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Home My WebLink About2009-12-21-Estabrook-min Estabrook School Site Council Meeting Minutes December 21, 2009 Present: Sandy Trach Absent: Ron Sanborn Kim Coburn Gretchen Saunders Lisa Nordman Carey St. Onge Pamela Tames Next meeting: Monday, January 11th, 3:30-4:15, Estabrook Teacher’s Room I. Announcements We have added the January meeting to the schedule. The remaining Site Council meeting dates are as follows: th Monday, January 11, 3:30-4:15 pm st Monday, February 1, 3:30-4:15 pm th Monday, March 15, 3:30-4:15 pm th Monday, April 26, 3:30-4:15 pm th Friday, June 4, 3:30-4:15 pm II. Discussion The Site Council continued the discussion of the remaining points under Goal 3: Promote a culture of home & school collaboration Support recycling & district energy initiatives  The Lexington Facilities Management Department is working to improve energy efficiency at a town-wide level. The staff, for its part, is publishing a daily energy efficiency idea on the staff website (turn off lights when you leave your room, keep the classroom door closed to help reduce temperature swings, etc...). Some brainstorming was done for additional ideas that we could pursue: Find ways to recycle plastic in the classrooms from snacks/water  bottles – maybe just a plain cardboard box and then add a recycling person on the classroom job chart who would be responsible for emptying that bin at the end of the day. Have more recycling bins available for community events  specifically for plastic Ask for a copy of the monthly energy use report from Facilities  Management so that we can try to reduce energy use by targeting high energy use months. Increase awareness with fun programs like last year’s contest in  th the 5 grade to see which class had the least amount of trash over the course of a week Find out about study results regarding the use of more eco-friendly  trays for cafeteria lunches Review and explore past, current and future activities/enrichment  opportunities for students At an early school leadership team meeting the question of before and after school enrichments was discussed, particularly as to whether all grade levels have appropriate opportunities to socialize and build community. The Site Council could look to see what each grade level has available to them both before and after school and determine what additional programs we might add to further build community and communication. This study would involve working with the PTA and parents across all grade levels. One thing that might help encourage additional programs would be to reinforce the idea that there is space available at the school to meet – it is just a matter of matching what is needed with what is available at that time. Examine and/or develop student leadership opportunities  We want to ensure that we are teaching responsibility and developing leadership at each grade level; helping to establish an understanding in our students that each of us needs to take responsibility for our school and community. Estabrook has many strong programs that foster leadership: Estabuddies for grade 5, book buddies for grades 3-5, International Games Day, where students in each grade are given the opportunity to teach other students, and student-driven programs such as the recent sale to benefit Children’s Hospital. Other ideas to pursue that were mentioned were: Bring back a Student Council, perhaps with a service mission –  service projects organized by season with activities built into the school day so as to encourage participation by as many students as possible Bring back a school store with older students guiding younger  students (thereby reducing the parent support needed), operating before school rather than during lunch Ask around at other schools to see what other schools are  doing to promote student leadership III. Plan for next meeting At our January 11 meeting we will look over the points brought up by these last two meetings and choose our first focus area. Kim Coburn will put together bullet points for each of the areas under the second part of the Community Building Goal to present for discussion at the meeting. We hope to lay out a plan to go forward on one initiative by the end of the meeting. Minutes recorded by Kim Coburn