Hillside School Governance Council Meeting Notes
Date: Tuesday, January 20, 2015
Members Present: Johnna Hunt, AlyceMisuraca, Maureen Greene, John Forish, Kevin McSherry, Lou Barth, Jill Mahoney
Members Absent: Toni Cestari, Nichole Jones, Deanna Balkcom, Lori Grazuna, Tamath Rossi, Tracey Gairing
Meeting Notes:
*We talked about revising the bylaws. There will be a few changes to membership sections and how long they can stay on the council. We will need to vote on the proposed changes at our next meeting
* Hillside is approved of hiring 4 teachers to run an Extended Day Learning Program
There will be 2 programs: Hillside Active Allstars, and NBA Math Hoops
- The STEM Academy (out of Hamden) will be coordinated with our Invention Convention this year. The company brings everything here and open to 5th and 6th grade. There will be Science and Math stations set up to rotate through. Alyce will touch base with the company. The program will start in February.
- We talked about getting pizza in on the STEM night for families to eat. We could hold a “Taste of Naugatuck Pizza” night and have families vote on the best pizza in Naugatuck. If the pizza places give us free pizza they can be part of our Voting Night. We will talk more about this idea. We can try to tie in the STEM idea with the pizza. We can buy water and sell it also. We can also look into Frito-Lay donations.
Career Day: Deanna Balkum, Tracey Gairing, KevinMcSherry, Nichole Jones,
STEM Event: AlyceMisuraca, Jill Mahoney
Next meetings: Tues., March 23th, 6:30pm—Work on Career Day
Hillside School Governance Council Meeting Notes
Date: Tuesday, December 17, 2014
Members Present: Johnna Hunt, AlyceMisuraca, Maureen Greene, John Forish, Deanna Balkcom, Kevin McSherry, Nichole Jones, Lou Barth, Jill Mahoney, Toni Cestari,
Members Absent: Lori Grazuna, Tamath Rossi, Tracey Gairing
Meeting Notes:
--Johnna reviewed the Hillside School Strategic Plan, our own plan to “Educate All Students Today for Tomorrow’s Future”
We are looking at many measures for our plan to meet our goal. One major measure is the NWEA test the Hillside students take. We want to increase those that are proficient and decrease those that are nonproficient. More math support will be added to Hillside very soon. Another measure is keeping track of absenteeism. Hillside is trying to decrease the percent of students who are chronically absent. We are now down to about only 7% of students, so Mrs. Hunt is confident of decreasing that number. Hillside is also tracking parent engagement, parent conference times, and parent surveys.
Jill Mahoney brought up a good point to make sure that all schools in district should try to use the same wording on their strategic plans. For example, some schools are using “proficient” and some are calling it “average”.
One Intermediate School presentation will be done at the January 8th BOE meeting on our plan.
AlyceMisuraca explained the new Math Pilot program and how it is being implemented. Johnna explained some of the strategies that are helping the younger grades with math. The need for a districtwide K-8 math program is so important.
Johnna spoke about an Afterschool Program Grant that we did not receive. Hillside does have some money put aside for afterschool activities. A possible program that runs 1 and ½ hours with snack, homework, lesson, a hands-on application piece. Program will start in February and Johnna will look into organizing this in a more engaging way this year.
Lou Barth spoke about Active Sitting and using a stability ball during class. Johnna added that she read about students who used exercise bikes during their learning. Lou had data about the improved academic success with students who have used them.
SGC should be split into groups with a specific goal or event. Some ideas are Career Day, STEM event, NEF grant.
Career Day: Deanna Balkum, Tracey Gairing, KevinMcSherry, Nichole Jones,
STEM Event: AlyceMisuraca, Jill Mahoney,
NEF Grant: Lou Barth, John Forish, Maureen Greene, Jay Barth
Next meetings: Tues., January 20th, 6:30pm Meeting update on NEF Grant and STEM Event
Tues., March 23th, 6:30pm—Career Day
Hillside School Governance Council Meeting Notes
Date: Tuesday, November 25, 2014
Members Present: Johnna Hunt, Tracey Gairing, AlyceMisuraca, Maureen Greene, John Forish, Deanna Balcom, Kevin McSherry
Members Absent: Tamath Rossi, Lori Grazuna, Louis Barth, Jill Mahoney
Meeting Notes:
*Shared and voted on keeping the same Hillside SGC Ground Rules
* Talked about getting more parents and teachers involved on our Council
* Set future meeting dates: 3rd Tuesday of each month at 6:30: Dec. 16th, none in Feb, March 24th
*Johnna to email Kevin McSherry with bylaws and see what changes we can make on the SGC member term lengths
* Looks like we need 2 new teachers and 3 parents
* Talked about focusing on 1-2 goals to boost school academic achievement
*Career Day and possible ION Bank sponsored event
* Johnna shared the Hillside School Strategic Plan for the 2014-2015 School year , we reviewed the draft and discussed how the plan has been created
Next meeting: Tues., Dec 16th, 6:30pm
We will review the School Strategic Plan Draft, talk more about our revisions to the bylaws, break in to two groups to work on two events