Laing Middle School - School Improvement Council

Minutes - 2/12/13

Members present:
Chairwoman Jane Dawson (guidance counselor)
Veronica McCloud (teacher)
Angel Payton Harmon (parent)
Secretary/recorder Susan Hill Smith (parent)
James Whitehair (assistant principal)

1.  Welcome– Ms. Dawson

2.  Rezoning update – Ms. Harmon

·  Ms. Harmon serves as Laing’s representative on the Charleston County District 2 (East Cooper) Rezoning Community Advisory Team, which is looking at rezoning proposals for the entire District 2 area. She attended a meeting of the rezoning team with the District 2 Constituent School Board Jan. 23.

·  The constituent board will be deciding whether to accept student transfer requests for the upcoming school year for 2014-15.

·  The primary focus of the Jan. 23 meeting was the two elementary school maps.

·  The constituent board reiterated that the final rezoning decision either needs to be Option A or Option B, for both elementary and middle schools – i.e. they will not pick Option A for elementary schools and Option B for middle schools or vice versa. This helps reinforce the feeder school system with less division of elementary school populations once they head to middle school, which the constituent board believes parents prefer.

·  Related to Ms. Harmon’s update: the SIC discussed the fact that currently some elementary schools populations already are divided to different middle schools.

·  Current zoning sends students from the following elementary schools to Laing: Sullivan’s Island, Jennie Moore (except Brickyard), Whitesides and James B. Edwards. The only schools they do not receive zoned students from are Mount Pleasant Academy, Pinckney and Belle Hall.

·  Option A would increase Laing’s school population to 97.8 utilization of listed capacity (considered to be 900 students) and Option B to 95 percent, according to the constituent board information. Laing is currently around 67 percent of listed capacity with 630 students.

·  Mr. Whitehair and others expressed doubt as to whether Laing, on its current temporary campus at the former Wando site, could handle the projected increase in enrollment for either option, and especially because Jennie Moore Elementary will be moving in for the 2013-14 year and has a larger population than Buist, which is moving out and into its new building downtown. In fact, Laing’s sixth-graders for next year will be moved to a mobile classroom village (where the former J-pod was until its recent demolition) because of space constraints.

·  The constituent board has said it would like to see Laing and Jennie Moore ultimately handle 1,200 students each once their joint campus is finished.

·  The constituent board had requested to postpone rezoning until the new Laing was complete, but the county board denied the request.

3.  STEM (Science Technology Engineering & Math) concept update – Mr. Whitehair

·  LMS has seen amazing results with its STEM initiative this year, and while there have been struggles to overcome, nothing comes easy.

·  A big emphasis was on the sixth-graders project to build 53 greenhouses, working in teams, and even using drills during the construction. Most of the items needed for the project were donated. The school did buy 20 drills, which it will use over again. The students have started germinating seeds.

·  The eighth-graders are working on a natural disaster project.

·  “Kids are engaged. They are learning and want to be a part of the process.”

·  The new emphasis on “Common core” in education will fit with STEM and will add rigor to teaching and learning.

·  Laing wants to get the word out about STEM in the community. Representatives were scheduled to speak at a Chamber of Commerce meeting as part of that effort.

4.  Next year (Jennie Moore) – Mr. Whitehair

(See rezoning update in regard to Jennie Moore’s relocation to the site.)

5.  Literacy Project – Ms. Dawson

Work to continue on project, which will target male African American students.

Next meeting scheduled for March 5.