MDT Meeting Minutes for February 25, 2008

Attending: T. Welsh, E. Marcus, A. Yu, K. Beiley, B. Lewis, N. Rabiah, P. Joos, L. Singer, A. Broun, V. Otten, N. Martell-Stevenson. 
I. Report of the Diversity Committee:  Vicki Otten circulated to the MDT the below outline of discussion points of the Diversity Committee.
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1) Goals:

• Answer the question, “Who are we?”
• What are the common expectations for and from the Murch community?
• Establish core values for the Murch Community
• Develop a thoughtful profile of students and families at Murch

2) How do we do this?

• Better information sharing
• Organized family outreach program for new families
• Family survey
• Parent training in Responsive Classroom
• Neighborhood meetings in out-of-boundary areas
• PR campaign to sell who we are, once we have established that
• Expand avenues parents have to be involved in the school

3) Timetable and plan for implementation
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A lengthy discussion ensued over the issue of “who are we?”  Members first discussed how we as a community come to consensus on Murch’s core values.  The first step will be to develop a base document for discussion; the committee will draw from example core value statements from Murch documents, the Middle States Association, and statements from other schools and organizations to write a first draft. 

The next question was who should then participate in setting a core value statement.  Members welcomed the likely involvement of those who regularly volunteer, but also recognized the need to reach broadly to ensure all who should be are brought into the discussion.  Members discussed a number of ways to seek community validation once a draft statement is prepared, including thru roundtables (perhaps organized by grades), online surveys, etc.  Principal Lewis explained about a tool she used in her last school: on parent-teacher conference days, the school set up dedicated computer terminals outside classrooms for waiting parents to fill out surveys.

On the issue of sharing information on Murch’s diversity, Members commended the data Principal Lewis sent to the community thru the Family Newsletter on in-boundary and out-of-boundary students, NCLB, etc.  Several Members heard from parents who were surprised at what they viewed as a low number (11) of Murch NCLB students. 

On outreach to new families, all welcomed the idea of a buddy system to match current Murch families with new families.  Karen Beiley volunteered the HSA to take the lead in establishing such a system.  The goal would be to identify volunteer Murch families before the end of the year, in order to match them with new families before the fall.
On implementation, Amanda/Vicki/Brenda agreed to review core value statements and draft a statement for Murch, for first review by the MDT. 

II. Process of parent-staff communications/Role of the MDT: A Teacher Member presented to the MDT a strongly-held concern among teachers that the level of discourse initiated by certain parents towards certain teachers has become impolite and at times hostile.  The Member stressed that this behavior was limited to a small group of parents and that, overall, parent-teacher relations and communications at Murch were positive.  All Members criticized such behavior and were unanimous that the actions of these individuals were at a minimum, discourteous and disrespectful, and contrary to Murch’s values and common courtesy.

On a separate, but related, point, Principal Lewis informed the MDT that she has been contacted about personnel-related issues that parents have raised with the DCPS central office.  These issues have been raised without bringing the matter to the staff member or the principal prior to going to the central office.   

MDT Members agreed Murch should circulate guidance to the community on chains of communication on personnel-related matters.  The proposed guidance will recommend that parents take problems first to the teacher, in a respectful and appropriate manner.  That would include identifying an appropriate time to meet with the teacher to discuss the issue. 

The next level of engagement would be with the Principal.  If still dissatisfied after going thru these channels, a parent could certainly take the issue to the central office.  This would in no way limit direct parent communication with DCPS, but would simply suggest a progression of communication that would also alert the school to concerns and allow the school to remedy the problems.

There ensued a fuller discussion about ways to change the tone of the discourse.  All agreed the excessively negative tone was coming from a small number of parents (there were no specific names mentioned during the entire discussion).   Several Members suggested that guidance, without consequences for unacceptable behavior, will not modify the actions of these individuals.  A Teacher Member said not all the teachers were subject to the impolite behavior, but that teachers as a whole were unhappy with the “toxic” tone entering into the Murch community. 

• Follow up action: Principal Lewis and Amanda Broun will prepare an addendum to the school handbook, based largely on specific text from the DCPS-issued “Planning Guide for Local School Restructuring Teams” to outline for the community the roles and responsibilities of the MDT.  The addendum, which will be circulated in the near future (and then added permanently to the 2008-09 handbook), will make clear the MDT is not a proper forum to raise concerns about specific teachers or other students.  The addendum will elaborate further on the current parent communication section of the 2007-08 handbook.

III.  MDT representative to the Principal Selection Committee: Principal Lewis took leave prior to discussion of this agenda item.  All Members concurred in the proposal that Amanda Broun serve as the MDT representative.  No alternate was designated.
The MDT meeting adjourned at 6:50.

Next meeting: Monday, March 17, at 5:30.

Alan Yu
March 1, 2008