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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2004-01-15-Hastings-min January 15, 2004 School Council Minutes PRESENT: Lynne Stinson, Bette Piece, Sue Campbell, Barbara Lockwood, Jessie Steigerwald, Tammy Mulligan, Jennifer Hertzel, Janet Lane. 1.- SCHOOL COUNCIL PROCEDURES: School Council meetings are public and notice (with agenda) needs to be posted at the Town Clerk’s office and a public board at Hastings 3 days before each meeting. Janet will take care of this. Additionally June Hsiao, our webmaster, has agreed to post minutes of past meetings on the Hastings website. Jessie has begun posting school council information in the lobby by the ACT bulletin board. We need to be sure people who may be interested in the School Council or thinking about running in the future know how to learn more. We should be actively soliciting interest before elections for new council members begins. Joanne Benton has a 3 page description of school council standards and responsibilities. It is posted on lobby board. 2.-BUDGET FY05 There is a petition circulating to ask the School Committee to request an override. School Committee meetings are every Tuesday at 7:30, and we need to encourage parents to stay informed without advocating any position on the budget. Superintendent Joanne Benton has a prioritized list of budget restorations made in two tiers showing her priorities (they are not priorities within the two lists). Her priorities are determined by individuals who have direct classroom contact. The curriculum specialists are on the second tier so positions would not be protected unless that level of funding is restored. We need to be clear that at Hastings the hours currently offered of the assistant principals time is not meaningful or useful - by having a few hours of an assistant principal on paper it gives the misimpression of Hastings receiving help that is not in fact effective. Capital Expenditures for Hastings include the Hastings stress fracture and the cracked roof.. www.thinklexington.com is a new website begun to help people stay up to date on the town and school budget. THE SUPERINTENDENT SEARCH is underway. It is unclear if we will look for a permanent or interim. There are currently 20 other searches statewide, and next year with retirement 40 searches are expected. Although we may want more time to examine candidates, searching for an interim Superintendent rather than a permanent one will put us in competition with more towns. Many high school principals will not come unless they know who the superintendent will be. (Since this meeting it was decided to look for an interim candidate). PTA MONIES AND GRANT: $1,000 was given to the school the PTA for supplies. An additional $150 was given to each staff person for classroom expenses at their discretion. The Principal's discretionary fund was used to bring Mr. Magnet to school and Benjamin Franklin (who visited the third grade) was brought here as a donation from a former parent. CLASSROOM SIZE CONCERNS: Hastings is a swing district, many of our neighborhoods border the other districts and have historically been part of other districts. Redistricting would create huge upheaval in the school population. We need to watch the AVALON development to see if it will alter our numbers drastically. 3. VOLUNTEERISM TASK FORCE Jessie and Barbara reported on their volunteerism meeting. There was a desire for there to be a year calendar focused on volunteer needs to help parents plan their time, to pace themselves and to be clear how and when parents could get involved with the school. It was clear parents attending the meetings wanted to be useful and wanted the school to generate the priorities. Barbara was the only teacher present. It is hard for teachers to think globally as their first focus is their classroom. However Barbara is retiring and we need to have contact with other teachers willing to work on the question and keep having teacher input as we develop volunteerism policy. It was also suggested that the various volunteer groups meet at least 2 times a year to have more coordination between initiatives and build better cohesion. Goal setting is important but implementation is critical. The example given was last year's goal of addressing the achievement gap between students of color and Caucasian children. This was an important problem identified in the last School Council but we have not carried out or developed any clear implementation plan. Parents with training could be available to work with children as needed or as individual tutor/mentors. Confidentiality would be crucial and none of our parent volunteers have been trained in this issue. Policy making has to be broad but teachers are going to look at how it will impact their classroom and don't want broad policy to take away their control of their classroom as every group of children and every teacher is so distinct. Broad policy cannot fully address this need for flexibility. OUTCOME/PRIORITIES: The School Council members voted to create a short term joint task force to meet with PTA executive board members to examine volunteerism at Hastings. Lynne Stinson, Jennifer Hertzel, Jessie Steigerwald, Tammy Mulligan, and Barbara Lockwood agreed to attend the meetings. They will meet after the PTA volunteerism meetings in Jess Lindley's home are conducted. A volunteer training manual is needed. The School Council needs to continue to provide information in the weekly bulletin. 4. SCHOOL SURVEY We reviewed the school survey written for parents and written for students. It was suggested that the same questions be used but with subheadings to make it easier for parents to skim. The open ended nature of the questions will make it harder to tabulate, but provide more genuine feedback than a numbered quantifiable survey. All council members agreed to help in the sorting process. IT was decided that the surveys will be sent out Feb. 2, to be returned by Feb. 12. 5. FUNDRAISING - SNOW BALL? If parents know where the money is going to go, and the vital nature of PTA moneys in this current budget climate, they will give more support than to general fundraising. Can we connect the moneys raised at the upcoming Snow Ball to any particular need? LEF GRANTS and Tracey Right will work on a grant proposal to get money for math books and math manipulatives. Another LEF proposal is a reading program before school especially for children coming from Boston. SATISH KOHL's MEMORIAL $1000 was raised in memory of Satish Kohl to provide math books, A memorial book plate with his name will be in each one. MEETING ADJOURNED: NEXT MEETING: Feb. 12, 2004, at 3:45 in Lynne Stinson's office. (We will be tabulating the results of the school survey).