Attendees:Ê Karen Camp, Christine Bernardo, Michele Desrosiers, Paul McDermott, Sam Pease, Martha Vigneault, Lark Goodyear, Ann Marie Cody, Nancy Lush, Nancy Crawford, Katherine Sipala, Cathy Kaiser, Gaeli Green, Karen Imbriale, Sarah Baines, Ken Newman, Julia Held, Bruce Engelhard
Meeting
called to order at 4:00.
Minutes
from January 17, 2003 accepted with the following corrections:
1.
Lark
Goodyearâs name added to the list of attendees.
2.
Spelling
corrections made to the names Samira Hakki,
and Cathy Kaiser
¤
First
SALT school report to focus on just Lawn Avenue
¤
Important
stepping off point
¤
Group
consisting of Lark Goodyear, Nancy
Crawford, Martha Vigneault, Sam Pease, and Sarah Baines will meet with
Kathy Sipala to begin to analyze the data using the model.ÊÊ The group will have 5 or 6 meetings.
Office has been feeling stress as a
result of homework, projects, andÊ
lunches being dropped off throughout the day. Children are not calling
home as much for these things, but parents are just dropping them off.Ê Getting these items to students can be
difficult due to the various schedules and can also interfere with teaching.Ê Some children are also continually tardy.
These affect the efficient running of the school and, in turn, student
achievement.ÊÊ
The
message from the last SALT survey was that Lawn is not a welcome school.Ê
We need to find a way to solve the problem without making parents feel
unwelcome.
In order to get things to students, we could
possibly institute a structure in which parents fill out a slip and the
teaching assistant could pick it up and deliver the items at lunch.
Some students are chronically
leaving items at home.Ê These students
should not be allowed to call home.Ê The
message that we send as a school should be that we are trying to encourage
responsibility.Ê We as a school should
also communicate a policy through the planner or in a pamphlet.Ê The pamphlet could include an organizational
checklist to help families.Ê Families
that are good at this could give input.Ê
A few reasons for the unwelcome
feeling include the message not to go past the front office, and being buzzed
in.Ê Several members felt that class
involvement and field trips are a more appropriate welcoming than being able to
drop things off at the office or a classroom.
School clean-up taking place before
vacation.Ê It is important to do this a
few times a year.Ê Walls are somewhat
bare now because of that.Ê The fire
chief states that items hanging cannot be more than 18ä.
A member brought up the issue of
outdoor recess.Ê It seems like only
indoor recess has been taking place recently, and the member wanted to know if
this was true.Ê Kathy Sipala stated that
she is a supporter of outdoor recess except in the case of bad weather or
extreme cold.
Old Business:
The issue of giving ãthisä school an
official name was discussed at the last Lawn Avenue faculty meeting in which
the faculty had a variety of responses.Ê
Some liked to refer to this school as Jamestown School to feel unified
with Melrose.Ê Others felt that they are
two separate schools and each should have its own name.Ê Becoming a middle school in name caused some
concern among faculty members because of certification issues.ÊÊ A teacher also asked students what they
thought the name was and they were dumbfounded.Ê When the school separated into two buildings, names were never
marketed to the public. Knowing someoneâs name is an important starting point.
Kathy Sipala added that the process
of establishing a name is a step by step process.Ê An initial step would be to start with Lawn Avenue School as our
name until something else could be established.ÊÊ First steps would include changing the letterhead and answering
the phone with this name.Ê Changing the
name to a middle school would require additional steps and communication with
the union.Ê Cathy Kaiser also brought up
the idea of a name honoring a financial donor, and then using the funds to
create an educational foundation.
Member
of SIT should contact families.
Error
in Infoworks· Misanalyzed
data stated that 31% of students are educated elsewhere.Ê They counted us as a K-8 district, but
included those students at private high schools. Actually, 14% of students
PreK-8are educated elsewhere reported Kathy Sipala.
Change
questionnaire?Ê Ken Newman and Julia
Held volunteered.
This
day will include a variety of speakers and will take place March 29th
8AM-12:30PM.Ê There will be a
pre-registration for choosing topics, and refreshments provided by PTO.Ê Childcare for children ages 4 ö10 will be
provided by Ginny Perry.Ê Next SELAC
meeting is Feb. 25th 4PM-6PM at Melrose.
New Business:
Web
Site currently communicates ãone schoolä.Ê
SIT page is the only indication that there are two schools.Ê Jamestown Schools could be the intro page
and then have links to each specific building, and possibly a link to NK.
SchoolNotes.com
may be an option for teachers to keep their web pages up to date.ÊÊ
Assessment Sub Committee
Update:
Committee
is looking at 3 years of results.Ê They
will be looking at Language Arts tomorrow.Ê
Kathy Sipala stated that we are a high performing and improving school.Ê The committee is looking at the fine
points.Ê Activity is already happening
in the area of curriculum work.Ê
Testing
is better with clear guidelines.Ê
Numbers will be compared to East Greenwich and Barrington.
There
will be no school report night this month on 2/26.Ê It will take place after our next SIT meeting.
Off-grade
testing will take place in May.
Leslie
Wolkens attempted to get in touch with NK in both December and January.Ê Finally, she was able to get a meeting this
month after they feared we would be leaving NK.Ê There will be a meeting for parents of all upcoming NK students
at the high school. There is also an evening for Jamestown parents planned for
March 13thÊ at 5:30 in the
band room.