HomeMy WebLinkAbout2003-09-23-Hastings-min
Minutes of the 9/23/2003 School Council Meeting
ATTENDING:
Lynne Stinson, Sue Campbell, Janet Lane, Tammy Mulligan, Jessie Steigerwald,
Barbara Lockwood, Jennifer Hertzel.
CO CHAIR AND SECRETARY:
Following a welcome to new members, Lynne asked for a parent volunteer to
co-chair the committee, and Jessie Steigerwald offered to serve. Janet Lane
will be secretary, email the minutes, and post the upcoming meeting agenda
and dates at Hastings and Central Office.
COMMUNITY MEMBER REPRESENTATIVE:
Lynne will check to see if the community member needs to live in Lexington
or if working here is sufficient. Janet will contact the Chamber of
Commerce once we know. Jessie recommended the director of Methodist Weekday
School as a candidate and she will also put up a notice requesting a
community volunteer at Greely Village, a local retirement residence.
Committee members were asked to solicit interest from neighbors and other
contacts.
DATES FOR SCHOOL COUNCIL MEETINGS IN 2003-2004
Monthly Thursday afternoon meetings at 3:45 including:
October 9, 2003
November 6*, 2003
December 4, 2003
January 15, 2004
February 12, 2004
March 11, 2004
April 8*, 2004
May 6, 2004
June 3, 2004
*11/6 and 4/8 are also teacher's conference dates.
There will be additional meetings in the Spring to prepare the School
Improvement Plan for the upcoming year.
October 7, 2003 there will be a School Committee Meeting we will attend to
present Hastings School Improvement Plan. Jessie and other parents will
work on a visual display representing the school. Lynne will be sure the
written report is ready and copied. There will be no food prepared.
REVIEW OF SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT PLAN:
The Committee reviewed the written report line by line for editing errors.
Questions of content included:
-removing detailed descriptions of curriculum methodology
-inclusion of a Survey of Parents, teachers and Children in the "Next Steps"
section.
-review of wording to describe the achievement gap between students.
OTHER QUESTIONS:
- FAIR FUNDRAISING FOCUS:
Jennifer asked if there were any teacher or school wide material needs in
light of the budget cuts and the new fire department regulations that could
be presented to the parent community as a rallying point for the school
fair. For example could the PTA focus fair fund raising on getting acrylic
covered bulletin boards for the hallways as a way to build morale and
community unity? Lynne said she was in touch with the PTA leadership on
this question.
Barbara Lockwood commented teachers are so busy with new mandates it is hard
to reflect on long term needs and that both parents and teachers needed to
think about future goals. Fund raising goals should therefore be a
dialogue.
- POSITIVE INFORMATION TO PARENTS
Janet commented that she had learned several new things at PTA functions and
in this Improvement Plan that parents would not know if they were unable to
come to the school. She asked if some of this information could be put in
the bulletin so that positive information is going out as well as the
distressful budget cut related information. (e.g.The Anti- Bullying
initiative, Community Building focus, the continued focus on differentiated
instruction and advanced learners).
GOALS FOR 2004 will be discussed at our October meeting.