School Community Council |MINUTES (Draft)

Meeting date | time 9/17/2015 6:00 PM | Meeting location MMS Media Center

Meeting called by

/ Wendy Dau, Principal MMS

Type of meeting

/ School Community Council 1st meeting of 2015-16 school year

Facilitator

/ Wendy Dau, Principal MMS

Note taker

/ Stephanie Landon

Timekeeper

/ [Name]
/ Attendees:
Wendy Dau, Shelley Allen, Karen Moore, Clayton Hartog, Keila Ellingson, Kerry Schroeppel, Jared Buhanan-Decker, Stephanie Landon

Agenda topics

Agenda topic Welcome and introductions | Presenter Wendy Dau

Discussion: All present were introduced and welcomed to the new school year.

Agenda topic Election of a Chair | Presenter Wendy Dau

Discussion: Nominations were taken from council members in attendance. Clayton Hartog was elected unanimously.

Election of Vice-Chair was tabled until next meeting

Agenda topic School Community Council Mandatory Trainings | Presenter Wendy Dau

Discussion: All members of the council must go to the training. Returning members will go to a different training. Mrs. Dau will e-mail us the training dates.

Agenda topic Updates on the School | Presenter Wendy Dau

Discussion: Canyons School has indicated that all schools will focus on the following:

a. Comprehensive School Improvement Plan: MMS literacy goal which will be targeted using our Literacy Block as well as requiring core teachers to include one writing and one reading strategy per week. SRI scores will be provided for us to review next meeting. Math and science department just purchased grade cam, and teachers in math and science will all be trained on how to effectively use the grade cam. This program will assist teachers in tracking progress towards STEM goals in the CSIP. PBIS will continue; in-school suspension aides are paid for through the Trust Lands Fund. A store will be opened to all students where items can be purchased with behavior rewards. This store will be run and maintained by our hall monitor; all items have been donated by community sources.

b. SAGE Scores: 6th grade scores across the district were low. A majority of our non-Caucasian students scored below 10%, statewide below 20%. This is an area we will need to focus on in the upcoming year. Overall we dropped 50 points from last year. Unfortunately we are the lowest preforming middle school in the district. Growth for below proficient students was lower than that of proficient students, which indicates that our achievement gap is growing. There will be a link to the SAGE report on our web site, the district web site also has a link.

c. MYP: (specific to our school) There has been a lot of discussion about this program. Parents are concerned because they had heard that MYP would be abolished. Mrs. Dau visited with teachers and many parents and the consensus seemed to be that this program should stay at MMS. Information has been collected for Mrs. Dau to present to the board and she will recommend that the Middle Years Program (MYP) remain. MYP, Mrs. Dau stated, is a program that encompasses the philosophy of the district. BLT has laid out a better transition plan between the elementary and the high school for the IB program.

d. School-wide Initiatives: School wide common vocabulary and MYP command terms will be rolled out as the year progresses. The school has implemented an organizational system for students: use of binders that holds all needed classwork, pencils, highlighter, pens, paper and other items needed for class work. The binders and other items were purchased by the administration; reports indicate that this is helping students stay organized. Homework help has begun, which is being funded through School Trust Lands funds. Each child has a planner, and students are encouraged to write objectives and homework on a daily basis. The goal is to bring all the programs at MMS together.

Action items

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Person responsible

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Deadline

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MYP presentation
Data on Summer School
Updates on School Trust Lands Budget / Shelley Allen
Wendy Dau
Karen Moore
Wendy Dau / Next meeting Next meeting

Agenda topic Budgets | Presenter Wendy Dau

Discussion: a. School Trust Lands Budget

i.  Report on Summer School. The goal was to have 90 kids attend, but only 10-20 actually attended. This could be attributed to the administration turn over (two of our previous admin. moved to other positions); recruiting was not done with rigor. Only 4 teachers were hired. We had budgeted for 8. Summer school was held at the elementary due to MMS moving buildings. We will still track those that attended through the school year. Our administration together with 3 feeder elementary and the high school is putting together a new proposal for future summer school programs. This would consist of recruiting the existing 3rd grade through the existing 9th grade students. The program would have an ELD component as well, with 10 students per class. The goal would be to provide day care for siblings. Busing and lunch would also be provided. School would last 6 weeks. Teachers will be recruited and not hired on a volunteer basis. Counselors will be a part of this program. Curriculum and diagnostic tests are still needed. Data on the kids will be collected and their school career will be followed within Canyons School District. Progress will be reported out each month, and data will be collected and kids’ academic progress will be tracked.

ii.  Future expenditures: budget was just received for this year; itemized account will be sent out or reported on at our next meeting,

iii.  b. Cell Tower Budget Expenditures and Proposals will be coming at the end of this month. We will look at budgets and expenditures at next meeting.

Additional Items or Questions:

Minutes from the last meeting were approved with one correction, striking of the word debate that was unnecessarily repeated.

Life Lines training: new suicide training through the district that is state required for all schools. A parent night for the training will be held at Hillcrest High School hopefully so more will attend. Mitch Edmonds, our PE teacher, will be in charge of the training. There is a digital copy of the training that will be available after the Life Lines training.

Meeting was adjourned at 7:10 p.m.

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