HomeMy WebLinkAbout2025-12-03-CLARKE-min.pdfPUBLIC MEETING NOTICE
Jonas Clarke Middle School
School Site Council Meeting
December 3, 2025
7:00-7:45 AM
Room 221, Jonas Clarke Middle School
17 Stedman Road, Lexington, MA 02421
Present: Dane Despres, Jamie Welsh, Tiffany Zides, Natalia Paquette, Val Machinist, Gary
VanDeurse, Wei Ding, Jennifer Zacharis, & Elisabeth Moeller
Agenda
I. Call to Order, Welcome, Council Business & Public Comment
• November 5 Meeting Notes Approval
i. Motion to approve, all in favor - no one opposed
• Public Comment
II. Parent/Caregiver, Staff, and Admin Check -Ins: November in Review
• Parents:
• Staff:
i. Mention of productive parent/caregiver conferences. Concern over the
style/set up of the conference. (interview style)
ii. Parents mentioned - we understand that you are doing so much and the
set-up is really not a concern. We just appreciate the time to discuss
our child.
iii. Parent mentioned that they already have access to grades via Teacher
Ease - but all the teachers talked about were the grades. I wonder if
there is a way to communicate with parents/caregivers to provide you
with a question or concern that you wish to discuss.
iv. Teacher mentioned if there was a way to do this prior to conferences: a
place in Sign-up Genius to put a concern or focus.
v. Also a suggestion to tell parents/caregivers not to schedule them
back-to-back conferences. Reasoning - there is no passing time and
you lose time to talk if you try to do back-to-back.
vi. Principal noted that he would like to turn on the public wi-fi and do
some training for parents/caregivers with Teacher Ease (open
gradebook)
vii. Additionally - a question regarding Google Classroom. Do you all
access Google Classroom? Because if you do, you will get a daily alert
if there are assignments and due dates.
viii. There were some parents/caregivers that did not get conferences,
because there was not enough time. However, as a team we (the team)
sent a detailed email by subject to parents/caregivers.
ix. Parent shared that they felt the teachers here feel very accessible and
communicate well.
• Admin:
III. SIP Updates for November `25
• Principal - last meeting we had a great start with the KLDI protocol with Goal
#1. Today we will work on Goal #2.
• Take a look on the board to see the initiatives under Goal #2: Redefining
Success.
i. Standards based grading and communication (training students and
families)
ii. Work on our Learning Process Standard - this is the standard that we
take the non-academic aspects of a course (traditionally referred to as
student skills) and turn them into a standard. We find that these
"student skills" are predicative of success for students at the high
school level. This year we have added an "element" of the learning
process standard - where each grade level has a common element at
the grade level that they focus on.
iii. Norm Grading practices via Teacher Ease - this happens mostly at the
PLC/department level. Teachers have agency to adjust/suggest
changes to the standards and grading the standard/rubrics when they
find it is not working.
iv. Restoration work - initially, this began as an all in goal for the school.
Now it is more of an opt -in. Some teachers have adopted this and do
incorporate this into their daily or weekly practice.
v. Identify and celebrate success in various forms - staff and students
have worked on this to do unique things to identify success in a variety
of forms.
vi. Parent question - do Diamond and Clarke use the same standard -based
forms? Response: Yes. Does LHS have access to the transcript to be
able to look back at the middle school transcript and understand it.
Response: Yes - this year LHS has more access and a better
understanding of the middle school grading practice.
vii. Teachers commented regarding how the "M" or "P" would translate to
the traditional grade at the high school (A,B, C, D, F) - most 8th grade
teachers will grade both ways to inform students/caregivers how their
standards based grade would translate.
viii. Parent asked about the BARK award - do teams do more than just
nominate one student each month. Teacher reply - yes, we all have
BARK stickers that we are able to give to stickers when we see an
aspect of BARK displayed/demonstrated.
IV. SIP `26-'28 Work: Keep, Lose, Dream, Innovate Protocol for Goal 1 (Continued from
November Mtg.) and Goal 2
• At this point in the meeting - we should move into the protocol and brainstorm
as a team.
• In January - we will tackle goals 3 and 4
• In February - we will take the notes from each goal and start to turn these
notes into a draft for next steps. We will also give other constituents to
contribute to these goals and our draft.
V. Adjournment