Tom Burris, Superintendent
Tom Burris, Superintendent
· 2017-2018 SY Calendar – G 3 & 4, the semesters are the same. Numbers were off on G-1 & G-2. G-5 was submitted but due to a PD day there was a 3 day week so that calendar was cut. UHS and RHS do not like PD days in the middle of the week, when we have PD on Monday and Friday attendance is poor. G-3 was the choice of SAC
· PPP- PED does not tell us how to do it but we have to follow the teacher evaluation tool. Figure out something that will work for an entire campus. School improvement scores will be difficult due to permanent subs. One high school in favor of individual awards and one high school in favor of school awards. Elementary said group would allow everyone to get awarded, individual leaves some groups out. The money is below the line, you either apply for it or it goes somewhere else. We need to tap into any money we can get.
· The consensus vote is to submit the entire package for the PPP Grant.
Rhonda Pharis/Kristie Jurney, CLC
· Have not received an answer as to why EOC’s did not happen, looking forward to find out what happened. – Dr. Romero – the way EOC’s are attached to our tested courses, course number is created at STARS with an EOC attached to it. We have caught many mistakes where the STARS code we are using is not attached to the EOC that the state provided. We do know about it now so we will be able to correct it next semester. He hopes we have caught them all but there might 1 or 2 more out there we have not caught yet. It is a new process to all of us. Tamie Pargas – we need to be sure that what is tested is what is being taught.
Patricia Espinosa, Berrendo Elementary
· The difference in rigor on the evaluations between primary and intermediate is a concern: PARCC verses Istation – Dr. Romero – that is the summative assessment for those grade levels. There is an adjustment made when it comes to growth. Hope Morales – students taking istation are only compared to students taking istation.
· Why was the read out loud feature removed from Kindergarten on CIAs? Dr. Romero – it did not work very well, it caused more confusion than help. We will do it manually. Some still had the option to have it read to them, Dr. Romero does not know why.
Positives:
· Mr. Burris is visiting our building on Wednesday and we are looking forward to this.
· We are having a Pie in the Face event on Wednesday to raise funds for the school. Buy a pie for $5 to throw at the teacher of your choice.
Ashley Owen/Elizabeth Heady, Berrendo Middle
Questions:
· What is the latest possible start date for SBA Science? The testing window from the state is Feb. 28th to March 24th. The district calendar says Feb. 28th to Mar. 5th. There is concern for lack of time to finish teaching material. Dr. Northrup is looking into this.
· PPP grant: Can it be considered to allow teachers who have moved or retired to receive this grant since they are the ones with the scores? Mr. Burris – you have to work for us due to the anti-donation statute, they have to be active employees or we violate the statute
· Is there a solution to breakfast waste? There is concern that so much of it is being thrown away and we aren’t sure what to do about it. Lyman – Lyman Graham - I too and my staff want every student to enjoy all the food we serve. I raised 3 daughters and rarely was each meal I planned and served all their favorites. I taught them to eat and not waste because that is what I believe but still they didn’t always like what I served them. The hungrier they were the better they liked what I had. With that all said: I would like to take all your help on menu planning, please. I will meet with you or you can call me anytime
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· There was concern about Calendar G Draft 3 and 4. Why are we coming back so late from Winter break? Can we think about teachers coming back on Monday August 7th instead of the 4th?
Pros:
· Band concert at Berrendo Middle School at 7 pm on the 15th in the Big Gym. It is a free concert and everyone is invited to hear our Beginning Band, Jazz Band, and Advanced Band.
· The HeART of winter Arts Extravaganza on December 1 was a success! We had about 200 art entries along with entries by the Language Arts department. The BMS stage band played and Whitney Bain played flute solos to set the tone. We had a wonderful parent turnout!
· Students and teachers are hard at work preparing for finals and are finishing off the semester strong! CIA assessments and EOCs are going well!
Tami Garcia, Del Norte
Wows
· We had an Olympic Golfer, Gerina Piller, come visit our students.
· We are holding a food and toy drive for the community.
· We are thankful that Mr. Burris came to talk with the staff.
Question
· I'm wondering if grades 3-5 will be offered any after school training with Teacher Created Materials? Dr. Romero – he would love that, it is great support.
Claudia Miramontes, East Grand Plains
Calendar Comments
· One teacher commented, “Just for the record, I really don’t like either option. We are starting school too early and there is not enough time off before Christmas so that teachers can get ready for their family Christmases.”
· The majority voted for Calendar G-3
· We have had a great semester. We have many things planned for this week to celebrate student success and behavior throughout the semester.
· Students who showed good behavior throughout the semester will watch a movie and enjoy movie treats.
· We will have our annual EGP Family Sing-along Friday at 9:00.
· Excited that we will have art the last week of school before the break
Karla Buchanan, El Capitan
· Pre-K is doing great here at EL Cap. All most all the students can spell their names verbally and All most all can sing the number literacy song to 20 and one student can count to 100!All are happy and love school (most of the time). We had a great turn out for the our Thanksgivingplay.
· Yesterday, we had Math Day from 1-2 and it was a great success!
· Also, Wednesday, 12/14 @ 8:45 we are having a Pre-K and Kindergarten program.
· This morning we took the entire building to the movies to see "Moana", it was great! We also have awards this week.
· The staff is coming back from Winter Break a day early to do our 3rd data deep dive.
· The staff voted for calendar G-3.
Brian Hardin, Goddard
· There is a question on all these calendars concerning graduations? Normally GHS and RHS rotate Friday night graduation, so in 2017-2018 will GHS graduate on Friday night?
· Will it be up for discussion before building/developing next year’s calendar about Parent teacher conferences. I know that many people would prefer to have a regular work day set aside for this task as opposed to staying till 7 pm one night and being released at 12 the next. I feel like it is early enough in the year to bring this back up for further review.
· As many have noted – we would like further clarification/reports that support the data/assessment portion of the evaluation. It would be nice to have detailed reports for each student to support where the growth or lack of is coming from, not just points possible on the teacher evaluation. Basically evidence to support the numbers.
a. It would also be nice at the high school – since so many of our classes are specialized if we had a true measurement of growth for our students while they are under our direction from the beginning of the year till the end – (ie a pre-test/post-test scenario) This seems like it would be more an accurate measure of student growth within the discipline under the specific teacher.
b. We would also like data analysis reports from EOC’s – how do we know where we might need to redirect our focus for future years/planning if we don’t ever see what was missed to begin with.
· Is it possible to discuss the option of a late-in or early release schedule at the high school to allow for meeting times to fit within contract time as opposed to before/after contract time. I realize that we have from 3:10 to 3:30 and it might be questioned why that time is not utilized for these type of meetings– but for numerous reasons this time of day is difficult to get all staff members together for a productive meeting (just ask any high school teacher and they will probably agree). And yes we get a prep daily – but that time is critical when it comes to planning and grading for over 150 students. Many departments would like to have more time to focus on CPI / departmental / faculty meetings during contract day not at 7:20, voluntarily give up lunch, or try to cram a meeting in 10 minutes at the end of day when so many other things are going on. Many years ago we had a Wed late in to accommodate for weekly meetings – it would be nice to look at that sort of option again.
Jamie Furney, Mesa
· Our attendance affects our evaluation, but why is that we are punished if we miss school for personal or sick leave but nothing happens to all of those teachers that miss for professional leave. We can’t miss more than 3 days without getting dinged and they can miss 5-10 days or more and still be highly effective. Mr. Burris – if someone is out on FMLA and it is documented it is not counted against them. First 3 days are not counted and pd days are not counted, this goes for PPP as well.
· Life skillsstudents are selling tickets for a chance to silly string an administrator, this includes Mr. Burris who graciously volunteered to help with our fundraiser. We will gladly sell tickets if anyone would like a chance at silly stringing Mr. Burris.
Hope Morales/Manuel Garcia, Military Heights
From MHE-
· There was a tie between calendars G3 and G4. Teachers like having a PD day in Q1, Q2, and Q3, but not necessarily the PD on Wednesdays.
· We are getting ready to have our Winter Wonderland celebration. Students will get to spend tickets earned during quarter 2 on a variety of activities.
· Support Staff was acknowledged at our weekly attendance assembly and were able to run the halls as students cheered them on.
· CIA’s and Art surveys were completed.
· Our leadership team met and developed an outline for our next 90 day plan.
From STA-
· Brochures provided for National Board Teacher certification. Can move from Level II to Level III and there is a $6,000 stipend per year.
· 6 teachers from RISD have made it into phase 2 of the Teacher Leader selection process.
· EOC Writing- Teachers must complete survey showing interest to participate (263 educators). PED emails teachers meeting requirements to participate. Teachers participate in NMPED Item Writing Course on the Learning Mate platform. (9 educators have completed the module so far). Link to show interest in writing EOC’s : https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/EoC_Nomintation
· Teacher Summit this summer will be open to 1,000 teachers. Save the dates: June 26-28 (Monday-Wednesday)
Amy Ashlyn, Missouri Avenue
Positives
· Student Council is planning a canned food drive and a coat drive for shortly after the holiday break.
· Second grade had a Thanksgiving presentation. They had a bigger audience than they were expecting and plan to make it an annual event.
· First grade is going to sing Holiday songs for their families next Wednesday
· Reading night, Camp Read-A-Lot, was a huge success, we had over 600 people in attendance. I have never seen that many parents and students in our school building. I have also never heard so much positive feedback from so many parents! They loved it and were so impressed. The staff did a wonderful job decorating and providing Reading related activities for the students. A big Thank You to Mr. DeSoto for providing everything we needed for the students and incentive for the staff.
· Many of our staff have taken advantage of the Professional Development with Judith Goodman (Teacher Created Materials), she is a knowledgeable presenter who does not waste one minute of time at her trainings. Everything she presents has the potential to be used in the classroom almost immediately. Please keep bringing her back to our District.