Minutes from the November 2, 2009 Meeting

Introduction

The SIP Team met on Monday, November 2 to discuss the progress of Ridgewood’s school improvement plan. The meeting was called to order at 3:25 PM. Represented at the meeting was Brian Eppley of the Professional Development Committee (PDC), Michelle Felde of the Response to Intervention (RtI) Committee, Jill Laubenstein of the Community Relations & Communications (CR&C) Committee, Sam Lewis of the Technology Committee, Jennette Gonzalez of the Reading & Literacy (R&L) Committee, Jim Smith as the SIP Team Co-Chair and Jennifer Buteyn, the school principal. Not in attendance was Rob McCarthy of the Discipline and School Safety Committee and Michelle Kumor, the Team’s Co-Chair.

After reviewing the minutes from the previous meeting, the Team prioritized the agenda and decided that due to prior commitments, Brian Eppley should update the team on the progress of the PDC.

Committee Updates & Problem Solving

PDC Update:
The PDC is currently working on the January 19th Special Ed Institute Day. Part of the work is to select a book on differentiation to provide a foundation of common vocabulary and terms for the entire faculty. Among the criteria for choosing a book is that the book should contain effective strategies that could be implemented in classes immediately. Currently the plan is to provide the book to the faculty prior to Thanksgiving break. The January institute then will provide time for teams to meet and discuss the book as well as strategies implemented in the classroom. The PDC hopes to provide a set of expectations for the faculty to meet the goals of the institute.

Beyond the January Institute Day, the PDC will begin researching on what professional development opportunities to provide for long term. Additional Institute Days are being planned to include technology and provide a teacher expert day.
After the update, there was no further discussion.

RtI Committee:

RtI began by focusing on seeking help and advice concerning the benchmarking testing using Performance Series that is to take place in late January and/or early February. Several ideas were discussed and proposed including using only Wednesday early dismissal days, changing the schedule for four days to an early dismissal schedule, and completing the testing in three shifts on a single day that would include speakers and/or sessions for students during the other shifts. The RtI Committee will review the responses and propose a plan by the next SIP Team meeting in December and will disseminate the information to faculty, staff, student and parents as soon as possible.


R&L Committee:

The R&L Committee is focused on how and what information to disseminate to the faculty and staff that would be the most effective in regards to improving literacy and eventually numeracy. Ideas include attaching effective reading strategies, vocabulary information and learning strategies to the Buteyn Beat. The committee will meet next week to discuss these ideas.

CC&C Committee:

Currently the big push for the CC&C is the development of a Ridgewood Parent-Teacher Organization (PTO). The current Parent’s Club is backing the plan and has embraced the ideas of a PTO to increase parent involvement with Ridgewood. In addition, Jill and Joe Rogalski are working with the elementary schools to plan and coordinate a Science Fair. Parent members of the CC&C are looking into how other schools require parents to chaperone sport and activities throughout the year. Their intention is to increase the attendance at these events. Additional efforts of the CC&C include the development of quick-reference cards for parents that has telephone and resource information to receive help, guidance and/or assistance with parenting. Finally, a request for information to be included on the school’s website was passed along.


Technology Committee:

The Tech Committee has two large tasks underway. The first concerns the school’s website. Other school sites were examined and discussed. Three criteria, layout and design, navigation, and content were used to study and evaluate other school sites. So far the top school web sites include New Tier’s, Maine Township’s, and Niles Township’s. All three had clean designs, concise content and easy navigation. The second concern of the Tech Committee regards the need to include instruction concerning internet safety for the students of RHS. Ideas to include this as a part of the Performance Series benchmarking days will be taken under consideration by the RtI Committee. One difficult task that must be a part of the internet safety instruction is tracking attendance and completion of the instruction.


Conclusion

The next SIP Team meeting is scheduled for Monday, December 7, 2009. If you would like to contribute to school improvement, please contact any of the chairs of the team. Thanks to all faculty, staff, parents and students that volunteer their time and efforts for the benefit of the entire school.