February 2015

SIT MEETING FEBRUARY 2015

Members Present:

Douglass
Turner
Jones, Julie
Martin, Jennifer
Young
Graham
Miller
Halverstadt
Wells
Bailey
Gentry
Thorne
Griffin
Downs (took minutes)

Reviewing the School Improvement Plan:

• We have been contacted by a district team and they have reviewed the scoring of plans using a rubric to help schools make the School Improvement Plan (SIP) document more of a living document
• The fact that these are such large plans makes the process a little overwhelming
• At some point in mid march, they will come sit down and give us feedback on our SIP
• We are asking for harder, more critical feedback
• They look at the goals, the data we use, the strategies and see how they all align together
• Our team consists of: Nash, Sutton and Hoskins (good constructive group)
• We don’t have to write a whole new plan in the fall but instead have to determine based on their feedback  how do we have to tweak our current plan
• They don't want to give us a "score" to feel evaluated and instead give us constructive feedback

Assistant Principal Hiring Situation (With Karen Cole retiring):

• It has been an ever changing situation, as Gentry has eluded to in her email to SIT
• As of right now, Cliff Prince will come in on Monday and we don’t have to train him!
• Cliff is ready to come back and he is happy to do it for Ms Cole
• Cliff says he will come in for two days or two months whatever is needed  
• Though He would prefer not to "drag it out" until the end of the school year
• The current applicants have finished taking an AP assessment
• Dr. Emory scores them on a rubric and rates them on a TIER
• We have contacted Brenda Borne offering to help narrow down the applicants, but they will do that part for us
• The posting was for any AP opening and so was generic
• We should  have our applicants by the end of February and then Bailey and Gentry will narrow down to those we want to interview
• Jennifer Wells, Helen Miller  and Lisa Turner are on the committee for the hiring process
• Will do two afternoons/evenings possibly
• Whoever the AP is that we approve, then  has to be approved by Montague-Davis
• Any committee member who has conflicts with interview times,  let Gentry know now
• Will use the similar questions we used last time that were contributed to by the SEMS staff
• Question to SIT members,  what do we want?
• Turner:  a person concerned about both students and teachers  and parents
• We will stay the path on discipline and reviews for the rest of the year (Bailey and Gentry to complete the load for Cole until the new person comes on)
• Karen has made list of critical situations and parents that might need special assistance
• If SIT members (or staff members) have particular things they want to see in an AP, let one of the interview committee members know. (Wells, Turner and Miller)
• We are possibly looking at mid-march  to schedule interviews
• Gentry will first consult with the committee on the possible interview dates

Anything for the good of the order?

• Annual leave days treated with all the snow days?  
• We don’t have any other workdays scheduled at the end of the year at this point
• Will not be asked to work anymore than your contracted number of days…
• The longer teachers are here the longer the summer process gets delayed, so admins don't want extended school year either
• Teachers should be aware that on  paychecks annual leave days are "loaded in" and then taken so that’s part of the payroll process--You will  see a variation of those leave days such as at Christmas time
• Hopefully we will get a simple explanation of  all the time after all the weather clears up.

Other news..

• Schedule for 3^rd quarter testing is being tweaked and to mirror the end of grade testing as much as possible.
• Next meeting is April 13^th