Medlock Bridge School Governance Council

Meeting Minutes – September 26, 2016 7:30am – 9:30am

Room 131

Heather Forkey called the meeting to order at 7:33am. In attendance were:

  • Tiffany Hutchens
  • Poonam Bhavinani
  • Heather Forkey
  • Stephanie Woods
  • Neena Gulley
  • Beth Joice
  • Brittany Randolph
  • Kiliaen Ludlow
  • Marsha Foster
  • Louann Nannini Meyers(joined the meeting after

  • being approved as Community Member)

Heather Forkey opened the meeting and asked for any changes to the agenda. No changes were requested. Poonam Bhavinani made a motion to accept the Agenda, Neena Gulley seconded the motion. All SGC members were unanimous in approving the updated Agenda. Heather Forkey then reviewed the Meeting Norms with the entire Council.

The committee reviewed theminutes from September 22, 2016. One duplicate word was found and would be updated in the final minutes. No other changes were noted. Beth Joice made a motion to accept the minuteswith the one change, Poonam Bhavinani seconded the motion. The minutes were approved unanimously.

Mrs. Hutchens began the discussion of the search and nomination for the remaining open SGC Community Member position. After several discussions and review of willing candidates Ms. Hutchens asked to nominate Louann Nannini Myers. Ms. Myers had attended a number of meetings as the Citizen at Large and was also very active in the school. Additionally, Ms. Myers had ownership interest in a sports therapy business that was in the process of being a school sponsor. Ms. Hutchens provided a copy of a letter that Ms. Myers submitted for her nomination. Following review by the SGC a vote was taken to elect Ms. Myers onto the SGC. The vote in favor of electing Ms. Myers as Community Member to the SGC was unanimous.

At this point Ms. Myers was sought out within the school and asked to join the SGC meeting in progress. Ms. Myers provided a brief introduction of herself and reiterated her excitement to be able to contribute on the council. Tiffany Hutchens discussed the need for Ms. Myers to attend SGC Training and would help register her.

The business of selecting SGC Sub-Committees was discussed next. Ms. Hutchens reviewed the roles, expectations and make-up of each required Sub-Committee. The Budget & Finance Committee would cover all finance related items and oversee the budgeting process. The Outreach & Communications Committee would develop all communications from the Council and manage the SGC election process, as well. Each committee would consist of the Principal, a Committee Chair and at least 3 SGC Members. The Budget & Finance Committee would also include the MBES Bookkeeper, Paula Bell.

Heather Forkey and Neena Gulley volunteered as Chairs for the Budget and Outreach Sub-Committees, respectively. Following a brief discussion, a vote was taken to elect Ms. Gulley and Ms. Forkey into these positions. The vote in favor of electing the Chairs to the Sub-Committees was unanimous. Volunteer members for each Sub-Committee were as follows:

Budget & FinanceOutreach & Communications

Neena Gulley (Chair)Heather Forkey (Chair)

Paula BellPoonam Bhavinani

Kiliaen LudlowMarsha Foster

Louann MyersBrittany Randolph

Stephanie WoodsBeth Joice

Discussion turned next to Preliminary Strategic Planning. Ms. Hutchens mentioned that she needed to get one point of clarification from the District regarding the Strategic plan – namely what “year” were we currently in with respect to the prior 3-year plan? Given it was completed on 2014 are we in year 2 or 3?

As part of the planning discussion the Council also discussed the Request for Flexibility process. Ms. Hutchens provided a list of prior RFF requests to help show the variety of reasons that these may be requested. In 2015-2016 professional trainers were hired to provide Professional Development days that required RFFs for days out of school. Discussion continued around how to maximize those days off to not only allow for training but also application to the teacher-classroom curriculum. Other RFFs were around doubling up classes such as Physical Education to allow for more time in other special classes. For example: one teacher and one PAR can support up to 55 students – exceeding that requires an RFF. After discussion was complete it was agreed that maintaining the previous year’s RFF of days off for Professional Development would be appropriate.

Ms. Hutchens next reviewed the Seed Fund process. Both this and the RFF would all need to align directly with the strategic plan. Ms. Hutchens reviewed the prior year’s Seed Fund request and how that would apply to the Strategic Plan. Additionally,she provided an update on the Math Advisement initiative funded by the Seed Fund. Teachers were sent to an offsite Math training in September and there was a meeting this week to further train and evaluate progress on the initiative.

Ms. Hutchens reviewed several testing data points (MBES is trending lower in Reading at his point) along with a parent survey from the last Strategic Planning process. Several themes surfaced that may be areas of attention for the upcoming plan including:

  • Foreign Language curriculum
  • Better managed Lunch time – incentives for good behavior, etc.
  • Writing, speaking and presentation skills appeared to be a common request for students – i.e. Jr. Toastmasters
  • Leadership curriculum would also be helpful
  • Outdoor learning – Ms. Hutchens explained this can be done now with proper scheduling

Concluding this discussion, it was agreed that Ms. Hutchens would investigate options for Leadership classes, Heather Forkey will examine Creekview’s Debate curriculum to help with public speaking skills and Louann Myers would examining Jr. Toastmasters. All input would be provided to Tiffany no later than October 12, 2016, in order for us to meet the filing deadlines for Seed Fund Money. In addition, the Outreach Committee will develop a parent survey. These along with the testing data points would then create the framework for the 2016 – 2019 Strategic Plan.

There was an understanding that the SGC needed to begin planning for all of the activities in the coming year as soon as possible. A planning meeting in September would be best to meet the quickly approaching October deadlines. Several important dates were reviewed to consider as the council planned future meetings:

October 3, 2016 – Request for Flexibility (RFF) Form Due

October 17, 2016 – Seed Fund Interest Form Due

November 7, 2016 – Last day to post RFF for Public Comment

December 19, 2016 – Final RFF Proposal Due

December 22, 2016 – Seed Fund Proposal Due

January 24, 2017- Seed Fund Q&A Session

Two future SGC meetings were agreed upon. They would be held as follows:

October 24, 2016 @ 3:00pm

December 5, 2016 @ 7:30am

Heather Forkey adjourned the meeting at 9:42am.