KILLINGLY MEMORIAL SCHOOL
School Governance Council
Meeting Minutes
February 26, 2013
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Call to Order: A normal meeting of the Killingly Memorial Elementary School Governance Council was held on Tuesday, February 26, 2013 in the KMS Conference Room at 6:30 p.m. Meeting called to order at 6:36 p.m.
Members in Attendance: Scott Farquhar, Kristine Cicchetti, Marcia Griffiths Farquhar,
Liz Amburn, Lisa Higgins, Maureen Birmingham, Erin Martineau, Tina Rybacki, Steve Wheeler and Marilyn Salisbury
Members Not in Attendance: Keri Costa, Wendy Ambrefre (Community), Lisa Siegmund, Randie Long (Alternate), Kevin Cole (Community)
Agenda Item: Budget Review
Budget will be presented to BOE on March 27th, Steve feels comfortable with the decision package for more staffing. He is ready to defend that decision and why it will benefit our school to the BOE.
Agenda Item: Other
Kris Cicchetti gave a recap on what the Killingly Community Engagement Council (KCEC) is working on. This council’s purpose is to spread the word to the community on what is going on in our schools. She will act as a liaison between the two groups going forward. The KCEC meets the last Thursday of each month.
Lisa Higgins is part of the English Language Arts consortium. She feels that there will be lots of discussion around curriculum going forward. Her group has talked about presenting the curriculum in a manner like “this is what we where doing, this is what it is now”. Grandparents always have lots of questions re: our curriculum when they visit on Grandparents Day. She feels that we should be putting that information out there to parents and community. What will an education look like for children in the years to come, how it has changed from when we went to school?
Marcia feels that a BOE member should be at our monthly meeting. We also talked about how it would be great if BOE members actually shadowed a teacher to see “a life in a day” of a teacher. If we set our schedule of meetings for next year ahead of time, maybe we can ask that a different board member attend our monthly meetings each month?
Is a common core letter given to parents when report cards are given out? An initial letter was given a few months ago to parents on where they could look for more information. However, should we put doing that every report card going forward so parents see it more? Could we actually print out the grade level information from the pta.org website? Should we have more education for parents around common core?
NOTE: At the KCEC meeting on Thursday, February 28th, Mr. McNamara gave a presentation on Common Core. I did mention to the group that our Council was just talking about a lot of these issues. I mentioned the ideas about at P/T conferences going forward, and handing out info. on Common Core – so parents keep seeing it. Also, mentioned how we need to educate parents on homework and how it has changed from when we where kids. - Krissy
Mrs. Amburm addressed that she feels the problem is two-fold. 1) Parents don’t understand that the whole structure of a day has changed dramatically. Maybe having a “parent’s day” – mini lessons. How to we get parents to understand the day to day? 2) Homework – should we rethink homework? How to we educate parents on homework help? Could it be done by grade level – bring them into the building.
Group feels that we need to bring communication back to KMS. We should bring back the monthly newsletter. Mrs. Amburn suggested that one big group of people who could get the word out – is the students! Opinion writing and information writing can be done. Kids writing and telling what’s going on – should come from the kids. It all comes down to effectively and consistently communicating.
Agenda Item: Volunteers
Marilyn Salisbury presented on volunteers in our school. When she worked in Providence, they had a program called VIPS “volunteers in providence schools”. No one walked through the door without being screened. She would like to get a volunteer program in our school, however, we need to address the screening process and create a district policy (if one does not exist). She will be meeting with QVCC soon to discuss a few things. First, “policy and procedures for volunteers” and America Reads program - is there a volunteer program and what is the next step. Do they do a basic training for volunteers (how to dress, etc.)?
Retiree’s – is also an avenue to look at for volunteers. Other suggestions made by the group were: Martha Goldstein program at the high school – volunteers who are high school seniors, who are on their senior privileges. Karen Lagasse – runs the careers pathways at High School. Haven Health – could that be an option? Dick Green’s wife – Carol Green overseas Maple Courts, she may be a good contact. Creamy Brook may be another option.
Agenda Item: Recruiting New Members Tabled discussion to next meeting.
Action Items:
Lisa and Tina will form a “By-Laws” sub-committee. Lisa will get the high school by-laws to Tina Rybacki in a word document week of 3/4. They will work on updating the file with our notes and make additional changes to the document and present and updated draft for council review at next meeting.
Krissy to make a binder of all our meeting minutes and leave in office for parents/staff to view. She will also check with Nancy re: having authority to create/manage a “KMS Governance Council” page on the school website.
Liz Amburn to talk with Mr. Wheeler regarding herself, Lisa and Marcia speaking to the staff at the next staff meeting in regards to what our council has been working on and what our goals are in the future.
Krissy and Marcia to form a “communication” subcommittee to work on documents and next steps for communicating to parents and community what our council is about and how to roll that out.
Krissy to contact Al Messier to see if he can send over High School student to monitor kids during our next few meetings.
CABE Training: Saturday, March 2nd from 9:00 – 12:00 at KMS
NEXT MEETINGS:
6:30-8:00 p.m. – KMS Conference Room
MONDAY, APRIL 1ST
TUESDAY, APRIL 23Rd
TUESDAY, MAY 28TH
TUESDAY, JUNE 11TH