HomeMy WebLinkAbout2018-12-21-BRIDGE-min BRIDGE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL SCHOOL-BASED SITE COUNCIL
55 Middleby Road, Lexington, MA 02421
781-861-2510
DECEMBER 21, 2018 MEETING MINUTES
APPROVED MARCH 1, 2019
Attendance: Lynnette Allen, Meg Colella, Kristen Gray,Amy Kvaal, Kimberly Hensle Lowrance,
Ruth Litchfield, Zeba McGibbon, Sejal Patel, Deirdre Schadler, and Maria Totniou.
Absent: Amelia Brower, Lucia Brower, Erin Cerat, Megan Brown,Jon Cunha, Huan Liu, Beth
Murnaghan, Kira Sevene, Debbie Side, Melanie Tanionos, and Shawn Wood.
The Bridge Elementary School School-Based Site Council held its monthly meeting on Friday,
December 21, 2018 in the Bridge Elementary School Library.
The meeting began at 8:00 AM with a vote to unanimously approve the September, October,
and November meeting minutes.
Next was an update on Lexington Learns Together,which was held on November 6. Zeba
McGibbon said that one of the highlights for her was the guest speaker on social-emotional
development. She also explained that she presented with other Bridge kindergarten teachers
on a new social-emotional curriculum that they've implemented. They received a grant from
LEF to prepare this curriculum, and have been working on it for over two years. The
curriculum includes stories that are read to the children and have accompanying stuffed
animals and poem/songs to reinforce learning.The teachers also regularly correspond with
parents to explain the curriculum so it can be reinforced at home. The curriculum has been
shared with other schools. Bridge first grade teachers use the kindergarten curriculum as a
touch point in their teaching to continue to support student development. Zeba explained that
the impetus for this new curriculum was teacher observations the student needed more
support in this area as well as the addition of a new block in teacher schedules to focus on
social emotional learning.
Deirdre Schadler continued by updating the SBC on cultural competency work she presented
at Lexington Learns Together. She explained that ELL students make up 10% of Bridge
students and are the fastest growing portion of our population.Additionally, nearly 30% of
our student population speaks more than one language. There was a need to better
understand the academic environments our international students call home. To that end,
Deirdre received a grant from LEF to undertake a project to connect with representatives of
the Indian, Korean, Chinese, and Japanese communities in Lexington to talk about school
environment in home countries, parent engagement, discipline, special education, and social
emotional teaching.
Deirdre noted that a lot of our international/ELL students come from exam-based schools and
environments that are more homogenous. Social-emotional learning in these schools is not a
priority and parents are unfamiliar with it and/or asking for support has stigma. Bridge staff
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also have to be aware of pressure from family back at home who may be questioning the kids'
experience in American schools.
At Lexington Learns, Deirdre led a session on what was learned from this project, and brought
the community representatives who provided input to connect with teachers, answer
questions, etc.with her.
A good discussion on this topic followed. A parent asked if there's a program to match new
families with family mentors/buddies to help with the transition to school in the US and in
Lexington. Meg said that this idea has been discussed with the PTA and could be revisited. The
ELL team has connected people with one another on an as-needed basis.
Deirdre added that the LOOK Act—which outlines support for ELL students and families—
calls for the creation of ELL Parent Advisory Groups. Learn more at
http://www.doe.mass.edu/ell/look-act.html.
Kristen Gray shared that Alex Kuschel, social studies coordinator, recently came to Bridge to
talk about culturally responsive teaching and bias in teaching. She shared a tool to analyze
bias in our curriculum. Staff used the tool to look at an example Thanksgiving curriculum and
how it wasn't accurate,who was misrepresented or not represented at all, and what was
missing. This tool can be a helpful resource for adapting curriculum going forward to ensure
the diversity of student perspectives are represented.
A discussion followed. Sejal Patel shared that Brookline has a parent-led program to send
teachers abroad to learn about different school systems and academic learning environments.
Perhaps something like this would be a good option for Lexington. Sejal will get more
information about this program and report back. Dierdre shared that she is going to China in
April through Primary Source, a professional development program used by LPS. Ruth added
that she went to China through Education First a few years ago, and the trip included a very
informative visit to local schools.
The meeting concluded at 8:30 AM.
Our next SBC meetings will be held January 25, March 1,April 26, May 24, and June TBD (based
on the last day of school).
For additional information, contact Meg Colella, Principal/Co-Chair
(mcolella@lexingtonma.org), or Kimberly Hensle Lowrance, Parent Representative Co-Chair
(khensle@gmail.com); or visithttps://Ips.lexingtonma.org/domain/481.
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