HomeMy WebLinkAbout2021-03-25-DIAMOND-min Diamond Site Council Meetings 2020-2021
March 25, 2021 Meeting Minutes
Members in Attendance: Jen Turner, Remy Coombs, Katina Lawdis, Hallie Wells, Sam
Bosbach, Kar Hwee Koh, Dongzi Yu
Liz Sharp (admin, taking notes)
Approval of Minutes: 2/25/21
Principal's Report:
• DESE has required that all middle schools return full-time on Wednesday, April 28. We
are still offering a full remote option and keeping our PBLA program running. The school
day will be 8 AM to 1:40 PM and anticipate that Fridays will also end at 1:40 PM to meet
the 5.5 hrs required from DESE. We are very excited about this change, but we need to
make sure we have this right in a very short period of time.
• This has been a huge logistical challenge with the timing while we are running
the school at the same time. We will continue to follow mitigation strategies.
• Changing to 3 ft distancing in rooms so we need to start mocking up rooms to
see how many desks/students will fit.
• The survey to families for selecting the model will be open until 5 PM today. We
now need to determine how to staff for these student shifts.
• The draft schedule started with students' gold week courses, added two blocks
per week in order to give room to add blue week electives.
• Fall schedule is being designed. Proposal for six-day cycle needs additional review given
our current experiences. A small working group is reviewing and will decide on the
schedule. The overall design would be longer classes; times for breaks; clean up of
program of studies; performing arts paired with different course offerings, including
expanding visual arts options for the eighth grade.
• MCAS has been postponed, but nothing from DESE on the next step.
• Pool COVID testing will be changing the first week of April to pick-up kit on Monday and
drop off the next day, Tuesday. Testing task force will determine the testing schedule for
full-return.
• The Community Input Team has met multiple times in the past month. The group is
discussing mitigation strategies for the full-return, as well as determining the overall
protocols based on BOH and CDC recommendations. Our lunch plan was presented last
week- outdoor lunches as weather permits with alternate indoor spaces for inclement
weather days. We will be using parent volunteers to help with lunch.
• PTO is starting plans for a week of eighth grade activities at the end of the year.
Staff Report:
• Appreciation for the work that is going in for the full-return work that committees have
been working on while allowing for staff input.
o Examples: small group meetings; staff survey; open office hours with admin;
weekly communication includes a tab about the full-return; staff meeting on 3/29;
parent nights; planning for April 26 & 27.
Member Input:
• Parents have volunteered to help teachers get their vaccine appointments. Curious
about an update on staff vaccinations, but school does not have the numbers.
Adjournment: 7:35 AM
Next Meeting: April 29, 2021