SIT Minutes September 12, 2011

Voting--New Members and chairperson:
New slate: 

• 6th Grade--Kristen Thorne, Brian Graham
• Encore: Dedria Davis-King, Kay Hoag
• 8th Grade:  Tonia Maxcy
• Classified--TBA
• EC/Parent Rep: Portia Lakey

All in favor, none opposed to new representatives.

Election of Chairperson:

• Ms. Gentry explained that she should not be "running the meetings". 
• Chairperson should facilitate meetings similar to single school culture meetings.
• Maxcy nominated Laura Horn
• Neal, second, all were in favor, none were opposed

SIT Meetings:

• Meetings will be approximately every 6 weeks
• Next scheduled meeting will be October 17th
• Meetings can be called in between
• First three meetings on the staff calendar:  Nov 28, Feb 20

SIT Plan:

• We are in a "follow-up" year
• We have to examine the data
• Ms. Gentry will input the data, and get all members a copy
• Members will review and see if there is anything we need to tweak
• Plan is due in the middle of October
• We also have to attach a School wide behavior plan
• We were able to adjust section of the staff handbook adding a section on ALC and hall behavior

Instant Recess:

• NC State Law says that WS/FCS is ~ an hour short in providing students with Physical fitness activity
• Each school must find ~ 10 minutes per day
• We will have to document in some way
• We don't have to do the "instant recess" videos
• Here is a site with on-line physical activity videos/clips that might be used:
• http://www.eatsmartmovemorenc.com/Energizers/Middle.html
• Maxcy--8th grade has discussed walking after lunch around the track (would work since Encore is at lunch during that time)
• 6th and 7th grade can be flexible about when they might do it so as not to interfere with team schedules
• One suggestion was to do it during the morning encore morning break when PE would not be outside (~ 30 minutes from 9:15-9:45)
• Teams would have to stick to their times so as not to overlap and have tons of students outside at once
• Would have to have a "back-up weather plan" on inclement weather days
• Deb Neal threw out the idea of each subject taking a quarter and handling it that way?
• The whole grade level does not have to agree on one plan as long as there is agreement to stagger times outside and not to interfere with PE.
• There was a suggestion that perhaps a team or grade level could do the whole week's worth in one day?
• concerns expressed about a lack of supervision during those times. 
• Don't want it to become recess with students handed a ball to play.
• Must be structured activities
• Outside options are:
• Field to the left
• Track to the right
• Top of the hill too
• SIT members will go back and discuss with their constituents.

Tutoring Plan:

• No certain start date on this, but sooner rather than later.
• There are two decisions to be made
• Days of the week (needs to be two separate days)
• Which groups of students/what type of tutoring
• There also needs to be a clear and simple method of communication (master calendar) so that encore, core and students all know who, when and where students will be.
• Tutoring should not be "make-up work" sessions
• Does not have to be the same group of students both days
• Maxcy said 8th grade teachers didn't like the idea of Mondays--if tutoring is done the way it should be, its something that has to be planned. 
• They suggested Wednesdays & Thursdays and everyone seemed to agree with these two days  with some rotation so that students would not miss the same encore class all the time.
• Duration of tutoring?  Gentry likes the idea of quarter long.
• Question? Offer some flexibility in teachers choosing who would be tutored?
• After school tutoring could target one group (bubble 2's?)
• Day time for low 2's and 1's?
• Suggestion to have the same "lesson" for both days
• Because of 8th grade not having teams, some teachers may have to tutor some students of other teachers--that may also be the case with 6th and 7th grade because of the configuration of students on different teams.
• Most seem to indicate they would rather have students picked for teachers for both days--predetermined by EOG scores
• Encore said students should probably be exempt from encore work when they are at tutoring
• If students are in after-school tutoring (and attending), then they would not have to go to day time tutoring

DEB Neal:  quick review of numbers:

• Reading
• 6th grade, 110 1's and 2's
• 7th grade, 58-1's, 64-2's
• 8th grade, 49-1's, 103-2's
• Math:
• 6th grade, 9-1's, 55-2's
• 7th grade, 13-1's, 82-2's
• 8th grade, 15-1's, 80-2's

• Everything about tutoring plan will be in writing
• Deb Neal to develop specific lessons (she wants input and consistency)
• Letter will go home to parents (some parents may opt out)
• Questions: 
• Can students be added to tutoring?  Probably not after groups are predetermined
• Can students be "exited"?  Could be for discipline issues--tutoring is a privilege and not a punishment