March 2014

SIT Meeting Agenda 3-24-2014

1. School Improvement Plan for 2014-2015

April meetings accountability people

They are coming and we will have to have one in place  Will not re-invent the wheel

Data in November

Some teacher survey data

DO we need to shift focus

3-5 goals and and strategies

Get up to date information

Start making recommendations

Majority will still b eon SIT, and be one of the first things we do is to finalize the plan

2. Student Handbook Review - Recommendations for next school year

Come back with suggestions for handback which is due to publisher in late May, so people need to start looking through now

Gentry will forward a copy to us before the next meeting. 

CHAMPS during transitions:

Gentry—couple of items have popped up

End of 3^rd quarter not surprising

How 8^th grade expectations are different because they change all together at one time vs the teams

8^th grade teachers vs teachers on hall duty?

8^th grade teachers should revisit what 8^th grade hall should look like and have a unified front to deliver to the encore/core teachers who cover the hall.

Santoro:  teaches should not hate coming to hall duty…they will work on at the next grade level meeting

Rhymes:  guys congregating in the bathrooms—some come with an agenda some not

Santoro:  norming the process, wait till everyone is quiet before moving

Get information to Gentry and she will distribute to staff to clarify the situation.

Lisa:  question about the expectation of having an agenda in the hall

Instruments, delivering things for teachers, and add going to the bathroom

Have to have a planner to get in the library for example.

Elkins is probably something we have gotten slack on and  

3. John Downs. & Lisa Turner.

Don’t want to give the impression that we are changing the rules of the game

Controlled environment Halverstadt

No plans to open widely.

Opt in vs opt out?

Lisa backing up in the 6^th and 7^th grade some of the research components

She might offer staff development on this

Product oriented generation with Lisa perhaps

Teachers directed

8^th graders less experienced

4. Readdress Staff Morale Boosters for the "3rd Quarter Blues"

Copy codes and push for eog review?
Is admins aware of this

Purpose of the codes is to monitor the usage

5. Any other grade level concerns?

Santoro:  8th

Can EC classrooms take over for the classroom in the event there is not a sub?

Depends (downtown probably no)

They become the core and no longer are the EC

It changes the role of the EC teacher and EC law.

Can’t assume EC teachers will but some will say that they will take a class, Gentry will not direct that

Can EC teacher take their students and work with them, and that can be very effective—can do the assessments that they are required to do either during absorption

EC teachers have overlapping classes and sometimes not available for the entire class

Are subs pulled from other grades has to go thru the main office—yes

Two people out on the same grade level then you have to redistribute kids who were supposed to go to

Just a reminder—happens rarely, but it can happen and should have a contingency plan

If EC teachers pull out, the absorption teachers need to be notified

Elkins:

Not much feedback (no reminder sent out)

Reach out to younger teachers?  Still encourage teachers to do that?

Maybe before test time, throw something out there. 

Maybe three or four weeks in , perhaps get something together. 

Everything goes out the window with the test plan, abnormal number of makeups, etc.

Reserve the right to change

Need to look at in terms of the events, etc.

7^th grade zoo?

8th grade celebrations

Will go over in April staff meeting                

Extend 2 all in final 10 days

Only one not in last ten days is Foreign Language Testing

Recommend all online with in the last ten days

Elkins:  when gentry sends out the handbook review

Thorne:

Kids wearing the headphones—Thorne

Trickles

Next meeting:  May 12

April 21^st?

Money hospitality, business partners?

8^th grade celebration at the end of May

SIT Meeting May 2014--Update

In Attendance:

• Downs
• Elkins
• Gentry
• Graham
• Griffin
• Halverstadt
• Lakey, Portia and Sharman
• Rymes
• Santoro
• Thorne
• Turner

1) SIT Plan Revision:  

• Required every two years
• Need by end of September
• Comprehensive needs assessment was done for our current plan
• As we move into the fall, We will pull out all the stuff we turned in for the update along with the latest data and we will update the plan
• We will start with existing data and then move in the new data using the freshest scores we have in June
• The new SIT plan may need to target some other specific groups
• We have about three goals and then subgoals with ESL and EC for example
• May need to target ESL parents more specifically
• Some of the data we see come in may change some of our strategies
• Will send a packet to our returning members in the summer with the new data

• In terms of Professional Development, We have some early release days next year.
• Early release days will start with district specified Professional Development
• Next time, less parameters for us, and then PD for schools based on the school improvement plan
• There maybe a significant reduction in the time spent in CO days for PD

• We have to have 95% of our students tested before we can submit our tests and get our scores

2)  Student Handbook Update

Any recommendations?

• Due to publishers June 12th
• Maybe a picture instead of the names?
• Can email Gentry the changes too
• One area we might need to modify are the NJHS qualifying guidelines...10 different schools all with different elegibility guidelines among the schools
• For example, qualify based on GPA verses all A's and B's
• 3.5 GPA or above and Power School can now determine this easier.
• Several grammar changes were mentioned by Ms Turner and noted by Gentry 
• No Food or drink outside the cafeteria except for breakfast and special occasions like testing
• Students may return an unused drink to a locker or lunch bag

Santoro/Elkins:  Change encore schedule? (such as 8th at the start of the day?)

• Gentry:  It's based solely on shared employees
• Foreign Language and Music share teachers with other schools
• In 6th grade we have that "pilot encore program" where all students have to choose a FL/ART and CTE so it comes down to scheduling
• What about the possibility of teaming across the board and therefore in 8th grade as well?
• When 8th grade switched three years ago, the school looked at the pros and cons and many discussions and meetings about going to junior high model
• We also looked at four other middle schools and listed pros and cons
• We took a vote based on the data and 8th grade voted overwhelmingly in favor in Junior high model
• two top factors were: discipline numbers and number of failures
• So far, the discipline and failures have actually decreased.

Santoro:

• Much of the staff has changed since the original decision.  8th grade may be  willing to change?
• To Gentry:  Can we discuss this at 8th grade? Could we discuss Friday at 8th Grade level meeting?
• We could discuss but Master Schedule will be due by the end of the year, so there is not much time

Elkins:

• Concern was expressed by some teachers who might have to move grade levels and then potentially loose the teaming aspect.
• Another concern is there enough support for new teachers without teaming?
• There were a lot more veteran teachers when the original decision was made to go Junior high model
•  If teachers feel supported by a team they will do a better job
• All this is food for thought and the points are valid but depends on the individual team members too.

Thorne:

•  "8th grade seems like a big strong team", but there are examples of teams in other grade levels that don't work that well together.

AP Selection Process:

• The process has been changed in the district by Dr. Emory
• Emory wants to invest in people in the county
• Lots of qualified people in the district were not even getting an interview in the past
• AP hiring process is changing because of all of this
• Internal candidates are sending applicants to HR
• Positions are posted for a week internally
• Right now there are four schools with openings, and then they are doing a pre-screening
• Will then identify a pool for SEMS
• Then if not a lot of applicants, then they will open up to outside

Is it necessary for SIT to collect information on what staff wants for an AP?
Who serves on the panel?

• Size of panel is a concern without being too much (3-5 on the panel is the maximum)
• Gentry and Cole and then up to three others.
• Perhaps SIT votes on the ones who will serve?
• Backups for those who might be on vacation if things ends up being in July

Elkins: on the hiring committee...

• Core
• Encore
• Other: (maybe EC, Support staff, etc.)
• Lisa:  The Compiling of questions--
• it helped staff feel part of the process and heard from in past principal hire
• Turner is willing to compile the questions
• Maybe come up with 1 or 2 questions and/or issues you need to see addressed?
• Email Gentry if you are interested in being on the committee
• And then SIT will vote
• May need an alternate? (second vote getter)
• Diversity is a concern (doubt three white females would be possible)
• An Hispanic male would be very interesting...

Next meeting to talk about status for next year:
Monday, June 16th
after breakfast with PTA and staff meeting.  Thank you!