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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2014-03-04 School Council - Wood End Elementary Minutes• c Town of Reading Meeting Minutes `° �E�EIVED l6J9' IN(099°PP� I p W N CLERK Board - Committee - Commission - Council: ,DING, MASS. School Council -Wood End Elementary , 4 P b: 46 � Date: 2014 -03 -04 Time: 3:10 PM Building: School - Wood End Location: Conference Room Address: 85 Sunset Rock Lane Purpose: Regular Monthly Meeting Attendees: Members - Present: Joanne King, Keri DiNapoli, Maureen Fennessy, Debbie Hattery, Frederick Van Magness, Jr. Members - Not Present: Pooja Parsons, Kyra Johnson Others Present: None Minutes Respectfully Submitted By: Frederick Van Magness, Jr. Topics of Discussion: A regular monthly meeting of the Wood End School Council was held in the Conference Room of the Wood End Elementary School on Monday, March 3, 2014. CALL TO ORDER A quorum of members being present, and the meeting having been duly convened, Wood End Principal Joanne King called the meeting to order at 3:15pm and proceeded with business. ORGANIZATIONAL BUSINESS Mrs. King told the members that Kyra Johnson, who was recently appointed to the School Council to fill a vacancy, was no longer a member of the Council. Ms. Johnson has resigned her teaching position with Wood End and is therefore no longer able to serve. A replacement has not yet been named. REVIEW AND ACCEPTANCE OF MINUTES Members reviewed draft minutes from the last meeting, which was held on February 3, 2014. There being no further discussion, Mrs. DiNapoli moved that the minutes be accepted as drafted. Mrs. Fennessey seconded the motion. The members then voted unanimously to approve the minutes. VOTE: - Minutes Accepted 5 -0 -0 Page 1 1 NEW BUSINESS 2014 -2015 Budget Update Mrs. King informed the members that the school department budget for 2014 -2015 had recently been submitted to the town's Finance Committee, but that there was no further update or feedback available. There should be more information on the budget available in the near future. Mrs. King did acknowledge the parent volunteers who have represented Wood End throughout the entire process and who have been very diligent about relaying information and concerns to and from the budget meetings. TELL Mass Survey Update Mrs. King informed the members that the TELL Mass Survey was recently completed by Wood End staff. This survey is conducted once every two years, and is designed to elicit an overall sense of school operations from the perspective of school personnel. Wood End had 100% staff participation in this year's survey. Results are expected to be posted online in spring, and once available, will factor into the School Improvement Plan going forward. The last survey from two years ago indicated a need for improvement with professional development initiatives, and such initiatives have become an important part of the School Improvement Plan since then. MTSS Presentation In recent meetings, School Council members have had several discussions about the Mass Tiered System of Support (MTSS) model and how it will be implemented at Wood End. Mrs. King continued the discussion at this meeting by walking through a PowerPoint presentation with the members to explain more about the system. MTSS is designed to assist educators in looking beyond the academic performance of students and to assess their social, emotional and behavioral needs as well. Mrs. King explained that one of the key elements of MTSS is to ensure that students who are in need of additional services (services beyond those delivered routinely to the entire student population) are identified and that they receive the appropriate interventions to address their individual needs. These individualized interventions are developed by applying research -based standards of instruction within a team setting, and are reviewed at least every six weeks by educational staff. Students in need of additional intervention are also assigned to specific adult staff who can give them one -on -one attention needed to form supportive connections. MTSS provides a framework for educators to establish a set of values by which services will be delivered to students, such that there is a true sense of what students should look like within the school and within the community once they complete their course of study. At Wood End, a system of five such values has been identified. Namely, students should be (1) respectful, (2) safe, (3) engaged, (4) honest and (5) responsible. These values are integrated into the MTSS to develop plans and codes of conduct for all students in different settings within the school. Mrs. King explained that MTSS uses an assessment process whereby educational team members develop specific data about each individual student across academic and social /emotional grounds. Based on this data, which is entered into Baseline Edge for review by all relevant team members going forward, students are identified as falling into one of three groups, or tiers. The first tier is based on the basic level of academic and social /emotional support that is routinely delivered to all students as part of the regular educational program. The second tier is where certain students are placed when they are identified as being at -risk and in need of more intensive support. The third tier is designated for those students who are identified as needing the most intensive level of intervention. Page 1 2 The goal of MTSS is to make sure that as many students as possible are assigned to the first tier, and that students in the second and third tiers are getting the services they need most. In an ideal educational setting, MTSS predicts that about 80% of students would be assigned to the first tier for universal instruction, 15% would be assigned to the second tier for targeted intervention, and 5% would be assigned to the third tier for the most intensive interventions. If envisioned graphically, the three tiers could be represented in the form of a pyramid whereby the first tier would be on the bottom and broadest level (colored green), the second tier would be represented in a higher and narrower level (colored yellow), and the third tier would be represented at the highest and narrowest level (colored red). At Wood End, initial survey data on the student population indicates that 272 students (77.7%) are in the first tier, 65 students (18.5%) are in need of targeted intervention and fall into the second tier, and 13 students (3.7 %) are in need of the most intervention and are in the third tier. A recent school culture survey indicates that staff are doing a lot of things very well at Wood End, but that there is a need to do them more consistently and to focus more on targeted interventions, with the goal of reducing the size of the second tier. The Leadership Team has a goal of getting the MTSS up and running in full next school year, with appropriate input from the community, and to make sure that staff are implementing it consistently across the entire school. As part of a four -to -five year plan, the goal is to get the number of students in the second tier down to 10 -15 %. It takes a great deal of time to put the targeted interventions needed to accomplish this into place. It is also important as part of MTSS to recognize and celebrate student achievement after students are taught behavioral expectations. Plans are already underway to increase such recognition. Another goal is to try to standardize certain behavioral expectations across the district such that students from different elementary schools will function at similar levels once they are pooled together at Coolidge and Parker. Blue Ribbon Meeting Preparations are already underway for Wood End to host a site visit by participants of the Blue Ribbon School conference in April. Mrs. King thanked Council member Fred Van Magness for helping her and her husband do some repainting work in the school cafeteria during February school vacation. Mrs. King worked with Martha Nazarro, an interior designer, to pick out colors for the painting. Mrs. King led the painting effort to highlight large portraits of Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Ludwig von Beethoven which were purchased by the school and which now hang prominently on the walls of the cafeteria. Over the next few weeks, Mrs. King will be working with staff and parents to identify additional preparations which will be made before the site visit. For example, teams of volunteers will be asked to help wash windows and landscape the outside of the school. Fifth Grade Field Trip Mrs. King informed members that preparations are underway for a possible fifth grade field trip to Camp Bournedale in late 2014. Camp Bournedale is an environmental camp located in Plymouth, MA and works to bring students together to solve problems collaboratively in a group setting through team - building exercises. Last year, fifth grade students from Killam and Birch Meadow schools went on a similar field trip and the feedback was excellent. This year, it is hoped that all fifth graders from Joshua Eaton and Barrows will go on an overnight field trip to Camp Bournedale on September 15 -16, and that students from Killam, Birch Meadow and Wood End will go for an overnight field trip on October 20 -21. These groups of students were identified based on the fact that they will be attending Middle School together in sixth grade. The field trip has yet to be approved by the School Committee, and will be preceded by a parent information night. In addition, it is expected that there will be up to 20 parent chaperones. The PTO will be asked to help defray some of the cost of the field trip, which is estimated to be $200 per student. Page 1 3 ADJOURNMENT There being no further business, the School Council adjourned at 4:25 pm to meet again at its next regular meeting to be held on April 7, 2014. Respectfully submitted, Frederick Van Magness, Jr. Recording Secretary March 4, 2014 Page 1 4