Windham Center School (WCS)

Windham Center School (WCS)

School Governance Council (SGC) Minutes – taken by M. Katibian

Date - January 9, 2016

Time - 5:15 - 6:45 PM

Attending: Adele Swart, Michelle Dupuis, Kathryn Kononchik, Kathleen Goodwin, Bill Powers, Kim Swart, Shannon Mangrum, Whitney McCormick, Darcy Baran, Stacy O’Neill, Mark Katibian

• Family engagement in SGC - update on progress working on satellite meetings at the Heights – Kathleen connected with Teresa – there are 2 dates in February when she will go to the Heights in conjunction with District attendance meeting 2/6 at 10:00, 2/7 at 4:00, Teresa sending out flyer. Could discuss ways for people to be part of SGC, PTO. Meetings should happen once a month. Various staff members have visited the Heights several times. Whitney has gone to help staff with math strategies on 3rd Thursdays. Connie will be attending next time to assist with math strategies. Kim suggested having all schools/families represented at these meetings. To do for Kathleen – contact Teresa and other schools about joining us at Windham Heights.
• School Spirit - discussion of support provided for Dec PJ day – went very well and Polar Express in 3rd grade was exceptional. Sports Day coming up in January.
• Attendance
• Brainstorm ways to promote/help – District still doing attendance meetings – Whitney attends. They reviewed data from grade to grade. Example – 8th to 9th has a big drop in attendance. Kathleen holds weekly attendance meetings. Whitney will inquire if DCF can be included in District Attendance Committee.
• Ideas
• Pre-recorded wake-up calls from celebrities – Whitney will contact Get School
• Student competitions - winner gets visit from celebrity
• Saturday class with volunteer teachers
• Leverage social media i.e. #schooleveryday
• Parents’ pledge
• Competition with other schools? Difficult because elementary students don’t have control of their attendance
• Overall classroom rewards for attendance-1-2x/month (most improvement, best overall) – visit from SGC – School to do do: identify classrooms with most-improved/overall attendance in January
• Surprise celebrations 2x/month with someone from WILI/UConn/Eastern basketball player (local celebrity) visiting– To Do - SGC members will put out feelers to local celebrities to ask what they could do to support us. Reward different classroom each time to celebrate attendance-identify what they are doing well. Shannon will look at Oriental Trading Company. Run it through PTO
• Cooking class, how to care for a pet – short (1/2 hour) intangible experiences like Sweeney does. Patterning fruit snacks.
• Scientific things on web pages / science presenter. Contact weather people.
• Currently doing:
• Student recognition at assemblies
• 90 minute meeting each week reviewing all students’ attendance
• Weekly District attendance data.
• "Thank you" at drop off (and pick up??)
• As part of teacher call routine
• 2 upcoming meetings at Windham Heights
• Budget Recommendation Form:
• Kathleen distributed budget proposals. She met with Dr. Garcia and Mr. Johnson
• Goal to keep 3 K classes, including 1 transitional bilingual classroom
• 1st would have 3 classes
• 2nd – 2 classes
• 3rd – 2 classes
• 4th – 2 classes
• 5th – 2 classes
• School psychologist – would have full-time next year
• Paras would stay the same
• Proposed behavior tutor
• 274 students enrolled
• Biggest changes - $2,000 music equipment
• Sign-off needed for February
• School Improvement Plan
• We reviewed SMART goals.
• Neil (district employee) presented growth model for SBAC calculations at staff meeting today
• One issue is the transiency of WCS students – they can’t be counted unless they test over 2 years.

• Bylaws
• Budget
• Review of SIP
• Attendance ideas.
• Next meeting 2/6