Elizabeth Mettler

November 30, 2015 LSAT Minutes

Posted November 30, 2015 by Elizabeth Mettler

Leslie Scott announced that Richard Nugent, a former Murch parent with previous LSAT experience has agreed to be our community representative on the LSAT.

PARCC

Chris discussed initial readings of PARCC scores that have been released to principals. PARCC is rated on a 1 (lowest possible score) to a 5 (highest possible score) scale. He commented that while it is clear what a 4 or 5 is college ready and a 1 or a 2 is not meeting expectations, the interpretation of a 3 is not quite as clear.

In looking at our scores, if we are only looking at those students who scored a 4 or 5 as “college ready”, Murch had a 66% pass rate for ELA and a 68% pass rate for Math. If, however, you add in the 3s, Murch had an 85% pass rate for ELA and an 89% pass rate for Math. With that pass rate, Murch would have performed better than 97% of all other DC elementary schools.

Enrollment

Enrollment projections will be in by January. We are assuming that our enrollment will drop some because of the renovation. Based on this year’s numbers, Murch should be OK with staffing for next year, but may face possible staff reductions the following year. Chris needs to work with various agencies to ensure we are not penalized during renovation.

Enrollment projections must be in by December 12 – Chris is anticipating submitting a 611 projection number, 23 less than the current year.

RELOCATION

Two options:
• Many trailers on our current site
• Use of the church next to the Forest Hills Playground with many trailers on the adjacent field

Each of these sites is fraught with problems; no matter where we go with swing space, there are not any good options

LSAT will draft a letter re: swing space, ensuring that it is not redundant with everything the HSA and the SIT team are doing
Community Meeting on swing space is Thursday, December 17th in the gym

Moving forward, two priorities during renovation are maintaining small class sizes and maintaining current staffing levels

BUDGET

Will need to develop a two year budget
February 10th – March 4th will be the time to assess budget options and prioritize what of the four DCPS budget priorities
Only one may really impact Murch – increased instructional

Two opportunities to interact with the budget: Tuesday, February 16th and Monday, February 29th

September 26, 2015 LSAT Minutes

Posted September 26, 2015 by Elizabeth Mettler

Attendees: Emily Kallaur, Bethany Little, Manolis Priniotakis, Leslie Scott, Chris Cebrzynski, Tashima Hawkins, Jackie Hines, Lauren Miller and Vicki Otten.

LSAT meeting dates will be the last Monday of the month. Meeting notes and “conversations” will be available on Basecamp.

Mr. Cebrzynski reported on:

Accumulation and use of testing and assessment data: already staff has begun analyzing testing data from a number of assessments. Beginning of the year assessments were given to all children in both reading and math. Teachers conduct on-going informal and formal assessments. Based on these different sources of data, reteaching, small group work and one on one instruction have already begun in many classes. We are already seeing dividends from this targeted work being done. Based on early data gathering, a small number of Murch students are already receiving Tier III services.
Comprehensive School Plan: work on the comprehensive school plan began this summer. Staff has identified five priority areas for the coming year: guided reading; close reading; 5 E’s instruction in math; guided math instruction; and RTI (Response to Intervention). The plan has been finalized with the ALT team. Mr. C. will share the plan on Basecamp. The role for the LSAT is monitoring and assessing implementation of this plan over the year.
Parent outreach/parent survey: Mr. C reported that Murch had a 92% student satisfaction rate in last year’s student survey. LSAT has been discussing the need to create and undertake a parent survey about parent engagement. The goal of such a survey is to find out the underlying feelings about family engagement – why do people get involved in a variety of Murch activities and why others do not. LSAT members discussed how there could be the widest possible distribution of the survey and all agreed that having the survey available for a parent/teacher conference day would be ideal. Parents could complete the survey while in the school.
Priorities for LSAT this year: Leslie and Emily will compile a list of ideas that could be the focus of LSAT activity for the coming year. The suggestions will be posted on Basecamp and the Committee will discuss these options at the next meeting.

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