School Improvement Team Meeting

School Improvement Team Meeting

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

8:00am, Room 116

Present: Beth Davis, Chanda Aves, Jon Duley, Pam Lindemer, Jeff Marion, Michael MacDonald, Jim Matice, Kim Noga, Angela Repke, Rachel Shattuck, Anne Swinehart, Doug Tackmann, Charlie Warner

The ELA Department shared their plans for implementing pre-writing strategies in the classroom. The department is in the process of creating a survey for learning teams to identify existing needs. The survey will be completed prior to the end of the year, enabling members of the ELA department to share writing strategies with interested teachers. A wide selection of graphic organizers for pre-writing are currently available on the i-drive.

The ELA department would like the ACT Writing score of 2.6 that was reported in 2008 verified. The figure continues to be suspect.

The team discussed the proposed change to a six period day. Initial calculations show:

5 Period Day:

1 credit = 2 trimesters = hours per day x 120 days = 140 hours

6 Period Day:

1 credit = 2 trimesters = hours per day x 120 days = 110 hours

6 Period Day:

1 credit = 2 semesters = hours per day x 180 days = 165 hours

The only way to achieve the reported $105,000-140,000 in savings is to go to a 6 period day on trimesters. The team felt that reducing the hours of instruction to 110 per credit would not be in the best interest of our students. A switch to the trimester schedule would require a return to semesters – or at least a trimester schedule with the core academic subjects being offered over three trimesters, thereby eliminating the reported savings. Beth Davis will develop a survey for the learning teams. Learning teams will be asked to brainstorm pros and cons to the proposed change in schedule.

The SIT will recommend to Mr. Kirby that we pursue Differentiated Instruction and possibly Examining Student Work as the focus of high school professional development during the 2010-2011 school year.

The meeting adjourned at 10am.

PSL