Lawn Ave.  SIT notes

May 12, 2005

(back to Lawn Sit)

 

Meeting was called to order at 4:00

April 14, Notes were corrected and accepted.

 

I.  Old Business

 

A.                      Julia Held typed and distributed a letter to encourage people to join Lawn Ave. SIT.

1.     It was suggested that the letter Julia drafted, be sent to the Jamestown Press with slight modifications.

2.    Kathy Sipala  will send to newspaper.

 

B.                       Kathy S explained grade 6 plan and schedule.

1.     Social studies and reading are the connection to each of the 6th grade teachers.

2.    Social Studies will be taught the same time each day.  Units are Africa, Middle East/Asia, Central & South America

3.    Report cards were explained.

4.    Additional art period with some robotics and one music period reduced

5.    Every subject meets 5 days per week

6.    Reading will be reading instruction, not DEAR

7.    Spanish once a week, except for 8 weeks.  Library methods will be taught.

8.    There will not be one day where the children will remain with their homeroom teacher

9.    Block periods will be intermittent to the monthly scheduling.

10.  7th grade will block work

 

May 16th meeting reschedule to June after teacher job fair.

 

May 16th with parents has been cancelled and will be rearranged after June 7th, teachers job fair. 

 

II.  Action Plans:

·      Need to implement plan as soon as they can.

·      Curriculum plan and discipline plan could be on line.

·      Provide extension/accelerated programs for those students who can do it.

         For next meeting, a finished action plan will be attached.

 

III. Curriculum: 

·      Melrose curriculum plan was shown.  It had been worked on this past year.

·      Lawn Ave schoolteachers will be asked to list their curriculum for each subject.  This needs to be done by end of year. 

·      Placing the curriculum on web page would advantageous for parents.

·      Bruce explained assessment and how the curriculum could be used to assist the assessment by Dept. of Ed.

 

 

NECAP is online.  It is the curriculum at: www.necompact.org

                           You can look at each grade and see how it scaffolds

 upward throughout the grades.  It is not a curriculum

 guide rather a direction of where the curriculum is going

 in the state.  Parents may want to look at this to identify where the grade levels will go.

 

 

Note: Revised action plans that have been finalized, please submit to Mrs. Sipala  so that they can be attached and discussed at the next meeting.

 

Citizenship Award 

Four have been submitted and more are hoped for.

 

III.  New Business

A.    SALT VISIT

1.      On attachment is a list of schools.  If you would like to be a member of a SALT evaluation team, please submit your name in pertinent information.

 

 

B.  Lock-In

1.     Successful night was due to keeping it together.  Kids had a

great time. 

2.    Parental involvement was impressive and the Breakfast was incredible.

 

C.  Candidate Forum

 

1.     Would SIT be interested in sponsoring a Candidate Forum? —A place where candidates can be together to discuss the issues, publicly.

2.   Typically, a Jamestown organization has held one in the past, however is not doing it this time.  Format of this meeting is up for discussion.

3.    The Jamestown Shore’s will be holding a candidate forum.  We should have one for School committee candidates only.  Town council candidates are not our issue.

 

4.    Monday, May 23, 2005, appears to be the only available date.  K. Sipala will do paperwork for building and custodian. Night should begin at 7:00.  Maybe Mr. Pease will be the mediator.  Martha Vigneault and Pat McLaughlin will work on this event.  Candidates will be informed the week before so that they can think about issues that they may be asked about.

 

 

D.      Lawn Ave Survey

 

1.     33 surveys out of 40 surveys came back.

2.    Julia Held reviewed the surveys. Any issues that were mentioned twice were considered.

3.    Outcome of survey

·      Weekly progress reports from 8th grade teachers are greatly appreciated by parents.

·      7th and 8th grade Parent Conferences with students presenting their work, was not sufficient in letting parents know how, and where their child is with  academic success or failure.  Parent Teacher conferences are requested to team with child/parent conferences.

·      Parents want Updated web sites on line

·      Would like Snow days on answering machine

·      Some do want to communicate more with teachers via Email

·      31 out of 40 kids had a successful year

·      4 surveys indicated that their child did not have a  successful year.

Overall, most comments were constructive from parents.

 

IV. Future Business

 

A. To discuss at future meeting:

1.     Difference with girls versus boys

2.    75 % girls’ populations are successful

3.    25 % boys’ populations are successful 

 

B.  What can be done to motivate boys to do better?

1.     It was mentioned that a higher percentage of boys in Jamestown School was more successful than the norm.

2.    We need to be sensitive to this issue.  As a school we are not just focusing on girls.  However, more than just the honor roll, we want activities to support successful involvement for all.

3.    School needs to be sensitive to this area

 

Future Meeting times:

June 9th, not necessary to meet with Melrose School.  We will meet on our own at Lawn Ave.

 

New Group

 

Rolling Agenda: Name of group hoping to create better, safe paths

Bike Paths –looking to establish bike baths to promote a healthy activity.

Developing, healthy habits.

Thursday, May 19, kids are being asked to bike to school.  This

 is National Biking Week.

Monday, May 23, is school committee meeting

Meeting was over at 5:25