• Heritage Elementary School
    School Community Council
    Minutes

    Wednesday, December 14, 2022

    In attendance: Lance Robins, Maria Jones, Andrea Linton, Kendal Welker, Ali Olsen;

    Guests: Scott Darnell
    I. Welcome to Heritage Community Council
    II. Review minutes from last month
    III. Approve Last Meetings Minutes

    A. Motion to approve Ali Olsen 2nd Maria Jones

    IV. Information to Parents

    A. NOVA Graduation was today.
    B. Lunch with a deputy is going well.
    C. Holiday break
    a. The last day of school this month will be Tuesday, December 20
    b. School will be back in session on January 2, 2023
    V. Safe technology utilization and digital citizenship (Scott Darnell)

    A. Scott Darnell is in charge of web filtering and maintains the Google system
    for the district. We have multiple things in place for filtering, but things can
    get past. There is no substitution for human eyes. There is a balance
    between filtering and making sure students still have access to educational
    materials.
    B. The district uses iBoss. The state pays for this, and we just pay for the
    equipment. The district recently had the option to change to another system
    but decided to continue with iBoss because we already have the equipment
    and are familiar with it, but we will have the option to switch to another
    system in two years. It filters inappropriate content based on categories.
    We can override their categories and whitelist individual sites (e.g. iBoss
    might restrict the NRA website because it discusses guns, but this website
    might be needed in debate research). Our network is subsidized by the

    federal government, so we are required to filter sites to provide a safe
    environment for the students.
    C. The district also uses GoGuardian, another filtering and monitoring software
    system. GoGuardian is specific to Chrome and is tied to students’ Google
    accounts. We pay an additional license fee for GoGuardian, which is factored
    into the cost of a Chromebook for the school. Students can’t log into a
    school Chromebook with a random Google account. GoGuardian also has
    “GoGuardian Teacher” where teachers can monitor student use in school.
    This feature displays what students are seeing. Teachers can shut down
    students’ screens and show their screens to the students. Teachers can
    make blacklists (e.g. limit sites to only what they are working on, or restrict
    sites for substitutes to keep students on task while the teacher is away).
    Teachers know which sites students access. Monitoring only happens on
    school premises, but school Chromebooks and devices are still filtered at
    students’ homes. Our filtering system was in place when COVID started, so
    we were prepared when students took Chromebooks home during that time.
    D. The content that is filtered starts with what is restricted by law, and then
    gray areas of what is appropriate are determined. Decisions are made by the
    school board. Sites in the “social networking” category are not allowed in the
    district. There is not a big difference between what is filtered in high
    schools and elementary schools. Teachers cannot block Google, which can be
    problematic, so the filtering system doesn’t fix everything.
    E. GoGuardian has an alert feature. If a student searches for explicit sites or
    self-harm information, people in the district receive an alert so that they
    can follow up on it. Principal Robins receives alerts from Heritage students.
    Scott Darnell receives alerts from all students in the district. An alert
    takes a screenshot of what triggered it, along with a screenshot of what was
    searched before and after to help determine intent. Sometimes alerts are
    sent out when a class is researching a topic like guns. Sometimes
    inappropriate content is accessed by mistake, so it is important to teach
    students what to do if this happens. There have been a couple of situations
    district-wide when an alert was sent out for an actual threat. These
    interventions can save lives.
    F. It is also important to teach students digital citizenship and agency. It is
    important to teach them why content is restricted. Parents should also be
    aware of what their student is doing while using school devices.

    VI. School LAND Trust funds spent to date
    A. Amount Spent: $77,282
    B. Amount Left: $30,134
    C. Percent Left: 28%
    a. Most of the remaining funds will go toward the paraprofessional
    budget
    b. We need to get the percentage left below 10%.

    VII. School-wide Positive Behavior Intervention and Support Plan (PBIS)

    A. PBIS (we call this “Husky Habits”). Mr. Mallory is a part of this. Courtney
    Walker made great posters to put around schools. This program teaches
    students how to be safe, kind, and responsible in the cafeteria, halls,
    playground, restroom, class, and going to and from school. We have a
    responsibility to make sure people feel safe, welcome, and invited, and our
    PBIS program helps us achieve this.

    VIII. School breakfast

    A. The school community council has the authority to decide not to offer school
    breakfast, but some kids depend on it, and good things come from it, so we
    will keep it in place for now.

    IX. Addressing tobacco, alcohol, electronic cigarettes, etc. in our school and district
    A. As SCC, we need to address these topics. Mr. Mallory presents life-skill
    lessons in the 4th grade. His lessons are impactful, and he relates the
    lessons to students. Students know the information, but the question is if
    they will make good choices in high school. Ali Olsen says smoking is down.
    Vaping seems to be more of a threat. We are addressing these issues.

    X. Other information

    A. TSI: Target Support and Improvement

    a. We have been identified for TSI. We’re an “A” school, and not a lot
    of “A” schools are identified for TSI. If one or more of the following
    student groups are underperforming, a school is identified for TSI:
    i. Economically disadvantaged students
    ii. Students with disabilities
    iii. ELL students
    iv. Racial and ethnic groups
    b. RISE testing is used as a measurement of performance. We were
    identified for TSI because our ELL learners are not making enough
    progress on RISE tests. We have 38 ELL learners, and they are not
    reaching a proficient level on the RISE test. However, these students
    are making progress on other tests (WIDA, Acadience, i-Ready), and
    they perform well in class. To be placed on this plan, a school has to
    have a Growth Index score lower than 40, and we just barely passed
    this threshold with a score of 39.6.
    c. Shauna Winegar has said that the DLI is an excellent place for ELL
    learners to succeed, so a possible solution to increase growth would
    be to place an ELL student in the DLI program, but parents do not
    always choose to take advantage of this option.
    d. We have excellent teachers and an excellent school, and this is not an
    indication otherwise. It is an opportunity to make improvements, and
    we have great strategies in place to do so.

    XI. Thanks for attending

    A. Motion to Close Ali Olsen 2nd Andrea Linton