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Home My WebLink About2023-05-25 School Council - RMHS Minutes - Draftc, Town of Reading _r iv ED �.r Meeting Minutes t�tv�CIERK ,o ,F.,p PAA Board - committee - commission - counc% SEP 27 AM 7:33 School Council -Reading Memorial High Date: 2023-05-25 Time: 4:00 PM Building: School -Memorial High Location: School Library Address: 62 Oakland Road Session: Open Session Purpose: School Council Meeting Version: Draft Attendees: Members - Present: Eileen Manning, Michelle Greenwalt, Marianne Downing, Christine Lusk (via telephone), Pooja Mandon Parsons, Sherilla Lestrade, Jessica Ayer, Kevin Tracey, Dante DlSerio, Cole Grant Members - Not Present: Eli Brown, Daija Forero, Bridget Patterson, Kelly Bedingfield, Antonio Deserio, Jennifer Baskin Others Present: Minutes Respectfully Submitted By: Marianne Downing Topics of Discussion: Meeting was called to order by Mr. Tracey at 4:00 PM. The meeting began with attendance. Principal Tracey handed out copies of draft documents containing district strategic objectives/district improvement plan (DIP) and draft school improvement plan (SIP). Principal Tracey observed that the nature of the district objectives means that they should be 2 -3 -year objectives. ATTENDANCE TOPICS A student member asked, will RMHS still be using smart pass next year? Principal Tracey answered use was inconsistent and that there are ways to make it easier to use. Compliance with smart pass was low, and the tardiness piece of smart pass will work better next year. Principal Tracey stated attendance data may be on the SIP. He said our letters for attendance compliance did not work consistently and that we will have new system next year.. We want to go 89% attendance to get to 93%. On a given day, about 60 students are absent A parent asked: what about COVID and absence rate? Principal Tracey said, anytime a parent calls In, it is treated as an excused absence. The school council also addressed unlimited college visits as excused absences. Principal Tracy does not necessarily agree with unlimited college visits, but the school council parents favor it. SUMMERSCHOOL Regarding make up for classes, Principal Tracy stated this your we are partners with Wakefield for summer school at a cost of about $300. He said using Edgenuity makes no sense for summer school because since kids who need summer school already are Page I 1 struggling to stay engaged and online -only system probably will not work for them. He said not too many RMHS kids are impacted by summer school. Over 80 classes there are about 45 students who are failing for year and will need summer school. CALENDAR AND PROFFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT The school council briefly discussed district and school communication and the weekly newsletters and usefulness of district calendar, because it does not contain information from "all" RPS schools. Principal Tracey expressed frustration with district calendar. Regarding Professional development, the principal said teachers want more choices. GRADING AND CLASS LEVELING A parent asked about a topic of professional development (as listed in SIP) called "grading for equity" and asked "what does it mean. Principal Tracey said, relates to how do we assess students, how do we give feedback for students? Principal Tracey wants to have a conversation across departments about how we grade in certain subjects for consistency. Teachers may need common planning time, etc. The principal said that he is noticing that that more kids in CP level classes getting C's vs in students in honors classes. - One student observed he sees a big difference in CP vs honors classes in terms of how hard the class is, how the students are, etc. - A question was asked, is collapsing levels part of this? - In addition, a parent asked, is there any talk of going back to three levels and id they get the outcome they were looking for with collapsing levels? Principal Tracy said, probably not. - A parent noted that when levels were collapsed, there was a promise by previous superintendent that there would be "supports" like paras to help kids work with a higher-level class if the lower level was eliminated. Principal Tracey said he does not have those supports, that the only paras we have in the high school are for special education. He added that we are currently short 6 paras, and paras generally stay only a year. - Principal Tracey asked the group, can or should there be a SIP goal around leveling and access? - The group discussed the question regarding how much support do we need to encourage some kids, like kids on IEPs, to take honors or AP classes, because the SIP has a goal regarding increasing enrollment of some groups of kids In higher level classes. - The group discussed some concerns with current classes and available levels. ISSUES WITH WORLD LANGUAGES AT RMHS: Principal Tracey said that world language is undergoing a world language program review. - The topic of Spanish world language for seniors came up as an example. Principal Tracey stated that Spanish 4, 4 honors, and Spanish 5, were all in the same class together. Students apparently did not enroll in AP Spanish this year because students effectively were avoiding the current AP Spanish teacher. Principal Tracey said that, next year they will have two AP Spanish teachers. - He said French numbers are really diminishing, and what other language can we bring in? Maybe ASL, Mandarin? ASL opens the door for a lot of IEP students. Because students can still think in English while they communicate in ASL. Principal Tracey noted that Derrick Ryan is certified in ASL - The group discussed, can we support and save the French program? Concluded has to start in middle school. - Principal Tracey told group that we have a test called APFElt (sp?) test in foreign languages that we give to RMHS foreign language students, but we never send results to students or kids, he does not know why. OTHER MISC. TOPICS RELATED TO SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT PLAN Project Wayfinder is moving forward and needs to be a priority in the new schedule in two years Page 1 2 RMHS SCHEDULE REVISIONS IN SIP Principal Tracey said we finally narrowed down the schedule options to 3 out of 14 options. We will introduce the three options to parents and students for input. The biggest issue is scheduling music, PE, and special ed. One idea, move to two lunches vs three. Another idea is to attach a Flex block to lunch, or to implement a rotating 80 min period. Our cafeteria occupancy is. 470 currently, and we are ordering high top tables, allowing dining on main St, and with senior privilege enabling seniors to go out at lunchtime, RMHS can manage with just two lunches instead of three. Hopefully a new schedule can get rid of lunch in the middle of a class. However, group discussed, lunch changes are not just about seating capacity, also throughput/serving capacity. Group wondered -can this work? MORE SIP TOPICS In the research/design MISS column, Principal Tracey said need to keep that bullet goal. We need a second year. He said, we need new SIS system, as noted previously. Principal Tracey said Innovation pathways, and collaboration with Middlesex CC, keep that there in the SIP We may be able to work with UMass Lowell again now - it may be more affordable. Capstone internships - those we are just getting off the ground. We are waiting for presentations from this year's internships. Last column of SIP deals with operational issues. Principal Tracey said that RMHS has Dept heads who have not done supervision/eval in past, and we need to help them learn to do that. Also, he said that under topic of professional development, such as culturally responsive teaching, that needs a second year. Principal Tracey said we need to keep in "assessments" in the SIP, as we have not done a lot of work yet in RMHS with assessments and revisiting. He noted that math dept assessments have been more consistent. School Council adjourned approximately 5:30 pm Page 1 3