• Minutes

• Attendance-

o Push Everyday- Review Data (made 98% last year.. need 98.1% this year)

• Safety (Walker)

o Approval of School Wide Dismissal

o Principal 200 Club

o Dismissal- Pick up students in classrooms

o Students in Hallway

o Approval of the School Wide Rules (Adair)

• Finance

o Activity Funds (Buck)

o Teachers not using funds- can be used for incentives, field trips, etc

• Construction (Buck)

o Concerns

• Lighthouse Team

o Keafer, Adair, Whitten and Garson

• Staffing

o Third Grade Bilingual

o Ms. Recio

o Hourly Tutor Kindergarten

o Hourly Tutor 4th Grade

o Hourly Lecturer for Reading 5th

• Professional Development

o Questions/Concerns/Needs

o Dr. Tanner and Dr. Miller Cultural Responsiveness (Early Dismissal)

o PLC Needs

• Academics

o Be sure everyone is focused on objectives, questioning, data and Differentiation

o Instructional Rounds (Adair)

o Leader in Me Roundtable during PLC on 1/21

o Looking at Data, Interventions Planning and Differentiation

o Dual Language Kindergarten approved

o Dual Language PreK

o Progress Conferences

o District Benchmarks in February

o Commitment Table (Adair)

• Support and Volunteers

o Mission Southwest

o Willow Meadows

o Houston Chinese Church

o Head Start

o Parents

• Other business

 

Shearn SDMC Minutes January 14, 2014

SDMC Members Present

Bill Buck- Principal

Sandy Adair- Assistant Principal

Sherry Walker- School Nurse

Marisela Aparicio- Attendance Clerk

Eric Whitten- Classroom Teacher

Katie Keafer- Classroom Teacher

Andres Monroy- Classroom Teacher

Kathleen Garson- Classroom Teacher

Lolly Hernandez- Head Start Representative

Bob Chenoweth- Mission Southwest Representative

 

We need to work on attendance and make sure that we are meeting our goal of 98.1%. There is not a grade level that is making the goal. Mr. Buck is talking to Ms. Breaux to make sure that they are wiping down the tables and handles with paraquat. The district is looking at attendance and we have to work on it individually. Ms. Keafer brought up having an attendance board that students are in charge of as part of The Leader in Me. Competitions on grade levels was also brought up. In addition Mr. Buck reminded teachers that they could use their activity funds for incentives and create competitions between teachers.

 

Ms. Spotts and Ms. Walker are going to talk to students about germs and hand washing. We don’t want to have students here that are going to make other students sick. Ms. Walker said that the safety committee is going to be the response team. Mr. Whitten and Ms. Spotts is going to be the CPR back up and Ms. Banks and Ms. Spotts are going to be the asthmatic back up. Go bags have rosters, first aid information, breathable mask for CPR, medication information, and any information in case we have to leave the campus. Ms. Walker is going to make them and we will have to carry them with us to lunch, recess, library, etc. It will be a little bigger than a fanny pack. It would be a good idea to hang the first aid kit so that substitutes know where it is. Ms. Walker is thinking that we will take a day to focus on CPR when doing beginning of year training next year.

 

It would be a good idea to have pictures to go with each of the habits. Students would get more out of it if it showed students displaying the habits. Mr. Buck said that we want to work on bringing hallway into the school-wide rules. Mr. Whitten brought up putting the hallway into the Be Proactive sign. We also discussed having an individual sign for each habit. We could also have a Habits Highway. This will be addressed in the PCL Leader in Me on January 21 as the school-wide rules need to be submitted to the Elementary School Office.

 

We are going to spend time looking on the website and see how we can use it in the classroom. Students should be taking on leadership roles around the schools. Let the students’ work and chart data. Jason from Covey visited the Lighthouse Team on January 10, 2014 and shared that there was a student that was missing school and he was appointed attendance leader and he never missed school once he got the job. It is possible to have attendance leaders for each grade. We will discuss that further in the Lighthouse meeting. We had a visit from Jason from Covey. He suggested creating action teams to get more teachers involved in different projects. The Lighthouse Team will be in charge of the committees. Once we have our student lighthouse team in place, then we will plan an assembly with them. Mr. Buck said that it is important that there is a greeter in each classroom for when visitors come into the classroom. The PLC will also have a sheet for each teacher to complete to identify leader jobs

 

Principal gives tickets to teachers and teachers give the tickets to students. It is like caught doing good. There will be 10 tickets given out randomly to teachers. The office will call home and tell the parents about following the habits and rules and how their child is doing a great job. Students can also win a prize. Mr. Buck will discuss different prizes that could be options with student council. You have 200 different numbers in a bowl and they go over to square 13 on a chart and they might get a prize depending on where their number is. We will discuss this with the faculty next week at the faculty meeting. Students also sign a book that they got a ticket.

 

When the SSO was here there were concerns about noise in the hallway. Mr. Buck said that we need to control the hallways. It is disruptive to students inside the classroom trying to learn. Mr. Buck will be sending emails about hallway behavior. Mrs. Adair said that at the leadership day at Longfellow she saw students greeting and saying good morning to everyone. It would be great to see this in the morning and also in the afternoon when leaving.

 

SDMC members reviewed the draft for dismissal procedures. These will be put into policy after being reviewed. Ms. Aparicio notices that there are some parents that are walking across and are picking students up on the wrong side. Mr. Buck said that we should work on what we have now and we can work on the crossing as the new fence is up. The hope is that parents are picking students up in the right place. We are having problems with GroupMe. Mr. Monroy said we could bring What’s App into the school and try it out and see. Ms. Keafer is going to update it and send it to Mr. Buck.

 

These funds can be used for pizza parties and incentives. Mr. Buck said that we need to start talking about STAAR shirts with everyone. Mrs. Boggs said that she had an idea that she was going to talk to Mr. Whitten about. Mr. Whitten will head the committee for STAAR Shirts for our students.

 

Mr. Buck said that the ADA inspection was pretty good. The flushes in the restrooms are backwards. The walk in area the slope is too much and this Friday they are going to re-pour the slope so it meets compliance. The outdoor power units and boxes need to be enclosed and that is a safety issue. This may be an HISD issue. Mr. Buck purchased a mechanical gate. Teachers will have to punch in a code.

 

Mr. Buck is looking for a third grade bilingual teacher and we will be looking for a long-term substitute for Ms. Recio. Mr. Buck has met with different parents and we need to get someone consistent in the room. We are still looking for an hourly tutor in Kindergarten, 4th grade, and an hourly lecturer for reading 5th grade.

 

Mr. Buck met with Dr. Miller and she has referred him to Dr. Tanner and he has written a book called Culturally Responsive Teaching and how we better understand our African American students. This is about more of an understanding. He is going to see if Dr. Miller can talk to us about it during the faculty meeting first. Mrs. Adair and Mr. Buck said that they will not be in the room so that we can share circumstances without any pressure.

 

Mr. Buck said that our tests are coming up. He had a meeting and we do not want to not meet standards. We need to look at our objectives. We will have instructional rounds on Friday. It is not about evaluation. It is about reflection. People actually get ideas from these rounds. We will write down what we notice or what we wonder. There will be a schedule that is made for the instructional rounds. We will also have future instructional rounds.

 

We are approved with Dual Language for Kindergarten and PreK. We will have to have community meetings. Half of the day will be in English and half of the day will be in Spanish. There will be four K classes. If anyone is interested in teaching the English Kindergarten, then let Mr. Buck know. If students have not been in a Dual Language and they come in 2nd grade they cannot come into the school. We will eventually be a school wide Dual Language school. Students can go to Johnston now because they have a Dual Language program. This will benefit our English speaking students because they will learn Spanish and be more marketable. We can select who we want for the program if they are coming from another school and are zoned for another school.

 

On iStation it is important if they use live help that it is live and this is on a permanent record. We also had no discipline referrals the first 4 days when we returned which

speaks of the hard work the teachers are doing in building relationships with their students. We also need to get the school wide rules together which will be addressed with The Lighthouse Team on 1/17 and in PLC on 1/21.

 

These will be completed by a week from Friday. You have to make sure that the data is updated in Dropbox and tell Mr. Buck and Mrs. Adair what your interventions are.

 

Keep Mr. Buck posted on mocks or released STAAR. Teachers need to keep him posted on what is going to be most helpful for kids. Ms. Keafer said it would be a good idea to look at giving more time because 90 minutes is not enough for 33 questions on the test. The district is pulling the data and looking at the test scores.

 

Mrs. Adair said that they did this at White. There is a table in the front where students come talk to the administration team about their report card and discuss where they improved and made progress. Mrs. Adair said that you can pick a candy for each improvement they made and they would put it in a brown bag and put it in their backpacks. Students would discuss their grades and would realize that someone is looking at their grades other than their teacher and parents.

 

Mr. Chenoweth has followed up with some churches to recruit for the program. He introduced the pastor and a mentor to the principal and they are hoping to advertise at church. He has recruited at local colleges. Frank Rand is a counselor and he wants to help in any way that he can. Last Saturday in March is work day and make up is first Saturday in April. They will plan on doing mulching and trimming, but if there are any requests to let them know.

 

Let Mr. Buck know where the new printers should be for each grade level. Send him an email.

There is a federal review of HeadStart. They are conducting a self-assessment. It is possible that they observe the program and review the binders. They are trying to finalize the physicals and dentals for the HeadStart students. A lot of issues have come up with insurance. They are trying to let them know that they can get insurance still even if their status is not cleared yet. Lolly said that they will be putting in an order for paints and construction paper for the classes. They are still down 6 students so they are working on that. They have met with parents that are eligible and try to recruit. Ms. Walker said that it is about PR and marketing to the parents.

 

We will be doing the health fair that the Houston Chinese Church will be hosting. It will be held the last Saturday in April.

 

Mrs. Aparicio brought up getting a filter put on a sink so we can get water and drink from the sinks. We could get a water cooler if we put faculty money into it or the faculty contributes because taxpayer money cannot be used for this.

 

Some of the parents have been complaining that there are not any sales. PTO is not putting on sales, so parents are wondering if they can help with sales. Teachers can put in a request to fundraise and the forms are on the HISD website.