| Name of Group: District Improvement Team | Objective: To improve student academic achievement, communications and culture. |
| Date: 9/11/06 |
Agenda Items
|
Discussion
|
Action Required
|
Responsibility (Who)
|
Completion
Date |
| 1. Meeting began at 6:05 p.m. | Deb Brown – Facilitator, Penny Shockley -Time Keeper | |||
| 2. Agenda | Correct date to read September 11, 2006. Added agenda item - HSIT Recommendation for Valedictorian/ Salutatorian Class Ranking | |||
| 3. Minutes Approval – July 26, 2006 | The minutes were approved as written. | |||
| 4. Terra Nova Results | Julie shared data. We are required to give the test to 1, 2 and 3 graders as part of the assessment process for Reading First. | Cohort groups will be monitored. | Julie Gelina | |
| 5. Strategic Visioning (August 2 & 3) | The Mission Statement, Beliefs, Objectives, and Parameters remained the same. The Focus Areas for 2006-2007 were updated. Building Improvement Plans need to be reviewed by the DIT at the October meeting in preparation for the Board’s review in November. | Find updated Focus areas and make sure they are incorporated in the document before giving to BOE.
Consider changing meeting time to accommodate attendance |
Susan/Regina | |
| 6. Schedules/Balance at Grade Level | On opening day we had 18 new Primary students that were placed in classes. We have met our target of maintaining the class size of no more than 20 students with a few exceptions.
Due to the new scheduling for classes in the Middle and High Schools, student volunteers are finding it difficult to make it to the Primary and back to the HS in the allotted 40 minutes. |
|||
| 7. HSIT Recommendation for Valedictorian/ Salutatorian Class Ranking | This policy was last updated in 1997. The HS IT was asked to look at the Class Ranking policy and come back with suggestions by the BOE. Items investigated were: 1) Should there be something done differently in determining valedictorian and salutatorian? 2) Would weighting grades affect what students are taking?
High School students were surveyed. The fact that if grades are weighted, the guidance counselors will have to un-weight them to send them to colleges because they do not accept weighted grades. The survey revealed that weighting grades would not influence students’ course decisions. High School Improvement Team’s recommendation is to continue Valedictorian/ Salutatorian as it has been done in the past, with the addition of recognizing the holders of the top 10 grade point averages. Weighting grades is not something that is going to be done. |
The DIT receives the recommendation from the HSIT and are forwarding the recommendation as stated to the BOE,
The DIT was pleased to see that the students were surveyed. |
Susan | 9/12/06 |
| 8. PBIS Report | Maureen Dunning shared that Positive Behavioral Interventions & Supports (PBIS) has been implemented in the District. PBIS is effective school-wide interventions. The program involves looking at data, teams running on the same behavioral modeling standards in every building, and ties into our existing goals.
We are teaching expectations explicitly and modeling the results we are looking for. Examples of explicit expectations include: “Please show kindness by…, Please show respect by…, Please show responsibility by… Expected behaviors are visible in all of our staff. Teaching Academics and Behaviors are defined simply, modeled, practiced in settings, monitored, adjusted for efficiency. Voice levels are an example. Looks like >80% of students can tell us what the rules and behaviors are. The plan includes: positive adult-to-student interactions exceed negative; support for the desired behavior; data and team-based action planning; and administrators are active participants. Each building has it’s own coach. PBIS is about expectations for staff as well as students. All staff doing the same thing and modeling behavior is effective. Nelson Kise shared that evidence of the effectiveness of PBIS has already been seen with changes in the Middle School, e.g. cafeteria is clean. |
The High School did a skit on stage (behavior at study hall example). The students loved the skit and understood the message.
The High School is broadcasting “cool tools” (hall behavior, etc.) This may be put on the school television channel (6). The Intermediate School sited PBIS for a successful fire drill with a response time of less than a minute and a half. Students were silent because they set that expectation. Primary School Opening Day was spent on PBIS, focused on bus and cafeteria behavior. Teachers rode the school busses. Cafeteria monitors worked on expectations at meal times and Julie Gelina shared that noise levels in cafeteria have been cut. Students are responding to voice levels |
||
| 9. Set Agenda for Next Meeting |
Building Improvement Plans
PBIS Update (monthly) John Robbins - Facilitator, Penny Shockley - Timekeeper for 10/02/06 |
Regina Moline | ||
| 10. Adjournment | 8:05 p.m. |
| Members Present: Deb Brown, Roy Hyland, John Robbins, Susan Salvaggio, Penny Shockley, Elizabeth Terry, Jeff Tuma; Representatives: Julie Gelina – PS, Al Autovino – IS, Nelson Kise – MS, Gene Hoskins – HS; Advisory: none; Guests: Maureen Dunning
Members Absent: Julie Beckens, Kathy Bliek, Lynda Faulks, Stephen Humbert, Priscilla Lawrence, Rita Lesniak, Tim Padden, Donald Woodard |