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Home My WebLink About2023-10-04 School Council - RMHS Minutes - Draft6or-`�. Town of Reading g �r,' Meeting Minutes Board - Committee - Commission - Council: School Council -Reading Memorial High Date: 2023-10-04 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: iVI:u 1 0 VYN C L E R K MA. 121 DEC 19 PM 2:59 Principal Callanan, Eileen Manning, Marianne Downing, Christine Lusk (via zoom), Sherllla Lestrade, Trey Skehan, Jessica Ayer (via Zoom), Laurie Donahue, Sara Ortins, Bridget Patterson, Pooja Mandon Parsons (via zoom), Sarah Ortins, Jessica Ayer, Trey Skehan Antonio Deseno Members - Not Present: Dante Deserlo, Daija Forrem, Ell Brown, Haiden Davis, Cole Grant, Jennifer Baskin Others Present: Minutes Respectfully Submitted By: Marianne Downing Topics of Discussion: Meeting was called to order by Principal Callanan at 4:05 PM. The council reviewed the minutes for the 9/20/2023 meeting and suggested minor corrections. Eileen Manning moved to approve the minutes for the 9/20/2023 meeting and Marianne Downing seconded the motion. All present approved except for three members (Bridget Patterson, Sherilla Lestrade, Laurie Donahue) who abstained as they were not present at the 9/20/2023 meeting. The principal presented the school improvement plan (SIP) for council review and discussion, where this plan will be provided to the school committee for approval in the next week. The principal noted that the vision statement on the SIP is the same as in past. She said she developed the SIP by taking last year's draft SIP (which former principal Tracey had presented at the final meeting of the school council in spring 2023), added applicable parts of the district strategic plan (DSP), and made edits applicable to the high school. The council reviewed the SIP and discussed various aspects. The principal explained how several strategic objectives were developed and would be implemented. For example, under "Strategic Objective #1" in the SIP, the principal explained that this part was revised with staff input. Now, each staff member has an Individual professional development (PD) track, and there are 5-6 tracks for staff to choose from, each with a corresponding "anchor text" book. All the tracks center around strategic objectives, e.g., sense of belonging, etc. At the end of the year, teachers will get PDPs for their certifications. This PD happens on RMHS early release days; in addition, departments at RMHS meet on two Weds a month. The principal added that a lot of the additional topics under strategic objective #1 are already happening at RMHS. Page 1 1 A parent observed that the strategic objectives include "a lot of activities" and asked, what specifically are we going to do differently. The principal answered and gave examples of how certain aspects change. For example, under the topic of student success teams (SST), RMHS will have more training of staff for consistency of implementation of SST and some retraining of teachers on this topic. Another parent asked, how will we be able to look back and determine if we met a goal that is not quantifiable or specific, that some goals seem "soft." The principal responded that in some instances there is a general belief that some actions, like teacher PD, will lead to Improved outcomes. The principle gave an example that each administrator evaluates staff members, and there is an expectation regarding the outcomes. The council then discussed the curriculum audit aspect of the SIP. The principal explained that she adapted language from the DSP regarding curriculum and curriculum audits, to RMHS. A parent asked for more information about the curriculum audit and past purchases of books, including recent/new books in some areas. The principal explained that a textbook Is just one resource In a curriculum and that a curriculum is more than just the textbook. She explained that a curriculum review does not necessarily mean that new books will be needed. The council reviewed the SIP objectives regarding Innovation pathways, and the principal explained that the SIP is very specific in these objectives because there is so much going on with Innovation pathways. The council reviewed the SIP objective 4A regarding MYCAP (My Career and Academic Plan), which is a DESE type of guidance program. A parent asked what part of MYCAP is RMHS using. The principal answered that we have received grants that require us to implement some of MYCAP. Another parent followed up task if the s SIP objective 4A just the "A" part since the "4" part already is being done? Principal explained that we have the "$" part to support the DSP, because we still have day to day objectives required by the DSP. Another parent added that they thought the RMHS SIP should be more specific about what RMHS is doing. Regarding SIP objectives that go with math, the principal noted that the district math pathways committee is going to be working on those objectives. The council further discussed the district math pathways committee and how there needs to be more onramps to the math paths. A teacher noted that the algebra determination in gr. 6 should be a threshold vs a cutoff., A staff member said part of "A" of strategic objective #6 is not correct for the #6 outcomes and made the principal aware of some needed corrections. Another note was made that one part of SIP is applicable to students not on a diploma track and that RPS Is creating a POST program for those students. The council then discussed the "other objectives" section of the SIP. The principal explained what is mean by "advanced" courses and that DESE defines this. Based on walkthroughs of advanced coursework classes, by having more students able to take advanced coursework classes, the principal believes that more students will be more fully engaged in classwork, as students now are in the advanced classes. Under the topic of "clubs" in the SIP, a parent asked why some specific clubs were listed and not others. The principal explained that we are trying to revamp existing clubs. A parent suggested the SIP be changed to not be too specific on clubs. The school council also discussed the "schedule" part of the SIP. Principal explained that our schedule has problems and is not equitable. The SIP has a goal to adopt a new schedule by next year, but the new schedule needs to consider collective bargaining Page 1 2 agreements, IEPs, sports schedule, etc. The new schedule will have no changes to start or end times. A staff member suggested adding/revisiting RMHS graduation requirements and aligning RMHS graduation requirements more with the Mass Core, because RMHS has more requirements than what the state requires, e.g., requiring two business/tech electives. The staff member said most other districts require only one. Another parent asked, what about student athletes being exempt from physical education, can we do that like other districts do? The group discussed, what if graduation requirements could be changed to be more credit - based vs course based? A parent asked about the SIP goal of having a 10% Increase in high needs students enrolled In advanced coursework, where "high needs" is defined as the state defines it. Another parent asked, would being In certain clubs help lead to more students taking advanced classes? The principal answered yes. After finishing review of the SIP and some proposed changes, Eileen Manning moved to approve the principal to make changes to the SIP, consistent with the proposed changes, to bring forth to the school committee. Marianne Downing seconded the motion. All present voted to approve this motion. The school council meeting adjourned at 5:20 pm Page 1 3