HPS College and Career Readiness Council
January 26, 2016
4:30 – 6:30
Rockford Public Schools – Administration Building – Lower Level
Purpose: Communicate successes and address needs and barriers of Academy Teams and Academy Support Teams
Present:Casey Kilduff, Chris Magee, Christine Espe-Maxwell, Hannah Schoenberg, Jason Gorham, Jay Larson, Jim Ryan, Judy Gustafson, Scott Viel, Lyndi Toohill, Mary Ellen Commare, Patrick Abrahamson, Paul Cain, Reid Justras, Sam Schmitz, Sarah Parker-Scanlon, Susan Holmes, Wendy Vaughn, Nik Butenhoff, David Carson, Sheila Schmitt
- Welcome and Introductions
- Update from Executive Director of College and Career Readiness
On December 2 Alignment Rockford was contacted by Waukegan that they would like to bring approximately 30 staff and community members to visit Rockford Schools before Winter Break. Alignment Rockford and the RPS staff worked together to make this happen on December 9 and 11. This is a great example of accepting the responsibility of the Ford NGL Model. Great Job to all that were involved!
In November Nik Butenhoff accepted the position of Director of Career & Tech Ed in the College and Career Department. Prior to this position Nik was the Academy Coach at East High School. This is an example of one of the many ways the district is in support of the academies.
As a result of this Bill Rose accepted the position of the Academy Coach at East High School. Prior to this position Bill was the BAMIT Team Lead at East. Bill was also named the Academy Member of the Year 2015. Welcome both Nik and Bill in your new roles!
Plans are starting for the Third Annual Academy Awards 2016. More information to come, but start thinking about those you would like to nominate.
Dave and Nik are working RVC and RU on aligning the pathway alignment and opportunities. There will be more information to come as this develops.
On the District level so many things are happening and Communications wants to remind you to submit a Request for Publicity form to get the word out.
- Update from the Executive Director of Alignment Rockford
- Update from the Youth Court coordinator and Executive director of YSN
Video of Youth Court was shown as a reminder as to what Youth Court is all about.
Status Update:
May of 2014 Youth Court was started at Jefferson High School.
30 students were referred and 26 of those were approved. These were misdemeanor school related offenses. They happened during school or an event on RPS district property.
24 of the 26 have agreed to participate in Youth Court.
13 students have successfully completed the program
11 students are in the process and are projected to complete it in Feb. 2016
As of the end of 1st semester 2015/2016, there have not been any re-offenders.
Since Youth Court was established…
101 students have been trained as Council Members
38 at Jefferson
29 at Guilford
34 at Auburn
Auburn heard their first cases in January. WREX was there to film parts of it.
East projected to start soon.
They hope to have 20 to 25 students trained
6 staff members are being trained
They are working on setting a date, hopefully in March, for full day student training.
They are looking at April for their first cases.
Overall the councils are very diverse in many area (gender, ethnic, grade, academy, etc.)
Youth Court meets every month at each high school. There has been great involvement and support from the community. Community members have also donated their time to speak to the council members on days they do not have cases as enrichment opportunity
Referrals are increasing.
Christine shared a quote from a student as a response when a reporter asked her whyhe joined Youth court and if she as an interest in law.
"I have zero interest in law enforcement that isnot for me at all, I just think helping students who need it is the right thing to do, it's important that we all try and help them."
- Review CCRC/AST Structure
Katy Huan, Communications Coordinator, spoke from Alignment Rockford. There was an overview refresher explaining “What is the CCRC?”, “What is an AST?” and how the structure works with the staff at our schools. This information is also found in the CCRC/AST Handbook on the Alignment Rockford website. Alignment Rockford is here to support the academies.
- Alignment: Needs and Successes
- Process/Use/Update
Katy also spoke about the Needs and Successes lists that can be found on their website along with the process for school staff to enter items on these lists.
Guilford Needs: They are planning a mock crime scene investigation in April. Prairie State is working with them. They will need assistance from all areas for this (police, detective, lab, interviews, fingerprinting, etc.) Jim Ryan volunteered to help them with a manikin so they can start preparing it.
Roosevelt: Needing used acoustic guitars to help improve the performing arts area. Needing 150 thumb drives for student use. Speakers are welcome. Looking for assistance in various areas of police work.
As a reminder to all staff – please be specific in your requests.
Here are the various links to areas on Alignment Rockford webpage:
Other links these can also all be found in on our website on the Academies page:
Review needs (also listed above):
Submit a need:
Submit a success:
AST job description:
CCRC job description:
Handbook:
Volunteer Survey:
- National Standards of Practice (for Career Academies)
There are a total of 10 areas of practice. The community is included in numbers 6 & 8 which talk about how the community and district work together. We are looking for your input in these areas. Each academy and each school earns the modes status individually. The model status practices have been developed by about 7 organizations.
Jefferson EMITT will be the first academy to go through the process for recognition. They are working on getting all the information together for the review. Step 1 is a Baseline Analysis Process. This is scheduled for the 2nd week of April. The other schools are invited to witness this process so they have a better understanding for future. CCRC and AST members maybe surveyed as to your knowledge of the process and what is your role.
- Dig Into # 8 (Employer, Post-Secondary Education, and Community Involvement)
8.a. Local Industry/Economic Needs – What is work force? Hospitality will be growing and what are the needs for this area? Students in general have a lack of cultural base. They need the experience to know what jobs are possible. How does RPS tie in with Transform Rockford and get information for future jobs in the area and how can we plan for training students?
8.b. Community Involvement – The group talked about various experiences and how are we trying to get all of them for the same students. The challenge is getting the experiences and getting the community to help guide the curriculum. This can be a change in thought pattern for some district staff as to how to ask the community for assistance. There was a team during the summer that looked at the RPS Benchmarks and part of that work looking at curriculum.
8.c. Citizenship – This group would like a better definition of “global”. The group stated that there are approximately 67 different languages in the school district and all academies are available to them. They also mentioned that military and post secondary recruiters are in the schools and examples of this. Some students are working on community service projects.
8.d. Work-based Learning – What is “work-based learning”? Can we include EXPO, Capstones, Job shadow…need better description. Need better explanation of educating the community. How do we track the 70%? Is the 70% based on pocket academies or wall to wall.
- Identify Action Steps
- April – Report on AST Activity and Plan for 16-17 Meetings/Outcomes
The Model Academy Status is each academy at each school is an individual. Not everyone is going to be in the same place at the same time. How can the CCRC best support each academy?
Items to look at during the April meeting:
Curriculum
What is the plan and focus for the 2016/2017 school year?
Draft of dates and times for AST meetings
How to structure and best use the time
Ways that the CCRC can support AST and Staff
Events that you know of where community help will be needed, they can be added to an events calendar.
- Other
Please verify information on the attendance sheet for record updates
- Adjourn
Thank you all for attending and the great discussion!