Jackson Middle School
Site Council Minutes
March 11th, 2009
Attendees:
John Ferraro, (Principal)
Jill Sage (Asst. Principal)
Christi Lossner (7th grade rep)
Donald Rose (6th grade rep)
Jenny Owen (Site Council Chair and Parent rep)
Karin Chesnutt (Secretary and Parent Rep)
Maggie Daly (Parent Rep)
Liz Kinder (Classified Rep Sub)
Absent:
Liz Kobs (8th grade rep)
John Mashek (SUN Coordinator)
Melinda Murdock (Electives rep)
Nancy Hand (Community rep)
Amanda Brown (Classified Rep)
Minutes were approved as previously sent.
John presented that Writing would be our major push this year. He will be encouraging the teachers to look at the current School Improvement Plan for Reading and Math and “use what they want” and “take out what they want” of what currently exists in the plan. He is still pursuing teacher input and will bring to the site council for review when that is finished.
Reading: There was discussion from the teacher reps regarding the Reading plan. There are 8 strategies in the EMC (literacy adoption from last year). The 6th grade team is pursuing one strategy a month through 1) Lit circles 2) Corrective reading (for students that are really struggling with reading – a method using reading coach to help with fluency and phonics). Note – a decrease in FTE would significantly affect this method. 3) TAG – encouraging students with advanced skills toward advanced thinking. 7th grade team rep said all EMC’s are being used with a focus on extensions and challenge assignments. Jill reported that the 8th grade team discussed more specifically reading strategies including work in small groups.
Jenny asked the question – how does this input change our current school improvement plan? Jill answered that PPS is changing the School Improvement Plan document next year so it is premature to change the current document. Jill said that input, however, would drive the professional development calendar and trainings. (With emphasis on our weakest link- writing.)
John will take input from the 3 team teachers and put into a document to bring back to the site council for review. Jenny encouraged the staff to seek parent input so that parents can help to meet those goals with resources – time and/or money.
School Improvement Plan – Writing
John handed out an Instructional Focus sheet that is a compilation of writing professional development, strategies and tools. His goal is that the building will begin using the same “writing language” across the 6th, 7th, and 8th grades. The writing focus committee (Liz Kobs, Kris Goodrich, Mindy Dornblaster, Donald Rose, and Dave Molloy) will research and choose the philosophy and process. The goal for this year is to have chosen the teacher books to use for next school year’s professional development. All teachers have expressed an interest in writer’s workshop. The committee will come up with common workshop to use. Next year, there will be time provided in teachers’ schedules for cross curriculum, cross grade level as well as grade level communication specifically regarding writing.
Positive enhancements this year include the Jagzine along with the continuation of author visits from past years. John will seek parent support and input by: 1) writing an article in every Jackson Journal about “writing” and reporting about the professional development focus 2) encouraging more parents to help in the classroom as writing tutors (training parent volunteers was suggested by Jenny) and 3) inviting parents to write with students (i.e. family writers night).
Site Council Elections: There are two (2 year) positions available. The due date for applications is March 20th. One application has been submitted to date. The self-nomination forms and information are on the PTA website and have been distributed through the Jackson Journal and PTA e-blast. The nominees will be published in the April Jackson Journal along with the ballot for their election. Jenny encouraged teachers to solicit parent applications.
Family Involvement Plan
Site Council spent time today discussing in depth the results of the parent survey regarding school climate and communication (see last month’s minutes for details). Jenny facilitated the discussion and asked for input in the following.
Top impressions of summary of parent survey:
*Parents want more interaction with other parents
*Most popular forms of communication with teacher are email and website (Note: bias is that these surveys for the most part were filled out by parents on computer selecting parents that are comfortable using computers)
*There are communication tools in place that parents don’t know about
*Layout of building does seem to be confusing
*There are lots of positive communication methods in place
*There seems to be a need to help with transitions from elementary to middle school for the parents
Positive Impact:
Communication: Need for clear and deliberate communication from the teachers to the parents. Administration can help to develop and common and consistent language for teachers to use with parents for both the transition from elementary school and throughout the grades at Jackson.
Climate: The need for signage is apparent. Leslie Starker is ready to pursue this project. We should consider improving the directional as well as the lingual signage around the school.
Action Items:
1) Jackson School/Parent Communication: goal – to improve communication between teachers and parents. John Ferraro will be working with teachers/staff to agree upon the frequency and form of communications with parents. Goal: September 30th 2009.
2) Transition Improvement: goal – to improve the transition communication from 5th to 6th grade. John Ferraro and Jill Sage will oversee this project. John suggested that we create a 6th grade (maybe all grade) open house (coffee talk) monthly next year – specifically for parents. The 6th grade teachers could take rotations through this monthly meeting (during school day) to discuss things like a) communication methods – Jackson Journal, School calendar, Jackson website, e-blast, etc. b) Outdoor school c) adolescent development d) volunteer opportunities, etc. This would not only allow 6th grade parents to have contact and meet but would significantly help transition issues (communication tools, volunteer knowledge, parent-teacher communication). Goal to begin this next fall. This spring Jill will begin outreach as usual to the elementary school parents to help with the transition.
3) Communication Tools: Maggie Daly will take this need to the PTA to create a consistent and clear sheet of all of the communication tools at Jackson. Goal to create this flyer to be distributed in the summer packets and available in the office. Maggie will bring back the PTA ideas at the next site council meeting.
4) John Ferraro will write an article for the Jackson Journal regarding the parent survey findings and action items.
5) The Peter Slansky film (shown at the Jackson Art Auction in March 2009) regarding Jackson and the Bernstein Art Program is outstanding and it was recommended that this be used in any future outreach seminars (i.e. the Somali information night).
Site Council Announcements:
*Message from Nancy Hand- Senator Richard Devlin & Rep. Chris Garrett will hold Town Hall meeting Thursday, March 12th; starting at 7 p.m. Jenny has details, if requested.
*Team reports will be in next Jackson Journal
*FTE not yet released
Next Meeting: Wednesday, April 8th, 2009.
Respectfully submitted,
Karin Chesnutt
Site Council Secretary