J.R. Smith Community Council Minutes

J.R. Smith Community Council Minutes

Friday, January 20, 2017

Members in attendance: Ryan Brown, Rachel Kahler, Lindsey Danley, Liz Brown (in place of KenaMair, Lynette Schiess, Karli Godwin, Board Member Debbie Jones

Conducting: Racheal Kahler/ Mr. Brown

Mr. Brown started the meeting at 10:10

First item: Reviewed September Minutes, did not vote due to a lack of voting members

Discussion Items:

-Professional Learning Communities: Mr. Brown shared the purpose of our PLC time on Mondays and reviewed what teachers do during that time: look at what is most important to teach, look at how to ensure that all students learn it, spend time looking at data, organize reteach and enrich groups. During the reteach and enrich students visit a different teacher than their homeroom to hear that same concept from a fresh perspective- different teachers have different strengths and students can benefit from exposure to other teachers. Our district has help PLCs for a long time; however, this year we are trying to tighten that up and make it more significant. Every grade level across the school and district are doing PLCs and data days. The fourth grade went to Florida to help them as a team develop a common language and understanding of what that time is dedicated to. They will be sharing with the staff some of what they learned. Mr. Brown would like to take another grade level team or more this summer if possible.

-Mrs. Schiess reviews her role as counselor: Counselors are not in every school across the state. It is a big deal to have Mrs. Schiess at our school full time. She shared a power point about her roles and responsibilities. Last year she did a needs assessment and asked parents and teachers for input about what students need from her. One of the items from the needs assessment that was commented on was the disconnect between parent’s opinion and teacher’s opinion about the need for more behavior instruction. Rachel Kahler suggested the possibility of more evening parenting type classes (similar to the ADHD one that was hosted by JR Smith). Rachel had noticed about 40 cars in the parking lot that night.

-Reunification Drill: This will be held at the end of March, before Spring Break. It will be well advertised and announced in advance to make parents as aware as possible. This will be a drill to practice what it would be like if an emergency event had occurred and now we were trying to re-unify parents and students. Ryan, Bonnie, and Weston Broadbent will be in charge of this event. Parents will come and get their students from the gym, while runners will go to classrooms to get them. During the drill, instruction will still be happening in classrooms. Those students not picked up will go home at the end of the day the regular way they go home every other day. Rachel mentioned the “Just Serve” group that is looking for ways to help serve in the community. She will reach out to that group to see if they can/ would like to help on the day of the event. Rachel mentioned that we will need to educate parents on how to help and not hinder in the event of a crisis- even as small as the power outage we had that week.

-Year to Date Expenditures: Mr. Brown passed out a copy of the plan for the Trustland Money. There are three goals: professional development, reading fluency, and positive behavior interventions. He included in his packet a copy of a statement of how much money was budgeted for each goal, how much has been spent per goal, and what the available balance for each goal is. There was also a change in the legislator regarding stipulations for money being spent on the third goal, positive behavior. That changes the amount of money in our plan- now only $2 per student can be spent on this goal. That limits the amount we can spend on that to $1,122 dollars, which is a change of $2,678 from the originally budgeted $3,800. Mr. Brown review the many ways that this money is spent, examples of Ms. Brown going to the Art Education Conference in St. George in February. Lindsey Danley asked how we can get more art school wide and not just one or two teachers. Liz Brown shared that because of the things learned at that conference she has been able to organize the Kimball Art Center, and the Utah Museum of Fine Arts to come for the 2nd and 3rd grade non-dual immersion classes. She has shared information about free art classes at UVU with the staff, and low class classes through Jordan District- as well as teaching art to other second grade classes. Also, that Katie Laycock, Cindy Bingham, Nikki Panagas, Machel Chrystal, and Mary Hall have gone to St. George in the past and Holly Hansen is going this year. Ryan Brown included that we do have the Beverly Taylor Sorensen Arts Program at our school third and fourth term (we have had the BTS music specialist here the first half of the year). Reviewing what to do with the remaining $2,678 Ryan Brown made a motion that the money be spent on books for the library and Andrea Sluga could order books. Rachel Kahler denied the motion, saying that instead she would rather see that money spent on programs that would be a resource for teachers. Lindsey Danley mentioned programs such as Raz- Kids that students do not have access to this year. Liz Brown was given the job of coordinating with teachers and coming back with some suggestions on how to spend that money at the next meeting.

Next Meeting will be held, Friday, March 17, 2017