HomeMy WebLinkAbout2021-10-21 School Council - RMHS Minutesg� Town of Reading RECEIVED
Meeting Minutes TOWN CLERK
READING, MA.
Mai
Board -Committee -Commission - Council: 2022 JUN 14 AM 1158
School Council -Reading Memorial High
Date: 2021-10-21 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 Michelle
Greenwalt, Eileen Manning, Marianne Downing, RMHS Staff: Laurie
Donahue, Tom McIntyre, Sherilla Lestrade
Members - Not Present:
student members Ryan McGibbon, Yasmine Saheb, and Connor Patterson;
parent member Pooja Mandon; assistant principals Kadi Buckley and Jess
Theriault
Others Present:
Minutes Respectfully Submitted By: Marianne Downing
Topics of Discussion:
PRELIMINARY REMARKS BEFORE OFFICIAL START OF MEETING
The meeting opened with member introductions. Several members mentioned they had been on
RMHS school council in past years and/or had been on other school councils at previous schools.
Principal Tracey went over a presentation handout giving an overview of the role of the school
council, membership requirements, how meetings will be conducted (Roberts Rules of Order), how
School Councils are subject to open meeting law, etc.
One parent had a question about whether certain aspect in the handout still applied; namely, that
members of school council for one school should not be members of school councils at other
schools, and also that members of the school committee should not be school council members,
although they could attend meetings. Since neither situation applied to any present member of the
school council, the group moved on from the matter.
Principal Tracey indicate that he will be a member of school council ex -officio and a non-voting
member. The group agreed to vote on matters by mutual consensus.
Principal Tracey reminded the group that school council meeting are open to the public, and that
discussions and statements in meetings and minutes will become public, as well. For example, if he
brings up budget information ahead of when it becomes public, it will become public via the
minutes.
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MAIN BODY OF MEETING
Principal Tracey went over what he wanted to accomplish this year and the timing and order. First,
the school council had to address the school improvement plan (SIP), so that it could be ready to be
presented to the school committee in early December. After that, the school council will tackle the
handbook for the rest of the year.
Regarding the SIP, Principal Tracey indicated that we need to identify 3 main goal areas for the SIP.
In terms of the handbook, Principal Tracey mentioned one goal area to investigate is policies and
whether they should be revisited. He gave the example of focusing on a policy such as the
attendance policy. He noted that a lot of kids are missing classes and have reached the level of
missing classes where the kids will not get credit for those classes, per the policy in the handbook
(8.5 unexcused absences from a class means no credit for that class). He indicated we need to look
at that policy.
He also spoke generally that, post pandemic, the return to "normalcy' has been hard on students,
and that, based on course pacing so far, RMHS may consider not having mid -terms right at mid-term
time, possibly have them later in year. He noted that RMHS staff is still dealing with significant
anxiety levels in students.
In terms of looking at the RMHS handbook, the Principal suggested that a way to come up with
changes is in the form of a change memo to the school committee, but made it clear that the change
memo would just be a list of "suggested" changes. He indicated that for "significant' changes, he
will tell the school committee ahead of time.
Principal Tracey added that being able to have an added counselor this year due to a grant means
the counselor/student ratio is approximately 1/200. He noted that he was surprised that the middle
schools in Reading do not have school counselors in addition to the school psychologists, noting that
even smaller school systems usually have a school counselor.
The group continued with discussing how school council meetings would be run and voted
unanimously to have Eileen Manning and Michelle Greenwalt as co -chain (please double check this]
The group agreed that they would approve meeting minutes from the last meeting, at the next
meeting. There will be specific agendas with specific topics
SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT PLAN
Principal Tracey suggested that the school council should have a focused goals and assign
responsible parties, a timeline for responsibility, a measure of effectiveness. Should be short and
sweet. He would prefer the SIP to readable and consistent with the District Improvement Plan (DIP)
—consistent but with RMHS-specific goals. He expects that the superintendent will ask for mid -year
reports on the SIP goals.
Timeframes for SIP—the school council needs to nail down the SIP by mid November 2021 and
Kevin will present to school committee in early December. The SIP will be applicable to the current
school year (2021-2022).
Preferably, the goals will be as having timelines, e.g., half-year goals, two year goals, 4-5 year goals,
etc., so that progress can be measured against those time frames.
Principal Tracy will either send out or bring to the next school council meeting his "findings" of his
entry plan to RMHS, similar to what he presented to the school committee. He went over briefly a
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few examples of his findings. For example, RMHS needs a Tier 2 Academic Intervention Model,
which we do not currently have. For English Language Learners (ELL) —we do not have a cohesive
model, and there are too many part-time staff. There also may be examples of "low hanging fruit'
which can be fixed first and/or fixed easily.
The group spoke about issues with the current student information system, the portal, the website,
etc. Principal Tracey explained to the group how many systems are incompatible with each other,
and how Rediker is an "old" system that most other districts have moved away from, and how it
does not interface well with systems like Admin+, and a system used to track discipline data, though
it does interface with Grade Book. Principal Tracey shared with the group that the superintendent
has indicated that the district will be looking in greater depth this year at the student information
systems, the district websites, etc., with a goal of improving and/or updating them.
NEXT MEETINGS/FUTURE MEETINGS
The group agreed that it will meet on the third Thursday of the month, in person. Next meeting will
be Thursday November 18, 2021
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