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Curriculum and Teacher-Support Committee

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Barre Town Curriculum and Teacher Support Committee Meeting Notes
April 3, 2013  MINUTES

Present:
Brenda Buzzell, Chairperson
John Pandolfo., Director of Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment
Kim Canavan, Community Member/Parent
Jen Nye, Principal
Julia Pritchard, Special Education Director
Karen Heath, 3-8 Literacy Specialist
Beth Hulbert, K-8 Math Specialist

The meeting was called to order at 8:04 AM.

I. Professional Development 2012-13 and 2013-14

Karen Heath spoke about the Literacy PD we are involved in for this year and next year. PreK Literacy was discussed for this year. Pat Nally led two PreK Literacy workshops during in-service days this year. Karen mentioned that Pat will be retiring after this year and Lindy Johnson will step into his Barre Town position, working as the PreK-2 Literacy Specialist at both Barre City and Barre Town. Karen’s focus in grades 3-8 this year has been Writing Across the Curriculum to meet Common Core Standards. Next year we need to continue to focus on the Common Core; Karen’s thoughts are to focus on cognitive rigor and increased differentiation within the classroom. Also adopting the Lucy Calkins writing units for grades 1-5, which connect to reading and use critical thinking skills. This would be the first time that a dedicated writing curriculum will be in place. Karen is also planning to teach a Science and Literacy course with Deanna Bailey. Beth Hulbert spoke about math PD this year and next. Work has focused on aligning our math curriculum to the common core and increasing content knowledge of teachers. Grades K-1 teachers have given the PNOA and are using the resulting data to refine their curriculum and instruction. Beth ran an Algebra/Arithmetic class for teachers in grades K-5, partly during in-service time but mostly during after-school and evening time. Common Core focus has been on the content standards as well as the Standards for Mathematical Practice, including Modeling, Conjecture & Proof, and Problem Solving. In the middle school grades, we are moving to a new edition of or math program, from CMP2 to CMP3 (CMP is Connected Math); implementing this will take a significant amount of PD time next year. John Pandolfo spoke about PD work that Deanna Bailey is doing with middle school science teachers to prepare for the Next Generation Science Standards. John also spoke about the need for teachers to have time to continue to work on Common Core implementation while also working on Multi-Tiered Systems of Support and increasing their ability to use data to inform instruction. The committee discussed how teachers currently do some of their curriculum work during “release time” while their classes are covered by substitute teachers. Kim Canavan commented that as a parent, any effort to decrease the amount of time teachers are out of the classroom would be welcome. John spoke of the proposal to the each school board in the Supervisory Union to increase the number of in-service days as one way to accomplish this. John also spoke of a second proposal to the school boards to adopt a new Student Information System which would also function as a data warehouse and analysis system to provide teachers with a user-friendly tool to monitor student progress to inform intervention and instruction.

II. BSU School Improvement Plan

John Pandolfo presented the draft Improvement Plan that the SU team is in the process of developing. The team includes the BTMES principals and parallels the plans which are in development and implementation this year at SHS and BCEMS. BTMES will likely create a plan next year as part of the school improvement process defined by the Vermont Agency of Education. The four goal areas of the draft BSU plan are as follows:

1. Team Structures
2. Multi-Tiered Systems of Support
3. Local Assessment Data System
4. Curriculum & Improvement Strategies

The committee again discussed how this plan emphasizes the need for more Professional Development time and a user-friendly data system to support increased student achievement.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:35 AM.

Our next meeting will be on Wednesday, May 8.

Respectfully submitted,

John Pandolfo
Director of Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment

Barre Town Facility and Transportation Committee

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Barre Town Policy and Communication Committee

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School Health Advisory Committee

SHAC Meeting Minutes
May 6, 2013

In Attendance: Susan Barnard, Sarah Chap, Hilary Davis, Suzy Klinefelter, PJ LaPerle, Ano Lobb, Morgan Mackie, Kristin McCarthy, Karen Nelson, Jennifer Nye, Kevin Otis, Tara Simpson, Ellen Sulek, Ryan Walbridge

Introductions

April Minutes Reviewed: Kristin moved to accept the minutes, Kevin seconded.

-Crop By Kids Update

• Ellen reported that teachers have started seeds indoors. Phyllis has approached 1st-3rd grade teachers to help them plan to use the garden. Staff are starting to sign up for garden beds.

• Garlic is up!

• Jenn Nye planted asparagus with a child in each 1st grade class. Mark Lembke’s students helped with this as well.

• Students in room 284 helped with the new rhubarb by completing research.

• There will be mulch coming soon.

• Deb Curtis will be doing a workshop with master gardeners to help them see how they could help with our garden.

-School Wellness Awards

• Karen reported that Barre Town will again receive a recognition banner. We will hopefully receive a copy of the scoring so Karen can help our school recognize in which areas we performed well and which areas we could focus on improving.

-Walk to School Day

• The weather was beautiful. Many students, staff, and some parents participated. The students were really excited about it.

• People reported having a great time on the walk. Kristin reported that not many parents walked with middle schoolers. She suggested that next time we try to drum up more parents to participate. Others mentioned that there might have been confusion about whether families could walk or not.

• Tara mentioned the “landing station” was a little overwhelming for some kids. Signs to let kids know where to go when they get dropped off to make it more organized.

• Kevin didn’t notice any back up for breakfast, but wondered if fewer students purchased

• Suzy liked the “no passing” rule to help make it more relaxing... “it was a walk not a race”

• Ryan would have liked to have jogged

• Ano mentioned there was some nervousness with some younger students

• Karen mentioned more parents in attendance would have been great.

• Staff loved it, want to do it more often

• Middle school students requested being able to choose who to walk with and have the option to walk/jog faster

-PTO Report

• Carolyn Appleton and Susan attended the last PTO meeting since they have requested funding for camp scholarship for students.
  Hilary also requested some money to help support a dental hygiene challenge. She plans to use money to buy toothbrushes and toothpaste for all students grade K-1.

-Mileage Club

• The mileage club began the week after vacation for 3rd/4th grade students. Students receive a token for every ½ mile completed to wear on their necklace. Many committee members shared how proud students are of their necklaces. Jenn helped fund this. Teachers are helping to support it.

- Kitchen Report

• Breakfast is up 2%: overall participation is at 21% with 2,749 meals

• Lunch participation is still at 55% with 7,033 meals

• End of the year BBQ will take place on Friday June 1. Kevin is hoping the fire department will bring trucks again. Students will hopefully get a chance to eat outside if the weather permits. Kevin thought it would be nice to have a little extra time for students to eat and experience the fire trucks and meet the firemen/women.

• Local purchases are $245/week to purchase apples, potatoes, onions, beets, carrots, squash and parsnips

- Play Again review for VTAHPERD

• Play Again movie was shown at Norwich University with a panel discussion afterwards. It was very well attended. Suzy, Ellen, Jenn, Karen and Susan attended from Barre Town

• Karen provided an overview of the project which looked at children's screen time. Children average 8 hours per day. The project followed a group of young teenagers and attempted to reintroduce them to nature by bringing them on an adventure without any electronics.

• Karen’s reaction is that our children spend too much time in front of a screen and not enough relating to others face to face. Karen thinks this would be powerful to show to parents, which might be a better audience in order to create change. Karen will email Susan the link for the movie trailer to share with everyone

• Ellen acknowledged that there are many people frustrated with the way things are. People just need to get kids outside. She mentioned the Walk to School day worked because we “made” the kids participate and helped them (and their families) realize it’s fun and easy. Ellen thinks holding events that bring parents in to get them on board is key.

• Suzy noticed that the teens in the project really liked being outside, and really enjoyed it even though they didn’t want to admit it. She also mentioned that we have the resources here at our school. Suzy tried to find out why Millstone has a private sign on the nature path. Suzy reported that this will be fixed.

• Susan says change happens in school. Our kids are addicted to technology. Action planning over the summer might be a great place to try to address this. Susan has contacted the Green Mountain Club about bringing teachers to Bobcat Cave. Jenn and Susan want to teach new staff about the nature trail and bring them there so they can learn how to use it with students.

- Wellness Policy Revision- Update

• Revisions in the Physical Activity section of the Wellness Policy were presented to staff who shared their feedback. Laura Thygesen, Karen and Susan reviewed teachers’ comments and made further revisions

• Revisions were made to the Nutrition section of the Wellness Policy. It will be presented to staff tomorrow at faculty meeting. T

• Tara mentioned that students having 20 minutes to eat after they’ve gotten their lunch may not be being followed, but is glad to see it written clearly in the updated policy. The group discussed presenting fruit in a “child-friendly form”. Kevin mentioned this is sometimes difficult for the kitchen staff, but many agreed that it is important especially for smaller students.

• Kristin asked about the Classroom Practices and Celebrations section, specifically about what teachers can (and will) do if a parent doesn’t follow the policy. Jenn agreed that this responsibility falls to administration mostly to relay the message to families. Kristin and Tara want to make sure staff is on board and informed what to do in this situation. Hilary also mentioned that this can be an opportunity to help teach students to make good decisions.

• The goal is to get the Wellness Policy to the school board before the end of school. It will need to be presented to the policy committee and will hopefully be in place by the start of next school year.

- Action Planning

• The group discussed the benefits of action planning and preferred location.

• Date/location to be determined.

• Discussed the possibility of teachers using the action planning day as a flex day.

- Blog Topics

• The group reported that we have not accessed the blog very often, and some have experienced difficulty accessing.

• Jenn suggested a blog tutorial at the first SHAC meeting for next school year.

Respectfully submitted by Sarah Chap