Minutes

Lawn Avenue School

School Improvement Team

May 14, 2009

Attendees: Kathy Almanzor, Christine Bernardo, Jenn Clark, Lisa Carlisle, Julie Kallfelz, Janet LaMantia, Michaela Onosko, Sue Pratt and Sally Schott

1. Acknowledgments

a. Dara Chadwick, SIT member, on her recently released book: You’d be so pretty if….

b. Karyn Kaufman and Gilda Codilla for participating in RIMEA Solo and Ensemble.

c. Ann Zainyeh and Lisa Carlisle, SIT co-chairs, for their hard work and dedication to SIT.

2. Old Business:

1. Jr. National Honor Society and existing Honor Roll

   • The Jr. National Honor Society application has been submitted. The 7^th and 8^th grade team needs to work with Kathy Almanzor to determine the requirements. This will be rolled out in September.

   • A new name for the existing honor roll is needed since it is based on effort. Excellence in Effort was suggested and liked by all.

2. Elizabeth Stone Scholarship

   • The scholarship applications are being submitted. Nora Santamour will report on this at the next meeting.

3. Standards Based Grading

• The 1^st draft of the FAQs have been written and sent to Dara Chadwick for revision. The FAQ’s will be a communication piece for faculty, parents and students.

• Writing benchmark’s by quarter by grade will be established and will be displayed in the school next fall. They will also be displayed on the school’s website in conjunction with the FAQs.

• It was suggested to have the next’s month meeting in Nick Alfred’s room so that teachers could use the SmartBoard and show SIT some examples of benchmarks.

• The 6^th grade team will be adding additional information (standards) on the 6^th grade report cards. Time is needed either this spring or during the summer for this to occur.

• 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.

• Kathy Almanzor will meet with both the 5^th and 6^th grade teams separately to discuss the changes on the report cards and changes to the effort key.

d. Challenging All Students:

• Janet LaMantia, Ann Zainyeh and Lisa Carlisle will visit classrooms at the end of May.

e. Discipline

• A discussion took place about the pros and cons of Freedom Friday’s. Overall, parents, teachers and administration felt it was making a difference. The question overall was whether or not the activities were “fun”. It was suggested to keep Freedom Friday’s centered on school events, i.e. Talent Show.

• It was suggested that the 3R Pledge handprints stay up on the walls. Before the end of the year, take only the graduating 8^th graders handprints down and replace them with the incoming 5^th graders handprints in September.

3. Subcommittees

1. Technology Subcommittee:

   • The technology survey has been reviewed by the administration. It will now be given to Survey Advantage to compile the responses. The survey will be administered to the faculty in June.

   • It was asked if the stimulus money for technology will help purchase some of the items not included in this year’s budget. The answer was unknown.

2. Island Treasures:

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

   • There will be twenty five presenters, ten of which are new.

   • Students made their selections on May 14^th during their advisory period.

4. Next SIT Meeting:

1. The next SIT meeting will be held on Thursday, June 11^th, 2009, from 3:30 to 5 p.m. in Nick Alfred’s classroom.

Respectfully submitted,

Lisa Carlisle

Co-chair