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Meeting Minutes RECEIVED
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Board - committee - commission - council: 2022 JUN 14 AH 11: 58
School Council -Reading Memorial High
Date: 2021-11-18 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, Tim McIntire, Sherilla Lestrade, Connor Patterson
Members - Not Present:
student members Ryan McGibbon, Yasmine Saheb; parent member Pooja
Mandon; assistant principals Kadi Buckley and less Theriault
Others Present:
Minutes Respectfully Submitted By: Marianne
Topics of Discussion:
The meeting started with the group discussing and approving the minutes of 10/20/2021 RMHS School
Council meeting,
Principal Tracey presented the draft School Improvement Plan (SIP) to the Council and the group
engaged in a discussion of this draft. The principal noted that the draft SIP could not encompass
everything the school would be doing in detail, because he was advised that it should follow a consistent
format in terms of following the goals outline in the District Improvement Plan (DIP), such as goals
related to equity. However, the principal emphasized that the RMHS SIP tailors the DIP goals to the
school -specific mission for RMHS.
The principal noted that the SIP has for main goals, and he wanted the Council to look at the goals and
strategic initiatives listed in the SIP, to see if anything is missing, whether there should be certain
priorities within what is listed there. The principal went over the bullet points for the strategic initiatives
in the SIP, to further clarify their meaning.
One Council member asked, why aren't there more measurable for the goals? The principal answered,
the measurable are notpart of this overview in the SIP and the details are coming later.
One example strategic initiative that was discussed was a need to celebrate the work of students and
staff more visibly and frequently. Another initiative discussed was for the principal to set up regular
times to meet with students. This led to a group discussion about the various student leadership groups,
such as student council and class president, to discuss what they do now, what they could do in the
future, and how these groups could be further used to help with this strategic initiative, including ways
to improve the way they are selected and run.
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For example, the principal noted that student council this year seems to be heavily loaded with gr.9
students, and he would like to see greater representation in all grades. Ideas were floated to maybe
merge class leadership with student council, and also to try and replicate, in the current structure, and
equivalent of "homeroom reps" to student council, possibly by having students in their flex blocks,
assign a rep to student council, since flex blocks are the one class where students have the same kids in
the room all the time, all being in the same group. It is the closest equivalent we have now to a
"homeroom;" since we do not have homerooms.
One teacher member shared their experiences in another school with working with an active student
council, and described some types of meetings and ideas that might be workable at RMHS. The student
member, who is a class officer, also shared his experiences with how that has worked out during his
years at RMHS and what role the officers play vs how student council has worked.
The group then moved on to discuss the next strategic goal, which was Department Head structure. The
principal explained that there is not enough connection between the same subject matter from middle
school to high school, and that changinglimproving the Department Head structure might improve the
gr. 6-12 leadership and integration. There is also a need for more time for teachers to meet and
collaborate, at a department level and otherwise. The teacher members discussed the existing
professional development time and early release time is not enough.
Another bullet the group discussed was "Equity," which the principal explained has several aspects. One
important aspect is Tier 2 interventions, and how RMHS lacks true Tier 2 interventions. The principal
stated that Tier 2 interventions was his p1 priority under this bullet. Writing labs and math labs could be
part of this, but he wants to make better use of those kinds of options, such as during flex time. He also
noted that RMHS needs to set up a better data collection system to monitor need for Tier 2
interventions and to track their use, including identifying struggling students. He said that having skills
centers could help to implement Tier 2 interventions. He also noted that a better student data system,
like Aspen, will better support this and other efforts by integrating all of this data together.
The principal explained that, as much as possible, he wants to address and fix "low hanging fruit' items.
E.g., improving signage for bathrooms to be more LGBTQ friendly. He also noted that the RMHS work
with ABAR (anti -bias, anti -racism) and GSA, have good student groups in place, but there needs to be
more specificity in actions in those areas.
Another area being monitored is student schedules/pathways, and what kinds of classes or courses we
can offer, whether we can offer specific pathways or dual enrollment types of options, to better meet
student needs. The principal wants to see where the holes are in our program of studies, and the
program of studies needs to be more specific about what classes meet graduation requirements. The
principal noted that in spring 2022, RMHS is announcing a partnership with Endicott to permit seniors to
possibly enroll in one of two college level classes (criminal justice or sociology). This option would be
offered to kids taking comparable classes at RMHS (e.g., law) and the way it could work is that, during
flex the student takes the college level class (live and in person with college instructor), then, during the
time that the student's class would have met in schedule, that student does independent study work for
the college course.
There is also a "gateway to college "program for at risk students; currently, the principal believes there
are 8 students enrolled.
The principal would like to look at other ways to creatively expand opportunities for students, such as
looking for internships with local businesses, possibly partnering with Northeast Voke in some type of
dual enrollment way (e.g., taking academics here, vocational classes there) —it was noted that this
option exists in other communities.
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Lastly, the principal mentioned an initiative to look into the success of certain past initiatives, such as
late start. He noted that one goal stated for it at the time it was implemented was for it to reduce
tardiness. He wants to evaluate the actual tardiness data to see if that indeed has happened since late
start was implemented.
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