using the same language and entry. Looking to revisit so we can see trends and identity positive approaches. Trends show specific sub groups - similar to other districts and states - very disproportionate. What changes can we make (earlier on) to prevent it from becoming a suspendable situation? ■ DEI committee- brainstorm where we need to go as a school and what role can this committee play? Looking at short term and long term goals/projects. Friday WIN block current events for 8th grade students. This will then open up to other grades - examining the world through a social justice lens. We want to have a place where kids can come together and talk about these in a safe place. ■ Mr. Cole has formed a student DEI committee for MS and HS students - helping to brainstorm ideas. • Goal 3: Improve School Safety Plans o School Safety - centers around ALICE training. Last week- staff worked through an online tutorial. Building confidence. Some of the others listed - no feasible at the moment. • What should be our focus for next year? Do we continue with some of these - do we change ourfocus? • Over the next month - think about our direction. VII.Adjourn - Next meeting will be Tuesday, February 9th at 3PM `19-'20 SIP: htt : I m m nt 1 kFFmK X2f Z rtf FIN F Lw1 X iWZ�AM f it