Monday, October 12, 2010
School Directors present: Susan Guthrie, Gary Friedlander, Lisa Pliskin, David Ebby (Board President), Lyn Kugel, Jerry Novick, Melissa Gilbert
Audience: About 20 people.
This meeting consisted of:
- Announcement of settlement of the webcam suits, and voting in
- An update on the Strategic Plan
- Board comments & questions
- Extensive public comment
President Ebby announces that a settlement has been reached with both the Robbins and Hassan webcam suits, and with the Graphic Arts insurance suit. Graphic Arts agrees to pay out $1.2 million. Blake Robbins gets $175,000 in trust. Jalil Hassan gets $10,000 [I believe that's what I heard] and their lawyer gets $425,000.
Voted in unanimously 7-0
2. Strategic plan update
Presentation of a variety of topics: Curriculum, student achievement, Achievement gaps, holistic needsof students, communications, Facilities.
3. Questions from the board:
David Ebby (DE): When will the HHS fields be ready to play on?
Pat Ginnane (PG): not until next fall (2011). Inground irrigation system is helping.
Jerry Novick: Are there any grants available for retrofitting lighting [to more efficient systems]?
PG: We have used some grants.
JN: How about for [more efficient] heating and cooling systems? Any grants available?
PG: Have not researched that.
PG: We are using bio-diesel in buses.
DR McGinley (CM): Congratulates PG on getting the LMHS building ready in time for start of school
Melissa Gilbert (MG): Not clear on how data is being used on a daily basis with regard to classroom instruction. Wants to focus on achievement gap. What's going on between grades 8 - 11 [that produces a sharp falloff in measured achievement] ? Not hearing about differentiated instruction.
CM: Data gets used every day by the teachers, used or targeted instruction. Curriculum team looks at curriculum all summer. There've been 10+ years of training on differentiated instruction. RE: what happens by gr 11: In the past there has not been very good data record keeping in grades 9+10.
Steve Barbato: Always looking for more strategies to direct back into the classroom.
MG: The kids in the math labs (9,10,11) is anything different going to happen now [that we see what is working and what not]?
CM: Doesn't want to address this piecemeal, will bring it to committee.
Lyn Kugel (LK): Where are we [with achievement gap] in comparison to national trends?
CM: We are outperforming national trends, but not PA state trends. Considers that [simply doing better than national trends] is not the standard to follow, but the local standard.
LK: Concerned about the lack of content on the cable chanel
CM: New tv studios will help produce content
LK: Green Cleaning - is it more expensive? Can it be brought ot more schools?
PG: Can't say definitively, but are moving in that direction. Constantly experimenting. Going to look at robot floor cleaners soon.
JN: Also doesn't like all the slides on the cable channel. Also concerned that we are not providing the content for 11th graders to succeed on the PSSA. Do we have the tools necessary?
SB: Not a perfect solution available. If not seeing benefits then we try to adjust.
JN: When will we next know if what we are trying is working?
SB: Same time next year.
JN: Beyond Lit & math, are there other areas of achievement gap?
SB: We have a "huge gap" in science, but still doing better than the rest of the state.
JN: African Americans applying to 4-yr colleges is up 82%. Is that a trend?
CM: Not a trend.
JN: RE Holistic needs: RE Cyberbullying: In some ways giving out a laptop to everyone is like "putting a weapon" in students' hands.
Dr Shapiro: Has been very aware of cyberbullying. Continually assessing. Started the Welcoming Schools committee to address bullying wherever it occurs.
MG: Any statistics available on bullying incidents?
CM: Yes
MG: Any trends?
Dr S: Not looked at the data [for trends]
CM: we have the data, so Welcoming committee can have it to look for trends.
Susan Guthrie (SG): Wondering if the earlier grade assessments like DBLS show the same kind of [achievement gap] trends.
SB: DBLS and DRP are not disaggregated [ie haven't extracted gap information by race]
SG: We have the data so we could disaggregate the data..?
SB: We haven't done it.
SG: If the gap exists prior to 5th, should we be doing more pre-k?
CM: We could study it. Just now studying where studnets are before they come to us.
SG: Are we confident that we can close the gap?
CM: we have reseaqrch based instruction now. Would like full-day Kindergarten, but probably cant have it while we have act I.
SG: Concerned about lights on at LMHS at night.
PG: Lights controlled by computer, and the system is not finished yet.
4. Public Comment
Public commenter #1 CB: Question about early intervention. Could that kind of model be used to close the achievement gap?
CM: Early intervention is for kids with disabilities.
CB: Not understanding how with all the money and data we have why we are not closing the gap. Other school districts with a lot less money than us are having better success.
CM: Share the concerns. Looking at succcessful models and at early intervention strategies.
CB: What are the specific strategies we are using? Are we looking at what works? a few [labs, special sessions] a week willnot close the gap for someone who is seriously behind. Is scary.
CM: Looking at data and have specialists working every day.
CB: Gap is not closing fast enough
CM: but it is moving
CB: Are we doing the same things year after year..?
CM: We're assessing and evaluating and making changes.
CB: I know you're trying but numbers are not good
CM: Added summer supports...
CB: How is data on summer supports?
CM: We've talked about it [at another sb meeting]
CB: ...and we've seen significant gains..?
CM: Yes. This was covered at another sb meeting.
Public commenter #2: RJ: Agrees that achievement gap is unacceptable. Pre-K is where it starts. Question: What book was distributed to 7-12th grade english teachers?
SB: "Read Aside"
RJ: Other concern: The students who are being taken out of class for extra instruction and focused labs: What are they missing when they get pulled out?
CM: Mostly electives and free periods.
RJ: Also thinks that adults in the community could be made better use of: Mentoring groups, community groups
Public commenter #3 AW: Has a 4th grader at Belmont Hills - has been in math support since 1st. Always says he can't do the homework because he was in the lab [and missed the hw presentation]
CM: Trying to do more supports in classroom. Belmont Hills and Penn Valley are piloting an "enrichment period", blocks out support period that always occurs during a non-core subject area.
Public commenter #4 BD: On slide #22, percentage of African Americans identified as gifted shows an 84% increase. What accounts for this?
Dr. Shapiro: An effort has been made to identify African American kids who qualify for gifted program. Looked for and adopted an alternative assessment model that allowed more African Americans to be identified as gifted.
Dr Kelly (MK): In addition to the alternative assessment model, they still use the trad means of identifying gifted, such as parent & teacher referrals.
Public commenter #5: LC: Several comm enters touched on possibilities for why achievement gap exists. Points out that when pulled out for remediation, kids miss other things such as social studies and science. Need a better look at the classrooms, hold teachers accountable not only for what they teach but for what they know. Does not like that we seem to blame students [for not being smart enough to succeed]
CM: Does not agree that we are blaming students.
LC: Appreciates and respects Dr McGinley's background and desire, but feels that his views are not shared by the full School Board. Does not like the implication that the students are not ready to learn. Points to Margaret Collins' success in closing achievement gap in classrooms. What we have seems like a lot of excuses. Students are capable of so much more [if teachers are ready to teach them]. We are not making the same kinds of gains here [as opposed to places where they place a different value on the student]
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