SIP Team Minutes for October 3, 2011

For October 3, 2011 at 3:15 in Room 116

I. Call to Order
Our SIP Team meeting was called to order at 3:30 PM by Michelle Kumor and and seconded by Jill Laubenstein.

In Attendance: Jim Smith, Jill Laubenstein, Dan Johnson, Michelle Kumor, Cari Franz, and Rob McCarthy.

II. Celebrations

Michelle Kumor Celebrated that Ridgewood’s special education students have doubled their percentage of meeting or exceeding on all state testing.

Later in the meeting, but equally deserving of a celebration, Michelle announce the PDC is considering a staff Chili Cook-off during the lunch break of November’s Institute Day.

III. Old Business

A. Rising Star Smart Plans - Actions & Status

1. The team reviewed the previous business. The following Rising Star Smart Plan was reviewed along with its current status:

a. 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.

b. The team is waiting on the development of a classroom observation walk-through tool.

c. The SIP Team revised the target completion date of this action to Revised date to August 31, 2011

d. The team has tabled this further discussion of this until the next meeting on November 21, 2011.

2. The team reviewed the previous business. The following Rising Star Smart Plan was reviewed along with its current status:

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

a. The team had created a three tasks in order to complete and consider the indicator fully implemented.

i. Use 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. Department Heads will use monthly after school meetings to provide professional development, discussion and activities to help teachers reach a common understanding. This task was completed on May 2, 2011.

ii. Implement a consistent grading policy used by every teacher that provides students with accurate, fair grades that communicates what the student understands/can do, offers students timely effective feedback for continuous improvement and provides parents with timely and useful information that provides parents a way to communicate with their child. This task was completed on September 6, 2011.

iii. Provide parents, via a parent letter and posted to the school’s website, each course’s description, essential learning outcomes that each child in the course will be guaranteed to learn/be able to do, and grading policy that is consistent from course to course. This task was completed on September 12, 2011.

B. Other Rising Star Indicators not yet assessed were tabled until the next meeting on November 21, 2011.

C. The Team moved on to the Committee Updates/Issues/Needs

1. PDC - Michelle Kumor

a. The first institute will bring Dr. Cash to present to the faculty on differentiation and chili cook-off. Dr. Cash will focus on five objectives regarding differentiation in the classroom.

b. The January Institute will ask teams to present the knowledge gleaned from the team books selected at the end of last year.

c. The March Institute is currently scheduled to be a presentation on SIM Strategies. The Technology Institute may still be a need and if the SIM Strategies can be presented throughout the year in other formats, it might allow for the Technology Institute to still happen.

2. Tech Committee - Dan Johnson

a. The Tech Committee is currently reaching out to past committee members and potential new members before setting up a first meeting.

b. Regarding the new website staff and faculty are asked to contact Kevin Szaflik and cc Don Johnson.

3. Reading & Literacy - Cari Franz

a. There have been no new meetings this year.

b. The emphasis of the committee this year will be to provide teachers with key literacy and numeracy strategies that will need to be explicitly taught to all students.

4. PTO - Jill Laubenstein

a. Two newsletters have gone out to the parent email group. The first was on how to get ready for school and the second was on study strategies.

b. A focus this year is to find ways to bring parents into the school - involving parents with education of the child.

c. Contributors to newsletter: right now are parents on PTO and teachers on the PTO.

d. Recruiting new parents? Letters at Parent-Teacher Conference. New website.

5. School Safety & Discipline - Rob McCarthy

a. All staff and students now wearing IDS

b. The goal this year is to reduce the number of tardies - tardy tracker - scan in using portable device. J. Smith suggested that the committee look into Safe & Civil Schools and its Start on Time Program.

IV.New Business

A. The Team moved into New Business and reviewed the new Rising Start Indicators for the 2011-2012 school year. The Team reviewed, discussed and assessed the two indicators to determine Ridgewood High School’s level of implementation.

1. SMART Start - Due October 14, 2011

a. The school maintains a central database that includes each student’s test scores, placement information, demographic information, attendance, behavior indicators, and other variables useful to teachers. (1116)

i. The team determined that although Ridgewood has and maintains a central database, it is not as useful to all teachers as it could be. The team decided that this indicator had limited development or implementation, a medium priority and may require a change in policy and or budget conditions.

ii. The team will develop an action plan to address this gap at its next meeting on November 21, 2011.

b. The environment of the school (physical, social, emotional, and behavioral) is safe, welcoming, and conducive to learning. (2348) fully implemented.

i. The team determined that Ridgewood is fully implementing this indicator.

V. Announcements

A. The Team has set the the next SIP Team meeting for Monday, November 21, 2011 at 3:15PM in Room 116.

B. Rising Start SMART Plan is due on December 13, 2011 - The Team will assess these indicators during the November 21, 2011 meeting.

VI. Adjournment

A. The Team had a motion to adjourn from Jill Laubenstein and was seconded by Rob McCarthy. The Team meeting was adjourned at 4:40PM.