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17 Stedman Road + Lexington, Massachusetts 02421
Anna W.Monaco,Principal Office: (781) 861-2450
Mary B.Barry-Ng,Assistant Principal Fax: (781) 674-2043
Jonathan R.Wettstone,Assistant Principal
School Site Council Meeting
September 26, 2018
7:00 AM/Main Office
Meeting Minutes
In Attendance: Anna Monaco, Principal; Mary Barry-Ng, Assistant Principal; Jonathan Wettstone, Assistant
Principal, Anne Witti,Teacher; Tiffany Zides, Teacher; Jonathan Roy, Teacher; Lauren Jigarjian, Teacher;
Meghan Kilpatrick, Teacher; Jennifer Roney, Parent; Michelle Motta Dardeno, Parent; Amy Selinger, Parent;
Jennifer Velis, Parent; Rucha Londhe, Parent.
I. Welcome and Introductions
IL Determine meeting dates and times for 2018-2019
• Confirmed monthly Wednesday AM meetings - full year calendar TBD. Principal will send out
meeting dates for the year and post in the Town Clerk's office.
III. School Improvement Plan Overview for 2018-2019
• Principal - overview of SIP and explanation of why format is as it is today.
• One year plan, in early June, plan reviewed and discussed by School Committee and new plan
formed and voted on by the Site Council
• Three main goals
o Goal 1 -Improving Academic Performance
o Discussion of Scheduling Committee- working collaboratively with colleagues at
Diamond to revamp the master schedule. Seeking for longer blocks, greater flexibility
and options for project-based learning. We want to keep the good parts (art, technology,
engineering) but adding flexibility to meet student needs.
■ Parent- have you identified a problem that you are seeking to resolve?
o While WIN block allows for flexibility to meet student needs, we're looking for greater
flexibility within the schedule. Seeking to avoid missing Monday blocks due to
holidays, Friday blocks due to conferences, and ways to move things around from within
- avoiding staffing conflicts within the district.
o Goal is to align within the district as well- with Diamond and LHS.
o Preparing for budget season and asking questions about needs going forward.
■ Parent- how does school start time affect scheduling conversations?
■ Teacher- do students take lessons within the school days? She shared
experiences in other districts.
o No before school or after school instrumental lessons - seeking equal access for all
students.
o Would need to map out rotating schedule for the year- working around holidays and 1/2
days. Snow days would need to be skipped but would allow us to plan going forward.
■ Parent- goal one is academic performance. Have you found that the schedule
affects learning?
o While not a direct impact, greater flexibility would improve academic performance
going forward. Attempting to create global citizens.
• Professional Growth and Development-Equity, Social Emotional, Diversity
0 3 day PBL 101 - looking for more staff to engage this year.
o Seeking for ways for staff to observe one another-teachers learning from teachers. One
attempt- Unconferences, where a teacher leads and after school discussion/conference
about a timely topic. Examples range from teaching strategies, technology resources,
and moving into current PD initiatives such as PBL.
■ AP discussed lesson study push, where grade level content teams work together
to develop a lesson, make observations and investigate to identify how to make
improvements.
■ Parent- is this connected to teacher reviews? How did this begin?
o No - this came from teachers wanting to improve their practice, not something driven by
formal observation process.
o Teachers advocate for themselves and their department- asking for resources to meet
together, observe one another and improve their practice.
• Technology Integration
o Moving away from iPads and towards Chromebooks. 7th graders have CB while 8th
graders will have ipads for one more year.
• 6th Grade and WL teachers are seeking additional resources, wanting to access programs
and ways to communicate with one another.
o Teacher shared strategies used within the classroom - how Chromebooks are currently
used. Tech allows students to work at their own pace.
• RTI(Response to Intervention)- getting students what they need, when they need it.
o How can we get students the supports they need- academic, social, emotional.
o SRT (Student Response Team) shared with staff at last faculty meeting -how the
process works and how we can communicate process and resources within the school.
o ELL teacher joined after we saw increasing trends - is it a learning issue or a language
issue?
• Social Emotional- Goal 2
o Continuing with BARK- Balance, Acceptance, Resilience, Kindness to promote a
positive school culture that is safe, welcoming and inclusive for all of our students,
parents, community members and staff.
• Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
o Theme this year is about building relationships
o TED Talk- every child deserves a champion. You can connect with every single child
in your class.
o It's the small things - greeting students, conversations with students, being in the
hallways, making eye contact- things that make a difference.
o Sam Sommers (parent) - came in to discuss social psychology with students/teachers.
The power of context,how people perceive things, implicit bias and the power of
expectation.
o White paper was written by the district Admin Council members (Led by Dr. Hackett)
and presented to SC during last night's SC meeting. The paper will be put out for public
comment and is a working draft. It outlines the problem, the data, what we know, what
has been done as well as a call to action. This was well received by SC at the meeting.
IV. Questions, Comments, Concerns
• Parent reps discussed how they could get community concerns to the group and how we could
report back to the community the topics and ideas that are discussed:
o Monthly write up in the newsletter- Principal will create a spot for the update each
month
o Placing a suggestion box in the main office
o posting meeting times and that it is an open meeting in the newsletter
o correcting misinformation that is out in the community (online) as site council
representatives
o creating a possible survey?
V. Adjourn