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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2010-03-10-Diamond-min DIAMOND MIDDLE SCHOOL SITE-BASED SCHOOL COUNCIL MARCH 10, 2010 MEETING MINUTES Attendees: Peg Mongiello, Co-Chair; Matt Schnall, Co-Chair; Deborah Strod, David Kluchman, Ann Redmon, Cindy Starks, Amit Roy and Ed Dube were present from the beginning of the meeting. Judi Robinson, Kelly Tzannes and Diane Corbett joined the meeting in progress. Debbie Strod and Ed Dube left the meeting in progress. Audience members did not sign in. 1. Old Business a) Matt Schnall reported on the Site-Based Council local training which was held February 27, 2010, for all Site-Based Councils in Lexington. He will circulate materials from the training to those who could not attend. Highlights:  Site-Based Councils are subject to the Open Meeting Law Any meeting with more than a quorum must be posted in advance through o the Town Clerk’s office The only place that a quorum of members is permitted to discuss School o Council business is at a public meeting that has been posted in accordance with the open meeting law. A group that is less than a quorum can have conversations that touch on School Council business outside of a public meeting but in those conversations cannot work toward a decision or consensus. Minutes must be sent to Donna Hooper, the Town Clerk o A Town and Committee Handbook can be obtained from the Town o Clerk’s office with further information about the open meeting law and related matters. b) Matt Schnall asked for follow up on the building-level budget. Peg Mongiello said it has not been done yet. Matt Schnall said that it had been suggested to him by another attendee at the training that the LPS administration might be reluctant to put forward building-level budgets because differences between budgets for different schools, although justified, might be interpreted as unfair. The Council members agreed that if necessary we would send a letter stating the request for a building budget – our charge is to review a building level budget and without it we do not feel like we can fulfill our duty completely. Council members believe any differences in building budgets can be explained to the satisfaction of anyone perceiving unfairness by referring to the reasons for the differences. As described at a prior meeting, there are some subjects for which individual school staffing levels (although not actual expenditures) are shown in the district budget document. Even those staffing breakdowns are not available for special education, PE, Art, and Music. 2. Registration/Teaming Peg Mongiello described the proposed process for receiving information about incoming students, and forming teams of students and teachers. The goal is to create mini- communities of “heterogeneous high-performing teams.” This means a mix of learning styles and social groupings designed to function well together. This is a change from prior descriptions of the ideal process in the recent past, where a matrix of learning styles was presented to parents and each team was described as being geared to a particular learning style. Leveling in mathematics instruction will be continued, but in contrast to prior years it will be done within each team rather than being part of the team placement process. It is expected that the existing teacher teams will remain largely intact for 2010-2011, although some teachers may switch teams on a voluntary basis. More significant changes may take place in 2011-2012 if, as anticipated, there are a number of teacher retirements in June, 2011. The actual process for assigning team placements was still under review by staff at the time of this meeting. The prior process was administratively time intensive, using face to face interviews by the principal or assistant principals with most parents. The proposed process will take written information from current teachers and parents, about academic, social and other considerations, including request and situations to avoid. If personal meetings are desired, they can be requested, but they are not necessary; parents may also write a letter if they desire. Prior year teachers will also be providing input to the placement process including impressions about students’ organizational skills, comfort with peers, leadership, etc. For th rising 6 graders: The middle school principals met with elementary school principals, teachers, guidance counselors and others. For the first time in decades (if ever), input th from the 5 grade teachers will be taken into the process via a data sheet they will fill out. A letter will soon be sent home to parents explaining the process. Abi Maxton will be the th Guidance Counselor for the incoming class and stay with them through 8 grade as is the practice. thth For Rising 7 and 8 graders: the same process of receiving input from current teachers and parents will be used. Ms. Mongiello solicited the Council’s input on a draft of the student information form that will be distributed to solicit information from parents. The form is designed to ask questions at a very general level so that it is open to different types of feedback that parents may wish to provide. Peg Mongiello indicated that it is acceptable for parents to provide information about social and/or educational issues (beneficial or detrimental) with specific classmates, as well as positive or negative views about a student’s fit with particular teachers (e.g., based on siblings’ experiences with those teachers). In fact, those are some of the kinds of information that the school wants to receive. Council members suggested that the form could be revised to more clearly solicit those specific types of input. th An initial draft of the teams will be run by the 5 grade homeroom teachers as well as elementary art, music and PE teachers. Homerooms will also be approached as high- performing heterogeneous groupings, rather than alphabetically as has been the case in the past. In terms of timing, Ms. Mongiello said the goal is to have all the teaming and scheduling done before she leaves her job June 30th, with team assignments completed by June 1st and scheduling by the end of the month. It has not been decided yet whether team assignments will be communicated to students and parents before school ends or over the summer. Ms. Mongiello’s inclination is to communicate the placements in June. There was discussion concerning the source of a sense of difference among the existing teams, given the conflicting statements about the extent to which learning style was actually determinative in team placements under the existing system. One teacher noted that the sense of difference might in some part reflect the fact that parent input was taken into account in team placement and that parents were reflective of their understanding of the teams’ composition. A question was raised concerning whether the team names will change. Ms. Mongiello stated that it was under consideration but no determination had yet been made. Ms. Strod asked if the proposed process would take less time, which was the intention. Mr. Dube reported that is still an open question. Ms. Mongiello acknowledged teacher concerns about the time that would be necessary to digest information forms and indicated that there would be an effort to balance the work between teachers and administrative personnel. In terms of further communication about the teaming process, Ms. Mongiello stated that there would be a PTA meeting to discuss the subject and information would also be available at parent information nights for each grade level. Those information nights are tentative scheduled for: thth Current 5 Grade Parents: March 24 thst Current 6 Grade Parents: March 31 thth Current 7 Grade Parents: April 7 3. Course Curriculum Changes Ms. Mongiello presented a draft of the student course offerings for 2010-2011. The offerings have changed in several respects. First, in order to meet State curriculum requirements for engineering and design, a Technology and Engineering class has been added as a mandatory semester rotation in 6th and 8th grades. Second, Health has been expanded to a mandatory semester rotation in 8th grade in addition to the semester in 7th grade. Third, the 6th grade Keyboarding and Computer Science courses have been combined into a single mandatory semester rotation called Computer Applications. Fourth, Economics has been added as a mandatory semester rotation in 7th grade. As a result of the changes, the only electives in 7th grade will be the choice of foreign language and the choice of either band/chorus/orchestra (singly or in combination) or a music/journalism semester rotation. 8th graders will have two semesters of electives, and certain existing electives (composers, debate and drama) will be available only as an alternative to band/chorus/orchestra. In response to a question, Ms. Mongiello stated that Clarke is going through similar changes to its curriculum. 4. Principal Search Peg Mongiello gave an update on the Principal search. One finalist met with parents yesterday, and there are meetings scheduled with the other two finalists today and tomorrow. She reported that the search process is working as anticipated. 5. LEXPRESS stop at Diamond Howard Silver reported on progress on the proposed LEXPRESS stop at Diamond for transportation from after-school activities. After meeting with us in January, Mr. Silver met with the Transportation Advisory Council, who were supportive of the proposal. A decision has been made that LEXPRESS will put service in place on a trial basis for the remainder of this school year and will reevaluate in the summer. The LEXPRESS 6 route will stop at Diamond, beginning March 22, 2010 at some time between 4:30 and 5:00 p.m. The School Council indicated by acclamation its support for the experiment and Mr. Silver stated that he would follow up with the TAC. 6. Community Garden Peg Mongiello stated that she will soon put out a call for community help on the Diamond community garden. Chris Carter is helping with the design, and some of the LEF grant funding may be used to hire a landscape architect to assist with the planning process. There is a desire to include a sundial since it is part of the 6th grade science curriculum. Journal work involving the garden can also be worked into the 7th grade science curriculum. The garden will be located in the “U” of the front of the school. It would be helpful to have parent assistance in maintaining the garden over the summer. The garden will include perennial flowers, bushes and organic plantings. 8. Future Meetings The next meetings are: th  April 12, 4:30pm, Diamond Library th  May 10, 5pm, Diamond Library th  June 10, 7pm, Diamond Library The February meeting is still to be rescheduled.