Minutes

Lawn Avenue School

School Improvement Team

April 9, 2009

Attendees: Kathy Almanzor, Christine Bernardo, Jenn Clark, Lisa Carlisle, Dara Chadwick, Teresa LeBlanc, Janet LaMantia, Bev Rudman, Nora Santamour, and Ann Zainyeh,.

1. Acknowledgments

a. The 6^th grade showcase was very successful. It showed the quality of work the student’s have been achieving.

b. Lisa Carlisle received an endorsement from the school committee to proceed with the fundraising efforts for a new playground at Lawn.

c. Nora Santamour has agreed to be on the review committee for the Elizabeth Stone scholarship.

2. Old Business:

1. Standards Based Grading

• The subcommittee of Dara Chadwick as chair, Teresa LeBlanc, Cynthia Cherney and Jenn Clark will be meeting sometime in April. This subcommittee will work on the FAQ’s and overview that will be a communication piece for faculty, parents and students.

• The 6^th grade team will be adding additional information (standards) on the 6^th grade report cards.

• The 5^th grade team will be adding additional information (standards) on the math section of the 5^th grade report card. It was also suggested to attach a sheet of the standards for all subjects.

• Discussion occurred about raising the level of standards and subjectivity.

2. Budget update:

   • At the March 31^st joint town council/school committee workshop, the town administrator suggested to the school committee that they would need to cut $150,000 from the budget in order for the town to have a 0% tax rate. Due to collaboration of resources with health care and other misc items, the school committee was able to that.

   • The school committee reported that the IDA money they usually received without restrictions will have restrictions this year. They must use it on one time expenses. Due to this, a $106,000 hole will be in the budget.

   • The next school committee is Thursday, April 23^rd.

3. Jr. National Honor Society:

   • Kathy Almanzor is waiting to hear back from the Jr. National Honor Society regarding the use of standard based grading.

   • A subcommittee of teachers will be needed to determine the criteria.

   • It was discussed that a new name for the school honor roll is needed since it is based on effort. Recognized Effort was suggested. It was also suggested this be extended to the whole school 5^th through 8^th.

d. Challenging All Students:

• During the strategic planning weekend two of four goals determined were: differentiation and rigor and relevance.

• Gold seal plans submitted by the teachers were accepted by Model Schools.

• It was asked if teachers would be open to the idea of having visitors from SIT in their classroom.

3. Subcommittees

1. Technology Subcommittee:

   • The subcommittee worked on updating a faculty technology survey.

   • Technology was one of the major goals from the past weekend’s strategic planning session. Given that the scope has widened, the entire administrative team will now provide feedback and input on the survey. 

   • The survey will be administered to the faculty in June.

2. Island Treasures:

   • This will occur on Friday, May 29^th.

   • Letters were sent out to those who have confirmed.

   • Students will be making their selections on May 14^th during their advisory period.

4. Next SIT Meeting:

1. The next SIT meeting will be held on Thursday, May 14^th, 2009, from 3:30 to 5 p.m. in the Lawn Library.

Respectfully submitted,

Lisa Carlisle

Co-chair