HomeMy WebLinkAbout2025-02-12-CLARKE-min.pdfPUBLIC MEETING NOTICE
Jonas Clarke Middle School
School Site Council Meeting
February 12, 2025
7:00-7:45 AM
Main Office Conference Room, Jonas Clarke Middle School
17 Stedman Road Lexington, MA 02421
Agenda
Members Present: Jennifer Zacharis, Gary VanDeurse, Elisabeth Moeller, Brandy Hartford,
Alison Stevens, Nataliya Paquette, Jamie Welsh, Tiffany Zides, Dane Despres
Call to Order, Welcome, Council Business & Public Comment
a. 7:04 call to order
b. Want to prioritize Clarke Tank follow-up
II. Parent, Staff, and Admin Check -Ins: September in Review (15 -minute
limit)
a. Parents:
i. TeacherEase - I updated notifications, so now every time a
grade is entered, I get a notification, so now I feel more aware.
Re: previous conversation on families who are not accessing /
wonder if English is not their first language. If we could do a
workshop in home language to instruct on how to use
TeacherEase
1. Dane - we can work on getting the guiding documents
translated, as well as putting together a workshop and
maybe getting a video subtitled. Report card is a static
report that isn't necessarily translatable. That's a
long-term project to work on.
2. Possible collaboration with community affinity groups
ii. TeacherEase is still not prominent on the website. The
quicklinks still says Aspen is the grading portal. The information
to TeacherEase is far down the page.
1. To-do: edit the Aspen button and again see if we can get
a TeacherEase button
iii. Daily Announcements are on Parent Square - would like to see
them on the website
iv. Parent/Caregiver feedback is that the website continues to be
difficult to navigate
1. Is there an opportunity for families to give feedback on
the website?
v. Unified Basketball - unsure if the official signup has gone out,
but have gotten the link. At Clarke you don't have to be on the
basketball team and it's open to anyone, which isn't the case at
Diamond. At Clarke, this allows the friends of the kids in the
various programs to also sign up, even if they don't play
basketball.
II1•OTM
i. The play was amazing!
1. parent note: last year, tech didn't get a shout -out in the
yearbook. Can we check on that?
2. parent note: tech has gotten more attention this year
(able to go on trips, included in the drama photo for
Lex250). Hasn't always in the past.
c. Admin:
i. More activities and events than ever. Staff are partnering with
organizations, the PTO, etc for funding to be able to make
opportunities available.
1. Mandarin classes went to Elementary schools to do
cultural / Lunar New Year education and drumming.
2. Downside is that there are conflicts in the schedule that
are unavoidable - so we have to reset our expectations
about what is possible and middle school students may
need to make more choices about what they want to
prioritize.
ii. STAR screener has now been run 4 times. Last year was a trial
year and use some of the data. This year, we've adjusted which
benchmarks we're using based on what we learned last year.
We'll be rolling out the results to families in March. In the SIP,
we wanted to do it earlier, but we hadn't yet had the opportunity
to train staff. That is happening Friday. To this point, our
Student Support Teams have been using the data to identify and
further screen to determine needed supports/interventions. Has
helped us identify students who may need additional support.
1. Parent question: What does intervention then look -like?
Do they then end up on an IEP?
a. We have a general education reading intervention
that can be scheduled in. We also have math
workshop that works similarly. Families of
students who were flagged by the screener were
contacted and kept in the loop.
2. Parent question: I thought we weren't going to send out
that data to families - is that new?
a. Sending to the families has always been part of
the eventual plan.
b. Important for us to train staff on what the data
does, and doesn't, mean
i. don't want to roll out access to staff en
masse without that because it's very
nuanced
3. Is everyone screened even if they are already on a plan?
a. Yes.
III. Reviewing Updates/Questions about the School Innovation Plan
Clarke Tank!
a. WIN Block Tutoring
i. Highly supported. Need to work out a few details. Going to get
this going for T3.
1. Some of the concerns among the nos were impact on
other WIN offerings, privacy
2. Going to start smaller with a handful of students we can
train
3. Will be a pilot as there will be questions to reflect on
b. Celebrating Success
i. Publicly acknowledge success - "Fridge" to post student
work/achievement
1. Concerns in the nos were around how to protect the
items (being defaced, etc)
a. parent - SIP notes acknowledging other types of
success, and this could be a way to do that.
ii. Celebration Box - shout out success of progress - students and
staff shout out
1. Rolling out after break.
iii. Fine-tuning what we do: be more specific when we highlight our
BARK winners, snailmail shout -out postcards more broadly
c. Data Team
i. Learning Process standard - how can we consolidate info about
students struggling with learning habits
1. Students who didn't earn an M in T1 and are currently not
in T2 will receive a message home via email.
2. Not broad -scale analysis with the whole staff yet
ii. Social Emotional Screener - not yet
staff excused 7:49 to homeroom
iii. SBG perceptions - partnering with LHS on a survey
1. parent - want someone to pilot test the survey to make
sure the questions are getting at what we actually want
iv. student success in math at the HS following the shift in grading,
math levels, etc -- starting to pull data in collaboration with LHS
d. Joy in Learning celebration will happen in June. We'll talk about that at
our next meeting.
i. BARK mixtape Friday - BARK winners will choose music for
passing time.
ii. Pep Rally - almost 40% no - needs more work
iii. Student showcases/performances during WIN - lots of support.
Students will show off their talents
iv. Student survey re: Joy in Learning will roll out after break.
Responses will help shape our Joy in Learning event.
e. Social Emotional Learning groups identified some areas of focus and
are seeking volunteers to pilot things in class to then build on next
year.
f. Project -Based Learning - we will be discussing at the leadership team
level at the middle schools. We will be reassessing and rededicate to
the goal and identify the roadblocks.
Feedback: the format seems to have made it more fun. Great ideas!
We'll report out in March how that roll-out is going.
V. Adjournment - 7:55am