Mt. Logan Middle Schools
Community Council Agenda
March 11, 2021

Attendees

  • Kate Twohig
  • Shelley Christensen
  • Elizabeth Blanchard
  • Sarah Timmins
  • Katie Chapman
  • Greg Allmon
  • Jessica Zsiray
  • Cassie Housley
  • Laura Chamberlain
  • Paul Wagner
  • Michelle Selui
  • Robert Woodbury

Approve Minutes

  • Michelle S. motioned
  • Jessica Z. 2nd
  • All in favor

Current Goal

  • 90% of our students will master esseential learning as measured by team developed common formative assessments for each content area.
  • Paul proposes the same goal for 2021.

Data Discussion

  • 7th grade math taught all 6 of the essential learnings and will go back and teach/learn again.
  • Need Foreign language updated
  • Math had a teacher left on the first day of school, so we had to combine teams. One team is doing the job of two teams…it has been hard to keep the data updated.
  • 8th grade math is having a hard time with the “covid slide”. The 8th grade team is learning how to work on this from the other teams. Probably behind 3 units.
  • All of MLMS has a brand new Math textbook. The teachers were trained in the Fall. The goal is to add more rigor to the kids from this textbook. CFA
  • Math honors has not been updated yet.
  • Used to be 7 essential learnings, but kids switch every quarter so now they are doing 3 essential learning.
Instructional Coach (.5 FTE)           $55,000
ESL Teachr (.5 FTE)           $45,000
Math/Lit Academy Teacher (1.0 FTE)           $74,000
Learning Academy           $45,000
Instructional Assistants (22 Hours per day)           $60,600
Parent Liasion (5.5 Hours)           $15,150
Acceleerated Math/ALEKS Licenses           $6,000
Chromebook Labs           $20,000
Total           $320,750

Available for Next Year

  • Our available funds for next year will be $188,655, so we have some trimming to do.
    • Must support the district Flagship Plan
    • Must follow school Land Trust regulations and bylaws.
    • Must adhere to Community Council regulations and bylaws

Star Data

  • Look at STAR data to help find the kids for Learning Academy (Will kids vs. Skill kids) trying to do better at doing what is most impactful for the tier 2 interventions. Doing more with less intervention time.

Parent Liaison

  • Proposed by SarahAnn. Give an opportunity to make sure every parent understands how to help their kid in learning. Used often in Elementary schools. Typically a Spanish speaking Liaison. We will learn more about this proposal soon. May not be the most measurable impact.
  • Anything above a .4 should go above and beyond the impact goal. 1.57 is really good. Need to do things that are impactful even beyond the challenges the students come in with.

Highest Impact Proposal

Insturctional Coach           $55,000
ESL Teacher (.5 FTE)           $45,000
Lit Academy Teacher (.5 FTE)           $37,000
Learning Academey           $45,000(hopefully the rest would be picked up by GEARUP)
Total           $182,000
  • Chromebook labs are hopefully being handled by other funds. Applying for a GEARUP grant. $25,000. Will still be okay if we have a gap year in buying Chromebook labs.

Literacy and Math Academy

  • aiming for a 1.5 years in growth for reading
  • Best Schools are doing this:
    • 90-120 minutes/day of reading and writing and speaking (speaking especially good for ELL students)
    • Face to face metacognitive modeling and close reading are most effective (1 on 1 is key)
    • MLMS will Pilot a program for 4 th quarter to see what happens to STAR scores (21 USU volunteers zooming in Tuesday and Thursdays. Will use breakout rooms for 1 on 1. Same volunteer with same student). May help reduce the FTE for literacy academy and increase the class sizes to help more kids.
    • Would like to do something similar with Math Academy

Why We Should Continue to Do Learning Academy

  • WIDA is the test for kids in ELL.
  • There are 6 levels.
  • Our Average WIDA Composite went down from 2018/19- 2019/20. Data is showing that the early levels are doing well, but stalling out at level 3 (when they lose the specific ELL teacher).
  • We need so support these students in all the classes the rest of their school day.
  • Right now we have 271 students receiving ESL services.
  • This would stay the same with the proposal.
    • Focus on ELL strategies
    • Focus on “granular” implementation of best practices
    • Provide additional compensation opportunities for teachers (testing right now. Optimistic of improved WIDA scores this year)

Other

  • Teacher shortage nationwide. Teacher retention. 50% of new teachers leave within their first 5 years.

Vote For Highest Impact Proposal

  • Kate T. motioned
  • Laura C. 2nd
  • All in favor (except: Elizabeth B. opposed)

Adjourned