HomeMy WebLinkAbout2022-04-14 School Council - RMHS MinutesF
Town of Reading RECEIVED
Meeting
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a r g Minutes TOWN CLERK
READING. MA.
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Board - committee - commission - council: 2622 JUN 14 AM 11: 58
School Council -Reading Memorial High
Date: 2022-04-14 Time: 4:00 PM
Building: School - Memorial High Location: School Library
Address: 62 Oakland Road Session:
Purpose: Version: Final
Attendees: Members - Present:
principal Kevin Tracey as member ex Officio; parent members Elleen
Manning, Marianne Downing, Michelle Greenwalt, RMHS Staff: Tim McIntire,
Laurie Donahue (arrived late)
Members - Not Present:
student members Connor Patterson, Staff member Sherilla Lestrade
Others Present:
Minutes Respectfully submitted By: Marianne Downing
Topics of Discussion:
The Group voted unanimously to approve the School Council minutes of March 17, 2022
RMHS UPDATES ON VARIOUS RMHS ACTIVITIES
COMFORT DOGS - Cooper the dog has arrived, started at 8 weeks old. Cooper has been stressed, not eating
or sleeping enough, needs more breaking in. Now there is also another comfort dog puppy Rusty. As a result
of the comfort dog puppies being there, more kids are getting to know the SRO and stopping by to see him,
which is good.
ARTFEST - It went well, good to have back at RMHS, it was principal Tracey's 1" artsfest. Good to see that
after pandemic, music and art able to come back
MISSTER RMHS— Was a big hit at school even if some "cdngeworthy" moments with some innuendos, but
kids and staff enjoyed it.
COMING UP - Proms, National Honor Society, Awards. etc
DUAL ENROLLMENT UPDATE -They are going to launch in fall with several classes. RMHS has some
concerns with vetting its exisfing classes as qualifying to be equivalent to college, stipends etc. Endicott has
not yet started its program, and there may be just one RMHS existing class that could be treated as dual
enrollment. A parent asked — are the Dual Enrollment Endicott classes listed in the program of studies still
running? Principal said yes. However, dual enrollment classes based on existing classes are not ready to go.
Principal indicated that they are looking to see if they can offer classes to match what college offers, e.g., ASL
(American Sign Language).
ISSUES WITH FOUNDATIONAL SKILLS — More prep is needed, especially study skills and note taking skills,
for students coming in, both to HS and to dual enrollment programs. The entire school council discussed how
can we have more foundational skills to get kids organized when they start RMHS, should there be days at
start of school year. A teacher member offered how teaching kids how to organize Google classroom files may
be useful. Some kids are much more prepared than others.
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SUB SHORTAGE -the Group briefly discussed the sub shortage. Principal indicated that on average there
are 9 staff members out per day with only 3.7 subs available, and that there is a 6.8% absentee rate. Teachers
are covering for each other.
CREDIT RECOVERY— Principal Tracey shared that RPS uses Edgenuity online for this, that we paid for it and
are still using. However Edgenuity is only really matching our curriculum in math and science, and is not a
good match for students who need credit recovery in English and Social Studies.
STUDENT BEHAVIOR ETC -
- Student skipping is still an issue but improving. We are still working with students, but it is better than
it was before the holidays. There are some recurrent skippers.
- It was noted that there is a need to go over the Code of Conduct in the handbook, because Staff does
not have judgement on infractions.
- Also, the Drug/Alcohol policy may have to be reworked because it is too rigid.
- Suspensions —10 days is a lot of suspension time. RMHS may want to work with the Reading
Coalition to see if there is a diversion (or diversity?) program to mitigate the 10 day suspension. It is possible
that 10 day suspensions in future could be held in abeyance, to make a student go through a program.
- Bullying —the assistant. principals are trained in restorative justice and we have safety plans in place,
but there are bullying issues. Bullying is common to a lot of districts.
The group discussed generally the leacher in service day and K-12 integration and how it is helpful at the HS
level.
Discussion followed on Gasses to be offered next year and who is teaching. For example Sean McGowan,
who currently teaches math, will be teaching Intro to Computer Science. The principal indicated he was hoping
to model a computer science pathway after what Medford offers.
Principal mentioned that the PTO has given a grant to RMHS for 3D printers. Also mention was made that
iRobot may have some involvement with RMHS and/or the middle schools as part of its community service
hours.
One member asked if we are adding "Project lead the way" classes. Principal explained that it is not optional
for us to choose to do it or not, because if we do it we have to collect and provide data for them, and the
curriculum we have is not a match. Thus, we no longer partner with Project Lead the way. We may use more
of its general ideas for the Principles of Engineering course, less for intro to engineering.
The group discussed more dual enrollment classes for next year and how the current dual enrollment are
going. It was mentioned that some current dual enrollment classes had students drop out (e.g., going from 25
to 12 kids) because students found it hard to work the dual enrollment class in their flex block during second
semester of senior year. Principal noted Tewksbury High school has so much dual enrollment that some kids
can graduate with an associate's degree.
Principal stated, we may try to pilot one AP class as being equivalent to a college Wass, where if the student
pays $300 it can count towards a college credit.
The group continued to discuss "innovative pathways" at RMHS. We are one of the first schools to try to work
in dual enrollment courses with Endicott and are trying to get caught up with what other schools do. The state
has five defined "innovative pathways" that we can look into, the five that can lead to an internship. We need to
look at our course of study and see if there are internships with which we can be paired. One member
mentioned that 'Mass Hire" maintains lists of companies that could have opportunities for students.
The principal discussed maybe looking into room for internships during 2023-204 school year. He noted the
scheduling committee needs to look at our elective requirements. For example, we are pursuing MassCore,
which has 2 defined electives and 4 undefined/free electives— how can we work with that.
Principal indicated he could probably think of eight different pathways we could offer in Reading as well as
more elective offerings. He indicated that we are seeking a $50k planning grant on this. We may try to pilot
some pathways next year, but we would need a scheduling change. One parent noted that there are RPS
parents in town who may be able to help with some internship placements. Principal also noted another future
idea is for students to present capstone projects at community forums.
The group adjourned at approximately 5pm
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