SIP Team Minutes April 12, 2011

SIP Team Minutes April 12, 2011

The SIP Team meeting was called to order at 3:18 with the Sam Lewis, Michelle Kumor, Jill Laubenstein, Jim Smith in attendance.

We opened the meeting with celebrations.

First, Michelle Kumor celebrated Kristy Borse for using google docs with her students so that they could collaborate on a single paper.

Jill Laubenstien celebrated that the emails for PTO newsletter were ready and that the newsletter, after being proofed, were ready to be sent out via email.

We then opened old business and discusses the following:

A. Rising Star Smart Plans - Actions & Status

1. Professional development for the whole faculty will include assessment of strengths and areas in need of improvement from classroom observations of indicators of effective teaching.

a. Discuss completion or amending of target completion date March 30, 2011.

b. The SIP Team decided to revise the target completion date to May 27, 2011.

2. The school will regularly and clearly communicate with parents about its expectations of them and the importance of the "curriculum of the home."

a. progress on completion of using Rick Wormeli's book as a method of providing all teachers common language to understand the importance of establishing a unified and consistent purpose to all assignments, grading and feedback. Having Department Heads use monthly after school meetings to provide professional development, discussion and activities to help teachers reach a common understanding. - target completion date for May of 2011.

b. The team discussed that the meetings appear to be going well and is creating a lot of good conversations regarding the way in which teachers view and issue grades to students. The next meeting is scheduled for Monday, April 18 after school.

B. Rising Star Indicators not yet assessed:

The team discussed that the purpose of these surveys are to gather information in order to determine what specific areas of school improvement the Team should focus on next. It was determined that asking faculty and staff to answer these questions now might not yield the number of responses necessary to make a good enough inference on what needs to be prioritized. The Team concluded that a more appropriate time may be to ask faculty and staff to complete these surveys a week prior to the start of the next school year. A link, or a reminder to view the SIP Team Blog, will be sent with the August mailing.

1. Tech Committee - Sam Lewis reported for the Tech Committee.

a. He reported the Tech Committee last met on April 7, and discussed the March institute day, specifically regarding the training on the new website. Reviewing the feedback, most of the comments about the day were very positive. Some additional feedback included: “departments might need more time to set up pages” “teams might benefit from working together as a group separate from one large group” “a refresher workshop right before summer might help people set up their pages over the summer.” Sam commented that we may need to consider providing time for content teams to develop the information to be displayed on the new website.

b. Next, Sam discussed the DVR grant money expenditures. Out of the $41,000.00 grant money utilized for career tech technology, $2300.00 will be dispensed to AutoCad and $39,000.00 will be used to purchase a laptop cart for the Math department.

c. Finally, Sam went on to report on the Special Ed grant/ipad initiative update – the Special Ed grant was approved. 30 ipads on a cart will be purchased with the grant money. This includes $5000.00 to purchase apps. The new iPads will be equipped with cameras, and can be used with pages, keynote, imovie, garageband, etc. Sam is looking into a PD day for the staff.

2. PTO - Jill Laubenstein reported for the Parent Teacher Orgnaization.

a. Jill reported that the PTO had a meeting that evening to finalize the content of the newsletter. She explained that once it was proofed and edited, it would be sent electronically via email to parents who had voluntarily supplied the school with an email address.

3. PDC - Michelle Kumor reported for the Professional Development Committee.

a. Michelle reported that the planning for next school year’s institute days was underway. The tentative schedule is to use the first half of the very first institute day in August to train faculty on how to use a new assessment management system called Mastery Manager. The second institute day in November would be used for team building activities that would also connect the staff and faculty to community from which our students live, work and play. An “Amazing Race” format is the current idea. The third institute day would be dedicated to the summer 2011 reading the faculty and staff completed. The current plan is to allow each team and/or division to choose a book, from a PDC list, and prepare a presentation to the entire faculty during the January institute.

b. During the SIP meeting, it was mentioned that the final institute day, which is usually dedicated for technology, might be a good day to review how teachers have made use of the Mastery Manager system with their classes and students.

c. Michelle went on to discuss other ideas for additional professional reading that the PDC is still considering.

4. Reading & Literacy - Jim Smith reported on behalf of the Reading & Literacy committee.

a. Jim reported that the Time magazine articles with information on how content area teachers could use various articles with their students were placed in the mail room on the second floor. It had appeared that many of the magazines were picked up.

b. Jim reported that Mark Lippesteuer was working on a Latin roots wall that will be displayed in the school.

c. Finally, Jim reported that the focus for next year was to zero in on how to assist teachers understand and align the Common Core Reading standards to their curriculum.

5. School Discipline and Safety - Rob was unable to attend the meeting and provide an update

The next SIP Team meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, May 3 at 3:15 in Room 151c.

Adjourn - The team adjourned at 4:22PM.