HomeMy WebLinkAbout2024-01-05-HARRINGTON-minHarrington Elementary School
Site Council –Meeting Agenda
2023-2024 Academic Year
Meeting Date/Time:
Friday January 5th,2024
8:30-9:30 am
Location:
Harrington School Conference Room
Recorder-Ryan Mack
Members
Ms.Jackie Daley,Principal
Melissa Lee,Community Rep.
Wei Ding,Family Rep.ABSENT
Denise Grant,Family Rep.
Rachel Levy,Family Rep.
Ryan Mack,Family Rep.
Rory O’Connor-Assistant Principal
Ms.Julie Scafidi,Faculty Rep.
Ms.Liz Class,Faculty Rep.
Ms.Lisa Colagiovanni,Faculty Rep
Agenda Notes
Happy New Year!Welcome 2024 Melissa joined part way through and Wei out sick.
2.Approval of minutes from
December 15th,2023
found HERE
Lisa made a motion to approve,Liz seconded.
Approved unanimously.
3.Budget conversation will be happening
at the next SC Meeting
4.School Innovation Plan
HERE
Suggestions for items to include in the next
plan-brainstorm
Updates from Jackie:
Budgeting process started.Happening behind the
scenes,will be presented at the next SC meeting.
School shrinking by one 4th grade section (class)next
year due to smaller enrollment numbers
post-pandemic.Unexpected pattern with low K enroll
right after pandemic and spike in 2nd grade following
year.Should stabilize soon.
Existing two year innovation plan.Going to try to
structure it to be better tied into the district plan in a
more precise way.Discuss what we would like to
add/remain/remove in the next iteration.PBIS
(“positive behavioral intervention system”)and MTSS
(“multi-tiered system of support”)will still be in there.
UDL (“universal design of learning ”)giving every child
an entrypoint.
Co-teaching is in the plan but having a hard time with
budgeting for universal deployment and prioritization
of application across levels of need,grades,and
subject matter.
Ryan asked what happened with the world language
education.Jackie said there’s still interest but it’s
tricky.Contract negotiations outside of individual
school control,on the back burner.
Jackie:Goal of address and narrow equity gaps.
Liz:New math curriculum creates a time crunch
making it difficult for interventions.Perhaps we could
look at scheduling this different.Also still very
interested in co-teaching.
Jackie:6 models of possible co-teaching,the high
level concept is having a special educator to support a
general educator.Models could be creating
classrooms with more students with special needs but
that creates risk of negative perceptions with
non-uniform classroom designs.Deploying
everywhere would have high costs,which would need
to come from elsewhere such as special educators
and IAs.
Julie:Co-taught for years in first grade.Was
wonderful.Gave everyone better access to the
resources they needed.Liz did as well in other district.
Working almost full time with an IA this year and
thinks it makes a huge difference.
Denise:So how does this work today without
co-teaching?
Jackie:Gen-ed teacher and special ed liaisons and IAs
as needed.
Lisa:Disadvantage of the current model is that kids
getting pulled out means they are missing out on
some classroom time while co-teaching helps
students feel fully included in class.
Jackie:Touring another school that did universal
co-teaching “you won’t be able to tell who the gen ed
and special ed teachers are.”This is really powerful in
a lot of ways.This doesn’t mean what we’re doing
today isn’t working.For a lot of kids it ’s working really
well and some teachers like to have specific focus
areas.It’s an important conversation to find a way to
introduce a pilot and make some progress here.
For budget reasons we can’t do this in every
classroom.At one school they had a co-teaching class
per grade.But this could create a perception of
inequity or difference.Which groups of students
would be in the class?If it was students with the most
needs then the classroom would have a lot of adults
in it.Leaning towards moderate needs and gen-ed in
the classroom.Would co-teaching roll up to the next
grade?
Ryan:Is there data showing which years co-teaching
has the most benefit?Jackie:Not really,in K we
already have a lot of assistant coverage in the
classrooms and fewer kids on IEPs.So K probably
needs this less.Liz:Could argue either way for earlier
or later.
Melissa:Kids are used to multiple adults in K and 1.
Seems to drop off in 2nd grade.Might be natural to
try at 2nd
Rory:Co-teachers spend a lot of time together,need
to get along.Were looping classes (teacher follows
students through grades).Looping can be great (hit
the ground running)or challenging (after 18 months
together kids start getting into sibling-like behavior).
Jackie:Looks like we should keep co-teaching in the
goals.Will remove the new curriculum pieces because
they are now integrated into the curriculum.Data
team and child studies are moving to district-driven
while school will still work on how it applies.Literacy
and math teams have been able to learn more and
elevate student need more with the data.Will keep
collecting feedback and making adjustments.
Jackie:If anybody hears any ideas in the community
on things we can consider including in the plan please
bring it to us.
Denise:It was weird that language survey went out
and then we got radio silence.People ask me about it
when they learn I’m on the committee.Jackie:District
has the messaging on this,will share with the group.
Rachel:Given how much communication there was
around the survey it would be good to make sure the
outcome is well communicated.
Liz:One more wish,connecting to PBIS can we add
some SEL (“social emotional learning ”)lessons.We
have some DEI lessons but no SEL lessons.Jackie:
There is some PD funding for other topics we could
look at adding this to.Looking at a screener for SEL
needs.Let ’s highlight this bigger in our plan.
Melissa:Motion to close.Liz:Second.All:Approved.
New business:
Future Dates:
February 2,2024
March 8,2024
April 26,2024
May 31,2024