Present: Chris Cebrzynski, Alicia Garfinkel, Aaron Hanna, Vicki Otten, Sarah Heist, Emily Kallaur, Lauren Miller, Richard Nugent, Adam Riggs and Karen Abrams
Meeting was called to order at 5:35 PM
Administrative
- Reviewed September minutes
- September minutes were approved
Items for Discussion
- Updates from Mr. C (facilities; security/drills; enrichment; music program)
- Security Drills
- Practiced a Fire Drill going off campus and onto the sidewalk and plaza
- Started using alarms
- Did the Earthquake Drill
- Enrichment
- New enrichment program started this year
- Student enrichment groups are re-formed periodically around different themes
- Teachers create groups based on different scores and factors
- Some ways the LSAT could help assess program implementation later in the year:
- Sending out a teacher and aide survey
- Getting students together for mini focus groups
- Making sure differentiation is present and going well
- Music Program
- Going strong!
- Event in December includes entire school – in UDC’s auditorium
- School satisfaction survey data – Pushed to next meeting to discuss further.
- 96% of students had a positive view on their experience at Murch this past year
- Social Emotional scored at around 76%
- Comprehensive school plan
- Emily and Chris sent this around to us before the meeting to review
- Math and Reading are two goals, then has action steps related to ALT, Student Achievement and Differentiation/Differentiation Practices in the Classroom
- This is data the District requires we hand in to track our progress, and it is in line with other schools in our cluster.
- There is useful information in this plan for Murch to use, especially with the change in teacher evaluations and with differentiation. ALT helps with internal monitoring – looks at Professional Development and Data Analysis throughout the school
- Mr. Cebrzynski will meet with the Chief of Schools soon to present his plan.
- PARCC scores
- Shows last year’s scores compared to current scores by grade-level
- Looking for trends in the data – only have 2 years worth so far
- Murch kids are doing well! Compared to Upper NW schools, we are in the middle of the pack, but we have a different diversity rate (ELL, Special Education, apartment buildings, out of bounds, kids leaving and new kids coming) than many of the schools in the group.
- Teachers working towards using more “PARCC Language” so kids are more prepared; new math curriculum has higher level of questioning that will lend itself to helping with PARCC; PARCC is aligned to Common Core
- LSAT role with PARCC – Maybe looking at ELL data? Looking at data of kids who have been here throughout the grade levels, not kids who have come in during the middle of elementary school?
- Request sent to DCPS to get disaggregated data
- LSAT role and objectives for the year: how can we make a concrete positive contribution?
- Internal measures for success, Spelling, RTI, I/E, PARCC Data for pockets/trends that exist?
- I/E (Intervention/Enrichment) Block – Mr. Cebrzynski would like LSAT to help analyze how successful it is with surveys, discussions, etc. throughout the year. Do parents know what the I/E Block is?
- Advocacy: When issues arise, LSAT can speak up for Murch -Ex: Nurse Coverage, New school accountability plan
- Budget: We will look at it, make edits and propose/submit it with rationale
- Mr. Cebrzynski wants to know what we will focus on and begin to develop a procedure/protocol of how we will handle each one.
- We will send the list out internally and will have a specific list created by the next meeting.
Other
- Nurse coverage: Our nurse coverage may decrease more – possibly to half-time (20 hours per week) from current level of 4 days/week. Letter advocating full-time nurse coverage was sent on behalf of LSAT to the Mayor and relevant personnel/officials
- UDC Relationships – Kids back in the gym sometimes for recess.
- Discussion about Fontas and Pinnell reading assessments. Time consuming, but important to do for differentiation and truly assessing where students are at the beginning of the year (as well as the middle of the year and end of the year).
- Discussion about teacher autonomy with lesson planning. Every grade level team differs, and subjects differ. Teachers have their own style, but it’s the same content. New math curriculum is helping with keeping language the same throughout classrooms and grade levels, but teachers can take lessons given and tailor them to the specific kids they are teaching. Parents can access the math curriculum online – greatminds.org
- LEAP coach to come to LSAT meeting after next cycle.
- Technology – Problems with laptops functioning, problems with Internet working
Meeting adjourned at 6:45pm.