11-27-07 SIT MINUTES
SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT TEAM MEETING
November 27, 2007
The meeting was called to order, and Asst. Principal Georgia Kouris welcomed everyone & thanked them for coming.
Attendees: Kristin Allen, Lori Bebber, Perry Bentsen, Tad Birditt, Shaneeka Evans, Andrew Hains, Ken Jaeke, Georgia Kouris, Jennifer Page, Courtney Stone, Ed Veasey, Jeff Wendland, Terry Gackle
The minutes were reviewed, approved by Ed Veasey, and seconded by Jeff Wendland.
Each of the Action Team Leaders gave a review of their teams progress.
ACTION TEAM #1 Andrew Hains - Leader
PBIS Discipline/High Expectations
Several weeks ago they attended a workshop in Joliet, looking at data & trends. The PBIS/Discipline film is still in the works under Dori Foster‚s direction for use next year.
Andrew reported we had 10 students complete their Credit Recovery over fall intersession, and presently 12 students are working on CR, before and after school. The prerequisite for CR is that a student has to have failed a class 2 times, & they must complete 20 hours in CR to earn the credit.
A representative for Plato Learning, a new web based computer program we are using, came in and trained 10 staff members on the program. There will be training at Thurgood Marshall School January 3 & 4th for those teachers. The staff at the training thought it could be useful in the classroom, uses higher order thinking, and could be useful in tutoring. There is a writing component for each class, and the teacher must be involved in the instruction. Our ELL instructor, who is teaching English to students with varied languages, is going to be using the Plato English Learning program, with computers in her classroom.
ACTION TEAM #2 Pete Carlin - Leader
Curriculum- Numeracy & Literacy
Literacy is in phase 2, getting directives out to the teachers. Numeracy is still in the planning & revising stage. The goal is to incorporate skills and language into curriculum and everyday uses the students can better understand. The Professional Development group will be sending out a staff survey to determine the wants and needs of each department for staff development. Here are some of the questions they need answers to: What are the common assessments? Do we want different scheduling, such as block scheduling or flex scheduling? Perhaps we can offer in-service training during school time and staff could attend during their prep period.
ACTION TEAM #3 Perry Bentsen - Leader
Career/VoTech
Mal Austin our consultant has been very productive doing the leg work between our school and the community. Eight teachers from our high school & junior high school attended a Career Pathway Conference over intersession. They are working to establish career strands from freshman to senior year. Our marketing group will be doing a survey on standardized grading, and we are looking at a web based program called Career Cruising, that teachers, students and parents could utilize. Jennifer Page, school counselor said we are offering students a field trip to United Township Vocation School to look at the program which our students can enroll.
ACTION TEAM #4 Jeff Wendland - Leader
Transitions - Dual Credit, Portfolio & Transitions
We are looking at the possibilities of expanding our dual credit classes to Junior as well as seniors, and offering English & Spanish. There is some concern that the junior high students are taught math & English for testing not for high school preparation. Senior portfolios are being implemented in Mr. Bustard, Mrs. McLaughlin, Ms. Gooch & Mr. Stockwell‚s advisory classes. The students are seeing the advantages of having a resume at hand when applying for a job and wish they had started the portfolio as a junior.
ACTION TEAM #5 Courtney Stone - Leader
Advisory
There group is distributing lesson plans to advisory‚s, and have gotten positive feedback from the students and staff. They are presently working on:
1. Academic counseling- preliminary discussions
2. Grading-1 credit per year
3. Evaluation of program from staff, administration and students
Eventually they would like to coordinate with Career Cruising & Transition.
Kristen Allen, Freshman Coordinator expressed a concern that some of the freshman will fall through the cracks as sophomores, without all the support they had as freshman, and thinks this should be addressed. They are exploring a mentoring program.
Georgia said the data on sophomore failures is encouraging and shows less failures then last year.
Parent involvement was up 7% for the parent/teacher conference. Lori Bebber said the Superintendent/Parent meeting once a month is very successful and thought it would be very popular to for parents as a group to have lunch with Dr. Anderson.
Georgia informed us the E Plan is due March 14th, and we discussed the options of working several whole days, or more half days on it. On January 22, Dr. Anderson will present to the Board our progress. After we have the plan written, our Department Chairs will review, with question and answer time, then administration and peer committee will review it before it goes to the school board. Our writing date is Tuesday, December 4th, with December 11 as a tentative date if needed. The group that attended the Writing Your School Improvement Plan Workshop at the Roe decided we should work in several small groups. We will work in two teams: Math- Perry Bentsen, Lori Bebber, Jeff Wendland, Ed Veasey. Reading-Andrew Hains, Pete Carlin, Courtney Stone, Georgia Kouris. Ken Jaeke & Jennifer Page will be assisting throughout the day. Our student team members will be asked to participate in the writing as well. Our External Review Committee is Jim Andrews, RI Administration; Jim Springer, ROE and Doug Wisker.
Each person will need: Writing Your School Improvement Plan Workbook, TAV Report, Action Plan, School Report Card, Trend Data, Template Worksheets. Open House & Parent/Teacher Conference data would be helpful.
Georgia thanked everyone for coming and the meeting was adjourned.
Respectfully Submitted,
Carol DePron
[ Print This Page ] [ Email This Page ]