FIDALGO ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

SITE Council/SIP Team

Minutes of October 2, 2007

Fidalgo Conference Room – 8:15 AM

 

Constituent Groups            Representatives Attending            Representatives Absent

 

Certified Staff                           Sally Doran, Bev Bowen,                      Michelle Murray                      

                                                Rachel Hofheimer

 

Classified Staff              Michele Bruce  , Eileen Hamilton                                                                                                          

Parents                                     Lucie Yeomans; Jema McOmber         

                                   

PTA                                         Shamay Andrich, Varanda Phillips

 

Community

 

ASD Board Member                Jeannette Papadakis                                        

                                                                                   

Principal                                   Tara Dowd

 

        

I.       Varanda called the meeting to order at 8:20 a.m.   The agenda today will include:

                     Lunch Schedule

                     Revisit SIP Goals (Survey Results)

                     Revisit SIP Activities

        

II.      The minutes from September 18, 2007 were approved.

 

  III.     COMMUNICATION:

·        Shamay reported on the October 1st PTA General Membership meeting.  They voted to support Initiative 4204, “Simple Majority” in November.  Shamay reminded members that all communication must be approved by Tara before going out in “kid mail”.  Preliminary numbers from the Walk-a-thon is about $15,000, but only about 45% of the pledges have been returned.  Going by last year’s figures, the PTA has budgeted $22,000 for this year.  Shamay said they would really like to see some “big ticket” item requests, for Special Projects.  For example, Study Hall, which is not an annual “line item”.  Tara estimated that 3 days a week would cost about $3,000 – Fidalgo has also submitted a grant to local organizations to supplement. 

·        Tara welcomed our new Parent Rep, Jema McOmber to our Team. 

·        Jeannette said that Kevin Bessler (parent at Fidalgo) will announce the Community Rep. opening at the Newcomer’s Club this week.

·        Rachel reported that Michelle Murray would like to stay on as a Primary Staff Rep.

 

 

IV.       LUNCH ISSUES:

·        Tara has spent time in the lunchroom, recording the average time that kids have to get their lunch and eat.  It takes about 12-15 minutes to get from the end of the line, get lunch and be seated.  This only leaves about 5 minutes to eat for the Intermediate students.  One possibility discussed was a 2nd computer / line.  Claire gave a quick overview and some possible solutions.  If the Intermediate classes came in classroom order, she could “scan” their numbers much faster.  Eileen said she would review with the lunch para-eds and have them rotate classes to come into lunch starting about 11:40 AM.  They would line up by CLASS IN ALPHABET ORDER, and classes would be staggered.  The cold lunch line would remain the same.

 

V.        SIP GOALS / ACTIVITIES DISCUSSION:  SEE HANDOUTS

·        After reviewing Fidalgo’s already high scores, Lucie said that a realistic goal for us would be to at least “stay even”.

·        Discussion followed on whether cohort groups were what we should be following.  Sally talked about looking at individual students rather than “groups”, who have changing population each year, sometimes drastic changes.  Also asked what variables influence the output – i.e. “support staff”. 

·        Lucie noted that the State trend is going down by a small percentage, but Fidalgo’s downward trend shows a much larger percentage.  Tara pointed out that this could be an anomaly.  Sally suggested that we need an average of 5 years worth of data to compare consistency.  4th grade teachers have about 10 years of experience with WASL data and materials.

·        All felt that it is very important to “individualize” to track how many students were actually at Fidalgo for several years in a row.

·        Another need for “collaboration” time.

·        Sally expressed a concern on bringing math expectations up to the reading expectations/levels.  Work on getting kids to “think math’ and get excited about it - most kids do not go to bed with a “good math book”. J  Jeannette pointed out that it is harder for parents to help students at the higher math levels, so therefore do not always support them in ways they should. 

·        Lucie stated that she thinks our SIP goals should be to “look at scores per grade, instead of cohort groups with changing populations”.  Then track them over a 5-year period. 

·        Data should include MAP test scores – is the percentage we identify reasonable?

·        Then all data would go to staff to see if our goals are reasonable and attainable.

·        Suggested that grade levels that currently have 90% or better would try to maintain or exceed percentage; If less than 90%, add a 5% increase for their goal.

·        On WASL and MAP scores an activity would be to review and compare data, which will vary, as each test focuses on different areas and presents problems very differently.  However, each test is important for different reasons.

          MAP – get immediate test results

          WASL – results are not received until the following Aug/Sept

          DRA – 2nd grade students tested in the Fall – no way to show individual growth @ 2nd-grade level, but it does identify students that cannot read or are at a very low level.

Obvious that we need a tool to gather data – we do not have such a tool at this time, and it is too time-intensive to re-test in the Spring.

 

Team felt that SIP Goals should also include items that do not necessarily have to relate to Reading and Math - Some ideas/suggestions from team members and survey results addressed:

 

 

          MISSION AND VISION - Revisit our Mission Statement

         

          STANDARDS AND EXPECTATIONS – Level of support for diverse learners.

 

          COMMUNICATION AND COLLABORATION

          Need collaborative time (in process)

          Revisit use of Open House Night – make more of a Curriculum Night

          Homework Policy / On-line access (Family Access – like Middle and High schools

          Explore Math and Instructional Groupings, Delivery Models – maybe incorporate                                               with Curriculum Night and/or create a website with templates and updates for             parent/student use.

 

          EDUCATOR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT – Staff Development focusing on behavior management.

 

            LEARNING ENVIRONMENT – comments were all positive.

 

            PARENT AND COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT – On-going Volunteer training; this would include Room Parents.

 

            INSTRUCTION/CURRICULUM – Visit and discuss WASL prep.

 

VI.       STAFF MEETING COMMENTS/SUGGESTIONS:

·        Discussed and reviewed Reading and Math comments (SEE HANDOUTS) from 1st staff meeting – staff will continue and finish up at the October 5th Staff Development Day. 

·        Tara and Lucie would be happy to help teachers with gathering information, data and comparisons, so it does not totally fall on them.  One idea would be to visit schools have “beaten or reversed” the downward trend.

·        Tried to keep topics broad enough, so there is room to expand.  Ideally, staff would add activities to help meet goals and make accountable. 

 

VII.      FUTURE/NEXT MEETINGS:

·        Only 2 more ˝ day meetings will be paid for by the District – all agreed that this is not enough time to properly complete our tasks for this year.  Therefore, Fidalgo Site Team will meet at 2:45 to 3:30 on Wednesday, November 14th – this will be in place of a staff meeting.  Although, staff members are more than welcome (and encouraged) to attend.  The meeting will take place in the Library.  At that time, Tara will review the School Board Report and comments from the November 8th School Board Meeting.

 

The meeting was adjourned at approximately 11:35 A.M.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Michele Bruce             

Secretary

/mjb