HomeMy WebLinkAbout2019-10-03 School Council - Coolidge Middle Minutes Town of ReadingV
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School Council -Arthur W Coolidge Middle
Date: 2019-10-03 Time: 3:00 PM
Building: School - Coolidge Location: Conference Room
Address: 89 Birch Meadow Drive Session: Open Session
Purpose: Monthly Meeting Version:
Attendees: Members - Present:
Sarah Marchant, Brienne Karow, Chris Friberg, Marcellus Koster, Kate
Goldlust
Members - Not Present:
Eric Castriano, Mike Maday, Pooja Parsons, Teresa Wiggins
Others Present:
Minutes Respectfully Submitted By: Sarah Marchant
Topics of Discussion:
I. The Council started with an overview of the School Committee Policy on School Council.
• We reviewed this and feel as are in alignment with the overall goals/ expectations/
routines/ etc.
II. The Council then chose a co-chair.
• Sarah Marchant, Principal and Marcellus Koster, Parent, will be co-chairs.
III. The Council spent the bulk of their time reviewing the first rough draft of the School
Improvement Plan, including the Coolidge School Goal and the three potential Coolidge
Strategic Initiatives. Our note taker was absent, so the following notes are a brief summary
of the discussion:
• We overviewed the new goal template, being used for the District Improvement Plan
and all School Improvement Plans,
• We reviewed a draft of goals for the year in the old format.
• We looked at the District Strategic Objectives regarding format, and brainstormed
how the proposed "Focus Areas" (old format), shared by Principal Marchant in the old
format, may fit into the new format.
• For this year's proposed Strategic Initiatives, we talked about how something such
as PD can fall under the different objectives rather than be its own category.
• We talked about what sort of data would be measured under the "Equity"Strategic
Initiative, and that the act of finding the data may be its own step, even if it's not
evident now.
• We discussed that finding good data is challenging in itself. A teacher mentioned
that it is Important to have data as a piece of information, but not to have it take
over.
• A parent mentioned that data collected in Year 1 of a goal should help to inform work
in the subsequent year.
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• A parent raised the question regarding collecting data in the form of student surveys,
and the importance of knowing what student feel and what drives them, and how to
support those things.
• We quickly touched on the work happening at the building level, creating a Vision of
a Coolidge Graduate. It has started in the staff space, but would be good to extend
to students and parents.
IV. Lastly, we opened the floor to any other topics or comments.
• One parent commented how important communication is between school and home,
and that the communication be as specific as possible. The new communication from
teams was noted and appreciated.
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