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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2013-11-04 School Council - Wood End Elementary MinutesN OF O� r Town of Reading Meeting Minutes 4,6�9'lNCORp�PP� Board - Committee - Commission - Council: School Council -Wood End Elementary Date: 2013 -11 -04 Time: 3:10 PM Building: School - Wood End Location: Conference Room Address: 85 Sunset Rock Lane Purpose: Regular Meeting Attendees: Members - Present: r;ECEIVED OWN CLERK -: ^,DING, M"SS. ai i 4 JAN 21 A 11, 36 Keri DiNapoli, Mia Gaska, Debbie Hattery, Pooja Parsons, Frederick Van Magness, Jr. Members - Not Present: Joanne King, Maureen Fennessy, Stephanie Malone Others Present: Lisa Norcross Minutes Respectfully Submitted By: Frederick Van Magness, Jr. Topics of Discussion: A meeting of the Wood End School Council was held on Monday, November 4, 2013 from 3:10 p.m. until 4:05 p.m. in the conference room of the Wood End Elementary School, 85 Sunset Rock Lane, Reading, Massachusetts. CALL TO ORDER The meeting was called to order at 3:10 p.m. by Wood End Assistant Principal Lisa Norcross. Ms. Norcross welcomed members to the meeting and proceeded to inform the members of several housekeeping matters. First, she announced that Principal Joanne King and Co -chair Maureen Fennessy were both unable to attend the meeting due to other commitments. Second, Ms. Norcross indicated that member Stephanie Malone had submitted her resignation because of a conflicting schedule which prevents her from attending meetings. Another staff member is being sought to replace Ms. Malone on the School Council. Finally, Ms. Norcross reminded members that Council member Frederick Van Magness, Jr. would be taking minutes of the meeting. A quorum of Council members being present, and the meeting having been duly convened, members were ready to proceed with business. Approval of Minutes Members reviewed minutes of the last School Council meeting, held on October 7, 2013, which were submitted by Recording Secretary Frederick Van Magness, Jr. There being no discussion regarding the minutes, Council member Debbie Hattery moved that the minutes be accepted. The motion was duly seconded, and all members present voted to approve the minutes as submitted. MINUTES APPROVED: Vote of 5 -0 -0 Page 1 1 NEW BUSINESS The School Council proceeded to the consideration of new business. MCAS Results Ms. Norcross informed the members that the 2013 MCAS results had been released. Wood End students achieved good results overall, with the only concern being the performance gap for the high -needs subgroup for math and literacy (as is being addressed in the School Improvement Plan, below). Mrs. King made a presentation for parents and members of the community on October 29, which summarized the results and noted areas to focus on for future improvement. The presentation was attended by 5 parents and 1 staff member. A similar follow -up presentation was made to staff on October 30. Mrs. King's presentation is available for review on Edline. School Improvement Plan Members then proceeded to an extended review and consideration of the draft School Improvement Plan for Wood End Elementary School for 2013 -2014. Ms. Norcross explained to the members that the School Improvement Plan generally sets forth a series of goals for the school to pursue during the upcoming year, along with discrete action steps and a timeline for accomplishing those goals (including measurable benchmarks to assess progress). Wood End's school goals are aligned with the goals for the district as a whole, which include learning and teaching, performance management, investment and development, and resource allocation. These district goals are in turn aligned with statewide educational objectives. In addition, Wood End has certain Blue Ribbon standards which is it required to meet due to its designation as a School of Excellence. Mrs. Norcross read the three primary school goals aloud, followed by the SMART Goals, Strategies and Action Steps, and Performance Targets associated with each. The first school goal aims at increasing student academic success in the areas of reading comprehension and writing, as measured by certain measurable standards including the On- Demand Writing Prompt and Rubric. Staff members are participating in Home Grown Writing Institute workshops to identify and implement best practices in writing instruction, focused on grade level skills. Teachers are being given resources and ongoing opportunities for professional development to assist with that implementation. Teachers are also collaborating with colleagues from North Andover to review student work and discuss instructional practices, as part of a Professional Learning Community, with structured meetings throughout the year. Finally, Master Instructional Schedules have been developed for uninterrupted blocks of learning for reading, writing and math. These blocks have already been instituted across all grade levels this year, with one -hour blocks for all grades, K -5. Assessment targets for this goal will generally be at the 80% level. It is also a high priority to ensure that 50% of classroom teachers will have observed in a colleague's classroom to promote collaboration and identify best instructional practices in. The second school goal is to narrow the achievement gap for the high -needs subgroup for math and literacy. For this goal, a ten - member Leadership Team has been developed, which is comprised of teachers from every grade level and specialists in each area. The Leadership Team identifies and intervenes with students who exhibit social, emotional, behavioral and academic concerns. There is a focus on assessing the individual needs of the student as a whole, not just academics, to achieve the best success. Weekly meetings are held and, using support from Wediko consultants, the focus is on collecting data to identify student concerns and plan appropriate interventions. New this year, an online platform called Baseline Edge is being used to track data on student concerns and interventions. Teachers are also increasing Open Circle lessons and grade level lunch groups focused on developing social and problem - solving skills. Page 1 2 For the third goal, Edline, the Leadership Team, Student Council, volunteer opportunities and Grade Level Team Meetings will be used to increase positive and open communication with staff, students, families and the community at large. Mrs. King started the process with a weekly newsletter which is distributed to families. School staff have also increased their use of Edline this year. Coming up, a survey similar to the one recently completed by staff will be distributed to parents using Survey Monkey. The staff response for this survey on school culture garnered responses from 95% of staff. A survey last year on home - school communication garnered responses from 30% of parents. School Council members expressed their hope that a greater number of parents will choose to reply to the survey this year, and agreed that additional avenues should be pursued to announce the availability and importance of the survey, including the posting of links online. Staff are also increasing their participation in leadership presentations, including presentations made to the PTO. Members expressed their overall satisfaction with the draft plan and appreciated the efforts of school administration in putting together such a comprehensive document. Questions were raised about what happens if the performance targets are not met. Ms. Norcross explained the benchmarks are constantly being reevaluated to ensure that they are realistic, but that it is important to look at progress based on a full year of learning, and that there is high confidence that most benchmarks can be met. Members also suggested modest reordering of certain strategies and action steps to make sure reading, writing and math sections are kept together within the document for clarity. There being no further discussion, member Keri DiNapoli moved that the School Improvement Plan for the 2013 -14 school year be accepted, which was seconded. All members in attendance voted to accept the plan. SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT PLAN ACCEPTED: Vote of 5 -0 -0 Student Council Ms. Norcross briefed members on the creation of a new Student Council this year. Fourth and Fifth Grade students submitted a large number of application essays prior to the deadline, and applications are now in the process of being reviewed. Members will be named before Thanksgiving. The first project for the Student Council will be to decorate a tree for the Festival of Trees. Intearated Kinderaarten Proaram Ms. Norcross asked members if they had any questions or feedback on the implementation of the Integrated Kindergarten Program this year. Generally, members seemed to think the implementation was going well, and there are indications that staff seem to like the model, too. Member Pooja Parsons suggested that a separate survey could be sent to parents of children in the program to assess their thoughts of it directly. School Budaet Ms. Norcross told members that the 2014 -2015 budget is now in the process of being developed. Mary Delai met with staff on October 30 to assess concerns. Some of those concerns included student support for social /emotional /behavioral needs, planning time for teachers, training of para- educators, the amount of time needed to complete special education paperwork, deployment of technology, effective use of iPads, and the need for additional professional staff (including a technology integration specialist and a school counselor). Member Pooja Parsons asked that funding for a wider canopy for the student drop -off area also be considered. Additional feedback from the community will continue to be accepted until early December. No votes were taken to assess the sense of the School Council as to any of these funding concerns or recommendations. Page 1 3 This concluded New Business. ADJOURNMENT There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 4:05 p.m. The School Council will meet next on January 6, 2014 at 3:10 p.m. in the Conference Room of Wood End Elementary School. Respectfully submitted, Frederick Van Magness, Jr. Recording Secretary November 5, 2013 Page 1 4