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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1995-01-09 Coolidge School Council MinutesA. W. Coolidlre School Council Minutes January 9, 1995 The meeting was called to order by chairperson, Peter Hichborn, at 7:30 PM in the Arthur W. Coolidge Middle School Media Center. Attending: Lou Adreani, John Carpenter, Larry Chomsky, Peter Hichborn, Carol Perletz, Sue Redgate, and Roy Welsch. Minutes by: Carol Perletz Minutes of the December 7, 1994 meeting were amended to add Carol to attending membership. It was agreed that the next meetings will be held as scheduled January 31, 1995 and February 28, 1995. Progress Reports: Re-districting- A Joint council meeting on middle school redistricting will be held with the Parker, Coolidge, Killam, and Birch Meadow on January 24. Mr. Delaney and Lou Adreani will present all six options. The purpose for the meeting is to get input and feedback. Lou would like to have a designee from the PAC who has a vested interested in the areas being considered and with a child in grade four or younger who would be affected attend the meeting. Lou would also like to have a parent council member attend the January 24th meeting. Families with siblings already attending Coolidge would not have to have a sibling attend Parker and will have the option to send both children to Coolidge. After the joint council meeting, Jack and Lou will go to School Committee with the options and feedback from the councils. Curriculum frameworks- The Science and Math frameworks have been released. February 2 and 3 there two full conference days on these two frameworks. Dr. Munnelly's retirement- Dr. Munnelly is resigning as of April. The School Committee is talking about this tonight. It looks like the acting replacement might be Mr. Delaney or Mr. Richards. Principal Search Committee- The Principal Search Committee meets again next week They plan to put ads in the paper by the beginning of March. The committee says that there is a bigger pool of candidates out there now. They'll take about 3 weeks to review all of the candidates and make the recommendation of the 6 finalists around April 15. Nominations close around April 1. Budget update- Lou reported that there was some money in the 1996 budget, about $120,000 for the Coolidge library overhaul, maintenance of the boilers, and some other smaller items, not necessarily items Lou had requested as higher priority. $52,500 is in the budget for our technology grant. The grant that, Peter and Laura submitted ended up being for the entire Reading public school system. $300,000 is supposedly in the budget for the entire system to be split up amongst the schools. Student Learning Time Regulations- The Action Plan that came from the state education department has to become part of our 1995 School Improvement Plan. This action plan is based on the state's time study. Coolidge provides 981 hours of instructional time. The regulations call for 990 hours of instructional time. Schools can no longer have early release days. SSR team time, ILA studies (unless directed study), i tei~gr dlearning, and homeroom do not count as instructional time. Teamam me at Coolidge is for music, doing res a ch, getting extra help, and for some students, an undirected study. If we can match time spent with common core of learning, then we're okay. We could add instructional time by eliminating homeroom period We don't think that the School Committee will be willing to extend the school day since this has contractual implications. Reading is really in pretty good shape compared to other school systems in the state. The school council might take a look at what the school day should look like, getting input from parents. There are 3 teachers each from Parker and Coolidge looking into this. - Lou will distribute the Coolidge time study to council members. Council members felt that perhaps the real answer to providing the right amount of instructional time in Reading is to make sure that we have the right number of teachers to cover the right number of classes and instructional periods. We should investigate that we have met the 990 hours of instructional time with past teacher levels and now we can't meet the limit with current teacher levels. Sue reminded us how important team time is for teachers like Sue who use the time for tutoring and special work with students. This is particularly important for the inclusion plan. Coolidge Middle School Improvement Plan: Format- Peter reviewed the history of the format chosen last year. Consultants from Polariod had worked with the school councils last year and we had adopted and modified a format they suggested. Former council members suggested that new members read the philosophy and mission statement and recommend any changes. It was agreed that last year's council did not attempt to tie the philosophy and mission statement to goals. We know we have to add a 5th goal for the time implementation plan. The format worked for us last year and was an enabling framework for the work we had to do. John thought it would be helpful to have a description of the goal heading. The rationale ties all of the work together for each goal. It was suggested that we expand the rationale so that someone reading this knows what the topic is and has a basis for what follows, and that we move this to the top under the goal heading. Peter asked what the staff thought about the format we used in the school improvement plan. Lou said that he thought it was well received It wasn't distributed to everyone when submitted, but it was made available in the office. We should make sure that we disseminate the information through the newsletter. Perhaps we don't need a lot of narrative with the plan as part of the plan, but we should create an addendum or explanation of the research and discussion that precedes the plan. Council members agreed to see if anyone could come up with other terminology for "needs objectives." Content and progress towards goals- John suggested that he didn't see competency and proficiency addressed by any of the goals. Peter suggested that before we add additional goals, we should review and monitor some of the efforts that are ongoing amongst the Coolidge staff. We should choose one or two things to really focus on and provide real value. These would be areas not already being pursued. Roy suggested that there were several suggested goal areas in the reform act that we did not address last year such as class size and the assessment of learning and the effectiveness of our instructional programs. There is a district-wide study on assessment. Last year the council participated in a workshop Richard Strong presented on Authentic Assessment Strategies. Core Values Goal (page 7} Lou told us that there is a Rutledge Training & Development Organization that can train students or staff members in success and self-esteem. We still have a Core Values Committee who is taking the results of last year's survey and writing the draft statement. The council agreed to add a task after task 4, "Review Committee's draft statement." Meeting Diverse Learning Needs (page 8)- Coolidge is getting money from the SPRIG (special needs grant) of $2000. $1000 is being spent for professional development on crisis management and $1000 will be spent for the Limitless Learning workshops. Both of these projects fit under our goal. Lou has agreed to provide each council member with the Inclusion Plan so that we can perform task 4 - "Review the CMS Inclusion Plan." Integration of Technology into the Curriculum (page 9)- Task 2 is very important to us - "Include technology requirements and planned/proposed initiatives in all curriculum plans." We will work with a summary report on the staff survey provided by Larry and Roy. In February we will prepare specific technology budget plans based on the survey results and work the Technology Task Force has done. We will submit plans based on a $52,500 amount, on $90,000, and on $110,000. We'll consider ideas like setting up another classroom full of computers, splitting the current computer lab into two labs and other ways of disseminating and sharing machines. This will be the main focus of our January 31 meeting. Professional Development & Allocation of Prof. Devel. Funds (page 10)- The state provided very specific information about individual professional development plans in the fall. Lou and Peter - questioned whether Coolidge is really getting anything out of the regional alliance this year. It may make more sense for us to withdraw as many other comparable districts have. done this year. Handouts: Lou distributed the Massachusetts Department of Education December 20, 1994 Action Plan that is a 9- point action plan to be used by schools to assist them in restructuring the school day to provide students with high quality structured learning time. We will use this to assist us in preparing a 5th goal, a Learning Time Implementation Plan, in the 1995 Coolidge School Improvement Plan. Action Items: 1. Council members - provide an alternative phrase for "need to" and "Needs Objectives" 2. Lou will provide copies of the Coolidge time study. 3. Lou will provide copies of the Inclusion Plan. 4. Larry and Roy will report the results of the technology staff survey. 5. Council members - come ready January 31 to establish a tentative time frame for the production of the 1995 improvement plan by May 1. 01