• Shearn SDMC Meeting Notes
    April 9, 2013
    Minutes taken by Kathleen Garson

    Present:
    Bill Buck- Principal
    Sandra Adair- Teacher Specialist
    Ashley Green- Assistant Principal
    Sherry Walker- School Nurse
    Elizabeth Portillo- Parents
    Angelica Almaraz- Head Start
    Bob Chenoweth- Mission Southwest
    Ruben Gomez- Classroom Teacher
    Eric Whitten- Classroom Teacher
    Kathleen Garson- Classroom Teacher

    Safety
    Ms. Walker stressed the importance of watching your students at all times. Mr. Buck said that there is a new security system for our doors and getting in and out of the school. Everyone will get the white ID cards to swipe into and out of the building. Mr. Buck said that the doors should be up and running for teachers and staff to scan in from 6:30AM-6:30PM. Everyone else will have to be buzzed in and they will have to wait for someone to get the door. The ID badges will not work on Saturday. It will be $10 to replace a card. Ms. Walker said if teachers need nurse passes/forms to let her know. Ms. Walker also said that at other schools there have been students making Alka-Seltzer “bombs” that students shake up and explode out of the top. Be watching for anything. She said that for the older kids be watching to make sure that they are not on the top of equipment snooping on the neighbors.

    Activity Funds
    Mr. Buck said that each grade level’s fund is listed.

    Construction
    Mr. Buck said that even just doing the basics we are about $400,000 short and that the budget is 1.4 million. It is likely that many things will get cut. Mr. Buck is doubtful that the construction will take place this summer, but says that all teachers should plan on packing things up and having summer school at Red.

    Summer School
    Mr. Buck said that they need to hire 6 teachers for summer school. Currently we are out of money for after school and Saturday tutorials. In fact, because of the high number in after school the school is $500,000 in the hole.

    Security System
    Mr. Buck said that all doors will remain locked throughout the day and that there are 2 entry approval stations. One where Jane sits and one where Ms. Fleeks sits. If there are problems with staffing whoever is here will have to address the buzzing.

    Budget
    Mr. Buck addressed that the budget for next year has been completed and approved. He said that we need to increase enrollment and that for Pre-K and Kindergarten we have to work to keep them here at Shearn.

    Attendance
    Mr. Buck said that the attendance is at 97.7%, which is down from where it should be. He said that all teachers should be working on attendance. All of the Pre-K teachers are bleaching their manipulatives because there are lots of illnesses going around.

    Staffing
    Mr. Buck has hired 2 bilingual teachers for the 2013-2014 school year. One will be in 1st grade and one will be in 3rd grade. He announced that Ms. Keafer will be coming back to Shearn!

    Professional Development
    Mr. Buck said the professional development at the beginning of next year will be taken up by the district for 5 days. Shearn should end up with 4 days, which will include 3 days of Covey training (if we receive the grant) and 1 day for manual and harassment training. Meet the Teacher will be on August 15th and the teacher prep day will be August 16th.

    Academics
    Mr. Buck said that all teachers should be focused on objectives that will be tested on the Stanford. There are 10 days until reading and 9 days until Science. Mr. Buck said to really focus on Science.

    Donation
    Mr. Buck announced that Mission Southwest has made an $8,000 donation to Shearn. Willow Meadows donated $1600 of that money. The money will be used to purchase picnic tables, shovels, and mulch for school beautification. We all give a huge thanks to them!

    Social Studies
    Mr. Gomez said that he will continue to forward any emails that he receives.

    Testing
    Mrs. Adair gave the committee an update on testing. Everyone has completed TELPAS. The TPRI is being distributed in grades K-2 right now.

    Mission Southwest
    Mr. Chenoweth is making a brochure about Mission Southwest and he needs pictures for the brochure. If anyone has them can forward them to him. We could take pictures of mentors with their buddies, but need to make sure those students have a media release form on file before taking the picture and publishing it in the brochure.

    Houston Chinese Church
    Ms. Walker discussed the Health Fair that is going to take place on April 27th from 9AM-12PM. She encourages teachers to create an incentive that if students go they can get extra credit. They will be measuring height and weight and doing glucose testing. There will be balloons and light snacks for the kids.

    Carnival and Field Day
    Ms. Walker said that we could make the carnival and field day into one event. Mr. Buck does not want the students handling a lot of money during the school and instructional day. He said that we can make field day more exciting. Ms. Walker said students could get a waiver signed about whether their child can get wet or not. The Friday sales have been successful and the last Friday sale they made $600. Ms. Walker said that they are doing corn on Friday; Mr. Buck said they should have less items to pick from.

    Head Start
    Ms. Almaraz said that there is a parent meeting tomorrow afternoon. Neighborhood Centers Inc. received a grant. Ms. Almaraz said that she will be at the Head Start booth at the Health Fair on the 27th. Head Start’s goal for Pre-K is to register 90 students. Head Start will be there during the registration days. The parents need to be cleared and then Head Start sees if they are eligible for Pre-K. In August they will collect family income again. Ms. Almaraz said that it would be smart to have specific dates set where parents bring pay stubs so they are not allowed to enroll unless they bring the pay stubs back by that day. Mrs. Alamaraz said that if you say that the child will lose their spot they will be more motivated. Head Start will be at the Pre-K orientation to talk about attendance, expectations, and uniform.

    Communication Folder
    Ms. Green addressed the idea of having communication folders for each student. Papers would go home to parents on a certain day. All of the campus would have one folder that each student receives. The fear from everyone is that it will be difficult to stuff a week’s worth of papers into a folder on one day. This would be something that would need to start at the beginning of next year and an expectation would need to be set. Parents could volunteer and put papers in the folders. The committee discussed that parents would have to volunteer before coming on a field trip and we would set the expectation at the beginning of the year.

    Report Cards
    Mr. Buck said that lots of report cards are returned because people do not live at that address. Ms. Green suggested scheduling meetings with parents. Parents have to come in to get the report card from the teacher because it is important that the teacher talks to the parents. If you do not get the report card, then you can come on these days, and if not then schedule a meeting with the principal to pick up the report card. Parents could get a call about picking up the report card. We could do the rainy day dismissal procedure and have parents come in to get the report cards. Teachers could pair this time with data notebooks. Students could be going over their data notebooks with their parents while the teacher is talking to different parents.

    Math
    Ms. Green said that HISD is piloting iStation, Dream Box, Think Through Math. She is wondering if these programs are being used and if we want to keep them and if we want to pay for them if they are no longer provided by the district. Committee members said that we could do a survey and ask teachers face to face. The school has already budgeted for Help math for next year. Mr. Buck said that next year they will be getting rid of TPRI and they will be using iStation instead. Neuhaus will also be integrated with iStation. According to the teachers that are using Dream Box they want to keep the program.

    End of Year Awards
    Mr. Buck brought up that it was three hours for the awards ceremonies with Pre-K and Kindergarten. Ms. Walker said that we can have 1st and 2nd grades together, 3rd and 4th grades together, and 5th on their own. Mr. Buck said that Pre-K needs to be done by the second to last day. It was suggested that the ceremonies could be done in reverse order with 5th grade first and then 3rd and 4th and then 1st and 2nd and then Pre-K and Kindergarten. Mr. Buck said that the end of the year party needs to be on the last day of school.