SmithfieldElementary School Leadership Team

Meeting Minutes – 1/19/11

Attendees:

Team Member Name / Team Member Role / Attended?
Allison Harris / Principal / Yes
Amy Pharr / Parent / Yes
Beth Thackston / Teacher, 5th Grade / Yes
Christy Kirk / Parent/ EC Assistant / Yes
Danielle Talford / Parent / Yes
Jovana Edwards / Assistant Principal / Yes
Kevin Keating / Parent / No
Mary Watkins / Parent / Yes
Melanie Kupreanik / Parent / PTA President / Yes
Missy Giles / Parent / Yes
Myrlaine Julien / Parent / No
Nan Howard / Parent / Yes
Nancy Halvorsen / Parent/Talent Development Catalyst / Yes
Otis Davis / Parent / No
Raina Xythalis / Teacher, Kindergarten / No
Rose Lille / Teacher, 2nd Grade / Yes

CMS proposed budget and time changes

  • Time changes: Per Allison Harris, the proposed additional 45 minute time change will be a positive advantage for the students. More time will be available for enrichment and critical thinking activities.
  • Homework will not change as a result of the time change. Younger grades should be doing no more than 30 minutes of homework a night and upper grades no more than 45 minutes, not including 20-30 minutes of reading time. Parents who feel their children have more homework than this should discuss with their child’s teacher.
  • Budget: Information will be made public tonight. It is set up in a “tier” structure with four tiers whereby if money comes back to CMS, the programs will be added back in reverse order (i.e. tier 4 items would be added back first)

Communications Update

Missy Giles reported that a section of the website will be set up for the School Leadership Team. All members’ names and emails will be posted. Minutes will be posted on the website as well. Mary Watkins will send draft minutes to principal, assistant principal and SLT chairs, and get a final draft to all members within a week. Members will have three days to respond with any additional changes and should reply to Mary with “approved” or note any suggested changes. Approval will be assumed for anyone who does not respond within three days. There will also be a link to the SLT on the ConnectEd email newsletter.

School Progress Report

The report is for 2009-10. We are on target with the school system for most areas. According to a teacher on the SLT, some questions presented in the progress report could be interpreted different ways by teachers taking the survey. For example, the question about being safe at school was interpreted by some teachers as their job security being stable, not their physical safety.

Smithfield is striving to move from a “School of Progress” to a “School of Distinction,” and all of the goals on the School Improvement plan are oriented toward this goal. However, Allison Harris stressed that growth and progress for each individual student is always the primary goal.

Update on School Improvement Plan Strategies

  • Common assessments training is occurring and a database will be available for teachers to enter and analyze data.
  • Math Investigations is going well, and a new vocabulary learning plan is in place.
  • We are participating in a math assessment pilot, and were also selected to participate in the State reading assessment pilot. The assessments are diagnostic tools which teachers use to “diagnose” the specific needs of the children.
  • We have obtained nine more SMART Boards from CMS and parent purchases. Once the final purchased boards are installed, we will have a total of twenty-fourSMART Boards.

Meeting Schedule:

February 16th

March 16th

April 13th

June 7th

Copy of minutes to: All SLT members, Zone Superintendent (Kit Rea), Parent Involvement Coordinator (Ryan Ramadan), PTA Communications (Suzy Owens)