Monday, March 25, 2013

April 2nd Meeting Agenda



AGENDA FOR SCHOOL COUNCIL MEETING

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

1.     CALL TO ORDER

2.     INSPIRATION – Veronica Barnes

3.     APPROVAL OF MINUTES – Joli Mauldin

4.     REPORTS
     a. PTA President – Jennifer Hatfield
     b. Evansdale Foundation– TBA
     c. Principal’s Report – Dan McGuire
          i. Staffing and Allotments
          ii. Enrollment
         
5.     UNFINISHED BUSINESS
a.     Parent Involvement – Greta Massetti
b.     Discipline Plan – Pamela McCloud/Virdell Pitts
c.     STEM update – Dan McGuire/Gretchen Neigh
d.     ELL Adult Programs Update – Dan McGuire
         
6.     NEW BUSINESS
a.     Selection process for language immersion program – Dan McGuire
         
7.     DEVELOP AGENDA FOR NEXT MEETING: Tuesday, May 7th, 2013

8.     ADJOURNMENT

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Summary of Lakeside Cluster Leadership Council Meeting



A summary of the meeting was sent via email to those in attendance.  The summary is copied in its entirety below.


The Lakeside Cluster Leadership Council held an initial meeting on Wednesday, February 27 at Henderson Middle School.  PTA Presidents, School Council Chairs and school Principals in the Lakeside cluster were invited to attend or to ask other representatives to attend.  We are pleased that the meeting was attended by approximately 40 people and representatives from every school in our cluster.  Thank you to everyone who participated.

The Lakeside Cluster Leadership Council was created to maintain and strengthen the Lakeside cluster with communication, leadership and a commitment to the success of our school district as a whole.  Our agenda included several options for our cluster as follows: 

1.    Accreditation update--It is possible for individual high schools to pursue accreditation from an agency other than SACS in addition to or instead of SACS accreditation.  The Georgia Accreditation Commission (GAC) accredits both public and private high schools.  Lakeside High School is looking into this alternative means of accreditation.  Leaders at Lakeside High School are currently researching what this alternative accreditation entails (it may require approval by the DeKalb County School System), the cost, and the benefit of this kind of accreditation to the school and students.  We will report more as this process continues.

2.    Current Issues--The status of our school board members continues to be in a state of flux.  A coalition of parents from throughout the county called Concerned Citizens for a United DeKalb hoped to encourage the six suspended school board members to resign and hold a special election to replace them, thereby preserving voting rights.  It seems that this goal has not yet been achieved.  The Concerned Citizens for a United DeKalb plan to use the Facebook Page Parents for DeKalb Schools as their means of communicating with the community.  Please visit this Facebook page for updates.  We also will report any information we receive. 

3.    Building Bridges in the County--The people who initially met to create the Lakeside Cluster Leadership Council felt that building bridges throughout the county is critical to the success of our county as a whole.  We believe that there are many things that unite us, and better relationships throughout the county will serve everyone's best interest.  As individuals and as a cluster, we need to build bridges whenever possible.

4.    Charter Status--Druid Hills High School cluster is pursuing applying for Charter Cluster Status.  If this effort succeeds, it would include all schools in the Druid Hills feeder pattern.  Applying for Charter Status is a time consuming process.  We do not know the law in its entirety, but it is intended to give Charter schools (or clusters) flexibility from some school system requirements in exchange for a higher level of accountability. 

The petition for charter status must include a description of what flexibility the school wants, how finances, personnel and human resources will be managed, the extent to which parents, the community and other stake holders will participate in the management of the school and other innovative practices.  In addition, an application for Charter Cluster Status must include  A) A statement describing the rationale for petitioning as a high school cluster, B) A description of how each school will be held accountable for performance goals, and C) a description of how the high school cluster as a whole will be held accountable for performance goals.  The petition for Charter Status must be approved by secret ballot by a majority of faculty and instructional staff at the school(s) applying for the charter AND by a majority of the parents of students present at a meeting called for the purpose of applying for charter status. 

Charter Status is a big undertaking.  Druid Hills is holding a series of meetings for parents in their cluster to discuss the process.  If anyone in the Lakeside cluster is interested in pursuing this option, please let us know and we will share your contact information with our distribution list.

5.  Lakeside Cityhood--meetings are taking place to create the City of Lakeside.  Currently, cities are not able to create their own school systems, and the City of Lakeside movement is unrelated to the schools.  There is a bill in the State Assembly to allow cities to create separate school districts, but it will be a long time before that will happen, if the bill is passed. 

6.  Moving forward--We will continue to update this group as information becomes available.  We are interested in everyone's feedback about whether you think this group should meet again this school year and if there are any other items we should add to our agenda.

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Synopsis of March Meeting

Note:  This is an unofficial summary of notes from the meeting and not the minutes of the meeting.  Official minutes will be provided after they are voted on at the April meeting.

The meeting was called to order at 5:06 PM and inspiration was provided by Cheryl Anderson.

The minutes from the February meeting were approved unanimously.

The PTA President Report was given by Jennifer Hatfield and included:
1) report of successful spring book fair
2) upcoming cultural arts program called "Literature Sings" for the students in March
3) a special evening program featuring Evansdale student art is upcoming
4) this is clean commute week and tomorrow (3/6/13) is Georgia Walk to School Day

The Evansdale Education Foundation Report was given by Devon Christopher and it focused on the spring fundraising event which will be an auction similar to past year but will be at the Greater Good BBQ this year.  The adult-only event will occur on Saturday, March 23rd and tickets are now on sale.  Tickets can be purchased using the form that came home in couriers last week or via the internet.

The Principal's Report was given by Dr. McGuire and included:
1) addition of a new para for preK
2) enrollment is at 654
3) distribution of test data with explanations of the test results and implications which will be sent home soon to all parents; feedback on format and content was requested from the School Council members.

Unfinished Business:

1) Magnet Revision: Despite conflicting information given via telephone to some parents by the School Choice office, the revision is moving forward as previously described.  There will not be a lottery for magnet seats for in-district children because all children that live in the Evansdale district will be part of the Magnet School next year.

2) STEM kick off was February 26th for DCSD schools.  The STEM team from Evansdale attended and is moving forward with independent meetings separate from the School Council.

3) The DCSD ELL office has agreed to facilitate a parent meeting with interpreters for ELL families with Spanish as their primary language.  The meeting will include discussion of ESOL services as well as explanations of the changes in our school including the Magnet revisions, STEM, and the dual immersion grant.  In addition, Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF) has offered to work with Evansdale ELL parents to help them better acclimate into the US school culture.  They have provided services at other DCSD schools that have been successful.  Dr. McGuire will follow up with Principals from those schools to hear their feedback on the program.  Scheduling of the sessions will occur outside of the School Council.  Both services described are free for the Evansdale community and supported by either Title III money through DCSD (ELL services) or MALDEF.

4) EIP is being facilitated primarily by the push-in model but when this is not possible the teacher's lounge is being used and is outfitted with a dry erase board and necessary supplies.

New Business:

1) Veronica Barnes gave a report on the recent Lakeside Leadership Council meeting.  The group is a collection of PTA, School Council, and DCSD school administrators with the common goal of solidarity and education quality in the Lakeside cluster.  Discussions at the first meeting focused on the DCSD accreditation and BoE issues.  Future meetings have not yet been scheduled.

2) Foreign language offerings were discussed.
    a) The dual immersion grant from the State DoE will start next year with 2 kindergarten classes.  One new
         teacher who is fluent in French will be necessary.  Core curriculum will be taught in French for half the
        day and in English for half the day. The mechanism by which children will be assigned was briefly
        discussed but the decision will be made above the level of the School Council.  More information will
        be forthcoming.  A video on dual immersion can be found here.
     b) The language that will be offered in general in the school was also discussed.  At the focus groups last
        fall a subset of parents stated that they would prefer that Spanish be offered instead of French.  After a
        lengthy discussion, it was generally agreed that a transition to a new language was not logistically or
        financially feasible.  There was no vote taken because the financial resources to alter the language
        offerings are not available.  In addition, the vast number of changes already slated for next school year
        tempered enthusiasm for leading an additional School Council initiative for change at this time.

3) School Council elections for 2013-2014 will occur the week of May 13-16 and will close at 7 PM on the 16th.  Voting will be located in a more prominent place this year and the additional days for voting are hoped to increase voter turn out.  Nominations for School Council will be due by May 9th and a letter will go home on April 19th with details.  The terms are 2 years and 3 parents will be elected to start terms in August 2013.

4) A new discipline plan was presented by Pamela McCloud, Assistant Principal.  The plan is currently being piloted in the school for grades 2-5.  Teachers are overwhelmingly supportive of the new plan.  Detailed communication will go home to parents following a trial period.  Ms. McCloud has visited each of the classrooms to detail the new process which is a revision of the existing "check" system.  To briefly summarize, the plan dictates that after 2 checks a child's parent/guardian is called to be made aware of the infractions.  If a third check is received within a 4.5 week period, the child must have a conference with Ms. McCloud to discuss why the checks were received and how checks can be avoided in the future.  A parent conference will not be requested unless repeated student conferences are needed and no resolution is being reached.  There was some disagreement among Council members regarding the plan and concerns about consistency of check mark assignment and the use of a punishment based system.  The point of consensus among Council members was that parents should be notified of the change immediately, even if it is only a work in progress.  Notification to parents should be sent home this week.  Concerns or questions regarding this discipline plan should be addressed to Pamela McCloud.  An update on how the new plan is working will be provided at the April meeting.

The meeting was adjourned at 6:32 PM.