HomeMy WebLinkAbout2022-04-12 School Council - Killam Elementary Minutesr
Town of Reading RECEIVED
5 Meeting Minutes TOWN CLERK
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Board - committee - Commission - council: 2022 APR 25 AM 10: 28
School Council -J Warren Killam Elementary
Date: 2022-04-12 Time: 3:00 PM
Building:
School - Killam
Location:
Meeting Room
Address:
333 Charles Street
Session:
Open Session
Purpose:
Quarterly
Version:
Draft
Attendees: Members - Present:
Sarah Leveque, Kim Adamo, Tonle McGuire
Marc Cerasuolo attended from 3:10-3:25
Members - Not Present:
Bryn Panee Burkhart
Others Present:
Minutes Respectfully Submitted By: Kim Adamo
Topics of Discussion:
The third quarterly meeting of the J.W. Killam Elementary School Council was conducted
virtually via Zoom on Monday, April 12, 2022, from 3 - 3:30 p.m.
Call to Order: Once a quorum of members was present, Sarah called the meeting to order
at 3 p.m.
Review and Acceptance of Minutes: Members had the opportunity to review the draft
minutes from the January 11, 2022 meeting and voted unanimously to approve them, 3 -
0.
Updates:
School Improvement Plan: Sarah shared she is still reviewing the School Improvement
plan. She met with Dr. Milaschewski last month and they both agreed that this will be a
multi-year plan.
Sarah shared that an important goal of the School Improvement plan is our Student
Support Team (SST). As highlighted in the previous School Council Meeting minutes from
January 11th, this team is comprised of a teacher and specialists, who come together to
brainstorm and support a child that the teacher identifies is in need of help. We are
currently in the hiring process for a new school counselor who will be part of our SST team.
Our equity work continues to be an important goal of the School Improvement plan. The
staff continues to discuss how to best support all of our students during our staff meetings
and evidence of this work can be seen in the work teachers are doing in their classrooms
with our students.
Another goal of the School Improvement Plan is our tier two interventions and supports. We
still continue to have challenges in providing these supports during our regular school hours
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because of staffing shortages due to Covid illnesses. However, we are able to provide
regular after school support to 25 first and second grade students after school.
Budget: School orders are due in the next month to fulfill our school needs. Priorities will
be replenishing furniture in classrooms and cafeteria as well as building non-fiction and
fiction classroom libraries. On a district level, we will be working on becoming 1 to 1 with
computers for third through fifth grade and increasing the number of ipads per student for
kindergarten through second grade.
There are no updates to the WASH guidelines and the school handbooks will be updated
with new information from the Department of Education.
Illustrative Math Curriculum: This is the new Math Curriculum being piloted this year in
our third through fifth grade. It is more project based and inquiry based than our previous
Math in Focus curriculum. Next year this new curriculum will be rolled out in our
kindergarten through second grade. We have received a grant to help pay for the
Professional Development of the kindergarten through second grade teachers.
Tonic McGuire shared the differences between the Illustrative Math curriculum and the
previous Math In Focus curriculum. This new curriculum is more problem solving and
student directed. The K-2 version will be more math center based with hands on activities.
District Level walk through visits: The administrators have been visiting classrooms
throughout the district. They are collectively looking for student engagement and
differentiated instruction. The information collected during these 15 minute walk throughs
will help to build rubrics to be used for Professional Development and to create our district
goals.
Adjournment: The School council adjourned at 3:30 p.m. with plans to reconvene on lune
7, 2022.
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