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Home My WebLink About2024-03-20-FISKE-minFiske School Site Council -3.20.24 Meeting Notes Members Brian Baker,Principal Present Catherine Murphy,ELL Present Lisa Wallace,Gr.1 Present Lana Panasyuk,Parent Present Sarina Sherwin,Parent Present Updates from Mr.Baker Dr.Dionne McLaughlin Visit to Fiske ●Dr.McLaughlin,Executive Director of Critical Reflections on Racial Equity,will be coming to Fiske Tuesday,March 26th for a full-day of non-evaluative walkthroughs of several classrooms.Dr McLaughlin’s Bio ●Email will be shared with staff the week of 3/22 ●Rubric that will be used -This will be shared with staff as well ●Brian has been working with her as well as Central Office staff since October.There have been monthly meetings to talk about different cultures,with a focus on Asian Americans,Black,and Latinx where they participate in different activities and discussions.Fiske is her last stop.She will walk through classrooms to look at curriculum,and assess how we are doing,how we are understanding and leveraging high-level best practices school wide and district wide.The objective is to close achievement gaps and disproportionality.She has a book ‘Personalized Principal Leadership Practices’and has created a walkthrough form -to look for and give feedback on as they walk through.Hands on instruction?Kids listening?Classroom participation?Breaking things down.High floor /low ceiling for students -what are the entry points for all students in the classroom. ●Sarina asked what happens after these walkthroughs.Brian replied that he is not sure if a district wide report will be shared with families.However,at the superintendent level, they will be looking at what next steps should be taken. ●Lana asked what happens in each classroom.Brian replied that the purpose is for administrators to give more targeted feedback to teachers.It is more pointed to how to best support students of color but Brian believes that whatever resources are to address students of color will help all students,i.e.,where there is an achievement gap,they want to see what practices are in place and what they can do more to help close the gap. ●Catherine mentioned going to a microsession hosted by Johnny Cole and Maureen Kavanaugh,where she saw the/walkthrough rubric.In that session,she learned that they will look at cultural representation in the classroom.It is not just counting heads,but looking at how students are engaging.It’s deeper than counting,it’s more about how engagement is. ●Lisa asked if the classes were chosen at random.Brian confirmed that they were. METCO Program Restructure ●Ms.Hamilton will speak to Fiske Staff on 4/1/24 to review the plan to restructure METCO for next year.She will explain her rationale,and note that there’s no particular reason why students pulled out of Fiske and moved to Harrington. ●There were two or three big ticket items that helped Ms.Hamilton make this decision. ○Many METCO districts are considering this kind of consolidation.There are many that don’t have Boston students in all of their schools.LPS has METCO students in all of its schools. ○The METCO population is dwindling.Fiske currently has 8 students,of which 3 are 5th graders.2 are in Kindergarten and 3 in 1st grade.Moreover,there is consideration of cohorts.For example,if the 2 Kindergarteners don’t get along, they are separated in classrooms,and the connectivity is impacted. ○Consolidating schools will cut 35-40 minutes off bus rides.Some don’t get home until 530-6.While METCO families opt into this,there are multiple schools that the buses have to get to and there are pros and cons to this. ●Lana relayed feedback from the community –that she heard a lot of opposition, especially from Larry Freeman. ●Brian replied that right now,the best we can do is support our Boston families.To see the effect,we need to evaluate in 2 to 3 years.If the METCO population is growing then, we can consider bringing more into more of the buildings. Student Placement 24/25 School year ●Letter and Google doc to be shared with all families on 3/29/24 for feedback ●Most of what is shared is that there is an older child that had an experience and they would like their younger child to have a different experience ●Overall,the amount of parent input has decreased ●Sarina asked about the process,which parties are involved,and the weighting of their votes.Brian replied that while most of the onus is on the current teacher,there is input from specialists.They discuss which kids would benefit from being together or not together.When they have what they consider to be a prelim list,they have a conversation about it.The receiving teacher sometimes has input to give. ●Sarina asked about section sizes.Brian replied that the principals all get together in April to discuss.There is a budget for #of sections and the School Committee has their regulations too.Fiske has not been at over max.For the 24/25 academic year,we may have 2 sections for K and 1,and at least 3 for 4th. Kindergarten Information ●To be shared with incoming K families on 4/1/24 ●16 registered at the moment;Fiske is at the lowest,but it is still early.Hastings and Estabrook in the 30s. ●Sarina asked if Brian receives the census data collected by the town.Brian shared that data hasn’t been shared with them.Right now in K,we have 35 students. Literacy at Fiske ●K and 1 specifically doing a great work with literacy,with teachers and specialists implementing new curriculum.Results have been great.Fundations,Heggerty,and revised units of study. ●There were parents that wanted to see the hard data.The hard data (MOI)is just one data point.The staff then digs down to diagnose root causes to address. ●The 4th and 5th graders were in Kindergarten during the pandemic,and their literacy was online and thus different.The teachers are reaching out to and receiving support from the literacy team. ●Lisa emphasized the team effort -it was not just teachers but the literacy team plus Brian/Katie giving them time to roll this out. Progress Monitoring ●For mCLASS,there are Green,Yellow,and Red ratings.Yellow/Red are receiving interventions.Then every couple of weeks,they are doing progress monitoring to see if they are making progress.If so,they make a decision on whether to continue.If no progress has been made,then they will change it up.Progress monitoring reports Brian has reviewed show that almost everybody is making progress.Students that were baseline,discussion was had on taking more deeper dives on how to get them moving in the direction we want to go. Ramadan ●We have older students (G4/5)that have decided with their family to observe fasting. There are questions around fasting during MCAS testing.Brian understands that a fasting student may not perform as well.Exceptions can be made so fasting students can take the tests during the makeup times within the testing windows. ●The Calendar Committee created 3 or 4 different options for the School Committee to review.There are options to help incorporate other holidays that don’t get celebrated. Kudos to the calendar committee team for working on that. Data Teams ●Successful Round -All students are getting the interventions they require ●Another round at the beginning of May to check in and see how kids are doing academically and social-emotionally. Parent Teacher Conferences ●March 14,15,21 and 22 ●mCLASS Home Reports are included.A video from Sarah Calleja -literacy department head -on how to read these reports. ●Everyone getting support they need Science Fair -Thurs.3/14 and PI Day! ●Science Fair was a great success -107 participants ●Always says parents do a great job,but this year Brian was particularly impressed with the knowledge the kids gained and how thorough they were in explanations. Fiske Frost -Friday,March 22nd ●Some staff are going to this fundraising event. Fiske Fair ●Sunday,May 19th ●Rain date TBD Other Brian is beginning to look at the innovation plan for 2024-2026.He is going to look at the last one to see how they did,then work towards the new one. Dates for upcoming meetings: Fiske Site Council Monthly Meeting Schedule 3:45-4:30 Member Name Meeting Date Minutes Brian Baker,Principal 10/18/23 Minutes Catherine Murphy,ELL 11/15/23 Canceled Lisa Wallace -Gr.1 12/6/23 Canceled Lana Panasyuk,Parent 1/10/24 Minutes Sarina Sherwin,Parent 2/14/24 3/20/24 4/24/24 5/22/24