• School Community Council Minutes

    February 28, 2023

     

     

    Present: Shane Jones, Brady Fonnesbeck, Janine Justis, Ryan Grunig, Shannon Hougaard, Toni Gibbons, Cheryl Peck, Jessica Higginbotham, Melanie Chambers, Summer Gunn, Stephani Thatcher, Teri Rhodes, Kathy Christiansen, Kathy Bullen

     

     

    John welcomed everyone and asked for a motion to approved the Minutes from the December meeting. Toni motioned to approve and Jessica seconded the motion. All were in favor of approval.

     

    Climate Survey               

    Shane talked about the Climate Survey that the State requires that we do. We had students do it yesterday. It was also emailed out to parents a couple weeks ago. We would like everyone to please share either good or bad.  We don’t know what we need to work on unless someone lets us know.  When we have the Student of the Month lunch, we ask them if there are things we could work on.  Teri said it is very important that the silent majority share – we always hear from the loudest minority.  When we get the results from it we will share with the committee. The survey is not usually about academic issues, but more about safety, connectiveness, more centered around the climate of the school. Happy students do better in school.

     

    21-22 Final Trustland Plan                                        

    Shane said the one complaint about the previous Trustland Plan goals is that they don’t match up very well to what we are doing now.  There is a window of time that we need to get information uploaded. It’s tough to write goals – want to write a plan that will be easy to manage.  The 21-22 data was hard to find.  Having the RCK Academy 1st tri helps a lot.  Attendance, grades drop in 2nd tri, then usually re-coup 3rd tri. 

    We’ve created an SV Data plan that we will have to use for the Trustland Plan.

     

     

    23-24 Trustland Plan                                                  

    Shane talked about this year’s plan. We’ve needed to spend some money, so we added another teacher.  The “StuVention” program that we have in place this year using Stu Howell as a mentor has evolved into a great program.  It’s a short-term placement for some kids and others a long term for those that are struggling.  It’s small enough that we’ve been able to personalize for the students. Stu is teaching 3rd trimester, so we have brought in Tyler George who is being mentored by Stu to help out.  We’ve got a lot of students with issues, drugs and home/family struggles. We’re looking at a couple different things for next year.  We need to work on classroom instruction.  A lot of money will  be used towards FTE’s to lower class sizes.  The PLC’s program – with new teachers, teachers teaching new classes.  It’s better to have some collaboration between teachers. Jessica asked what is the most helpful way for a parent to address issues about teachers that are struggling?  Shane replied to let counselors and admin know.  We are making some massive changes – common prep hours, better PLC’ing within departments. We need to watch placement on new teachers- sometimes it helps putting them teaching the right courses.  The best teachers need to be with the struggling kids.  Some teachers we need to work with on structure, some on accessibility.  The goal is to make everyone better.  Better students and better teachers.  It’s not about grades, or points, it’s about learning. Jessica said they appreciate Shane’s desire to help students.  It would have completely changed the trajectory for her student if they had the same focus.  That’s where we’re headed.  Last year’s plan goal using Mastery Connect was to have about 75% of teachers up and running.  That didn’t happen. It’s a great program that  focuses on learning.  It enables a student to own their learning.  It goes along with standard based teaching.  Mastery Connect help kids and teachers know what the kids learn.  It integrates with PowerSchool, and is a tool for teachers to measure students.  There is feedback within the system.  We couldn’t use it years ago because of technology issues, but the District now has purchased it.  The class has to be set up to use a standard based grading system.  Some teachers will probably start picking it up next year. PLC’s will  be big.  There will be some team-taught classrooms with ELL and SpEd.  Next year’s schedule will be better built to accommodate these classes.Summer said she was at a meeting at NC and they have the same issues.  Do we have a collaboration with them? Shane said with ELL there are challenges. It’s a tough population in a lot of areas, but we can’t lower the bar.  We need more communication with parents. We tell teachers we don’t have an ELL program, we have ELL students. Summer said her daughters’ friend is from Ecuador.  Engagement with families needs to start at the lower grades.  Sky View hired Mari Vasquez in January as a Parent Liaison – she speaks Spanish and is from that community. She’s working great with parents a lot and plans on focusing on PLCS and ELL students and parents.Toni asked Melanie to explain the new class concurrent enrollment class at USU.Melanie has helped develop this class. She said they collaborated with the admissions office, library, career design center and Finance Office. It’s designed to work with counselors and PCCRs.  There is a resiliency and social work module included.Shane asked who they see teaching it in the schools? She said Counselors, Psychologists - someone with a Master’s degree. The class is called Habit of Mind/College and Career Readiness USU1045 and is a 3 credit Elective credit class. Green Canyon is piloting it with their LIA students. It is not currently offered online.  Teachers will need to modify to meet the needs of the students.

    Elections                                                                      

    Shane mentioned that we haven’t had an election cycle.  He asked how the parents feel about it?  Would they like terms? We can keep the meeting open, but just have to have voting members. Teri said we don’t have to have election if we have volunteers. Several committee member's students will be graduating so they won’t be on the committee next year. We will continue the discussion at our next meeting.

    Meeting Adjourned

    Next meeting will be on April 18th at 6:45am