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Home My WebLink About2021-12-13 School Council - Wood End - Draftwat Town of Reading Meeting Minutes Board - committee - Commission - Council: Date: 2021-12-13 Building: School - Wood End Address: 85 Sunset Rock Lane Purpose: Regular Meeting for 2021-2022 Attendees: Members - Present: RECEIVED TOWN CLERK READING, MA. 2021 DEC 27 PH 1:140 Time: 7:00 Location: Virtual (Zoom) Session: Open Session Version: Draft Lindsay Baker, Mia Gaska, Danielle Gianatassio, Joanne King, Caitlin Koehler, Kevin Sexton, and Christine St. Hilaire Members - Not Present: Lindsey Tainsh Others Present: Minutes Respectfully Submitted By: Lindsay Baker Topics of Discussion: The second meeting of the Wood End Elementary School Council for 2021-22 school year was held via Zoom on December 13, 2021. Call to Order: A quorum of members being present, and the meeting having been duly convened for Wood End Elementary School by Principal, Joanne King called the meeting to order at 7:04 p.m. and proceeded with business. Public Comment: Question brought to School Council regarding class size and what factors warrant adding another section to a grade in the future. Dr. King shared there are a variety of factors that influence such a decision including class size guidelines (preferred 22 students for K-2 and under 26 students for grades 3-5), district -wide survey of growth and capacity, size of incoming Kindergarten class, number of classrooms available to house classes, and a desire to increase number of METCO students in grades with smaller populations. The administration reviews all of the available data and tries to be proactive though some factors cannot be foreseen such as mid -year move -ins. Review and Acceptance of Minutes: Members reviewed draft minutes from the November 9, 2021 meeting. There were no corrections or additions. Vote: Minutes Accepted 7-0-0 Page I 1 WS Town of Reading Meeting Minutes Old Business Safety Sionaae: With the help of the Wood End PTO the purchase of two safety signs for the driveway and drop-off area has been completed and the signs are being used daily during drop-off and pick-up times. A reduction in caregivers crossing mid -driveway with students during these peak traffic times has been noticed. The logistics of putting the signs out and taking them in has added a new challenge. Mia Gaska suggested that the school day custodian or members of the Extended Day program could be asked to help with daily sign set-up. School Improvement Plan: The School Council members viewed a video format of Wood End's School Improvement Plan made by Principal Dr. King and Library and Media Specialist and Assistant Vice Principal Lisa Norcross. Dr. King asked for feedback on the video. The video was noted as being concise, focused, and visually interesting, with a further spacing of bullet points preferred for ease of reading along. School Council members noted that it is helpful to have communications in both written and video format. Incidents on the Playground: Directly after the previous School Council meeting (November 9, 2021) Dr. King received communication from parents regarding the playground incidents raised in public comment at the November meeting. Noted were a lack of respect and a higher level of aggressiveness occurring on school and adjacent town property outside of school hours. This was occurring across grades. Dr. King has spoken with the students involved and communicated that the same behavioral expectations and core values followed during school hours are expected within our community at all times. Members of the Wood End community that encounter similar incidents while recreating at the school are encouraged to: separate from the situation and go into the building if there are staff present at the time, ask Extended Day Program staff for help, and/or report the incident to the administration the next day. Families should note that time spent on school property outside of established school hours or sponsored programs is NOT supervised. New Business: Faulty and Anti -Bias Community Project: The School Council discussed new project ideas and approaches for engaging the community in future equity and anti -bias focused projects. Lisa Norcross is planning to repeat the holiday traditions photo share that was done last year and will solicit submissions of photos and captions during the period of the December - January break. Sharing photos specifically to this project will imply consent to share with the community. It was suggested to expand the time frame of this project in the future to encompass other cultural holidays and festivals that fall during the winter season, including Hanukkah, Diwali, and Chinese New Year and to broaden the topic to "Favorite Winter Traditions," to enhance equity and inclusion. The students could also be given a photo of the school mascots Woody and Woodette to inspire them to take photos of their traditions, similar to past Flat Stanley projects. Further project ideas shared were: a family recipe share and subsequent creation of a school cook book as food is integral to most cultural celebrations, and a school -wide family tree project and creation of a school "forest" Concerns about equity for adopted students were raised regarding the tree project. Ideas will continue to be collected and presented to school families via a survey for their input. Ideas might be inspired by the second grade biography project and the upper grades poster projects. It was suggested to have all students complete a common element to make the project more equitable so that there is an accessible portion that can be executed by all families with an open-ended portion to accommodate further creativity. The School Council hopes the project will communicate a broader idea of what family, home and love include. Page 1 2 • Town of Reading Meeting Minutes To increase community engagement in this project it was suggested that leaders in the family community (e.g. School Council families, Student Council members) could complete their projects in a first round to inspire and encourage participation. The school is hoping to move forward with resuming the annual Student Work Spring Showcase and could incorporate the chosen community project in this showcase. The showcase would take place both inside and outside the building, allowing a video showing students' projects to be projected on the side of the building in the outdoor classroom. Dr. King will explore working with IT and/or borrowing a projector from the Reading Public Library to facilitate this. There is excitement around bringing back in-person community celebrations of student work after pandemic pauses. Adjournment There being no further business, the School Council adjourned at 8:03 p.m. with plans to reconvene at the next scheduled meeting on January 24, 2022. Respectfully Submitted, Lindsay Baker, Recording Secretary Page 13