Unofficial Synopsis of May 7th, 2013 Meeting

**This is an unofficial account of the School Council meeting from Tuesday, May 7th.  The official minutes will not be approved until the first meeting of the 2013-2013 school year in August 2013. **

The meeting was called to order at 5:04 p.m.

Inspiration was provided by Kristi Cross.

Minutes from the April meeting were unanimously approved (available now under the 'approved meeting minutes' tab above).

REPORTS

PTA:

Jennifer Hatfield provided the PTA President's report.  Highlights included:

1) PTA finances are in good shape for the end of the year with a slight excess.
2) The budget ways and means committee has been gathering community input regarding what to do with the budget excess.  The use for the money will be voted on by the general PTA membership at the May meeting.
3) The slate of PTA officers for the 2013-2014 school year will be voted on at the May PTA meeting.
4) The student Talent Show will occur following the May PTA meeting on Thursday, May 16th.
5) A buy-one-get-one book fair will be held next week.
6) The 5K was held last week with approximately 90 runners and it generated some positive revenue.

Evansdale Education Foundation:

Gretchen Neigh read a report provided via email by the Evansdale Education Foundation.  The report is copied here:

*New board members Genny Tuggey, Chris Foley, Jen McGaughey, Anne Craddock, Scott Vanags and Jen Allen were welcomed at the meeting on April 21^st.  New board members that were unable to attend this meeting were Lauren Shankman and Myriam Quispe-Agnoli.  Official transition to the new board will occur at the next board meeting scheduled for May 19^th and take effect on June 1^st, 2013.  

*Red Hot & Blue - grossed $26,054.  Thanks to the Evansdale community for the support as well as organizer/lead Susan Ponder and our host Greater Good BBQ for a spectacular event.  

*Family Picture Day Fundraiser with Patterson Photography on Sunday May 11th.  Lee will waive sitting fee and instead requests a $40 donation for the Foundation.  Announcements were also distributed in PTA e-blast and in couriers on April 19th.  

*The Evansdale Foundation investment history has been updated on the Evansdale Foundation website (http://evansdalefoundation.org/)

*The Foundation is considering appointing a regular liaison to School Council for next year.

Administrator Reports:

Dan McGuire and Pamela McCloud provided the reports (Ms. McCloud will be included in School Council meetings under the Administrator Reports for all meetings going forward).

Staffing and Allotments:

1) Allotments for the 2013-2014 school year will be available to Dr. McGuire by the end of next week.  Any changes in current allotments will be communicated to the community once official word is available.

2) Roselle Hicks, school secretary, is retiring.  Lindsey Hicks, school counselor, is moving on to a new employment opportunity.  Terry Johnson, Kindergarten teacher, is moving on to a new employment opportunity.

3) Replacements for both the K teacher and the school counselor are being interviewed now.

4) The county has not yet approved the hiring of a 10-month secretary to replace Roselle Hicks.

5) There are also plans to to hire a 5th grade math/science teacher due to anticipated expansion of the 5th grade next year, but this position is dependent on the allotments from the county.

6) Enrollment will be updated soon but is approximately 654 students.

7) College and Career Ready Performance Index (CCRPI) scores for 2012 were released.  Evansdale scored a 87.6 which is comparable to other schools such as Livsey and Briarlake.  The major area for improvement for Evansdale is "Achievement Gap".  Our Hispanic population did not meet any local, state, or federal benchmarks and we need to improve our services for this portion of the Evansdale community.  It is important to remember that this is the 2012 score and uses CRCT scores from spring 2012 and may not be a 100% accurate reflection of our current scores.  The CCRPI scores replace AYP.  A future blog post will discuss CCRPI and explain our score and the mechanism in more detail.  Information is publicly available from the State BOE and has been posted on the AJC (http://www.myajc.com/news/ccrpi-2012-scores/).  

8) Fifth grade writing scores are in and 89% of Evansdale 5th graders either met or exceeded the standards. This is the second year in a row of improved scores and reflects the hard work of the teachers and the assistance of Ms. McCloud.  

UNFINISHED BUSINESS

Parental Involvement - Parental involvement and engagement has been picked up by the PTA as a focused effort for the 2013-2014 school year.  A strategic planning meeting was held by leadership this past week and efforts are being made to increase the impact of volunteerism at the school and to streamline the requests made for volunteers.  This topic will not be revisited at School Council unless a problem arises that requires School Council input.

STEM Update - STEM Day was celebrated last week.  The day was celebrated with a focus on STEM careers.  There was a STEM career poster competition open to the entire school.  A total of 37 posters were entered and students that entered received an Evansdale STEM magnet and a coupon to use at the Olympic Day concession stand.  There will also be a top girl and boy poster selected and each will receive a $25 gift card.  These prizes were sponsored by PTA.  Evansdale's STEM Day celebration was combined with Career Day.  The combined events were featured in the DCSD newsletter last week.  STEM professional development for the summer is being scheduled and things are on track to implement STEM curricula next year.  The use of STEM curricula will be voluntary next year but will be available to all teachers to incorporate.

ELL Adult Programs  - Approximately 30 parents attended the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education (MALDEF) program that was held at the school on April 30th.  A representative from MALDEF spoke with the parents about the obstacles faced by their children and the need for them as parents to become engaged in their child's education.  The program was well received and attempts are being made to schedule the full 12-week session that MALDEF offers for the fall of 2013.

French Immersion Program - Parent information for incoming kindergarten parents were held in both Spanish and English.  Two K classes for the immersion program will be offered next year and each class will have 22 students.  Selection for the program is lottery based and open to any rising K student at Evansdale.  Parents may register for the lottery either online or using a paper application available in the Evansdale office.  Registration for the lottery will occur from May 13 - June 7.  On May 16th special assistance for registration for the lottery will be available at Evansdale.  The lottery will occur on June 12th at the central office of DCSD.

School Council Elections - Nominations for three new parent representatives are being accepted now through Thursday, May 9th. All biographies will be translated to Spanish and available at the school and online.  Voting will occur Monday through Thursday next week and will conclude following the PTA meeting.  School Council members will staff a table to prominently display the voting location multiple times next week.  The new members will officially take office in August at the first School Council meeting but will be included in any School Council communication during the summer along with all current members of the School Council.

Magnet Lottery Update - Names were pulled for at-large kindergarten during the School Choice Lottery. All names are on the waiting list and no at-large K spots will be available next year until after enrollment is assessed after the start of the 2013-2014 school year.  The same is true for any other grade level for which at-large names were pulled.

Transition to 2013-2014 School Council - A document outlining all the various duties of the School Council Chair was distributed which included information about the major communication outlets added this year (blog, Facebook, gmail account).  The Chair has maintained all of this media outlets this year in addition to the standard duties of agenda setting and meeting administration.  Which of these media outlets are maintained next year will be up to the new Council because the Chair, Gretchen Neigh, will no longer be a Council member.  It is the recommendation that the outlets all be maintained, but this is not a requirement and is at the discretion of the School Council members.  School Council members whose terms are ending are: Gretchen Neigh McCandless (Chair), Denise Robinson (Vice Chair), Rudyard Alcocer, and Cheryl Anderson (teacher representative).

NEW BUSINESS - none

DEVELOP AGENDA FOR NEXT MEETING

A specific agenda was not adopted because of summer break.  It was recommended by the current Chair that some type of document regarding attendance and excused versus unexcused absences be developed over the summer to improve understanding of the process for parents.  Additional attention will also need to be given to engagement of Hispanic families and improvement of the achievement gap.

ADJOURN - meeting adjournedat 5:52.  

The next meeting will occur after the start of the 2013-2014 school year in August.

Evansdale and STEM

At the recent Kindergarten information sessions, the reasons behind Evansdale's pursuit of STEM certification, and the STEM-related changes coming next year, were detailed.

This information is likely to be of broad interest.

 The Power Point presentation used at these informational meetings was converted to pictures, and these pictures are copied below.

90-Day DCSD Action Plan

Michael Thurmond, DCSD Interim Superintendent, released a 90-Day Action Plan to be executed from May to July 2013.  There are 5 goals that are delineated with described action items.  A link to the full presentation can be found by clicking here: 90 Day Plan.

The final page of the plan includes the following Deliverables/Outcomes:

• Unified Board/Superintendent governance team focused on improving student
achievement and career readiness

• Balanced budget that better aligns resources to support academic achievement and
career readiness

• Decentralized decision-making authority

• Increased investments in parent, adult guardian and mentor involvement

• Initiation of a comprehensive strategic planning process and framework

• More fiscal and organizational accountability

• More effective communication with internal and external stakeholders

• Improved internal and external customer service

• Improved employee morale

• Improved fleet services

Tentative Agenda for May 7th Meeting

TENTATIVE AGENDA FOR SCHOOL COUNCIL MEETING

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

1.     CALL TO ORDER

2.     INSPIRATION – Kristi Cross

3.     APPROVAL OF MINUTES – Joli Mauldin

4.     REPORTS

     a. PTA President – Jennifer Hatfield

     b. Evansdale Foundation– TBA

     c. Administrator Report – Dan McGuire/Pamela McCloud

          i. Staffing and Allotments

          ii. Enrollment

         

5.     UNFINISHED BUSINESS

a.     Parent Involvement – Greta Massetti

b.     STEM update – Dan McGuire/Gretchen Neigh

c.     ELL Adult Programs Update – Dan McGuire

d.     Selection process for language immersion program – Dan McGuire

e.     School Council Elections – Gretchen Neigh

f.      Transition to 2013-2014 Council – Gretchen Neigh

         

6.     NEW BUSINESS

a.     Teacher and staff allotments for 2013-2014 – Dan McGuire

         

7.     DEVELOP AGENDA FOR NEXT MEETING: Tuesday, August 13, 2013

8.     ADJOURNMENT

School Council Elections - Nominations Due by May 9th

Three new parent representatives will be elected to School Council for a two year term which begins in August.  Nominations are due May 9th and the election will occur in the following weeks.

Many of you voiced your concerns about the decisions being made by School Council over the past year.  Here is your chance to be a part of School Council and guide the decisions that impact your child's education.

Examples of the biographical information needed to run in the election are available on the Evansdale website and linked from the blog. 

Here is the official announcement which came home in your child's courier on April 19th.

Synopsis of April 2, 2013 meeting

This is an unofficial synopsis of the meeting held on Tuesday, April 2nd, 2013.  I was not in attendance for the beginning of the meeting so some parts of this synopsis are based on discussions with those present after the conclusion of the meeting.  This synopsis may contain inaccuracies.  The minutes released next month will serve as the official record of the meeting.

The meeting was called to order at 5:04 p.m. by Vice Chair Denise Robinson.

The inspiration was provided by Veronica Barnes.

Minutes from the March meeting were approved.

Reports: 

PTA President Report

- given by Jennifer Hatfield and included a review of the arts night hosted in March.

The Evansdale Foundation Report 

- prepared by Phil Castro and given by Angie Claussen.  The written report was as follows:

• "Dinosaur George" Blasing led two assembly programs for the entire school on March 11 as a reward/thank you from the foundation for exceeding our Eagle Trek fundraising goal.
• 3rd annual Red, Hot & Blue at the Greater Good Barbecue on March 23 was a great success with approximately 175 attendees and $26,000 raised. Much thanks to everyone who attended and volunteered.
• Spring family portrait fundraiser, hosted by the foundation and Patterson Photography is scheduled for Sunday, May 5 and Saturday, May 11 on the Evansdale campus. See the April 2013 Eagle Newsletter for additional details; additional communications will be distributed over the coming weeks.
• Transition planning is underway to effectively on board incoming board members whose terms begin June 1, 2013.

The Principal's Report 

- given by Dr. McGuire.  

There were no staffing changes in March.  Enrollment is currently 651 students.  There are 21 preK students, 116 K students, 102 1st grade students, 92 2nd grade students, 115 3rd grade students, 105 4th grade students, and 100 5th grade students.  STAR reading test results for March were also reviewed.  Third grade STAR reading scores are above the benchmark.  All other STAR reading and math scores are slightly below the March goals that were set at the beginning of the school year.

Unfinished Business:

Parental Involvement  

Greta Massetti reviewed the following information based on a subcommittee meeting. The main conclusion from the subcommittee meeting was that the issue of parent involvement would be acted upon by the PTA.  Immediate plans include: 1) identifying a volunteer coordinator for PTA, and 2) surveying teacher needs and preferences so that volunteer efforts could be focused on tasks that most immediately benefit the children's learning experience.

Copy of subcommittee meeting notes

Meeting objectives:

1. Identify specific priorities for parent involvement 2. Brainstorm strategies to address priorities

PRIORITIES

- Increase involvement in PTA committees

- Address teacher needs by 1) identifying what teachers feel is most helpful to them, and 2) developing strategies to meet those needs

- Obtain some data on parent involvement to guide efforts to increase involvement

STRATEGIES

1. Establish a PTA Volunteer Coordinator role on the PTA Board to

- This might be better for 2 people to share responsibilities

- Liaison between committee chairs, room parents, VPs of programs/fundraising

- Need to clearly delineate role to avoid confusion and make sure it is a manageable responsibility

2. Establish a volunteer expectation for all Evansdale families

- Need to determine the appropriate expectation level (10 hours per year?)

- Need to determine how the hours can be tracked

- Hours can involve service to PTA, classroom, EEF, school council, etc.

- Can also establish expectation of service for students

3. Streamline and prioritize PTA activities

- PTA executive committee will review list of fundraising activities and service programs and eliminate those that are overly burdensome, duplicative, or difficult to manage

- It would be helpful to eliminate programs that require involvement of teachers or classroom time to remove burden from teachers

4. Conduct a PTA committee chair training for all committee chairs at the start of the school year

- Training will cover volunteer recruitment strategies and other techniques for

- Encourage all committees to have co-chairs to ensure continuity of programs and increased support for committee work

5. Establish PTA branding and marketing campaign

- Increase awareness of and support for PTA committee work

- Consider "service" as a component of the PTA theme

- Highlight PTA committees through Eagle, flyers, and other outreach activities

- "PTA Committee of the Month" highlight to bring attention to different committees and what they do

- Have more frequent recognition for volunteer service - volunteer of the month rather than volunteer of the year

6. Establish a "buddy system" for incoming families new to Evansdale

- Pair new families with an established family to ease transition to Evansdale

7. Conduct a survey of teachers to identify their needs and priorities

- Tonya will hand out at a faculty meeting

- Assess what teachers find most helpful, and what supports their work the most

- Reach out to specials teachers to make sure they have an opportunity to get support

8. Collect data on current parent involvement

- Conduct baseline estimate of families currently involved in PTA, EEF, or classroom volunteering

- Conduct parent surveys to determine what programs and activities parent value the most

Discipline Plan/Policy

Ms. McCloud gave an overview of the amended discipline policy.  Amendments were made following the March School Council meeting based upon:

1) feedback from the School Council

2) email, phone, and in-person feedback from parents

3) input of a committee assembled by Ms. McCloud that included two parents and grade level chairs

The new policy will be posted online on the Evansdale website after proof reading is completed (a link will also be posted here at that time).  

The document will remain a living document and will be periodically reevaluated and updated as needed.  

During this portion of the meeting Ms. Pitts also made a statement (had been added to the agenda in advance of the meeting).  The statement included appreciation for the teachers for their perseverance and continued commitment to Evansdale.  Ms. Pitts voiced her support for the new discipline policy and the support of the teachers as a group for the policy.  She indicated that the use of the plan so far has improved behavior in the classroom and provided meaning for the check system so that students are more responsive.  Ms. Pitts also indicated that the teachers want the parents as partners in the education of the children and that a discipline plan was not a way to terminate that relationship but rather a way to add support for the teachers in that relationship.  The School Council thanked Ms. Pitts for her input on behalf of the teachers.  

The Discipline Policy will not be discussed at future School Council meetings unless an issue arises or a formal re-evaluation is requested.  

STEM Update

A meeting of the Evansdale STEM committee was held prior to this School Council meeting and a brief synopsis was provided.  An additional school garden is being considered for behind the gymnasium which could tie in to a rain water irrigation system.  The EiE (Engineering in Elementary) units have been ordered and will be implemented on a voluntary basis next year.  EiE is basically the core subjects for elementary students taught from an engineering platform with focus on problem solving.  The Lego supplies have been ordered for next year and will be implemented on a voluntary basis.  Forty-five new laptops will be available next year in addition to the current computers.  Reorganization of the computer lab was discussed briefly during the STEM meeting.  A teacher survey is being conducted to identify: 1) professional learning preferences related to STEM, and 2) the community partners that will be most beneficial to the teachers related to STEM.  In any cases where EiE or Lego STEM curricula are not implemented in the classroom, they will be implemented through Science Lab.  

ELL Adult Programs

MALDEF (Mexican American Defense and Education Fund) will host a single session program for our community on April 30th in the morning.  This program will provide basic information about the U.S. educational system.  If the program is well received, the 12 week program will be explored for next fall.  This program is administered entirely by the MALDEF and no Evansdale resources (beyond space) are required.  A flyer will be distributed in the couriers.

DCSD will provide interpreters for an informational session on May 3rd for the Evansdale community on changes within the school.  Topics discussed will include ELL services in DCSD, changes to Magnet, STEM, and the dual immersion program.  

New Business

Dual Immersion Program - French

More information will be available on the program on May 1st.  Only two classes within kindergarten will be impacted by any changes next year.  Children in those two classes will receive instruction of the regular core curricula in English for half the day and in French for half the day.  The teaching team will consist of one English speaking teacher and one French speaking teacher who will share the two classes.  Children in the dual immersion program will still experience regular specials such as music, art, PE, and science lab.

A lottery will be conducted to determine which students will be placed in those classes.  The program will be described at the May 3rd informational meeting discussed above and at a meeting on May 6th which is open to all rising K families.  Advertisements will go out by traditional Evansdale channels and also be posted at the apartment complexes, churches, and local markets.  The form to register for the lottery will be included in the K registration packet.  The lottery will be run through the Foreign Language Office at DCSD but will be a paper lottery.  It is likely that there will be one lottery for girls and one for boys to balance sex ratios in the classes.  

Agenda for May Meeting

The meeting will include: regular reports, Parent Involvement update, STEM update, ELL update, Dual Language Immersion update, School Council election plan review, discussion of allotments for the 2013-2014 school year.

Meeting adjourned at 5:52 pm.

ATTENTION: SCHOOL CALENDAR CHANGE FOR UPCOMING YEAR!!!!!

At its April 1 meeting, the DeKalb County Board of Education voted to delay the implementation of the district’s balanced calendar until the 2014-15 school year. With it, the Board adopted a traditional calendar.
The proposed Traditional Calendar developed by the Calendar Committee contains the following features:

·        180 student-contact days;

·        189 teacher-contract days with the final day (Day 190) being comprised of four (two hours each/two per semester) conference nights during the year as scheduled by each local school;

·        Takes into account state-designated testing windows and dates;

·        Concludes the first semester before the Winter Break in December which prevents students from returning from the break with final exams and End of Course Tests;

·        And schedules Spring Break April 7-11, 2014.

The delay of implementation allows the district to explore additional calendar options and obtain further input from the community.

The traditional calendar can be viewed here . And is copied below.  Green and orange blocks = no school for children.  You will see the school starts a week later in August and some of the vacation weeks that were scheduled throughout the year are now gone.  These changes may require updates to your family vacation and childcare plans so please review the calendar.