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` 4 Lexington High School
251 Waltham Street Lexington, Massachusetts 02421
Andrew Stephens 781-861-2320,x69103
Principal astephens@lexingtonma.org
Twitter: @LexingtonHSMa FAX: 781-861-2440
October 18,2017
To: The Lexington High School Council
From: Andrew Stephens
Re: September Meeting
LHS School Site Council Meeting met on October 16, 2017 from 6:00-7:30 PM in the Library Media
Center.
Present: Andrew Stephens, Suzanne Lau,Nancy Shepard,Elise Rowley,Ed Li,Kate Vogelzang,Bryce
Spalding, Shiv Chandra, Sharon Kendall,Katie Cutler, Sheera Knecht,Liz Curtin and Leslie Zales.
Absent: Dave Wininger,Erin Barrett and Alex McLaughlin
L Welcome to Kate Vogelzang,Class of 2020 Student Representative.
IL Minutes of the September 18, 2017 meeting were approved with no changes.
III. Announcements from Council members
a. SHAC
•Parent Academy date set for March 24, 2018.
•SBIRT—All 9,, graders with have a brief one-on-one health and wellness assessment.
•Sources of Strength(SOS) trained 50 additional students (about 100 trained students
on campus).
•Wellness policy is being updated
•750 new students district-wide.
b. Stephens Announcements/Updates:
•Budget Process (requests due early November) —Capital requests have already been
submitted.Will be requesting additional Full Time Employees (FTEs) in the
operational budget based on the anticipated increase in enrollment(64 students in
9/2018,estimated as of October 1, 2017).
•School Spirit—pep rally organized by the Pep Rally Focus Group. Ran a pep rally for
about 150— 200 students in the field house during I-block. Planning a large event
in November.
•Graduation Requirements— School Committee is looking at the graduation
requirements. LHS has the highest graduation requirements when compared to
other area high schools and the MA Core recommendations (e.g. LHS requires 4
years of Science and 4 years of Social Studies,compared to 3 years of each by MA
Core).
•NEASC Standards—LHS will be the second high school reviewed under the new
accreditation standards. The first step is to perform a self-reflection and self-rating.
Parent survey has been sent to families and at least 25%participation is desired.
•Scheduling Committee—A committee of faculty,parents and students,led by Dr. John
Murray and Mr. Kevin Kelly will be assessing the current schedule and making
recommendations to address concerns.
•Visioning Process—A presentation was made to School Committee by Superintendent
Mary Czajkowski,Andrew Stephens and consultant Dr. Frank Locker to start the
Visioning process for a new high school. Visioning process answers questions
like: What are our current practices?Where are we?Where is education going in
the future?Where do we want to be? And finally,what does the structure need to
be?
•Visioning Process—NEASC— Scheduling are related and all tied together.
IV. Presentations
a. Security Study adopted recommendations
•Presentation to Town Meeting approval to request design funds includes the plan
approved by the School Committee that was recommended by LHS
administration.
•Plan will bring LHS security closer to the District standard—including automatic
locked doors (38 doors) on a timer,visitor control and reconfigured parking
(student parking moved to Worthen Road lot and add visitor parking,faculty
parking behind the school). Additional security cameras were installed last
summer.
•Evacuation drill is scheduled for this week—controlled evacuation to the football
field.
b. 2017 YRBS Executive Summary—discussion postponed to next meeting.
V. Discussion
a. Final exam schedule
•Five major subjects and one make-up exam for finals.
•Changed from 2 finals per day for 3 days,to one final per day for 6 days and classes in
the afternoons.
•One final per day was good.
•Afternoon classes were not very useful if the final had already passed.
•Most students attended classes that still had an upcoming final.
•Science blocks met more often than other classes.
•Resource room and special education classes also had sessions more often.
•Expectation for teachers to provide positive learning during afternoon blocks were
difficult to meet with reduced student attendance and motivation (class attendance
during final exams did not count towards "N" status).
•Positive atmosphere in the quad and school but was sometimes noisy and distracting
to students still studying for finals.
VI. School Improvement Plan review/questions
a. Cultural Proficiency - Focus is on increasing the capacity and cultural proficiency of the
leadership team. A program called Reimagining Integration (Harvard) has been retained
to work with administrators and focus on the faculty.
b. Grade Level Assets —distributed grade level asset visual aid to parents when progress
reports were released to guide discussions on student progress.
c. DCAP—Discussion postponed to next meeting. Andrew will send out the DCAP
document that was last reviewed in 2013. This document outlines preferred learning
strategies for students who are not in special education programs.
VII. Adjournment 7:30 pm