HomeMy WebLinkAbout2022-12-06-CLARKE-minPUBLIC MEETING NOTICE
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Jonas Clarke Middle School
School Site Council Meeting
December 6, 2022
7:00-8:00 AM
Main Office Conference Room, Jonas Clarke Middle School
17 Stedman Road Lexington, MA 02421
M. Olsson, J. Roy, J. Connard, D. Despres, M. Barry-Ng, Sarah, Ashley, Yu, Xia, Rucha
Agenda
I.Call to Order, Welcome, & Public Comment
a.Review and Approve Last Meeting’s Minutes
i.11/1/22 Minutes
ii.Motion to accept next month’s minutes - M. Olsson., unanimous
acceptance.
b.Public Comment - none present
II.Parent, Staff, and Admin Check-Ins
a.Parent - shared that Clarke Facebook group said teachers are
posting assignments at 8:00pm.
b.Admin - clarified that this is due to staff absences the next day.
They are posting the night before for what students should do the
next day with the substitute teacher. (We have had a number of
absences.)
c.Parent - Web page- many issues. Site council is 2 years old.
Admin, counselors, and many of the team pages do not include the
email links. Very difficult to communicate with people in the school.
d.Admin - taking note and will be sure this information is updated
promptly.
e.Parent - On another Clarke chat group, heard that LHS will update
to SBG soon.
f.Admin - clarified that there is no plan for LHS to go forward with
SGB.
g.Parent - Inquired about B.A.R.K. postcards and stickers.
h.Admin - Explained that there are two stickers and two types of
awards. Monthly B.A.R.K. award for each team. Students receive
a letter from the principal and a big sticker. Individual teachers
send B.A.R.K. postcards. Teachers and staff members can also
hand out small stickers to individual students that demonstrate one
of the values of B.A.R.K. We are trying to build a greater
awareness of what we are really about here.
i.Parent - LHS is going to unlevel all ELA classes next year. Parents
are very concerned about this trend. This plan will affect students
coming up from the middle schools and it is concerning.
j.Administration - We have been doing that here at the middle school
level for the past few years (world languages, math). We felt that by
unleveling at the middle school level and focusing on differentiation
and providing all students with opportunities at the middle school it
would eliminate racial disparity as well.
k.Teacher - also keep in mind that there is a huge range of executive
functioning at this level. So to allow for those skills to develop,
provides students the opportunity to grow.
l.Parent - LHS ELA was a special situation - no levels in 9th and 10th
grade. Only on the 11th and 12th was available.
III. Staff Concerns
a.Teacher - concerns about not being able to leave a lesson plan that
would be best for students due to the shortage of substitute teachers.
b.Admin - sub availability is better than last year. We are in a better
place than last year - but there are still days when we need to cover
numerous classes in the cafeteria. Principal will discuss this at team
leader meeting
III.Reviewing Clarke’s Progress on the ‘22-’24 Innovation Plan
a.Link to Innovation Plan “Tracker” version
b.PBL - Project Based Learning. Admin explain the background
behind PBL. Our goal specifically (3.1. -Expand and support
proliferation of Project-Based Learning (PBL), which features student
voice and choice as key elements of unit/project design.)
c.Teacher - Where are we with PBL currently? And, there was some
language about things being “identical” across all courses. What are we
doing for teachers that want to do this, but feel stuck.
d.Admin - Where are we now. Department heads have been asked
to identify where PBL exists. Principal does not want things to get in
the way of student voice and choice. PBL provides a lot of access
to students, just as UDL does, without a lot of modifications. A
number of PLCs try to stay aligned, however PBL students are
based on similar standards, so there is flexibility to.
e.Teacher - most of my experience has been interdisciplinary. In
theory it can be done with just one subject.
f.Principal - Example: Argumentative writing was paired with a
Social Studies unit on Civics. Students created and sent their
argument to a town/state/federal official to have their voice heard as
a citizen of the town, state or country.
g.Teacher - often many connections with nonfiction writing and or
reading and social studies. Example: Ancient Egypt and creation of
a museum. Where they host others to teach about what they
learned. Or they create a newspaper.
h.Teacher - this can also occur in non-team classes too. World
Language and Art teachers have paired up to develop lessons.
i.Parent - is there student input in what is happening instructionally in
our classrooms.
j.Administration - as of now no. Not at the current level. But that is
something that we could address with the student government. It
would be nice to have a voice.
k.Parent - we see a lot of student advocacy at LHS. There are new
classes at the high school
l.Principal - We see more student based advocacy at the middle
school with specific topics for discussion (literature - seeing
diversity in text - what students learn about and see/read about).
2. Equity Team - Teacher selected. Administration update on how this began
a.DEI team began a few years ago and occurred weekly during the WIN
block. Students were invited to come in and discuss what mattered to
them.
b.Decision made over summer a few years ago to align and focus on
Equity districtwide. Last year - a group of individuals joined who were
interested, set norms as a group, surveyed staff and identified needs in
the school. One item that emerged from the survey - how to interact
with students you don’t know in the hallway. Concern was about
microaggressions. In dealing with this, set standards for passes and
interaction between students and staff in the hallway - now this is the
norm.
c.Teacher - currently two groups. Staff to students (focus) and Staff to
staff (focus).
d.Parent - is training provided to staff?
e.Teacher - yes, but over time. Restorative Justice, teachers are
currently being trained in this practice. The intention is that in 3-5
years this will become common practice.
f.Parent - are students on the Equity Team?
g.Admin - no, district wide. Johnny Cole and DEI-SAC (at each school)
those students.
h.Parent - What is the student involvement on hiring committees?
i.Admin - Students serve in the hiring process in two ways. There are
two rounds of interviews - committee rounds and then sample lessons.
Student input has come at that second level, providing feedback at that
second level. What are their thoughts of how the lesson went? Over
the last two years, we have moved to having students in the interview
rounds as well.
V.Adjournment