NORTH ATLANTA HIGH SCHOOL
NAHS GO Team
October 13, 2016– Approved Minutes
I. Board Members Present:
Curtis Douglass, Mike Everly, Chip Fife, Lisa Jern, Robin Oliver, Sheena Varghese, Nicolas Prada-Rey,Kari Kirkley, Rod Reynolds
(Quorum Present)
Board Members Not Present: Gwen Benson,LaKeicia Bonner,
Community Members: Laura Denning (Co-President, PTSA), Shawnna Hayes Tavares (parent)
Called to Order
4:45 p.m. by Mike Everly, Chairperson
II. PUBLIC COMMENT
Shawna Hayes Tavares asked if the Go Team could post email addresses online. She also asked if she could see more specific measures in the North Atlanta Title I plan that was recently approved.
III. ACTION ITEMS
1. Approval of 9/8/2016 Meeting Minutes.
Lisa Jern asked for the minutes to reflect a change of PTA to PTSA in the minutes.
Motion by Lisa Jern to approve 9/8/2016 meeting minutes. Seconded by Mike Everly
Final Resolution: Motion Passed unanimously
2. Approval of Strategic Plan.
Mike Everly opened the floor for discussion on the Strategic Plan prior to approval. Reynolds discussed a comprehensive tutoring program for the school, possibly under school strategies numbers 12 and 4. Team discussed putting this under the umbrella of those two strategies. Mr. Douglass mentioned tutors that are already coming from Emory University during the day. Reynolds also discussed peer tutoring. Mr. Douglass discussed an upcoming parent meeting to target tutoring to students performing in the lowest tier. Reynolds discussed looking at the peer tutoring program at Camelback High School in Arizona as a model. Everly asked what the current policy is on community volunteers providing tutoring. Everly suggested rewording strategy 12 to change to include specific strategies: “Develop and implement a comprehensive tutoring program including: peer-to-peer, college students, APS funded tutors, and community volunteers.” Jern suggested rewording strategy 4 to change to include the word “expand.” Kirkley and Jern also mentioned two grammatical corrections. Jern suggested keeping on the table, the concept of study hall as a possible innovation. Mr. Douglass said the biggest barrier is that any course has to have an approved state course number. Mr. Douglass suggested the idea of minimum day used at the beginning of end of the day to use that time as a study hall. This path may be the best avenue with least resistance. Reynolds asked what advisement periods are being used for. Oliver came and discussed what he does with the work. Prada-Rey explained how he used the advisement period for social emotional learning and for getting grade level handouts. Jern suggested for adding a strategy after strategy 6 to add “Evaluate the use of minimum day, study hall and other types of flexible scheduling.” Everly stated that the Key Performance Measures are made with current data, but we will receive new CCRPI scores for last school year in a few weeks. Also, discussed revising the IB DP measure numbers. Jern discussed that many strategies do involve overlap with the PTSA, Go Team, school administration and North Atlanta Foundation and that we should partner together to address them. Everly also suggested that once the plan is approved, the team will need to pick which strategies to tackle first this year to focus efforts on highest priorities and target our resources. Everly moved to close discussion.
Motion by Lisa Jern to approve Strategic Plan. Seconded by Sheena Varghese
Final Resolution: Motion Passed unanimously.
3. Approval to establish a standing committee for Principal Support and Evaluation
Motion by Mike Everly to establish the standing committee. Seconded by Lisa Jern.
Everly explained that this committee would be Jern and himself to meet with Mr. Douglass with the purpose to support him and provide a document to Mr. Simms as per responsibility of the Go Team.
Final Resolution: Motion Passed unanimously
IV. DISCUSSION ITEMS
- IB Update:
The update will be moved to November. Dr. Showers can give updates regarding MYP program and Mrs. Costarides will give an update on DP exams payment formula. Mr. Douglass discussed how this is the first year with two IB coordinators. There has been a great level of growth in the leadership from these two coordinators. Also, discussed implementing a MYP project fair and middle school having a similar project, as well.
- Implementing Go Team Strategies
Everly discussed possibly making a focus group to begin working on a plan for implementing a few of the strategies, in particular tutoring. Kirkley suggested a group of Oglethorpe University students. Oliver suggested having department chairs organize content/class based tutorials instead of each teacher holding a tutorial every week. Reynolds will take the lead on forming this focus group.
Everly also discussed strategy 13: leveraging the PTSA and NAHS Foundation to better support teachers. Jern stated that she will be leading the efforts with this strategy.
Oliver discussed wanting to see implementation of strategy regarding teacher professional development. Mr. Douglass discussed that certain PDs are required by the district and need to be implemented. Oliver wants to see teachers implementing a more robust professional development structure that builds teachers’ methodology toolbox. Mr. Douglass discussed the growth in Algebra I classes that he has seen with the implementation of common planning and instructional coach led PLCs. Jern suggested whether this falls under the school management umbrella versus Go Team governance. Everly also suggested this strategy may be beyond the Go Team’s scope.
Reynolds also suggested looking at the Go Build Georgia website for better implementing strategy 9. Reynolds suggested that there are grants through the website where schools can apply for grants to help pursue technical school. Varghese will review the website to give the team an update in November. Douglass suggested that the biggest obstacle is catching students who may struggle with 9th grade math. Varghese discussed how the CTI coordinator works with vocational rehabilitation and technical track students.
Jern asked Mr. Douglass about the timeline for a possible scheduling innovation. Douglass said likely needs to be approved as an innovation by January. He suggested that it may be too much to approve and implement by 2017-18 school year. Douglass suggested that our role this year may be to evaluate this strategy and discuss how the innovation could work for North Atlanta. Everly suggested on working on the strategies we can get work done on and then come back in January to look at the study committees to do further evaluation.
Fife said he had interest in helping implement strategies 14 and 16. Fife’s main interest is in strategy 16 about community awareness for the IB program. He also noted the results from the teacher survey from last school year that highlighted too much professional development (PD). Mr. Douglass spoke to the level of PD at North Atlanta compared to the PD required at other schools.
- Miscellaneous/Announcements:
November meeting to include discussion items about strategy items 12 and 13. November will also include the IB update and an Action Item for the approval of these minutes.
Mr. Douglass mentioned that he will be addressing the petition circulating at Sutton and North Atlanta about the concern regarding too much homework.
V. MEETING ADJOURNED: 6:08 PM
Motion by Mike Everly; Seconded by Rod Reynolds; approved unanimously.
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