SIP Team Minutes from November 1, 2010

Ridgewood High School’s School Improvement Plan (SIP) Team gathered on Monday, November 1, 2010 to discuss the mandated opportunity we have to use a new program to determine our school improvement needs called Rising Star what work committees have been doing and to determine ways to fulfill the mission and vision of Ridgewood High School.
The meeting was held in room 151C, which is the breakout room across from the Community Room, at 3:15 PM. The meeting was called to order at 3:22 PM.

In attendance were Jim Smith (SIP Team Chair), Michelle Kumor (PDC Chair), Jill Laubenstein (PTO Chair), Sam Lewis (Tech Chair), Rob McCarthy (DSS Chair), and Jen Kelsall (Principal). Absent was Jennette Gonzales (R&L Chair).

The meeting began with celebrations that included the sectional win for Ridgewood’s soccer team and a state qualifying student from the cross country team. Best of luck to our school’s great athletes! Ridgewood’s Thespian Troupe 6662 went Trick-or-Treating on Sunday October 31st and instead of asking for candy, asked for donation to the Norridge Salvation Army. The Troupe members collected 460 pounds of food! Way to go! Everyone’s lives are rich and full in and around Ridgewood and great things are certainly happening. Go Ridgewood!

The meeting then turned to special business concerning the mandated opportunity for our school to participate in using the Rising Star program to keep track of our school improvement initiatives and prioritize our areas of need. Several schools around the country have been provided the opportunity to use Rising Star and have seen significant improvements in student achievement. Several Illinois schools are now able to have access to this valuable tool including Ridgewood.

The online tool provides both districts and schools with over 119 indicators that if fully implemented lead to increased student achievement. To understand more about Rising Star, click on this link: (http://www.isbe.net/sos/htmls/state_sys_support.htm).

The SIP Team is the beginning stages of evaluating Ridgewood’s implementation of key school indicators of effective practice called Smart Start and Smart Plan. Currently the District has completed both and Ridgewood has completed the Smart Start indicators and will have completed the Smart Start indicators before the end of this month. Once these have been entered, our next step will be to review and analyze data, identify areas of critical need through the data analysis, identify objectives to address our AYP deficiencies, identify the objectives and tasks, develop an action plan, implement the action plan and revisit the plan to make adjustments as needed and finally conduct a comprehensive revisit of the entire plan before the end of the school year.

Members of the PTO, DSS, and Ms. Kelsall are currently reviewing the Smart Plan indicators for Ridgewood and will be determining Ridgewood’s implementation of these indicators.
To review Ridgewood’s Progress, any member of the community is welcome to visit our school’s progress page with a guest login and password. Visit Rising Star Login (http://www.centerii.org/SchoolRestructuring/login.aspx) and use the following id for both login and password: guestSIL4786.

Once the special business was concluded, the meeting was able to continue on with committee reports, questions and or concerns.

First to present was Michelle Kumor representing the PDC. Currently the PDC is planning the joint institute day with Ridgewood’s partner school teachers. Several ideas for topics and sessions are currently being discussed. The institute days’ focus will most likely focus on differentiating and motivating instructional teaching practices. The PDC will be asking for teachers to volunteer to run sessions and or moderate sessions.

Second to report was Jill Laubenstein representing the PTO. Despite the PTO’s optimistic start to the current school year, there appears to be a continued lack of participation and interest among our school’s parents, even with events like “Pack-the-House”. Jill expressed her and her committee’s frustration and received ideas and suggestion from the team for help. All committees are being asked to consider how to open up to the parents of our community more. In addition, the partner school science fair may be in jeopardy if the communication between Ridgewood and the partner schools does not improve. If you are interested in participating and assisting PTO with efforts, please contact Jill Laubenstein or attend PTO meetings on the second Tuesday of each month at 6:30PM in Ridgewood's Community Room. The next PTO meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, November 9th.

Third to report was Sam Lewis representing the Tech Committee. To celebrate, the Tech Committee is pleased to report that it currently has 10 members! Sam suspects food at the early morning meeting may add to the appeal. Currently the Tech Committee is working on a draft outlining proper electronic communication usage between faculty / staff and students. A copy of the draft will be made available to the entire Ridgewood community after this Thursday’s meeting and will be available on the Tech Committee’s Blog. Drafts of potential website templates were available to view on the blog as well. The current plan will be to revamp our current website by the end of this school year, train the trainers and provide training for the remainder of the faculty and staff possibly during the March institute. Steve Silca presented a DVR grant proposal to the Tech Committee and asked for ideas on ways that Ridgewood could effectively use the money. Finally, additional ideas from the Tech Committee including additional training for using Google Applications for teachers and the ongoing evaluation of using new technologies, like Apple’s Ipad, in classrooms.

Next to present was Rob McCarthy representing the DDS Committee. Currently the focus is on developing an effective Reunification Plan for Ridgewood in emergency circumstances where the school would need to be evacuated. Natural Helpers continues to be a success and although Mr. McCarthy could not directly correlate the success of Natural Helpers to a decline disciplinary referrals it certainly appears to help many, many students in our school.

Finally, Jim Smith representing the R&L Committee in Jeannette Gonzalez’s absence, reported. Currently the R&L Committee is investigating reading strategies for non-fiction. Suggestions for bringing back passive programming, such as “use this word instead of this,” were recommended along with continued research and investigation into numeracy.

The SIP Team decided that deadlines for team members working on completing the Smart Plan Indicators for Effective Practice would be due Monday, November 15 and will be posted on Google docs for team review and or revision.

The next SIP Team meeting is scheduled to meet in Room 151c at 3:15PM on Monday, December 6th.

If you have questions, concerns, or ideas on how the SIP Team can fulfill the mission and vision of the RHS Community, please contact one of the committee chairs or Jim Smith.

Thanks to everyone who volunteers their time and effort to a committee!

The meeting was adjourned at 4:51 PM.

SIP Team Minutes from Monday, April 12, 2010

Ridgewood High School’s SIP Team met on Monday, April 12th to discuss and review the progress being made on completing the goals set forth in the school improvement plan.

The meeting was called to order at 3:25.

In attendance were, Jim Smith, Jennette Gonzales, Sam Lewis, Rob McCarthy, Jennifer Kelsall, and Michelle Kumor.

Celebrations!
Jennette began celebrations by announcing that next year’s 2011 Lit Fest has already booked seven of the eight authors and has already guaranteed two authors for 2012!
The PDC was congratulated on running a successful March 26th Institute Day. Sam Lewis was grateful for the Borders gift card.

Committee Reports
Discipline and School Safety Committee
Rob reported that Natural Helpers is winding down for the year and that those selected to be Natural Helpers next year will receive training next month. Rob reports that Natural Helpers has gone well for the first year. He admits that more student involvement would be better but that he had ten consistent members all year. Rob added that Justin Gates has been doing a tremendous job this year.


Professional Development Committee (PDC)
On behalf of the PDC, Michelle Kumor again thanked everyone who provided their expertise during the March 26th institute.
Michelle asked for and received suggestions for next year’s professional development focus. The discussion included focusing on improving student motivation and improving students’ abilities to use informational texts to learn. A needs assessment of the faculty will be used to verify that these are genuine concerns and interests.


Reading and Literacy Committee
Jennette Gonzales reported that the committee has not met in the past several weeks. However, the RAFT strategies are still being distributed to the faculty. Jim Smith added that it would be a good idea to load some of the blackline strategies onto Google Docs where they could be downloaded and manipulated for specific classroom use by teachers.
Jennette added that the focus on the R&L Committee would turn its focus to numeracy and that the members will educate themselves about numeracy over the summer.


Technology Committee
Sam Lewis reported that Steve Silca was now a member of the Tech Committee as a representative of DVR.
Sam also reported that progress is being made on the advancement of a new website. He announced that there will be a meeting on Wednesday, April 14 at 3:15 in Room 151 (that’s the community break-out room by the school’s library).
A question was raised regarding a timeline to launch the new website. Sam responded by saying right now the committee has completed the first phase of the school’s website redesign – what to do. He said the next phase will be exploring options on how to do it that includes Wednesday’s training session in Room 151. Next year’s plan will be to begin implementing the new website that includes a road plan for training and informing staff and faculty.
Next year’s 2011 March institute was suggested as a good deadline for training.


PTO
Jill Laubenstein was unable to attend this meeting but sent along a note that the PTO has agreed to meet every second Tuesday of the month at 6:30PM. In addition, Jill added that the PTO’s goal at its next meeting, April 13, was to make a year-long calendar for 2010-2011 that would hopefully provide an increase in participation.


RtI
Michelle Felde was also unable to attend the meeting. She did, however, provide the SIP Team with information on the upcoming Universal Screenings in May. At the time of the meeting, Universal Screening days were scheduled for May 3 and May 4. The SIP Team discussed the potential issues raised by the RtI team and provided a few possible solutions. The details of this discussion will be shared with Michelle Felde and the RtI team.


The next, and last SIP Team meeting of the year is scheduled for May 3 at 3:15 in the school’s Board Room.

This meeting was adjourned at 4:40 PM.

Minutes from the January 11, 2010 Meeting

Introduction

The School Improvement Team met on Monday, January 11 to discuss the school’s progress towards meeting the requirements of Ridgewood’s School Improvement Plan. The meeting was called to order at 3:15. In attendance were SIP Team Co-Chair Jim Smith, PDC Chair Michelle Kumor, Tech Committee Chair Sam Lewis, School Discipline and School Safety Chair Rob McCarthy, RtI Chair Michelle Felde. Reading & Literacy Committee Chair Jennette Gonzales arrived by 3:45. Community Relations and Communications Committee C hair Jill Laubenstein and Principal Jen Kelsall were not in attendance.

The Team began with celebrations. Of note was Michelle Kumor’s work on adding SIP Team and Committee links to Ridgewood’s website. Everyone is encouraged to view the new additions at SIP Team Home Page.

RtI Update

Michelle Felde and her committee have been hard at work developing the January 28 Universal Screening Day. The entire day has been planned including assigning teachers and students to specific areas including screening times, and speakers have been lined up. Left to be done are notices home and staff and teachers to be informed of their specific duties. This has been a tremendous effort on the part of the RtI Committee and they all deserve the school’s sincerest thanks. Great job RtI!

PDC Update

Michelle Kumor and her PDC Committee have been working on setting the agenda is set for the professional development day on Tuesday January 19. To date the current plan for the day is to have an hour and a half of collaboration time, lunch followed by another hour and a half collaboration to develop a differentiated lesson that will be taught. The lessons will also be expected to be peer reviewed. After a brief discussion on who should peer review, the SIP Team recommended that teachers be allowed to choose either a peer from their own team or outside of their team. The PDC has worked hard on developing a way to establish a common language for differentiation to Ridgewood staff and their efforts deserve all of our sincerest thanks. Good work PDC!

Technology Committee Update

Sam Lewis and his Tech Committee are hard at work developing a survey for students, staff, parents and the community regarding website content and navigation. The survey should be ready to launch by the end of January. The information gathered from the survey will provide guidance when it comes time to rebuild Ridgewood’s website. In addition, Sam requested that the Student Service Interns assisting the RtI Committee with Internet Safety meet with him to ensure that key points will be covered. Finally, Sam presented additional information regarding COGNOS reporting. Sam viewed a webnar to answer some of his questions. COGNOS reporting has pre-built reports and dashboards for easy report building and navigation. As a SIP Team, we have made a request that a COGNOS sales representative visit our next meeting to offer additional information to our many questions. Thanks to the Tech Committee for all their work!

School Safety and Discipline Committee Update

Rob McCarthy reported that Natural Helpers will meet on January 26 to discuss the issue of cyber-bullying. Thanks Rob!

Reading and Literacy Committee Update

Jennette Gonzales and her committee have created a method for distributing literacy strategies for reading and learning called RAFT (Ridgewood’s Activities For Teaching). The R&L Committee will meet again on January 13 to discuss these strategies and to create a plan for distribution of the RAFT activities including black lines and student samples. In addition, the R&L Committee has distributed the first series of vocabulary posters, will do so every few weeks. The next items on the R&L’s planning list is to being working on numeracy. Thanks Jennette! Great work!

Community Relations & Communications

Jill Laubenstein couldn't make it to the meeting, but forwarded her committee’s updates to the SIP Team. The CR&CC is working on finalizing a science fair with our local partner schools. Jill reported that the newly formed Ridgewood Parents-Teachers Organization (PTO) was unable to meet prior to break but are planning a meeting this month. Finally, Jill reported that the help cards that are being developed for additional resource information for our school’s parents will be completed by next meeting and will be available at front desk. Thanks CR&CC for all your efforts!

Next

The SIP Team's next meeting is scheduled for Monday, February 1st. If you are interested in what the SIP Team is doing to improve Ridgewood, please contact any committee member.

Welcome!

Thank you for your interest in school improvement. The SIP Team would like to facilitate, moderate, communicate and manage some of the changes at Ridgewood High School. If you are interested in being a part of the SIP Team you can volunteer to be on one of the following committees:

• Response to Intervention (RtI)
• Discipline
• Reading and Literacy
• Discipline
• Community Relations
• Professional Development (PDC)
• Members at Large (Parents, Staff, Students, Community Members)
  

It is recommended that after the committees have formed, a chair or co-chairs are chosen to represent the committee at the monthly SIP Team meetings. Once established the SIP Team will help facilitate how each committee can communicate their ideas or express their concerns. We are excited to begin bringing about effective improvement to our school and look forward to your assistance.