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Home My WebLink About2021-11-30-CLARKE-min RECEIVED Jg MOR[gliv 2022 25 Feb, 8:58 a � op p PUBLIC MEETING NOTICE 'K@gip $ �w �" I� ; a APRIL 19TH LEXINGTON II T Jonas Clarke Middle School School Site Council Meeting November 30, 2021 3:00 PM Virtual Meeting, Jonas Clarke Middle School 17 Stedman Road Lexington, MA 02421 Google Meet link: htt� :AArrr��t._ �le.corn/dbr-rrrfhrrr-tai Or dial: (US) +1 786-671-7404 PIN: 135 076 049# Agenda 1. Call to Order, Welcome, & Public Comment a. Jo Gagnon and Stephanie Kozak introduce themselves as administrative interns. b. Google Slideshow Link for meeting 2. Review &Approve Last Meeting's Minutes a. October 27 2021 minutes b. Motion to accept last meeting minutes, and accepted by all. 3. Parent, Staff, and Admin Reports a. Parent - parents at LHS concerned about the level/amount of physics instruction. Can it be added to MS as well? i. Principal -where is this coming from? Result from pandemic? Long term issue? ii. Parent - long term issue - looking for more physics instruction. iii. Principal - potential for a parent to host a physics group or club after school? This would be the fastest approach to meeting the need. iv. Teacher - 50-60 kids did try out for the Science Olympiad. So there is great interest in Science topics. V. Principal - looking long term, the curriculum and standards are set by the state, so adjustments can take some time. We have our own internal curriculum review, which was just wrapped up. I encourage you to reach out to Val Franks (Sci Dept. Head) to discuss physics options going forward. vfranks lexin�tonma.org vi. Parent - how much physics is currently being taught at the MS level? vii. Teacher - Physics takes place at the 8th grade level, along with Chemistry. b. Parent - are students using games on chromebooks? Is it possible to block games? i. Principal - this is a big one. We do our best to block games, but this is a big task. Our kids are very smart and find ways to get around blocks. Parents are welcome to contact us with games/sites to block. ii. Teacher - is there a way to block all games? iii. AP -we find sites, have them blocked, but the kids use coding to rework sites to make them more accessible. You can set up your own firewalls at home as well. iv. Principal - I have reached out to the tech department, asking for a parent focus group (or survey), looking for feedback on the 1:1 device program. c. Parent - social distance issue in school in combination with the new variant? Some concerns related to lunch. i. Principal - confirmed - people are concerned. Unstructured time can be tough to enforce social distancing. Kids keep masks on when not eating. What helps me sleep -we are not seeing positive transfer within the school. We have had few cases, have not seen outbreaks, etc. ii. Nurse - ten cases so far this year. Zero in-school transfer of covid. As for outside concerns - CDC says no mask needed. iii. Principal - if cases do go up, we'll change our approach, but right now - numbers are looking good. d. Parent - social drama stories coming home. Have you seen a decrease? How is the staff doing? i. AP - typical spike in drama before Thanksgiving, but things are settling down, as parents get involved to help. ii. Principal - indoor lunches with the cold weather can change things up as well. iii. Teacher - staff feeling supported. PTO is very supportive - it feels good. Admin is flexible and open to working with the changing landscape. iv. Teacher - it has been a tough year. If we're having a difficult time, admin and colleagues jump in to help. Things are settling down. V. Teacher -we're finally getting a handle on where these kids are coming from - what they missed, gaps in learning, gaps in social pragmatics, basic needs, etc. e. Principal - updates to standards based grading and report cards. Last meeting - great to understand how OTUS looks from the parent side. It's almost too much to handle - overload, difficult to view, etc. Additionally, we're experience similar issues on the teacher/admin side of things - not working as advertised nor as flexible as needed. We consequently opened things up, allowing staff to use other platforms (Aspen) to communicate report cards and progress reports in the future. For trimester 1 - we'll stick to OTUS, with report cards coming out on Monday 12/13. Moving forward, the report cards will be emailed to families - a published report. Again - things have been difficult, so we are trying to remove roadblocks and get the information out to families in a more user friendly way. i. Additionally - advisory committee formed to better plan and inform decisions moving forward. A staff survey was issued to feed data into this group. 4. Discussing Clarke's School Improvement Plan 2021-2022: "Innovation Plan a. Continued Focus on Goal 1: Addressing Equity Gaps, Redefining Success, Cultivating Student Agency, Innovating for Sustainable Change) i. Addressing Equity Gaps at Clarke: What equity gaps exist in the 2021 MCAS data? Disciplinary data? What longitudinal trends exist with these gaps? What are the three tiers of RTI and the DCAP? What does Clarke's RTI map look like? What is "restorative justice?" ii. Suspension data at Clarke and throughout the district has an over representation of both Black students and students in Special Education. 1. Principal: Very few suspensions at Clarke overall. With the hybrid model and/or fewer students in the building we had no suspensions. 2. Principal: Suspensions are taken very seriously and we have a process that we work through to determine if a suspension is required (e.g. safety of students after a physical fight). Each case is different and is taken as an individual event. We also have a restorative practice after this disciplinary measure. This year an additional step we have taken is the collection of student behavior referrals. Both Diamond, Clarke and the CO are looking at this data and trying to track and look at trends or patterns with the hopes of identifying how to prevent these events from reoccurring. 3. Principal: Prior to the pandemic we began training staff on restorative justice practices. This is a way to deal with the harm to the community during these situations and address the harm that the infraction has caused the community. 4. M. Olsson: I think having the staff training on restorative justice is important. However, I know sometimes staff are wondering where the consequence is for this student? 5. J. Wettstone: Sometimes there is a linear incident and consequence that occurs. Other times, it is more complex and it takes a lot more time, it is a process and the staff also get to participate in the healing process and the restorative circle. 6. Principal: One of the major tenants in the restorative justice process is "restorative". So if we have not set a culture at the school where everyone understands the value of our culture here at Clarke - tough to have people understand what we are restoring. 7. D. Silverberg: Group norms are a very big part of the restorative justice process. So really emphasizing the community norms at Clarke. Perhaps returning more to B.A.R.K. work, perhaps having a poster in every single classroom. The idea of students thinking they are part of a community and that we are all equal. 8. J. Clark: Does relationship building affect restorative practices. 9. J. Gagnon: To have conversations in lower-stakes environments (with a counselor or in the classroom) would also be helpful for students to practice. 10. L.Freeman: Looking at this slide and the previous slide and realizing most of the Black/African American students are disciplined at a higher rate. Perhaps a number of these students are Metco students and I know many of the Metco students do not feel part of the community. So if we could help Metco students realize that their zip-code does not matter, you are an important part of our community. 11. Principal: Not having a late bus for our Metco students year round for our Metco students to be able to participate year-round. 12. M. Alexander: Why can't the Metco host families be a solution to the bus? 13. L. Freeman: Not all students had host families in elementary school. In some cases after elementary, the host student went to one middle school and the Metco student went to the other, so the link was broken. It can be a difficult situation - students also need to connect. Sometimes the relationship between the students or the family don't work. 14.M. Barry-Ng: Who coordinates the host families with the Boston families? 15.M. Alexander: A representative from Metco helps organize the process and two volunteers from the school PTO help. 16. Next meeting - Tuesday iii. b. (If Time) Goal 2: Redefining Success 5. Selecting Next Meeting Time &Adjournment