|
March
20, 2003 Lawn Ave. SIT Committee |
Attendance:Ê Bruce Engelhard, Sue Murdock, Ken Newman, Samira Hakki, Lark Goodyear, Bill Kelly, Michele Desrosier, Deb Barone, Martha Vigneault, Sam Pease, Katherine Sipala, Mary Brennan, Joyce Antonillo, Nancy Crawford, Nancy Lush, Julia Held, Robin Sweet.
Introduction:
Mr. Bill Kelly-new to Jamestown and to the SIT committee.Ê Presently retired teacher from New York.Ê Email address is www.wadkmek@aol.com Mr. Kelly has been very active in community activities in the past and would like to continue this in Jamestown, supporting the Jamestown community.
Educational Awareness Day:
31 people registered with deadline on Monday, March 24th.
Childcare:Ê 19 children in need of day care.Ê Ginny Perry is in charge of this.
High school students might be asked to go and work with Ginny on childcare
Registration form is under SELAC on web page.
PTO is doing all refreshments
Ms. Wilson÷Badges are being made.
Melrose School classrooms and other rooms will be assigned for each workshop.
Lawn Ave. Projects:Ê Box Tops, recycled ink and old phones.Ê There is a request for these items to be turned in at the meeting.
ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊ Fire Inspection was completed because we are of a Class C Classification.
ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊ News not terrible but we are in minor violations:
á Exit signs and emergency lights (will get new packs of batteries.)
á Curtains need to be sprayed with fire retardant
á In school:Ê We need to spray papers hanging in the hallway with fire retardant. (Concerned about hazardous ingredients for those children with respiratory and allergy reasons.Ê Papers that are sprayed will be taken home.)Ê Our fire Marshall is stressing this.
á The process will take time to address and be done.
á Doors on corridor will need to be closed all the time.Ê Regulations have always been there, however, they are now being enforced to the nth degree.
á Teachers will be informed of the changes as soon as possible.
á About $600 will be used in the next few years to complete the fire retardant.
Emergency
Procedures in time of emergency and War Time.
á Go to Red Cross site on web and make your own policy was directive at first meeting of Emergency State/Town personnel.
á Meetings have been cancelled for various reasons.ÊÊ Mrs. Sipala is being vigilant in causing the town/community to deal with establishing emergency procedures for the town/community that all public buildings would for town.
á Civil Defense is being asked to give in writing a procedure that we are to follow.
á Civil Defense is being asked to give in writing a procedure that we are to follow.
á Meeting will be on March 21, 2003 with Marianne Crawford and Civil Defense coordinator to begin process.
Skate
Park
á Mrs. Sipala has said no skateboards at school due to no storage and not being able to bring on the school bus.
á Presently looking for an outside area to store/lock the skateboards and safety equipment.Ê (We have had 4 kids already with broken bones, after school hours.)
á Mrs. Sipala asked for suggestions from SIT as to helpful ideas.
á Car traffic in the back parking lot.Ê Some cars are parking on the grass.Ê A locked fence would help around park.Ê A picket fence with a sign saying ãDonât Park Beyond This Pointä is necessary.Ê It is town property.
Playground
Rules
á Will be established for next year as to how Lawn Ave. kids will deal with outdoor snow activity.
Sub
Committee Report
á SIT committee members are asked to read the written assessment completed by the sub committee members concerning Score Assessment.Ê Nancy Lush and Julia Held presented Data from the past 3 years and summarized.Ê It appears to show a trend.Ê See sub committee handout.
Professional
Development
á Jamestown math committee is under Mrs. Sipalaâs direction.Ê Due to the testing results, committee is working on rewriting and establishing a time frame for what we need to work on to improve weaker areas indicated by tests.
á Math is under scrutiny and math curriculum is being supported and altered to support improving math test scores.
Question Asked:ÊÊ ãWhat do we do to spin the teaching of math so that the areas of math that have been taught and mastered, will and must be continued to be practiced?ä
á Suggestion:Ê Include a parent education piece in the math program so that the parents can assist their child using the same language/process.
á More discussion will come from ELA at next meeting.
School Report NightÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊ March 26th, 2003
á Information given at an informal night gathering
á An overview of the math program will be given
á Will concentrate on what High Performing School means.Ê It will be explained by Kathy Sipala (1 hour to 1 ¸ hour meeting)
Coffee
with the School Committee and Kathy Sipala
ÊÊÊÊÊ Group of citizens have been invited to come to a pre-presentation to find out about the school, and what it is accomplishing.Ê Sue Murdock and Samira Hakki were asked to come to this meeting to discuss the web page and how the identity of our school system is being portrayed as one system with one school.Ê It is believed that it would be better to identify one system with two separate schools.
ÊÊÊÊÊ
ÊÊÊÊÊ 80% of district is for the whole system.
ÊÊÊÊÊ Some committees are for one for both buildings.Ê The only separate group is the SIT committee.Ê One for Lawn Ave. and one for Melrose Ave.Ê How should this be shown on the web page?
ÊÊÊÊÊ Possibility:Ê It might be an idea to have statements made by Superintendent on first page of web page, stating the idea that we are one system with two schools.Ê On our introduction web page, one pencil icon links to Lawn Ave. School and one pencil icon link to the Melrose Ave. School.
ÊÊÊÊÊ Sue Murdock mentioned that there really are two objectives being discussed.
á Objective 1:Ê Identify the uniqueness and happenings of Lawn Ave. School.
á Objective 2:Ê Identify the unity of one system with two schools as well as identify the specialties of the two separate schools.Ê Trying to keep the web page from going stale/old, can it possibly be made so that we arenât overwhelmed to keep it up showing the uniqueness of both?Ê Sue mentioned that this change can be done but we may need to get one more person on technology that will be hired to be Jamestown Schoolâs web designer.Ê Whatâs being requested?Ê Are we a school system or school department?Ê Checking with school committee for their direction...are we a department or system.Ê What about a Student teacher. Could they do this?Ê Could there be a grant written to take care of supporting someone who will keep Jamestown web site up to date?Ê Possibility?Ê Technology Lab in Broad Rock Elementary in Peacedale, RI would be a place to view their use of the computer.
New
Business
á Grant Opportunities
Bill Kelly has written grants for his DPW in Yonkers, NY.
He is beginning to do some grant writing for the town.
Competing for grants is a competition with other communities for the grant.Ê Strong point for writing grants is to establish/identify a true need for something.Ê There are 10.000 grants given.
To earn a grant, a Grant needs to be designed to support a truly extraordinary and outstanding program that would have a major impact on Jamestown education.
Plan is written first and then sustainability of the program is planned.Ê A Grant will give it and then 2-3 years down the line, what is going to be productive because of this grant.
Champlain Grant is being offered to Middle Schools now.
June 30th is deadline for grant.Ê Some grants will not give capital.Ê This one does give capital and hardware.Ê Something to pay for materials not to education others.
It was suggested that, maybe, Vocational Technology could be a new program for our curriculum.Ê A course creating the yearbook could be included.Ê Like yearbook design.
Establish your priority and the Champlin can only deal with one proposal for one school system.
Bill Kelly would be willing to work on Champlain Grant with anyone.
Continued Discussions:
á Fundraising:Ê Budget will be different and another battle for next year.
á Palm Pilots:Ê Jim and Bruce are hoping to work on this possibility.
á Pay phone:Ê need one outside school for those who miss bus.Ê For those at skate park.Ê Not enough use to them because of cell phone.
Meeting ended at
5:30.Ê Next Meeting is April 10, 2003 at
Lawn Avenue Library 4-5:30PM