HomeMy WebLinkAbout2022-11-01-CLARKE-minPUBLIC MEETING NOTICE
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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