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Jonas Clarke Middle School
School Site Council Meeting
October 9, 2020
7:00 AM
Zoom Meeting, Jonas Clarke Middle School
17 Stedman Road Lexington, MA 02421
Meeting Zoom link:
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Agenda
Attendance: Kimberly Hensle Lowrance, Hongmei Zhang, Emily Sayre
Nataliya Paquette, Stephanie Swiszcz, Dana Silverberg, Dane Despres
Non-members: Mary Barry-Ng, Jon Wettstone
I. Welcome & Introductions, Call to Order
II. Approve Minutes from March 4, 2020 Meeting:
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a. Kim motion to approve
b. Stephanie,second
c. All in favor of approving minutes from 3/4/20
III, Membership, Roles, & Meeting Times: We will meet during the afternoon in
November for our next meeting.
a. Need for an additional parent/guardian member
i. Dane will coordinate the election of additional member with PTO co-chair
ii. Need for a co-chair: role is to co-host the meeting and coordinate the
agenda each month.
1. Kimberly Hensle Lowance will take this role
iii. Remind members the role of the site council and establishment of site
council by MA state law.
iv. Establishing our regular meeting time:
1. Next Meeting:Tuesday Nov. 10th from 3-4PM
IV. Principal's Notes
a. Busy Summer-- Creation of two new schedules, assigning students to
teams, cohorts, and homerooms, etc.
b. Safety, Logistics, & Communication
i. Working through the best ways to manage dismissal, lunches and
moving through the building.
ii. Communication - identifying best way to share - multiple emails,
websites.
c. Launch:
i. Patience & Support was very appreciated!
ii. Acclimation is current challenge for staff.
d. Gold vs. Blue Weeks
i. Major challenge: understand & clarify the differences between these
weeks.
ii. Working to resolve the blue week differences among students and
looking for opportunities to supplement the blue week for students
(e.g. student government would like to create a tutoring and mentoring
program for 8th graders to help 6th graders)
e. DEI Update
i. Establishing a DEI team within Clarke
ii. Exploring a parent advisory council at the district Level (to mirror the
district 7-12 DEI council that the district has created)
f. Back to School Night(s)
i. Currently working on the logistics of setting up Back to School Night
ii. Goal is to have plan set by Tuesday, October 13, 2020.
iii. It will be two nights - but looking to be flexible for parents to view
when they have the time.
g. Standards-Based Reporting
i. Strong desire to report and track student learning with respect to
content skills and standards rather than assign an ambiguous letter
grade or a P/F score.
V. Staff Notes
a. Parent (Kim) asked how the staff was doing with respect to stress level
and morale.
b. D. Silverberg: Schedule is ever-changing. So in speaking with teachers
think teachers knew this was difficult. Over the last two weeks, it has
become better. Rosters have solidified, lunch schedule has adjusted and
people have been through the routine. From a special education
perspective it has been difficult for the 30+ students that have been here
full time. Trying to make the blue weeks more substantial this week.
c. N. Paquette: Time right now is the biggest challenge. Time to meet and
plan. Time to learn new technology.
d. S. Swiszcz: taking a lot more time. Teaching 3 grades instead of 2.
Working during the weekends.
e. Principal - only having 4 blocks each day adds to the complexity. Harder
to find meeting times. Additionally, the complexity of a 2-week schedule
makes it tough to form relationships and make things consistent.
f. Parent- big thank you to staff. Son was very confused with the schedule.
Very quick responses to questions and requests- much appreciated.
Counselor (Ms. Kim) even called to see if we needed anything.
g. Parent- great deal of fear going into the school year. It has gone well -
counselors have been very responsive.
VI. Parent/Guardian Notes:
a. Parent-we're sharing notes between multiple families. Happy to see our kids
engaged-even getting in trouble when they are late to class. We're also
grateful that sports and activities have started-outside and making friends.
Increase in happiness.
b. Parent-after November-no more outdoor sports. Anything else in the winter?
i. Principal-we'll keep you posted. We'll try to add more in the afternoons-
clubs and activities. Also looking to start WIN block activities for kids. We
have staff at the CO who will begin to host RLA student and family
opportunities.
c. Parent-compliment to the staff. You are reporting a great deal of work and
stress, but the kids and I are not seeing it-we're seeing happy teachers and
things running well. Thank you-it's been incredible. We've worked hard to set
Alexa and Google Nest alarms. We're all in the same boat- it's been
challenging, but it's nice to have this long phase-in process,which is probably
best for kids and staff.
d. Parent-school policy for keeping the camera on? Some kids do not want the
camera on.
i. Principal-delicate balance. Officially-we cannot require cameras on.
Many aspects to this-some very sensitive situations to keep in mind.
We're asking teacher to reach out and communicate with students and
families-can we turn the camera on- reasons to not? In recent webinar-if
they want to turn their camera off-it might be that they are uncomfortable
seeing their image the entire time. We're looking into turning off the"self
view." It's also contagious-one student turns off-others do the same.
ii. AP-teams have sent letters to families regarding this topic. Teachers
thrive on order and structure. We've turned all this upside down- no
classroom,can't see the kids-hard to make the connections and create
that level of organization.
e. Principal-discussed communities coming together to support each other.
Hearing about families supporting one another.Very proud of our community.
Next meeting will be 11/10.
VII. Adjourn: 1st,2nd,All voted to adjourn.
`19-'20 School Improvement Plan:
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