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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2022-11-01-CLARKE-minPUBLIC MEETING NOTICE ________________________________________________________________________ Jonas Clarke Middle School School Site Council Meeting November 1, 2022 7:00-8:00 AM Main Office Conference Room, Jonas Clarke Middle School 17 Stedman Road Lexington, MA 02421 Agenda I.Call to Order, Welcome, & Public Comment a.Review and Approve Last Meeting’s Minutes i.10/4/22 SC Mtg. Minutes ii.M. Olsson motion to approve last minutes. Unanimous approval. b.Public Comment - no public members present at this meeting (7:03am) II.Parent, Staff, and Admin Check-Ins a.Parent check-in i.Parent - Some parents are concerned about the amount of video games that their students play. ii.Principal - Obviously more control at school than at home with firewalls. But students are constantly finding new methods to access the games. iii.Principal - permissions and use of LPS devices still exist even outside of the school. We have the ability to draw data from individual devices to see if they are using it properly. b. Staff check-in i. Teacher - concern over the amount of staff training needed to make the innovation plan work. ii. Equity team meeting - also they play a great role in the roll out of the innovation team. Will they obtain any compensation for this? iii - Teacher - concern over the amount of collaboration time with teachers (especially with their Special Education liaison). It has been difficult to work together with the lack of time. iv. Principal - Is the ½ day Fridays that are for staff collaboration being used? v. Teacher - I spent that Friday with five other educators just writing one IEP. vi. Teacher - I use it to catch up grading papers. vii. Teacher - Most people are using it for independent work to catch up and plan, correct papers, and just get ready for the next unit. viii. Principal - LLT second half of the day has been given back to the schools. At the middle school level we will be working with the Special Education department offering help with various modifications and accommodations for students with IEPs, 504s, and all students to help them access the curriculum. ix Principal - Trying to use time that we are provided to accomplish pieces of the innovation plan that are important at this time - especially given the challenges we have identified since last spring. b.Administrative check-in i.Principal - A continuation with the themes from last month. The pace is truly increasing. Behaviors are tending to tick up, but in ways that are predictable. ii.Principal - We have been doing some work to encourage positive behavior expectations. One of the things we have done is to create a team based monthly BARK award. Students are identified by their team teachers as exemplifying the values in BARK. Students receive a stick, an award, and are recognized by the community. iii.Principal - also provided staff with three BARK stickers a month and they can give these to students who they see demonstrate the values of BARK. iv.Teacher - This is awesome, especially for a student that would not normally be recognized. A student was publicly recognized, the class was excited and started cheering for the student. v.Parent - We had something like this at elementary school. But I had a child that had no idea what to do to get one of these. I had to email the school to let them know this. I literally told my child to stop following the rules, then start following the rules again. vi.Parent - Agreed with the other parent. vii.Parent - Is it the kid that stands out or is it the student that does what they should do every day? viii.Teacher - It is for everyone. ix.Teacher - Postcards. Teams using those postcards to let students and families know how their child is doing. x.Teacher - Remind the Site Council about how we came up with the acronym BARK - Balance was a key piece to ensure that we thought about all students. III.Reviewing Clarke’s ‘22-’24 Innovation Plan a.Link to Innovation Plan “Tracker” version Principal - MTSS (Multi-Tiered Support Services), when we think about accommodating student needs there are 3 Tiers of intervention. First level - classroom level intervention. Teachers, on a daily basis, make choices to help students access the curriculum (e.g. a different type of graphic organizer). Tier one is not just academic, it is social emotional, executive functioning, etc. Tier two - is not changing a students schedule, but providing additional support for a student. Example: WIN block. A teacher signs up students for extra help during WIN block. Tier three - we change/add to a students schedule. Examples: Math Workshop, Lunch Bunch with counseling to work on social pragmatics or social skills with adults and other students. The district this year is running an MTSS audit K through 12 to see where we are missing interventions at each tier. Additionally the district is trying to align practices and interventions within the district across grade levels so there is consistency within the district. The audit has begun. There are staff interviews to understand the efficacy of the audit. We anticipate that the report will help us with consistency throughout the district. Teacher - Reminder that we have defined SRT but not SST. Principal - Clarified that now SRT is called SST = Student Success Teams. This term is now used district wide so that there is consistency. Parent - Clarify that the intervention is just formative for now. And the implementation that we are using, is it effective. Parent - What is the DCAP? Principal - District wide Curriculum Accommodation Plan. Teacher - We should link the DCAP to the innovation plan Teacher - Most of our teachers are already doing what many of the accommodations of the DCAP. Principal - We do feel that if we tighten up our interventions and accommodations at every tier, it will ensure the equity of access to education in the school. Principal - Equity Team. They will play a large role in the process. The Equity team is an example of the type of distributive leadership that we want to see across Lexington Public Schools. Principal - We have presented the DCAP to staff this year. As mentioned earlier. Parent - Who is part of the Equity Team? Principal - Staff members. Students are part of the DEI SAC with Johnny Cole and they will meet with the Equity team this year as well. Principal - last year we had members of the Gender and Sexuality Alliance present to staff. Principal - the district has also decided there will be four DEI lessons that will be provided for students this year. This too will need require training for teachers. More than likely this will occur in January 2023. There is a meeting in November to finalize the lessons and prepare the training for staff. Principal - last spring there was a group of BU researchers who conducted a study at Clarke. The study had to do with a sense of school belonging. There will be a great deal of data that will be provided to us. BU has also offered to do some staff training about this. Parent - Will these lessons and actions be evaluated? Is there something to show for all of these measures? Principal - What I think would be best for the group next time - is for the group to select priorities in the innovation plan. Also reminder to peak at the tracker and the color coding. Green - has been accomplished, Yellow - is underway. Red - has been put on hold for the current time. b.Review progress on objective 1: Addressing and narrowing equity gaps c.(If Time) Review progress on objective 2: Redefine success d.(If Time) Review progress on objective 3: Cultivate student agency e.(If Time) Review progress on objective 4: Innovate for sustainable change V.Adjournment Next Meeting: December 6th from 7-8AM