School Improvement Team (SIT) MeetingSeptember 28, 2015
Media Center
MINUTES
Members present: [in bold]
Buie, Monroe, Riggins, Smith, Bass, Duggins, Munsie, Via, Carrigan, Murphy, Hester, McCormick,Sherman, Morgan, Martin,Cornatzer, Arrington, Cook, Glover, Snow, Naber, Schurman,Wallace, Valdes (Ross substituted today), Wiles, *Lancaster, *Lindstrom, +Lancaster, +Bullard
*denotes Parent representatives
+denotes Student representatives
Meeting was called to order at 3:53 pm.
- A Capella Club—Alita Ingle (student) gave a presentation asking for the creation of a new A Capella club on campus. Sponsor will be Mr. Brady. All students will be allowed to join, but they will hold auditions for solos. The club has had tentative meetings to gauge interest, and the organizers have been surprised at how many students want to be a part of the program. The club will communicate with members via Twitter and Instagram accounts and hold meetings in the Chorus room after school. A. Wiles moved to approve the club. S. Wallace seconded. Membership voted to approve the motion.
- Learning Walks—Mr. Bass informed us that Central Office is instituting a program of Learning Walks, and we will begin them here to get used to the idea. It involves a small group (Mr. Bass, an A.P., and a couple of peers) who will come to our rooms to look for things like E.Q’s, the interaction with the students, and whether the students are engaged. When Central Office comes for Learning Walks, it will be our group of 3 who advises us on our School Improvement Plan. These walks will be planned, and we will always know which classrooms will be visited. We will get a follow up conversation about what the group observed. This is NOT an evaluative tool.
- Walk-throughs—Mr. Bass said these will continue, but there is a new format which he will be getting soon. If possible, he will have administration share with us what they see in our walk-throughs.
- Haiku and Lesson Plans—Mr. Bass stated that we will probably be trying to post these to Haiku soon. He can “shadow” teachers, so he will be able to see a Haiku page with our lesson plans that we have not published for student use. More information will be coming on this.
- Teaching Bell to Bell—Mr. Bass stressed that it is an expectation that we are engaging students during the entire class period. Students should NOT be released before the Bell either from homeroom or class.
- SIOP—Reminder that we will have SIOP training by departments on Wednesday’s Early Release day. We should all be open and receptive to these ideas.
- SIT Meeting Time—There was a short discussion about changing the meeting time to the morning. Membership voted to keep the meeting time in the afternoon.
- Literacy—T. Cook introduced a few reading tools that P.E. is going to try to implement for some extra credit as well as when students are placed in ISS or ALC. and are all websites that are free for teachers to use. We can download short articles in a variety of topics and reading levels to help students work on reading comprehension. This is something all teachers could use when there is some extra time, or when we need work to send to a student.
- Topics for Discussion:
*J. Schurman asked if it would be possible to devote some time on an Early Release day to transfer work to Haiku. Mr. Bass said we cannot devote an Early Release day in total, but we may be able to find some time. He will look into it.
*B. Carrigan said we are still seeing large numbers of students wandering during 1st and 4th periods. These students say they have no class. A. Hubbard said that the only students who don’t have 1st and 4th are seniors, and they are not supposed to be on campus. They might be Teacher Assistants who are not going to class. This is a topic that Mr. Bass and A. Hubbard have been discussing. We will probably be moving to a way to take attendance for T.As in the next semester which will help protect us from liability.
*A. Wiles said that we are having a big problem with students leaving and going out to lunch. Mr. Bass will talk to Officer Russ and see if we can come up with a plan.
Meeting adjourned 4:41 pm
Draft of minutes submitted by Laurie Smith, SIT Secretary
September 29, 2015