1/29/16 PS 199 SLT Meeting Minutes
Members in Attendance:
Danielle Cione
Ellen Shultz
Enrique Gonzalez
Jeanne Widerka
Kirsten Loderer
Liz Sutherland
Louise Xerri
Peter Rockwitz
Rachel Baer
Victoria Kopper
Victoria Micalizzi
Guests:
JoEllen Schuleman
Robert Schlaff
Theresa DiCristi
1. Minutes approved from January 15, 2016.
2. Parents as Partners (PaP) update: The event took place on January 26th from 6-7pm at school. There were 6 different workshops offered by teachers who volunteered their time and energy to show parents some of the things the children are working on at school. Approximately 125 parents attended. Jeanne shared the emailed responses she received from parents who attended and all were positive. She said parents asked if the teachers had handouts to give to parents who were not able to attend the workshops. Jeanne will try and get handouts to have at the next PTA meeting, and perhaps slide presentations where available.
Liz said she appreciates that thePaP presentations provide more in depth detail of the curriculum than at Curriculum Night in the Fall when there is so much material to cover.
Peter was thankful for the publicity of the event because it helped increase the number of attendees.
3. CEP January milestones (Comprehensive Education Plan):
a.Louise discussed grade level teacher teams.
Enrique sharedhow the Kindergarten teacher team meets on Mondays to plan a week in advance. They create and organize materials while brainstorming together.
Louise talked about PD (Professional Development) and a program called Foundations. They have a program for Kindergarteners and one for grades 1-5. She said that school wide more attention was being paid to small group work with the children.
It was brought up that parents ask about scoring and grading. The teachers assured the group that while they acknowledge that teachers have their individual approaches to teaching, they work in Grade Teams to ensure the same material is taught and that consistent grading policies and rubrics are in place.
Robert suggested explaining to parents that teachers are teaching the same subject but have their own style and may organize their day differently.
Louise said she hears about discrepancies by parents about homework; some teachers give more, some give less. She said teachers should discuss their individual homework policies with the parents. It is important to note that teachers may choose differently which pieces of work to allocate to either class time or as homework.
b. Louise discussed reading benchmarks. As of November, 80% of the children met Teachers College grade level reading benchmarks, our goal was 82%. January data has not been compiled yet, but we are on track to meet the goal of 100% by the end of the year.
c.RULER program (the social emotional program that has now been rolled out to the entire school): the goal was to have two Professional Development sessions for the RULER team and a further two meetings rolling out the program to the whole staff. All classrooms have created a charter and are using the mood meter. In addition, there was a presentation of the RULER program at the January PTA meeting.
Rachel discussed the upcoming RULER component calledmeta-moment. The meta- moment is the time in between something happening and the reaction to it. This is in the process of being rolled out to all the teachers who will in turn teach the concept to the children.
Louise said there are teacher team meetings for children having difficulty regulating their emotions. They are trying to teach them strategies to manage their emotions and resulting behavior.
In all, we are on track with our CEP goals for this school year.
Action: We will continue to review our CEP goals throughout the year.
4. Zoning/Overcrowding issue: Liz shared that a “Stakeholder” meeting took place with representatives from PS 199, the Department of Education, Community Board 7, Community Education Council for District 3 and Elected official or their representatives.PS 199 needs a solution for overcrowding and extra resources to manage the large student population. We do not want to split grades with another school creating a K-2 and 3-5 situation.
Action: We will continue to discuss on an ongoing basis.
5. Reschedule of 2 SLT meeting dates. There are no longer meetings on 2/12 and 6/17 due to conflicts. Possible dates to consider are 4/1, 5/6, 6/3 6/10 of which 2 dates will be selected.
Action: We will pick the 2 dates at our next meeting based on consensus preference.
Submitted by,
Ellen Shultz, SLT