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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2011-09-14-CLARKE-min�OVS MORN/ o� 1 77 5 nW ; 3 Jonas Clar M Schoo APRIL Ir `FxI NG_ 17 Stedman Road ❖ Lexington, Massachusetts 02421 Steven H. Flynn, Ed.D., Principal Office: (781) 861 -2450 Anna W. Monaco, Assistant Principal Fax: (781) 674 -2043 Jennifer E. Turner, Assistant Principal Site Council Meeting Minutes September 14, 2011 In Attendance: Steven Flynn, Principal; Anna Monaco, Assistant Principal; Jennifer Turner, Assistant Principal; Torrance Lewis, Teacher; Dina Savitz, Parent; Lorelle Yee, Parent; George Murghnahan, Parent; Suzanne Cherenson, Parent. I. Approval of June 2, 2011 Meeting Minutes Minutes reviewed and approved IL Welcome New Members — Dr. Flynn introduced Torrance Lewis, Clarke's Learning Center teacher as well as Suzanne Cherenson, a new parent representative for the 2011 -2012. All members introduced themselves. Teacher explained the role of the Learning Center in the building (a general education support program at Clarke.) Administration explained the Child Study process (a pre-referral process for special education) and make up of the Child Study team. III. Site council Meeting Update — Dr. Flynn reported on the meeting with Dr. Ash and Site council co- chairs about the site council meeting process. Parent: reported things to remember regarding the open meeting law: meetings posted, public could come in, times and places need to be posted, record all members present, general notes, no names other than the principal. If there is a vote we need to have a quorum. (50% +1). Parent: also reported that Dr. Ash mentioned there will be a roundtable follow up meeting. IV. 2010 -2011 School Improvement Plan Dr. Flynn passed out the 2010 -2011 School Improvement Plan with final updates. This is the plan that will be turned into the Central Office. V. 2011 -2012 School Goals: Dr. Flynn passed out the draft of the 2011 -2012 school goals. The goals are the same as last year's goals with different implementation steps. Dr. Flynn mentioned that even though we only have two goals, they are overarching many things that we do. This simplifies the process. The way this is formatted, it leaves room for updates etc. Implementation is what have we done or what are we planning on doing throughout the year. Monitoring is who or how will we monitor our goals. a. Clarke Administrators recalled what the Data Summit 2011 was about and what we discussed. Our upcoming PD days will be focused on the data cycle. Different content teams are in different places with regards to the data team process. LPS had over 100 people (K -12) at the data summit this summer. b. Dr. Flynn reviewed the new Department Head Model at the middle school level and what that looks like. This will help with consistency district wide. We want consistency but not lock step. Students should have common experiences whether you go to Clarke or Diamond. Dept Heads teach one class at Clarke and one class at Diamond. The other half of their job will be for Dept head responsibilities (such as supervision and evaluation, dept meetings, curriculum, mentoring etc.) A lot of our faculty meeting times will be dedicated to this work. c. Clarke Administration reviewed the idea of giving content groups a rubric so that they can monitor and have feedback for their meetings and data team process. d. Dr. Flynn discussed the Math Intervention class that we have had in place for several years. This th th year we decided not to offer twice a week Math Intervention classes in 7 and 8 grades due to idea that offering students Math Intervention four or more days should be more effective. Parent: asked if math levels are taken into account for placement in Math Intervention. Dr. Flynn emphasized that we use MCAS scores to place students in Math Intervention. The Math Intervention teacher meets weekly with the 7 th and 8 th grade Math teachers in order to preview the curriculum for students. Only previewing MCAS material has not proven effective, so we moved to giving them the content. Parent: states that it must build student confidence for a struggling student to preview the material prior to the math class. The difficulty is pulling students out of exploratory courses because we only have 33 blocks a week. Parent: asks about students moving down a math level and how often that happens. Dr. Flynn explains that in 6 th grade this does happen sometimes. The 6 th grade teachers administer assessments at the beginning of the year and may have a discussion about that with the parents. e. Dr. Flynn shows the site council the Content Meeting Form that teachers use in their content meetings and states that we will discuss this next meeting. Parent: asks what a Content Meeting is ands whether it is a PLC? Dr. Flynn answers that yes, this is our version of a PLC and that it is teachers of the same content area meeting together to discuss curriculum etc. VI. Goal 2: Parent: explains the Collaborative to Reduce Student Stress, which she and another parent representative are a part of. This summer the collaborative reconvened and met with Steve in August to find out about the homework policy / load which was causing some issues for some students. Also there was concern about teachers consistently posting homework on Teacher Web. Dr. Flynn states that we are meeting with team leaders tomorrow. We used to have Team Time during the day every Thursday. A few years ago we took that away and extended the learning on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Last year we put it back in on Thursdays to allow teams to have Team Time for team building and assemblies. It became confusing for teachers to figure out when we had it. Teachers have also been asking for time to intervene with students who are struggling. This year we are adding back the block every week to be used for Intervention / Enrichment time. Tomorrow we will be getting input from the team leaders about the I/E block and we will discuss expectations about homework, tests and posting HW on the web. 6 th grade team teachers this year have no duties and instead have two team meetings a week. They needed another meeting in order to get through their team agendas. Parent: brought up the idea of teachers coming up with a syllabus for the course or what is coming up. Dr. Flynn acknowledges that this would be helpful but that something that specific would be very difficult and that different content areas will look differently. Parent: feels that she has a different take and that it's not just about the content but about the planning process and having students figure the planning out on their own. It's not about knowing everything that is coming up but that it is about making sure that is all developmentally appropriate. Discussion about the meeting this summer and that it was not just about homework and the homework load. Dr. Flynn also tells the committee that we also hear from parents that feel that we are not challenging their students enough. a. Bess update — Clarke Administration explains what universal screening is and how it is used to be proactive about students that may be struggling emotionally. b. Rachel's Challenge update on assemblies — Grade level assemblies in October to review and renew Rachel's Challenge. For the 6 th grade assembly there will be more information. c. Parent: asks if there are other assemblies than Rachel's Challenge — Guidance counselors will be working to develop programs and getting into classrooms. Dr. Flynn clarifies that there are no other outside programs coming in this year. VII. Next Meeting Date The next meeting will be early November in order to discuss the budget process and Content Meeting Forms. November 16, 2011.