HomeMy WebLinkAbout2024-03-25-LHS-min (2) LEXINGTON
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Andrew Baker (781) 861-2320, ext. 69102
Interim Principal abakeralexiniztortma.oriz
Lexington High School Site Council
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Monday, March 25th, 2024 - 6-00— 7.30 pm
Room 505 D in WL Building of Lexington High School
1. Minutes of 2/26/24 M.p.1-oved
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2. Presentation from Mike Horesh on attendance focus groups
a. They worked on elucidating the reasons for some attendance issues (as opposed to
just looking at policies); staff saw a version of this presentation last week.
b. Note that revisiting policy aligns with district's strategic plan and goals.
Attendance concerns are statewide; the biggest spike happened in 2022. Idea is to
get attendance back to pre-covid levels.
c. Note that over half of the students receiving Ns in Q2 for this year are getting As
or Bs.
d. slide showed the percentage of total transcript grades with lost credit by
population in 2022-23: Black students *much* higher than other groups (4.5%
Black; .5% Asian; 1.2 Hispanic/Latino; 1% multi-race; .75%white)
i. subgroups: "all students" much lower than low income, high needs, ELL,
students with disabilities.
ii. by population: "all students" 5.7, lower than Black, Hispanic/Latino
e. Mike has had 2 focus group meetings with staff, students
f. Faculty focus group feedback
i. some feel that taking credit away for missing class not the same as missing
class
ii. perception that students don't have the opportunity to explain absences
iii. some students have the support/re sources to change unexcused absences
into excused absences while others do not
iv. question of whether the N policy "permits" 4 cuts per class without
consequence?
V. "instead of asking why kids are absent from the classroom, we should be
asking what keeps kids in the classroom"
g. Small student group (METC0 juniors and seniors) feedback
i. teachers need to facilitate change, but so do admins
Lexington High School 1251 Waltham Street I Lexington,MA 102421
ii. should not be a connection between absences and academics; should be a
conversation that tries to understand that behavior and/or rationale
iii. some students unaware that parents had the ability to communicate with
school and change unexcused absences.
h. student feedback
i. "absences, tardies, extended tardies are all tied to a lack of community,
lack of school pride... nothing unites students"
i. small educator group (earth science PLC) feedback
i. there should be system-wide change, not fall on teachers
ii. playing the system is learned by students over time
iii. goal should be to reduce the ability to circumvent the process
iv. q: is the objective of this to tighten the policy or loosen it? (answer:
neither, yet)
j. faculty members: talking about structural changes; student perception talking
about teacher-student relationship, cultural changes, institutional changes
k. Overarching questions:
i. should absenteeism be connected to class credit?
ii. how do we bring greater equity to the appeals process?
iii. how do we cultivate and sustain a classroom community?
iv. how do we ensure collective responsibility for any changes in the policy?
1. site council feedback:
i. is this policy meant as a stick or a carrot?
ii. restorative view: can still be consequences, but try to address root cause of
absenteeism. Clearly this consequence isn't enough to change the behavior
for some kids.
iii. Question: when an N happens, who's involved in the conversation? Is
there a holistic conversation that takes place bt parent, dean, student,
counselor? Mike says the deans have a questionnaire asking students why
they're in the situation, and then have a face to face convo about it.
iv. What has changed over the past 4-5 years that has led to the rise in
absenteeism? We also need to address both the rise and also the gap
between groups.
1. teaching upperclassmen is different than teaching 9th grade, in that
9th grade has their team, counselors more involved, etc.
2. what has DESE identified as being possible causes, approaches?
Mike doesn't know.
V. question: why are we differentiating between an excused and an
unexcused absence?
vi. Site council feedback(on Mike's list):
1. is this policy meant as a stick or a carrot?
2. is there a holistic conversation that takes place when a student gets
an N?
3. have we de-emphasized the importance of being in the classroom?
4. what would our school look like if there was no absenteeism
policy?
5. what classes are those where Ns are `earned'?
6. need for more information from a cross-section of LHS students.
7. there's no one problem to explain; a constellation
3. ,,rr;1;,��a�;� Revnsnng (YF Scb����1 Innovation plan
a. Review of elements that Andrew has edited for concision: the preamble,
description of what a SIP is. An interesting source of data was that the school
asked for feedback for both interim and permanent principal searches, which
ended up being unadulterated feedback of what people think is going well, not
well. Was no feedback so consistent as student feedback, which was they want
more classroom community, and more things happening that they just consider
fun' .
i. shared reworking of goal 1 at last meeting; mostly reduced redundancies.
ii. link to google form that we can fill out to give feedback(on agenda) -
paper is due next week, so ideally this week.
iii. pointing out that we're halfway into the 10 year innovation plan
iv. Andrew had the most struggle with objective 2: redefine success.
Continues to find this idea of redefining success incredibly difficult; town
culture not currently on board with that goal, do we need to do it there
before we can do it here? Pathway forward maybe moving towards
capstone experience at the school, seniors can identify for themselves
what they want. Acknowledge that most Lex families want their students
to succeed academically, so that's a given; what else can we get there.
Working more towards having students articulate for themselves what
their vision is and where they want to be.
V. Andrew would like to see us pilot the use of three or four half days of
student-led learning or student-led social/emotional fitness activities. Have
faculty learning from the kids. How can we get kids to showcase their
learning, take some leadership?
4. Meeting adjourned 7:20