Meeting Attendees:
| Liz Phillips | Daniel Hurewitz | Denell Downum | Simone Fraser |
| Maria Kaye | Cameron Minaberry | Sara Silver | Emma Kostura |
| Lauren Anderson | Amy Tully | SaSaDi Odunsi | Shannon Coudurier |
| Sara Depres | Nilda | Tara Schwartz |
Meeting Minutes: Shannon Coudurier
| 3:00-3:30 Introductions | STL Member Introductions Elizabeth Phillips (EP) gave framing for what SLT is and how meetings operate: * Open to public * Agenda is posted in advance * Decisions are made via census * Meet once a month |
| 3:30-3:35 Meeting Dates for the Year | Determining Dates for the Year: Meetings are at 3:15pm * October 27th * November 17th * December 15th * January 19th * February 16th * March 23rd * April 27th * May 18th * June 22nd Group preferred to have meetings moving forward in person with Zoom option as back up.School is making a commitment to providing childcare for SLT members who need it for meetings. |
| 3:35-3:40 Enrollment | Enrollment is improving from last year (is now 1240) but not as strong as it was 2 years ago. We are funded based on projection 1270, so its not super far off and there is some other funding. There is federal money and that has allowed us to keep class size low. All classes are between 22-25 but most are 23-24 students per room. This is a lot lower for upper grades compared to the past. |
| 3:40- 3:45 Arrival & Dismissal | Arrival and Dismissal continues to get faster. Today all parents were in and students were picked up by 3:07. Parents were very impressed with how quickly they have adapted with barriers and tickets for health screening Teachers are noting the positive impact of having whole grade start together outside Question: what the plan for is if it’s very wet or very cold. Answer: Regardless of the cold, they will remain outside. In heavy rain or snow we’ll try to move inside more quickly. Question: Can we open 3rd door to the yard? Answer: Perhaps on a bad weather day we try it to ensure people can go in and out but the big concern is staffing for that door. |
| 3:45-3:50 Lunch | Indoor lunch happens during rain or snow. X’s on seats to signal where to sit, everyone faces same direction during meals and teachers do seating chart for indoor lunch so if someone tests positive we can determine who was a close contact. Question: can we play calming music since scholars can’t talk during means? Answer: We do have drawing papers for them to use when done eating and their mask is back on and some music has been getting played. Question: Lots of students are saying they love the hot lunch, can we continue it? Answer: Issues have been that it is taking too long to prepare and some children have not had lunch ready at the beginning of the period due to this, leaving too little time to eat. We have more students eating school lunch than ever before (over 500 a day up from a high of about 325). Additional constraints are you are unable to see what is inside and process for younger students to pick up delays the lunch process since they can’t read the signs. |
| 3:50-4:10 | Question: Have teachers noticed students are where they normally are at this point in the year?Answer: In terms of reading in grades 1-5 seem mainly on target. Noticing lots of self-regulation growth needed, likely because they haven’t been practicing it. Also pencil grips and with Math, Zearn is so prescriptive that often kids are not clear on where to start. We are in the process of assessing in math to see where kids are and what the gaps are. Teachers have revised pacing calendars to get to the heart of what is important in each unit without necessarily teaching every lesson we taught in past years. This allow us to have more time to focus on Social and Emotional learning. In the afternoons, since the previous school day was shorter, that last hour is harder so having that last hour be be less academic based (choice time, outside time, hands-on projects) since students are exhausted has been helpful. Big push for building back up stamina. |
| 4:10-4:25 Acadience Screeners | DOE mandates screeners 3x a year in reading and math. They are very complicated and the reading one should be done on iPad but we haven’t been given enough. We have moved forward with them and had grade team meeting about them but assessment is supposed to start Monday, but at this point some grades haven’t even been uploaded to the system yet. What these assessments do is test kids on EOY standards but they are timed. There is a deep concern about giving children a timed test where we know they have not been taught these things and then the emotional toll of knowing you failed a test. Additionally the test is not aligned to EOY standards Right now decision has been made to not have teachers move forward with this given the data gathered from this will not drive forward instructional decision making for students. We will be assessing children using the measures we have used in the past that have been very helpful. |
| 4:25-4:35 Quarantine Policy | Updated Quarantine Policy No longer doing whole class closure Technically only close contacts must be contacted School has and will continue to notify the whole class of a student in the room tests positive so they are aware Question: For students who quarantine, what work is provided to them Answer: Teacher per grade level tasked with creating work packets for scholars not cleared to return to the building. And, we have one of our intervention teachers, Deirdre, coordinating work for quarantined children and doing some Zooms with them. Question: Do home tests qualify? Answer: Un-determined if home test results will be accepted |
| 4:35-4:40 K-1 Family Building Tour | K-1 Families have never been in the building Plan is to have an evening event where the family meets with APs to give tours of the room. Additional suggestion is for teachers to use one of the many photo sharing apps, but Liz pointed out that can’t be a required standard but teachers are of course welcomed to utilize those if they so choose. Idea given for teachers to meet parents as well in the yard, potentially do it before dismissal and then get them out of the yard faster before 2nd Dismissal |
| 4:40-4:45 Anti-Bias/Anti-Racist Work | Liz shared with the group the Anti-Bias/Anti-Racist framework that has been built out which previewed the scope and sequence of lessons. Idea is teachers are not doing every lesson exactly as listed but it’s a shared resource across grade levels and teachers can modify to meet their class and scholar needs. Idea shared with some people from the Staff Equity committee to take the full framework and modify that to be a pared down version shared with families. Key things SLT named families would benefit from seeing is the story book selection and word wall so they can continue the dialogue at home with their child. |
| 4:45-4:55 Family Events | December 4th is date set for Holiday Market Trying to troubleshoot how to navigate the social distance aspect given if we move it outdoors vendors will need tents if outdoors. Ideas brought up: * Creating ‘waves’ of time people can come shop which will support with crowd control * Having vendors with tents outdoors and those without tents indoors * Utilizing classrooms and each room is a different vendor store |
| 4:55-5:00 Agenda for October | Learning Friends is where students are matched with a parent who commits to a weekly time. This will be coming back soon. Wall of Hope Affinity Groups Parent Affinity Groups Idea of having meals in different people’s houses, we could have family events where they go from home to home or stoop to stoop and there is music or some other art focused event. |
