Duveneck Website Blog

.Duveneck School Site Council

Meeting Minutes

March 3,2008

Members in Attendance

Jon Foster, Heidi Mickelson, Kathleen Meagher, Diane Gosney, Linda van Gelder, Mark Robbins, Jaynie Schemel, Kathy Thibault and Ching-wen Miron

Guest- Mary Vincent

Approval of Minutes:

Feb 5^th minutes approved. February 11^th minutes approved as amended. Jaynie will send out revised minutes to all members and have them posted on the bulletin board and website.

Election Sub- Committee

Sarah Sands will continue in this role. She will determine timeline and will make all postings as required. Mark is happy to serve another year however it was noted that he was elected for one year only. The SSC discussed that having him leave caused too many open positions (3 elected and 1 PTA appointed member) which would be disruptive to the work of the group. It was decided that SSC would let the community know that it has extended Mark’s one year position to two years. (The Bylaws state that all positions will be two years.) Parents leaving include Heidi Mickelson and Jon Foster, both of whom were elected. Linda van Gelder will also be leaving and will be replaced with another appointed PTA representative. Staff members whose terms are ending are Diane Gosney and Jaynie Schemel. Jaynie has agreed to serve another term.

Sarah will establish the necessary timeline to finish by May 15. Linda will put a notice in the next Dispatch so that we can begin to find interested parents.

Correspondence/Open Forum:

None

Student and Teacher Surveys-

The SSC reviewed the proposed survey questions for student and teacher surveys. Suggestions were made and each survey was completed. Heidi volunteered to type up the student survey and Ching-wen volunteered to put the teacher survey on line.

The group discussed which grade levels of students we should survey – most specifically whether we should include second graders. The decision was made to survey grades 3-5. Ching-wen agreed to have her second grade class to see what would happen so that we will have a better idea in the future if that grade level would be surveyed.

It is our hope that the surveys can be completed by Spring Break. Several SSC members volunteered to tally the student survey results on March 31 at 4:00 in the library. It is the intention of the group that we will be able to review the data from all 3 surveys at our April SSC meeting.

It was discussed that relatively few families have responded to the parent survey to date. Mark will send a reminder to parents via the online yahoo group. Kathleen will use the Connect Ed system to make a phone call will to all families to remind them to complete the survey by Friday.

We discussed ways to encourage parent participation in the survey including making computers in the library available and signs posted to remind parents. Linda is going to help create a sign to place in the front of the school to encourage participation.

Review of Single Plan for Student Achievement

Kathleen passed out a revised hand out of the Single Plan for Student Achievement Monitoring. We reviewed the progress we have made in the Closing the Achievement portion of the plan. Kathleen answered questions clarifying SDAIE and SIOP training and strategies. Kathleen shared that there will be changes in the VTP bus schedules next year that will adjust the after school schedule/support for VTP students.

Principal’s Report

Teachers are in the midst of parent conferences. The new playground equipment is in but we are still waiting on wood chips for kinder. The new gate is now in and is locked during the school day. The garden project is continuing. We have an eagle scout doing a project to build storage for the new garden area. He will also organize the shed where playground equipment is stored. Kathleen asked the District to plant trees around the 2 upper grade structures.

PTA Report

A new leadership structure was created in order to provide alignment with the other schools’ PTA’s. Math Curriculum Night is April 16. Spruce up Duveneck is April 12 when a cart will be built to hold the float for the parade. E-News has changed its format because they would not be able to continue using the district Server.

Meeting was adjourned.