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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2019-04-29-HASTINGS-min PUBLIC MEETING NOTICE APRIL 19TH Meeting School Based Site Council — Maria Hastings Elementary Date Monday, 4-29-2019 Time 7:45 arn -8:3Oarn Location Library, Maria Hastings Elementary, 7Crosby Road, Lexington, K4A Members Present Louise Lipsitz, Deborah Krasnow, Lisa Contre, Beverly Montgomery, Brenda Rich, Grace Lee, ]aneKalinski 1. Approve minutes of3-11-19meeting a. Beverly Montgomery moves toapprove the minutes, Deborah Kraanovv seconded, all members approved unanimously. Z. Member input a. Is there a PTO closet in the new building? There is no closet dedicated solely for the PTO but there will be storage space available. It would be worthwhile to do an inventory of what is being stored at community members homes so that vvecan get asense ofwhat needs tobestored. 3. Fall ZO19Update from Louise (teaohera, number ofsections) a. We will have 21 sections next year, this year we have 20 classroom sections and aflex literacy class. b. The three current third grade classes will go into four fourth grade sections. The four fourth grade sections will go into four fifth grade sections. There are three sections of Kindergarten, three sections of first, three sections of second, and four sections ofthird. o. Atown wide group ofcommunity members ialooking atenrollment boundaries and looking to see where the children are and how vve can shift boundaries to move families into the Hastings and Harrington districts. The focus iaonfiguring out how to "right aize." d. It is uncertain if the new Hastings will open in the fall of 2020 with all 30 classrooms filled. The planning iajust inthe beginning stages. e. There is a teacher in the building currently, who used to work at Bowman, Sade Finnih, who will remain at Hastings next year. She iacurrently working in large third grade classroom and a large fourth grade classroom. f. Deb Krasnow, Nancy Salitsky, Anne Knight, and Alana Jacques are retiring. An ELL teacher, Grace Baker Whitcomb, is leaving to move to California. So we will have a lot of new staff next year. i. How will looping work? There is no looping in the sense of the whole class moving on together. The teacher goes up and the classes will be rebuilt. Some students will remain with the same teacher but a letter will go home to those families giving them the option to opt out. 4. Dr. Englander presentation a. Dr. Englander is connected with BSU. She is the director of the Massachusetts aggression reduction center. Her focus, with her staff, is to look at social dynamics of young people, as well as, the role of technology in social interactions. Parents in the Hastings community advocated for Dr. Englander to come speak at Hastings, particularly because one grade level is having a bullying issue amongst the girls. b. One of the slides she presented on showed the percentage of negative interactions at elementary, middle, and high school that involve negative social interactions. In elementary, it is mostly happening in school, in middle school it is mostly happening online and in the community, in high school, it is almost entirely happening online. As the students get older, it is harder for the staff to intervene because it is not occurring at school. c. Another slide listed ways to react and intervene. The least effective method is harsh and quick discipline. Schools, instead, can continue to educate and be proactive about social interactions and social media. d. Dr. Englander made a point that children test out all different types of social interactions and this is healthy for them to do. It does not make them bad people, in fact, if they weren't trying out "mean" behaviors, we would be worried. You don't want to squelch it but you want to facilitate it and be vigilant about when it tips the balance from unkind to hurtful. It's important to normalize this behavior. Bullying takes place when one student has social capita over the other person. e. What are solutions or ways to help students figure out their differences? The message delivered was the more social interactions are talked about the easier it is to address it. In school, teachers are working to create a community of learners and having open communication.Teaching the students to have these conversations and being comfortable with talking about feelings and talking about how we interact with one another. When staff know of someone continuously being excluded, staff and parents are involved in helping this student make good choices and helping them see their strengths in social situations. f. A large focus of the presentation was on technology and how children are increasingly using technology at a younger age. When giving a child a cell phone, parents need to understand that they are not giving them a telephone, they're receiving a small computer. Parents need to teach their child how to use the phone before handing it over to them. g. At Hastings, there are students as young as third graders who have cell phones. Several Boston students have cell phones due to the long commute. However, they remain in their backpacks throughout the day. If they have a need for a phone during the day, they are sent to the office to use the school's phone. h. SEPAC will be discussing how to help kids with social communication difficulties. It is also important to figure out the intent of the conversation. 5. Motion to end the meeting by Beverly Montgomery. Jane Kalinski seconded. All members agreed to adjourn at 8:35.