Sit Meeting June 2015

End of school Year and Handbook Review

In Attendance:

 

Downs, John

Jones, Julie

Gentry, Stephanie

Graham, Brian

Griffin, Brian

Martin, Jennifer

Miller, Helen

Thorne, Kristin

Turner, Lisa

Young, Sara

1) Members who rotate off after this year – what vacancies will we have?

6th:

Carrie Burch willing to step in for Brian

Thorne off

 

7th Miller and Jones were both new

 

8th:

Halverstadt rotate off (option, can take on another two years if he wants)

Martin is new

 

Encore:

Young and Wells new this year

 

EC:  Gentry will check on

 

Standing members: 

If you want off you can drum up a replacement and they can come to the first building

Then SIT will vote them in or not

Don’t need any answers until August

 

We are looking at School Improvement plan revision only based on new data

  

2.     Student Handbook review

Attached is a copy of the current handbook review.  

We will discuss any recommendations for changes or adjustments. A final copy of the handbook must be submitted by June 22. Feel free to review prior to the meeting.

There are some changes with fees, etc, but  make sure we are saying what we mean, and meaning what we say.

 

Fighting a losing battle with the leggings

If we leave the leggings in, then we need to add the yoga pants

We have not heard the rumblings about the leggings as much lately

What we can do leave it in or take it out and take it before the whole staff and let the staff decide.  Will still create dissention

Tank tops—not allowed

Advantage of leaving it in and then we can take it out if the staff votes on it .

Comfortable making a decision today?

The crux of the matter is if the body is revealed. 

We are not suggesting taking the article worn over.

Are we consistent with the procedure sending them home verses sending them back and not wearing them home tomorrow?

Supposed to go to 712 in the mornings—(admins not there) get the main office people on board.

Sometimes kids change during the day

Supposed to be documented on the “pink form”

Motion to leave it in and take it to the staff and re-emphasize that there needs to be consistency in enforcing

Training the office staff for consistency

We will be taking to staff about leggings, and tank top lines

Supply list is never approved until after the handbook needs to be published

Jackie should talk to Carol M. about the Supply list (ear buds)

Principals could send home request in the packet

Ear buds should be kept in book bag not as apparel

Leave hallway behavior in case adjustments to CHAMPS?  No

String bag not carried to core but can be carried to encore

EC kids having issues with lockers especially in 6th grade –kids are seeing this and then they want to use back packs

Some kids who have trouble with locks

Late comers bringing book bags, what about them?

Need to keep just verbalize and talk about as a staff

String bags just for encore or maybe for 6th grade because of going into and out of PODS (rainy days)  All 6th grade would have to be on this page

Book bag carriers who don’t have a lock need to have that brought to the attention of an administrators

Or leave book bag in the classroom?

Encourage students to carry string bag not require it

 

Next year, If fees do not appear on the district fees, then we cannot require it

Can not require for example for them to wear a PE suit.

Also can not require students to buy a lost or stolen agenda, and teachers will have to have a consistent type of hall pass.

ACC folder --cannot require the re-purchase another one

MTAC Meeting Minutes May 11, 2015

In attendance:

Daniels

Downs

Kilgore

Mabry
Sigmon

Stalter

Suttles

Turner

Magazine order for next year:

• We have been informed by "downtown" that MTAC should provide input for media orders like Magazine subscriptions

• Ms Turner described the different magazine orders and asked for input and or questions
• Here's a list of the current order list for next year linked here

About 28 magazines in all

Some magazine include online versions

Consumer reports for example, teachers use all the time

We have cat/dog/horse magazines that really do a great job of satisfying the large need we have for animal books.

At any given moment there can be as many as 100 magazines checked out! 

Students check magazines out for 3 days and can renew them once. 

After we finish the magazines, we collect them and give them to art classes to use in projects

We try and balance titles between girl and boy interests

Wish some teachers would use them more (maybe a better job promoting it?)

Trace—everything sounds wonderful for to committee,  everyone was in favor of this order going forward

Turner does self-sensor the magazines for inappropriate content

Learn-360 (video service) going away next year?

• It was mentioned at a tech meeting that the school system is considering suspending the service
• Will there be a replacement?
• If service is removed, Learn 360 can not be downloaded and used--breaks copyright laws
• We have many lessons tied to videos on there--things like live binders, etc.
• Might be that some schools who will subscribe to Discovery Streaming—would we recommend?
• What would the cost be now?  If we find out Learn 360 is indeed going away, then we will pursue pricing.  Turner and Downs to find out what the status is 
• **Update**  Ms Turner found out the following:  "Nothing has been definitely decided until budgets are manipulated and they know what alternatives are available (if any)" Jackie Pierson, MLIS

World Book—terminated the subscription

• Reasons:
• Less research is being being done
• 8^th grade teachers dispensed with research--they are using some BIG 6 techniques, but not doing the big research paper as in the past
• Also, teachers are doing research  individually instead.  
• Because of all those factors , Turner terminated world book.
• Should we survey the staff on it? maybe
• Price for World book was about 800$ based on enrollment—maybe negotiate a better deal?  They might
• Any thing else to add to the survey?  Perhaps the research process?

Suttles:  novels in bad shape?  Will some of them  be rebound?

• Turner:  They have spent a tremendous amount of time this year in the book rooms doing inventory and accessing where the books are and the needs.
• Have found a number of copies missing--in some cases upwards of 100 are  missing! The Watsons, Outsiders were both missing a lot!
• Brian Griffin has some novels?
• AG monies to be spent on new books?  Teachers make their own decisions on that, but could be a possibility

Downs and the changing Role of the Tech Facilitator

• The WSFCS district has eliminated the tech facilitator role in Middle and High Schools
• In house personnel will be replaced with technicians/hardware repair personnel (district is hiring five additional classified technicians) who will roam between the schools and spend four hours every other day at each school
• This stems from the hiring a .5 classified person at each school who will be in charge of testing-- "Theme monies" that were previously used by the schools are being used for this testing position.
• The district has also offered Middle (.4 certified position)  and High Schools (.5 certified)  the flexibility to hire a certified instructional support person.  This person would have to be certified in instruction.  Some school may hire an instructional technologist
• Luckily Downs has a Master's Degree in instructional technology so Gentry is hoping to use that .4 position  and perhaps some creative scheduling to keep him in his role but possibly doing more instructional and less technical
• MTAC members expressed the need to have a point person on campus who is availabe everyday not just four hours every other day
• Teachers and students need instructional and technical support at the time a problem arises
• Mr Downs sighted the example of the panther scanners in the media center just yesterday and without a person on site, that may have resulted in the devices being deemed unfix-able without the troubleshooting of an on-site person
• MTAC will want to be thinking about work flow for these new technitions who will be on campus every other day.  Things like maintaining the laptop carts and labs and other technology.

Mabry:  interactive projector

• People may want to come and see his set-up
• Perhaps and after-school session with Mabry next year? or on an early release day?
• Maybe something we want to consider as TV's break (no longer under warantee)
• The district has assured us that these projector bulbs last much longer than projectors in the past and that bulbs are much cheaper.  Run about $2000 vs new TV setup is around $1500 with installation.

Miscellaneous items:

• Yahoo should be unblocked soon.  Will happen when yahoo addresses the loophole in their filtering which allows unlimited access to inappropriate sites.  This violates our CIPA (Children's Internet Protection Act) laws. 
• Security system in the media center no longer works (not advertising to students) but it highlights the need for a good inventory

SIT Meeting April 2015

Attendance:

Gentry
Kottenbrock
Downs
Eisebacher
Gardner
Graham
Halverstadt
Jones, Julie
Martin
Miller
Thorne
Turner
Young
Wells

Revisions to the School Improvement Plan (SIT) Plan:

• Here's a copy of the condensed version of our SIP and the Feedback from the central Office
• Nancy Sutton, Wylette Nash and Alex Hoskins were on the team to look at our plan
• Bulk of conversation was on our last two goals, one was the parent goal
• We were missing data for parent feedback at the time
• Are there measurable goals?  Simple revision can address this.
• Very pleased with our plan  overall
• We had very concrete groups, 
• such as: "science teachers will..."
• or "admins will...", etc.
• Complimented us on our attention to detail.

End of Year plan/Test Plan/Test training

• First priority is the test training plan
• Test trainings are long—especially EOG
• Last year:  we took 2 days for each of these groups (8^th and Encore, and then 6th and 7th grade)
• We expanded the planning blocks to allow teachers enough time to complete the training in one sitting for EOG

Two training sessions

1)      EOG (8^th grade Math and 8^th grade science)

2)      Final Exams and CTE

Was the expanded blocks worthwhile?  What do people think?

• Downs:  better to get it over in one day for the EOG on a "ballooned day".
• Gardner: Having the "question Board" helped last year…saved time with repetitive questions during the meetings
• Math 1 test training--Encore probably won’t have to do…
• Will students have both electives on the expanded planning days?  Yes…

Test Window:  

There is a 15 day window—Friday May 22^nd starts the window

• Middle Schools will be consistent with the days in which they test for a number of reasons including the constructive response 
• We would like to start on the early end to give plenty of time on constructed responses.
• What to knock out that first day?
• Online tests—don’t want to compete with High Schools testing, so best to start early because of that too
• CTE and Foreign Language testing—several days

Split test session days?

• Last year, We had a morning session, lunch,  and then a PM test session at end of the day.
• What is your input on those type of days?
• People didn't have too much to say other than students seemed to not take the afternoon sessions as seriously perhaps? and students were particularly worn out on those days
• Is CTE post test online? not sure yet
• Gentry not really in favor of the two sessions--scheduling was a nightmare
• Even if we spread over 4 days it's probably will be better
• Goal is to have all testing done in 9 days
• Our goal  is for there to be no regular test sessions the last week of school
• CTE is a "real test" this year,  not a field test.
• May calendar with all of this information is coming out soon

Any burning questions?

• What about testing for all those days straight in a row?
• One advantage of the closed down testing days is that kids can be found when they are “stuck” while others are in testing sessions—helps with makeups.  Teams help too
• Maybe rotate CTE in the middle?

Next meeting is May 18th

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

January 2015 SIT Meeting

Members Present:

Douglass
Downs
Eisebacher
Gardner
Gentry
Griffin, Brian
Halverstadt
Jones, Julie
Martin, Jennifer
Miller
Turner (for Sherman)
Thorne
Turner
Young

SIT Chair -- Miller:

Gentry on the Staff Survey:

• Delayed—is not quite ready to go, but Gentry will make it happen very soon wants it to tie to data on school improvement plan

AP process update:

• We were walked through a process prior to now and still working out the kinks in this process
• The new process (not in writing) has been commonicated in  different ways
• We have now been approached with the potential of  having an interim in place for Cole who is retiring in March
• This is despite what HR has said about the process
• We also may have an opportunity to bring in a specific interim
• There are people on staff who know him and speak highly of him, so that is good
• This person is pro middle school and pro kids
• With Dr. Emory’s blessing, we can have stability coming in the door for the last four months of the year and would require less training. 
• With SIT’s blessing then Gentry will close the books on this and he could come in soon and sub even before Cole leaves.
• We would still go through the interview process in June and this person could be eligible for the hiring process

Any questions for Gentry?

• Everyone was in agreement for bringing the interim on.

Signed Progress report issue?

• Some teachers require a parent signature when a child’s grade is below a certain level.  But some parents would like to have the hard copy to keep.
• What can we do? Go back and have conversations with your groups with suggestions for handling this?
• Give teachers  a couple of choices?  Discuss feedback at the next SIT meeting.

Review of the SIT plan

• SIT plan review teams have been establisged by the district and they have an evaluative rubric for  our plan which will be graded
• We will then be visited by a review team
• They will be looking for things like:
• Measurable goals?
• Who was involved in the SIT plan process? (inclusive?)
• Because of this, we need to review and see how much of our plan is actually in practice, 
• What can we measure at this point?  
• Over the next couple of meetings, we will go through goal by goal and then express any concerns about the different goals.

Here's an example:  School priority Goal 1:  reading proficiency

• Any of the strategies not really happening?
• LEP plans?  Yes—Melissa Jackson is working on and are similar to IEP plans
• Mentoring program?
• Came to a standstill back in the fall –A meeting took place but the transportation piece fell through from the grant group.
• Central office met with the group and asked them to come back with another proposal and Gentry will be hearing from them soon.
• EC concerns:  Robin asked that the 7^th grade teams contact her since they missed a Dec meeting.
• Classroom walk through data has not really been provided because of difficulty with the reports
• If there are things we need to tweak (add or remove) then we can send in a revision and may have to respond to several things on the rubric.
• Bring SIT plan to future meetings for further review

MTAC Meeting December 2014

    

Members:

Gentry, Stephanie J sjgentry@wsfcs.k12.nc.us (a)
Mabry II, Eugene L <emabry@wsfcs.k12.nc.us (a)
Harmon, Hannah M <hmharmon@wsfcs.k12.nc.us (p)
Santoro, Frankie J <fjsantoro@wsfcs.k12.nc.us (p)
Watson, John H <jhwatson@wsfcs.k12.nc.us (p)
Sigmon, John C <jsigmon2@wsfcs.k12.nc.us (p)
Stalter, Sarah K <skstalter@wsfcs.k12.nc.us (p)
Trace, Jane S <jtrace@wsfcs.k12.nc.us (p)
Dipiazza, Julia A <adipiazz@wsfcs.k12.nc.us (p)
Guffey, Lesley A <laguffey@wsfcs.k12.nc.us (a)
Suttles Jr, Ronald A <rasuttles@wsfcs.k12.nc.us (p)
Daniels, Deborah T <dtdaniels@wsfcs.k12.nc.us (p)
Phillips, Patricia S <psphillips@wsfcs.k12.nc.us (a)
Kilgore, Rita <rkilgore@wsfcs.k12.nc.us (p)
Burch, Carrie L <clburch@wsfcs.k12.nc.us (p)
Turner, Elizabeth K <lturner@wsfcs.k12.nc.us (p)
Downs, John D jdowns@wsfcs.k12.nc.us (p)
Parent:  Christine Isacsson (p)

Vetting titles for purpose of use at  SEMS

• Forms for WS selection committee Blue and Local News
• Lack of rigor and  book challenges are some of the reasons for this procedure
• As soon as paperwork is submitted, then the books can be ordered
• AG money allows for 35/40 copies for grade level

Santoro--8th grade selectios:

• "Life As We Knew It"
• Ties well to science with the story line of and asteroid hitting the moon and affects the girl
• Did not get approved last year , though it has already been purchased, just needs approved
• The procedure requires three teacher reps to sign and a parent and student
• Any content a concern with a parent?
• There's nothing too suggestive
• "The Maze Runner", was already on the list but this committee has to approve
• It's a popular series and often on the waiting list in the media center
• It's about a 16 year old boy trying to get out of the maze
• Lisa,  any opposed or questions? 
• All in favor? I--All were in favor and none opposed

Ryymes--7th Grade, "Ungifted"

• "Ungifted"  is a very engaging read, told from multiple perspectives
• Some reviews were offended by stereotypes of how AG kids are portrayed
• Good character analysis
• The author, Gordan Korman--s known to be liked by boys
• A good quality is the theme of stereotypes
• The paper work has to be signed on this one.  
• All in favor? All were in favor no one opposed

Koester--6th Grade--"The Book Wonder"

• About a boy with physical deformities, with a theme of bullying
• It has advanced vocabulary and would be good as a read aloud
• The story changes point of view and has lots of figurative language
• No objectionable content
• This book is often on the waiting list in the media center
• Andi Hoskins read it aloud to her study skills students and they loved it
• The students were very reflective of it
• Already has been approved so  no paper work is necessary

Turner:  "Blue" and "Local News"

• "Blue"--historical fiction about polio during WW2--history
• Speaker coming to talk about this book has special knoweldge of the hospital for polio victims in Hickory
• Groups are already reading this book over the holidays
• Can only buy 40 copies
• Book fair money will go for the speaker and the book
• "Local News": by Gary Soto, award winning Hispanic Author
• 4.7 lexile level
• Very engaging story with good use of other language
• Has good reviews and nothing objectional
• Vote on Turner's books:  All were in favor of adding "Blue" and "Local News"

Downs Laptops:

8 laptop carts with 24 Lenovo laptops coming in January:
issues:  distribution / care taking / checkout

• Downs suggested 3 for 6th grade, 3 for 7th grade, 1 for 8th and 1 for encore
• Downs shared the contract  that 8th grade teachers use with their science classes:  8th grade laptop contract 
• Watson and Harmon to discuss with their pods on a possible "caretaker" and also the training for proper student use and upkeep
• Rhymes and Dipiazza to discuss with 7th grade
• Santoro and Trace to discuss with 8th grade
• Daniels and Kilgore to discuss with Encore
• Please get feedback and report to Downs

Dr. Daniels:

Net cetera manual:  https://bulkorder.ftc.gov/publications/net-cetera-chatting-kids-about-being-online

http://www.onguardonline.gov/media/video-0001-net-cetera-chatting-kids-about-being-online

Good ideas in light of BYOD

SIT Meeting November 2014

CHAMPS training for Staff

• Gentry:  big discussion piece with encore--desire to re-do staff training and clear up the CHAMPS hallway expectations 

• Does SIT feel like it needs to happen and how?  
• training from a different source?

• Young:  People not doing duties ?

• Champs History:  Training was done extensively when it first started 
   
• Graham:  a refresher would be good (keep it short) 

• Wells: can we do in grade level ?

• Miller:  Needs to be a school consensus on CHAMPS

• Halverstatdt:  what is the training?-- It's a review of the SEMS expectations for class changes and hall behavior 

• Graham:  consistency in enforcement is an issue

• Gentry:  We should look at staff handbook for all the detailed expectations 

• What are the expectations when teachers are dealing with other grade level?

• a menu of options to address issues 
  • A what point does it go to the office? 

• Pull that document and let SIT look at it and decide to do with it 

• SIT needs to be on board based on necessity 

• MIller: Teachers need to be out in the hall during locker changes (especially people in the pods) 

What would training it look like?  and how do we do it? 

• Last time, Laura Horn and others provided the training

• Young:  more than happy to help... 

• Gentry:  very choosy about staff meeting items--might not be the best forum?

• Douglass:  Could we do it on the Monday afternoon training sessions that we have been doing?

• Look at the document in the handbook and make official recommendations for what to include 

• Gentry--people get tired of hearing from me 

• Thorne:  Can we make it more meaningful?--so make it specific to grade level  concerns

• Wells--could we do the training in 2 parts? one for specifics and then one for the whole group...

• Problem addressing a large group--people often don’t think they are talking to them 

• Another thing to think about--If you were to walk in other schools/ halls  people might realize what we have here 

• Give Gentry feedback on the handbook document and then schedule grade levels and then do the whole group 

• Maybe in early January do the grade level meeting refresher

• But she really needs the feedback from the document 

Discipline Date for 1st Q 

• It's now much easier access to our discipline data 

• We got a huge excel file that Gentry filtered and gave to us 

• Do we have the past first quarter data to compare it to? no

• 220 incidents for the first quarter that were documented by administration 

• With Aaron coming on board--it can change the way things are coded 

• 8th grade:  54%  of offenses

• reportable offenses?--for example, marijuana

• Mr. Griffin:  last week almost 80 ISS attendees, 400 for the year (if they come through the door Griffin documents their visit)  

• How heavy ISS has gotten--admins have noticed 

• Teacher morale is way off, that could be a factor in discipline?

• If Brian gets loaded , then might have to close it off and handle among teams 

• Some teachers abuse ISS and use it as a babysitting service 

• Griffin:  Students take it more serious when ISS assignment comes from an administrator 

• Young: are admins aware of frequent fliers? oh yes

• A "taste of ALC" a week long stint in ISS 

• Will continue to give you the discipline data 

• Would like to look at the data by race 

Staff Survey for December / January:

• Do we want to give the staff a survey late December or early January?

• Come up with a sub committee with questions 

• What showed up on the survey last year and needed addressed

Ideas for topics

• Questions about CHAMPS: 

• Resources for teachers 

• other hot button ideas 

• leadership roles 

• Downs do the online part of it, Turner to work on the questions
• Martin, Young, Thorne, and Miller to ask constituents about topics for the survey

• Members send committee members and give SIT team to give feedback 

• Thorne:  focus on SE Middle School--specifics to us that are able to be fixed 

• no later than the second week of January 

Good of the order?  nothing