February 13, 2015

Members present: Langston, Hubbard, Edwards, Vallecillo, Hamilton, Brown, Maltese, Truitt, Gurr, Hester, Faber, Denny

We called an unscheduled brief meeting to discuss the 2 proposed CMS options for the 2015-2016 early PD dismissal days. CMS is considering 4 half days (1 each quarter) for PD days.

Option 1 – Three of the four days are Wednesdays, and do not coincide with a workday/holiday.

Option 2 – These days precede workdays or holidays.

We unanimously voted for Option 1 for the following reasons:

  • Since these days are separate from workdays and holidays, we believe that teachers are invested in the week and will be more involved, prepared, and motivated.
  • Wednesdays are already designated as PD days for our school, and this will keep with our routine.
  • We believe that Wednesdays would avoid student absences as parents would be more likely to pull students out of school on days preceding holidays and workdays.
  • We believe that with Option 2, scholars’ routines would be broken and the longer breaks would be difficult on the students and their retention.
  • With Option 2, there may be lack of teacher focus and engagement with impending breaks looming.

Our vision for these PD days would be that they are onsite. We would like to be able to designate the PD based on our school needs to align it with the SIP, e.g., long range planning, behavior issues, PBL, Globalization, Discovery Ed, and other academic needs that are data based.

Another idea for PD is to allow schools within the same learning community to collaborate on issues dealing specifically to their population. We would like to meet with teachers from area schools to build community and commonality. SAC teachers would also benefit from this.

We prefer not to travel to distant schools where demographics are different and incompatible.

The district has put thought into ASEP….registered students would have no additional charge, and those not registered would have a $20 charge, and students would need to register 2 weeks prior. ASEP would operate 3 hours earlier. After school activities such as basketball, girls on the run, etc, would be cancelled on these days.

Our next meeting will be Feb 25.