School Leadership Team Meeting Minutes

Highland Creek Elementary

School Leadership Team Meeting Minutes

Feb 4, 2013

Meeting attendees:

Steve Esposito, JR Beavers, Denise Lynch, Colette Chenault, Karin Drescher, Marian Vaccaro, Kristi McConnell, Martina Bumgarner, Mae Rice, LaTasha Stinson, Leeza Mulloy, Rick Green, Angela Perry, Kara Johnson, Sonja Sharpless, Jovetta Dennis, Heidi Gollinger, and Jill Owens.

Updates from Denise Lynch:

1. Reminder for attendees to sign the attendance list
2. Asked for questions/comments re: the minutes from ourJanuary meeting

January minutes approved.

Math & Science Night update from Colette Chenault:

1. Volunteer update- Characters are in process, all activities have leaders. Overall we are in great shape with volunteers, but we could still use more student volunteers.
2. Colette asked for a volunteer to make the A, B, and C Hall signs. Marian offered.
3. Lowes is unable to donate the remaining materials needed for the 2nd hovercraft. We have $700 left from last year’s event and $600 donated for this year’s event. Colette asked for a vote on spending $100-$150 on the supplies needed to complete the second hovercraft. All agreed to spending the money. Colette has calculated the total of the remaining costs for the event and believes we still have enough to cover all remaining costs.

Principal’s report – Mr. Esposito:

1. SAM Conference - Mr. Beavers and Mr. Esposito went to Ft Lauderdale for a SAM conference. General consensus among the attending principals was that those involved in instruction have seen great improvement in their schools. Mr. Esposito has seen his time in the classroom increase from 29% to 64% over the past year. Mr. Esposito said that increase may be a little high since the initial number was low. The week they came to track his time in 2011 happened to fall during the week of class parties so he spent a good deal of time handling those instead of doing his usual activities. Mr. Esposito believes that 64% is pretty much the top level that he expects to achieve because of the administrative tasks involved with being a principal. At this point, they are going to start looking at the quality of the time spent in the classroom.
2. NYC Balanced Literacy Trip – Mr. Esposito had the opportunity to attend a professional development experience at the teacher’s college at Columbia University in NYC. During his time there he learned how to coach other teachers and how to teach them how to coach as well. His next step is to train the administrative team and then the teachers.
3. Middle School Math, Science and Technology Night – Mr. Esposito encouraged us to pass along the news about Ridge Road’s upcoming Math, Science and Technology Night.
4. Ridge Rd vs. HCE Basketball Game – It was a fun night even though HCE lost. Mr. Esposito will be looking to do more events with them to encourage community between the two schools.
5. Ipad Lab – HCE recently submitted a grant request to Lowes to build an ipad Lab. Mr. Esposito would like to use an existing room to create an ipad lab within the school. The room could be reserved by the teachers as needed. The grant was submitted through the zone as the money has already been given to CMS.
6. Balanced Literacy Program – Mr. Esposito asked for parent feedback about the new balanced literacy program that was rolled out this year. Both the teachers and parents have been very happy with the program so far. They believe the students are reading more due to the program.

News items:

1. New apartments behind Harris Teeter are zoned for HCE. We already have 1,233 students. Mr. Esposito estimates that up to 150 new students could come to the school from the apartments. He has spoken to Scott McAuley in the planning department about the apartments.
2. Mr. Esposito suggested this type of issue should be handled by the PTA.

Our next SLT Meeting is scheduled for Monday, March 4th.