Next Meeting: Monday 10-12-2015

East Mecklenburg High School

School Leadership Team Meeting

September14, 2015 – Media Center 6pm

X= Present/ (P) = Parent/ (T)= Teacher/ (C) = Counselor

X / Meredith Austin (T) / X / Melinda McVadon / X / Maureen Walsh Koricke (P)
X / Elaine Claiborne (P) / Billie Little (Assist Principal) / X / Janyce Wardlaw (P)
Audrey Dorante (T) / X / Tim Moore (P), Chair / X / Barry Woolsey (T)
X / Erica Gipson (P) / X / Cassandra Nathan (P) / X / Christine Opela
Candice Farrington (C) / X / Rick Parker (Principal) / X / Heather LaJoie (Guest)
Ruth Harris (P) / X / Victoria Payne (P)
  1. Call to order
  1. Approval of May 2015 meeting minutes

All in favor

  1. Class Registration – IB Coordinator – Heather LaJoie

Concerns over the IB schedule as it relates to Earth Science were addressed.

Background:

In order to fulfill graduation requirement, NC students must to take an Earth Science. Since IB students usually take Biology their freshman year (instead of Earth Science), they need to make sure to fit this course in at another point. In addition the current juniors are the IB Class required to take a two-year Theory of Knowledge (TOK) class. The change in TOK was mandated by the IB Board. Many current IB students were not aware of Earth Science requirement and as a result had to take Environmental Science over the summer.

Potential Solutions:

  • Increase communication with parents and students so they are aware of the requirement. LaJoie in modifying her talking points for IB meetings to make sure this requirement is discussed.
  • Have Guidance Counselors remind students to take and Earth Science when they are filling in holes in their schedule. For most students this will probably by in 9th grade. Mr. Woolsey said this may also help students perform better on the Biology EOC.
  • Create a 4-year “plan to graduate” sheet
  • Ms. Farrington will have an update at the October meeting
  1. Sports Banners (Maureen Koricke)

The need for procedures for tracking sport banners was discussed. Because of changes in coaching staff from year-to-year, the banners can’t always be located. As a result, the school isn’t represented as well as it should be. The need for a “corporate memory” was discussed. Tim Moore suggested that this could be a responsibility of the Athletic Boosters. He will bring it up at their next meeting.

  1. School Construction & Cell Tower (Rick Parker)
  • Cell Tower- As of yet we have not received updates from the cell tower presentation that happened in May 2015. Mr. Parker will follow-up with an email
  • Construction – A plan has been drawn and submitted, but we still don’t really know where the building will be located. The tennis court and teacher parking lot have both been rejected as sites because of soil conditions. The building is scheduled to be in place in August 2018. A meeting with the site group and principal is to be scheduled.
  • Track - parents asked if the track would be repaired. Last year East could not host the Dick William invitational because of the track condition. Mr. Parker said a new artificial turf field was planned and the track would be improved as part of the process.
  • We also discussed how the construction would impact various team practices – the band currently uses the bus lot to practice and this area may not be available during construction. Mr. Parker discussed the possibility of the band or soccer team using McClintock for practice. He said the turf field would allow more teams to use the football field.
  1. School Improvement Plan & School Performance Grade (Rick Parker)

We briefly reviewed the plan and the goals for 2015-16. We met most of the 2014-15 goals that we set. Our school had a solid B grade. The Asian sub-population scores did not improve as much as anticipated. There is also a gap in the performance of black males – we discussed possible reasons for this gap. Attendees were asked to review the performance results and come back with questions and suggestions.

Maureen Koricke suggested that we had improving use of Naviance as a goal.

Draft is due 9/28/15

  1. Back to School Night CurriculumFeedback (Rick Parker)
  • Everyone liked the breakout sessions with Freshman/Sophomore and Junior/Seniors grouped. It was suggested that we look at doing each class separately or allowing more time for freshmen parents.
  • Parents expressed that their needed to be clearer instructions on where to go - teachers were clustered in groups this year and not everyone realized this.
  • Some parents liked the teachers being clustered, others did not
  • Teachers said they would have preferred being in their class room - this would have allowed them to be productive while waiting for parents.
  1. Elections (Maureen Koricke)

Chair – Maureen Koricke

Vice Chair – Victoria Payne & Casandra Nathan

Secretary – Erica Gipson

Meeting adjourned at 7:15 pm.

Minutes respectfully submitted by Elaine Claiborne