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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