Classical Magnet School
Parent Senate Minutes for September 10, 2008
The meeting was called to order at 6:00 p.m. by Deb Fuller, President.
Denise Kennedy, School Librarian said the school website has a link to the library for a list of resources available to all students including the library catalog and databases(World Book, Grolier, et.al.). Students have access at school but need a password for home use—Denise will let everyone know when passwords are available. There are also Blogs for middle school and high school students to discuss books—all comments made go to Denise first and she does not publish anything inappropriate. Also, no last names are posted.
A survey was handed out to all parents about the Summer reading assignment. Results of this survey will be given at the next Parent Senate meeting.
The Fall Book Fair will be a Borders book fair with many choices for all ages. Nicki McGuire will co-chair the fair and is looking for helpers. The fair will be held the 1st 2 weeks of November, just in time for holiday shopping. If you have suggestions for books we should sell, e-mail Denise Kennedy.
The Hog River Book Fair will be a Scholastic fair.
Tim Sullivan, Principal, reported on the following:
At Classical Magnet, all events start ON TIME always! If you arrive late, you’ll miss things, whether it is a meeting, a concert, a play, an induction, or graduation.
Tim has found that PTAs at the secondary school level have very little impact on the running of the school and the quality of education the children receive. He threw out the PTA model to engage parents in a 2-way conversation and empowerment in the school. Parents, students and staff floundered because they weren’t used to it, so a document was put together that we will hold ourselves accountable to. Parents are encouraged to call and e-mail Mr. Sullivan at any time.
Mr. Sullivan will have a quarterly meeting on Saturdays from 9:00-12:00 in the Trinity Room for parents to talk to him about anything they are concerned about. The first of these meetings will be on November 22. E-mail and voice-mail reminders will be sent out as we get closer to that date.
Ms. Garrison and Ms. Adams have left Classical for WestMiddle School. Our 2 new Assistant Principals are Sean Tomony, high school, and Bill Chambers, middle school. They both come to Classical with many years of teaching and administrative experience in the HartfordSchool system.
Enrichment has been a big weakness in the past. We now have a full-time administrator of the enrichment program—Yuli Susaya. From 2:30 -4:00 is active enrichment and from 4:00-6:00 is a supervised study hall with tutors for any student that needs that time. The school website has a list of enrichment programs. Yuli encourages students and parents to write proposals with suggestions for new programs. She checks her messages in the morning and in the evening and every day she is in the cafeteria for the lunch waves listening to students’ complaints and concerns about enrichment. Have your child talk to her if there is a problem with their enrichment program.
Bussing issues were addressed—Mr. Sullivan indicated that during the 1st 2 weeks of school next year, there will be busses that do not show up, that will be late, and that will have the wrongs kids on them—this happens every year. It is impossible to get 700 kids here at 7:45 without any problems. Tim appreciates the patience of parents. Mr. Chambers’ office is in charge of transportation if you have questions or concerns.
Lunch applications must be filled out and sent in. Students are given an ID # to punch in for either free or reduced fee lunches—students should not share those ID #s with each other. Mr. Rodriguez is the lunch supervisor—call him with questions. For partial pay students, $30 covers a month of lunches.
Uniforms—the CT Shirtman was overwhelmed this year with last minute orders. 2 weeks before school started was not early enough to order. They have done their best to process orders promptly. Mr. Tomony’s office is in charge of uniforms if you have questions or concerns.
Susanna McGlamery is working on the website.
The Guidance Department has 4 counselors:
Ms. Grant—6th & 10th grade
Ms. Tolson—7th & 11th grade(currently on maternity leave)
Mrs. Stair—8th & 12th grade
Ms. McGlamery—9th grade, website & recruiting
Grades 6,7,9 & 11 went to the Hartford Stage to see “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” today; 8th grade is going in 2 weeks.
Statistics for last year’s graduates:
100% were accepted into colleges
83% are enrolled in 4-year colleges
2 girls are on full scholarship at BostonCollege
1 girl is on full scholarship at ProvidenceCollege
1 girl is on full scholarship at ConnecticutCollege
1 girl is on full scholarship at Hamilton
The only students not in 4-year colleges had Cs and Ds on their report cards.
CAPT and CMT scores were good—we had the highest scores of any school in Hartford and we were recognized by US News & World Report as a Bronze Medal School (one of 15listed)
The 6th grade class this year is the strongest class we’ve ever had coming into the school.
The floor was opened up for questions and none were brought forward.
Mr. Sullivan discussed the School Improvement Plan. The 3 goals for the school are
- to improve the school climate as measured by discipline
- to recruit a racially diverse population
- to have quality instruction in the classroom
Enrollment at Classical is one of the most diverse in Hartford:
There are 33 “white” students from Hartford and 355 “other” from Hartford
There are 127 “white” from the suburbs and 184 “other” from the suburbs.
The higher grades have fewer whites. We currently have a population of 23% white and our goal is 26% white to meet the Sheff v. O’Neill requirements or money can be taken away from the school. Simpson-Waverly, Hooker, and Annie Fischer all had money taken away because of lack of diversity. The ideal breakdown is 1/3 white, 1/3 black, and 1/3 Hispanic. The problem is transportation. We have one student in Wallingford that gets on the bus at 5:39 a.m. and gets home at 5:39 p.m.
The Hartford Courant hasn’t given us any great amount of press space—they did not cover our graduation, science fair, sports teams—trying to get them to cover more stories about us.
We cannot pick students by race anymore. We can give towns that are underserved priority in the lottery. Bloomfield, East Hartford, Windsor, and New Britain all have lots of kids coming to Classical.
Discipline data is reported per student per month. We had 1 expulsion in each of the last 3 years. Outside suspensions have decreased since 2005. Any weapons infractions have all been with short knives(pocket knives)—they were not taken out at school but staff found out about the knives and the students were disciplined. Any fighting was non-confrontational. Tardiness and truancy occurred 3060 times last year, which includes anyone being late to any class all day—lunch detentions are given for this. We are basically a safe and late school! In the event of a threat, kids should not defend themselves—they should call out for help and try to walk away –if they fight back, both kids will be suspended. If no adult is around, it’s different, but no kid should be where there are no adults during the school day. We are trying to decrease the number of fights and the number of suspensions.
Classroom visits: Last year Mr. Sullivan visited each class at least 9 times, gave feedback, and recorded what he saw. The goal for this year is 600 visits. The breakdown for teaching should be as follows:
15% didactic (lecturing)
70% coaching(students working, practicing skills)
15% seminars(students in a circle engaged in intellectual conversation about text they’ve read)
If teachers cannot change according to Mr. Sullivan’s feedback, they are not welcome at Classical. Right now, Mr. Sullivan feels good about and can support every teacher here—we have a very solid teaching staff.
Governance Structure and Procedures: this Summer a group of parents and teachers met with Mr. Sullivan to make a better plan which allows us to get parents in a meaningful 2-way conversation and work on things as a group. They came up with a plan that will be a road map of how parents can affect the school. Ultimately Mr. Sullivan makes the final decisions and has to answer to the Board of Education. The Student Life Committee, the Curriculum Committee, and the School Governance Committee will give him guidance and help with those decisions. The Student Life Committee will deal with things like uniforms, enrichment, rules for school dances, etc. The Curriculum Committee will deal with what books we’ll buy and vote for teachers being hired. There have been 55-60 teachers hired since Mr. Sullivan has been here and the committee was invited to all interviews.
The Staff, Parent, and Student Senates are all equal. The Student Senate will meet tomorrow and the Staff Senate will meet on Friday. When a proposal is presented, all 3 Senates will vote on it and make a recommendation to Mr. Sullivan. He goes to the Governance Committee and a decision is made.
The School Governance Committee consists of 2 parents, 2 students, and 2 teachers who are each chosen by their respective Senates. They meet the 4th Wednesday of every month in the Conference Room from 6-8 p.m.
The Curriculum and Assessment Committee consists of 2 students 2 parents and 2 teachers chosen by their respective Senates. They hire teachers. They meet the 4th Wednesday of every month in the Library from 6-8 p.m.
The Student Life Committee consists of 2 parents, 2 teachers and 2 students chosen by their respective Senates. They deal with the school compact, rules, enrichment, social events, and fundraising. They meet on the 4th Wednesday of every month in the Library from 6-8p.m.
Grade Level Team Leaders meet once a month with Mr. Sullivan. The 5 teachers for each grade meet every day. Department leaders meet once a month with Mr. Sullivan.
Staff Senate meets on the 2nd Friday of every month in the Trinity Room from 4-5 p.m.
Student Senate meets the 2nd Thursday of every month from 4-5 p.m..
Parent Senate meets the 2nd Wednesday of every month from 6-8 p.m. in the library.
The Senate Presidents meet on the 4th Wednesday of every month from 6-8 p.m. in the Library.
How an idea becomes a school-based policy:
Someone has an idea, so they present it to their Senate. That Senate President gets the idea in writing and puts it on a Classical Magnet Proposal Form. The form includes what the proposal is, the impact of the proposal and the cost of the proposal. The president presents the idea at the President’s Conference and assigns it a number. At the next Senate meetings, the proposal is read by each Senate. Members of the Senates go home, discuss the proposal with their kids, talk to their neighbors, etc. The next month, each of the Senates will take a vote on that proposal. Then each of the committees gets the proposal and votes on it, and the proposal is either passed or not. During the readings, Senates and committees can propose amendments. If a committee decides not to vote on a proposal, that’s fine. We will follow this procedure for 1 year and at the end of the year we’ll re-evaluate this.
A vote was taken regarding preference for the start time of Parent Senate meetings. The result was 30 parents preferred 6:00 and 17 preferred 6:30, so Parent Senate meetings will begin at 6:00.
In October and all following months, Mr. Sullivan will come to Parent Senate meetings, do his report, and leave. Parents will then be left to discuss suggestions, read proposals already numbered, make amendments to proposals, vote on 2-month old proposals, etc.
We need to come up with a set of Parent Senate By-laws and make decisions about things like what will happen if a parent can’t make it to a meeting to vote—can they enter an absentee ballot? Also, should each family only get one vote per child?
The Parent Senate voted to approve the Governance Structure and Procedures manual.
Mr. Sullivan discussed the fact that Classical does not run typical fundraisers. He sends out a letter to all families asking for a $25 donation to the school. Last year that money was used to pay for the Hog River Festival, which cost families only $1 per non-student, optional $1 for an ice cream, and optional $1 to participate in the Dunk-the faculty member. The field triptoday to “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” cost the school $10,000, but each student only paid $5.
The hierarchy for issues with teachers is as follows: Parents should first go to the teacher and have a conversation about what they feel is the problem. If there is no resolution, then go to the administrators: Mr. Tomony evaluates the high school teachers, Mr. Chambers evaluates the middle school teachers, and Mr. Sullivan evaluates the music, PE, and non-certified staff.
The city-wide Board of Education grading policy is using the following letter grades now: A, A+, B, B+, C, C+, D, D+, F. An F can no longer be a “0”, it’s a “50” at the lowest to give students a chance to get out of that rut—with “0”s, there is no hope and students give up.
Mr. Sullivan said that he prefers to be called “Tim” by parents.
Everyone at the meeting introduced themselves and gave any feedback about the school.
Luz Fraticelli gave her phone number : 695-9128. She is stationed at the desk in front of the gym during the school day.
In the past, the Parent Senate has not represented a good cross-section of the school, with mostly middle school parents coming to meetings—we need to stay together and build a consistency in the school.
Mr. Sullivan left the meeting and Deb Fuller resumed the agenda.
Election of Officers was held at the last meeting last year:
Deb Fuller is President
Andrea Webber is Vice President
Cathy Schneider is Secretary
Committee Representatives were chosen as follows:
Curriculum Instructions and Assessment Committee:
Tanya Milner-Harlee and Leslie Smith
Alternates: Kimberly Bryant, Gisela Perez, and Dolores Foster
School Governance Team:
Jackie McBee and Robyn Harper-Gulee
Alternates: Mark Bissonnette and Michelle Nichols-Morey
Student Life Committee:
Stephen Cephas ad Ralph Rodas
Alternates: Dolores Foster and Gina Campellone
Volunteer Coordinator:
Ellen Rudzis
Ad-Hoc By-Laws Committee:
Deb Fuller, Robyn Harper-Gulee, Tricia Levesque, Andrea Webber, Leslie Smith,
Mark Bissonnette, Andrew Wizner, and Gisela Perez
If a Parent Senate Representative cannot make it to any of their committee’s meetings, it is their responsibility to contact one of the alternates to take their place.
Uniform Swap at next week’s open house was discussed. Debate as to whether parents should be able to bring a uniform and get another one in return. If the correct size is not available would they get a receipt for a shirt in the future? This would turn into a nightmare to follow-up on. Decision was made to make it a uniform shirt, pants, shorts etc. donation and everything would be given to Guidance Department, who can provide the uniforms for families who need them.
Cathy Schneider presented an update on the Greece 2009 trip. We currently have 11 people signed up and we need at least 40 to keep the trip going. If we have 40 participants, the cost will be from $2789-$2889 per person. If we get 50 participants, the cost goes down to $2749-$2849 per person. The trip will be from Friday March 20 to Saturday March 28, 2009. We will visit Athens, Delphi, the GreekIslands, Cape union, Corinth, Mycenae, and Epidaurus. Anyone interested should send a $100 per person deposit to Classical (checks made out to Classical Magnet)—this money will be used to pay for transportation to and from JFK and for the tips for our tour guides and drivers in Greece. For more details, please contact Cathy Schneider at
Cathy Schneider presented a proposal for an All-Night Drug-Free/Alcohol-Free Graduation Party for the class of 2010. This is a project that will require help from parents at all grade levels to be part of various committees—see attached document for more details. This proposal will be presented to the Senate Presidents, then next month each Senate will read the proposal.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:25 p.m.
Our next Parent Senate meeting will be held at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday October 8 in the Library.
Respectfully submitted by Cathy Schneider, Parent Senate Secretary