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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2016-10-24-ESTABROOK-minEstabrook School School Site Council MINUTES October 24, 2016 1 3 :45 -5 :00 p.m. In Attendance: Jeffrey LaBroad, Principal /Co -Chair Katie O'Hare Gibson, Assistant Principal Lori Verity, Grade 2 Teacher Katrina Roscoe, Grade 3 Teacher Martha Lamb, TLP Assistant Pauline Benninga, Parent /Co -Chair Hema Gandhi, Parent (absent) Gretchen Reisig, Parent Pam Hoffman, Community Member 1. Meeting called to order at 3 :45 p.m. 2. Approve minutes • Minutes approved 3. Reminde to submit conflict of interest and open meeting law receipts • Ensure that you have signed and sent back to town hall 4. Norms • Estabrook has a new set of operating norms at our meeting. Norms created by the district (high performance team characteristics); Leadership Team of staff members also approved the norms. • Norms: o Understand and commit to shared goals o Develop a climate of trust and assume positive intent o Foster a sense of belonging o Engage in open, honest, and direct communication o Encourage diversity of opinions and ideas o Embrace conflict with courage and collaborative support o Practice ownership of the problem and the solution o Put yourself in other person's shoes o Value team first o Celebrate individual and collective successes o Cultivate interdependent system • Questions: How are these norms being shared. o Answer- through the Estabrook Staff portal and through digital online "handbook." Staff has responded well to norms. • Norms accepted by committee. Norms guide our professional collaboration throughout the day. 5. Estabrook School Improvement Plan progress update • What do we want to do with this plan? We have several options: commit to all, roll some over to next year. Goal is to talk through actual actions taken by Estabrook and the academic moves that have been made. • 1. Academic goal - o Teachers benefit from Lab Site work from Teacher's College authoring university of Lucy Calkins units of study for reading and writing) twice a year. The literacy coaches are working with grade level teams around modeling and implementing instruction and debriefing the results. o Teachers benefit from a new lab site opportunity in math with Amy Burk and the district specialist. Data team supports who will access the support. o Makerspace launch is in its final stage. Mark Taggart is finalizing work around what the teachers will do/ what the space will look like. Mark is attending professional development to learn more about Maker Spaces across the state. o Homework plan- working as teachers and staff to communicate what we are doing it and why we are doing it. Principal coffee allowed parents to attend and learn more from the literacy specialists. Key message- not to be the teacher of reading, but the champion of reading- model reading and writing for your children. Some households reading quietly can be a struggle, and we are being mindful of that. Next month there is a parent coffee related to being mindful about math at home. o Two high school students interviewed staff and community, and wrote an article in the high school paper. (The policy has not changed, but Estabrook is piloting something new that will be used to help reshape the homework policy.) o Beyond Measure book discussion included a great deal of attention around the homework plan. Jeff and Katie attended a special screening prior to public screening. Dr. C. highlights Estabrook's homework plan. Teachers are assigning things to review at home- it is not busy work. o Data team revealed that some students need skills that can be mastered at home with targeted, short -term, skill practice. o Principal Roundtable- conversations with parents in small groups on November 6th- talking about the role of homework /place in the home /benefits /drawbacks. Other agenda items to be determined. o After Beyond Measure screening, parents discussed the upcoming conversations across setting. (Estabrook is the only school to be piloting this as an outcome of the Coalition meeting.) (parent suggestion- bring parents together to discuss how all parents are welcomed and ways to welcome each other /experiences.)(Suggestion - Community oriented conversation- explain to families how to "navigate" the Lexington school culture. Can we provide a road map to help families become part of the system. Example: What are five things that you wished you knew when first coming to Lexington ?) o Digital Citizenship lessons have been rolled out to grade level teachers and are currently "in play ". Lessons being co- taught by teacher, librarian, guidance. (Examples: personal v. private information; smart username choices) District model is based -upon the work created at Estabrook School. Lessons are highly collaborative, but fall under the librarian /media umbrella. o Social media discussion at the middle school very impassioned. o Updates and guidelines around digital citizenship o Jeff to purchase /provided staff with the book: The Gift of Failure by Jessica Lahey. The faculty will engage in study around the book as part of a professional learning goal. Invite teachers to stay for the evening to discuss the book. LEF providing funding through school and community grant. Pauline (co- chair) has been the champion on organizing work around this book with the community. o Co- teaching model is currently taking place with 3 teacher partnerships, led by Jenn Beaulac. • Social - Emotional Goal o PBIS explained on the website for families to access (launched and live). o District's k -5 lessons co- taught by classroom teachers /guidance /social worker. These lessons are scheduled to be front - loaded. We have a pro - social learning blocks allows time for the lessons to be taught. o Lunch and recess groups are being launched o Thursday 10/27, Pauline helping to bring Playful Parenting event to Estabrook • Safety o The flow, safety, efficiency of our dismissal has significantly improved. Our last car generally left by 3:25 there is no longer waiting at the bottom of the hill. (If you show up at 2:55 there is no parking- families will show up to park and wait. Part of the plan is around not pulling the lot after 3:00.) Currently we do not have problems with parents finding spots for meetings or to pick up their sick children. o Safe Routes to School event was successful. Citizenship opportunity for fifth graders to help collect and calculate data. Lori Verity and Greg Booma working to theme each month's Safe Routes to School to help students learn more about safe, environmentally sensitive to travel to school. Working to educate the community around their home town o ALICE protocol in play, with training for staff to continue. o Meeting with Sandy Trach to discuss Estabrook safety plan. What can we do and what has been done and what training is needed. It has been two years since our last training and training needs to include part -time staff as well. 6. Estabrook School Improvement Plan priorities • Look through list to determine what goals will be our greatest priority, which will we may address partially, which will may not be addressed at all. • Question- what is a greater priority literacy or math? Answer: it not a question of which need is greater, but meeting students where they are at and giving them what they need to be successful across content areas. • Priorities: o Parent education around digital citizenship o Within class relationships /cohesion o Reduction of stress load for students and staff • Next time have more time to discuss the School Improvement Plan Priorities • Will always debrief on the outcomes /updates related to the School Improvement Plan 7. Meeting adjourned at 5 p.m.