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Meeting Minutes
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School Council -Arthur W Coolidge Middle
Date: 2015 -06 -11 Time: 2:50 PM
Building: School - Coolidge Location: Conference Room
Address: 89 Birch Meadow Drive
Purpose: Coolidge School Council Meeting
Attendees: Members - Present:
Lisa Tighe (parent), Sarah Marchant (principal), Lauren Ream (parent),
Pooja Mandon (parent), Jennalee Anderson (teacher).
Members - Not Present:
Paul Guidetti (teacher), Laura Warren (teacher)
Others Present:
Minutes Respectfully Submitted By: Jennalee Anderson
Topics of Discussion:
I. Handbook
a. Working on district vision this summer and will shape Coolidge vision next
year.
b. To the middle school student and parent (pg 8)
i. Integrate core values into handbook as a whole
ii. Keeping up with usage of social media is difficult for parents
1. Working on it with PTO this year and school resource officer
2. Parents are unsure of social aspect of online media
iii. Lauren -when parent wants to meet with a teacher, why does it always
have to be a team meeting?
1. Communicates fear to the parent that the team does not want
to meet one on one with the parent
2. Parents have the right to meet one on one with a teacher
3. Jennalee -team support approach, daily team meeting times
c. Bullying section won't be tweaked
i. Lauren -why doesn't the victim's parent know the punishment of the
aggressor? Sarah responded it's a privacy issue and state law.
d. Expectations /Daily Routines
i. Locker times - perhaps need more of a staff discussion
ii. Agenda book for hall passes -more of a staff discussion
e. Cafeteria /Lunch
i. Pooja suggested adding information about food allergies
f. Gum
i. Jennalee -hard rule to enforce whether it's important to you to enforce
or not
ii. Pooja -some elementary schools allows students to chew gum while
testing
iii. Pooja -asked about snacks in between classes. Can they have snacks
during class or in the hallways?
1. Some students need more caloric intake than others
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2. Sarah will talk to staff about snacks
g. Bathroom use
i. Lauren - Getting the message from the school that it's a terrible
inconvenience to go to the bathroom.
1. Teachers never say no but they are discouraged from going
h. Cell phones
i. Pooja -can a student use their cell phones in an emergency in school
ii. Sarah - there's been a problem with parents and students texting each
other during the day
iii. Jenna lee- Pegasus cell policy in the classroom and texting
i. Dress Code
i. Staff meeting conversation -how much do we say these are the rules
when we can't legally uphold them?
ii. Lisa -Dress code is worth keeping
iii. Sarah -one parent suggested talking to boys also
1. Lisa - should have the same conversation with boys to show
uniformity and fairness
iv. Lisa -Is the school committee statement still the same? Add to dress
code statement something about dressing for the job while still
expressing themselves as individuals
j. Lisa - recess for students?
i. Any chance students will be able to go outside during the day?
ii. Will be a scheduling item for next year
iii. Difficult with space -where can students safely go?
k. HPR
i. Did start with 6th grade in 4th term, will do the same but halfway
through
ii. What is the next step for frequent fliers in HPR ?
I. Progress Reports
i. Sarah will change to reflect the new sharing out frequency
m. Classroom management
i. Failure to report to teacher after school -may need to be revised based
on team expectations.
n. Academic dishonesty
i. Lauren -there are different kinds of cheating. Parents should know.
o. Additional Student Conduct Violations
i. Pooja -a bit repetitive, overwhelming
ii. Can they be condensed, more positively stated?
iii. Lisa -some of these are legal necessities
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