South Hill Elementary School - GST BOCES



South Hill Elementary School

Site Based Council Minutes

March 28, 2007          

Members In Attendance: Jon Hilton, Maria Muscente, Anne Harris, Alison Pritz, B.J. Bliss, Joan Grossman, Deb McCall, Julie Stamm, Ruth Katz, Rae Covey

Guests: Carol Dentes Wilhelm, Beth Wixson, Liz Ambrose, Brigid Hubberman.

Absent:  Julissa Howe,  Jay True

Approval of January Minutes-  unanimously approved.

Discussion Items:

School-wide Summer reading project and Literacy Events.

Brigid Hubberman (Family Reading Partnership) came to speak to us about ideas and

support her organization could offer. Brigid began by asking us to clarify our goals and state our desired outcomes.

Ideas Mentioned:

• Summer reading

• Connect to the community

• Reach out to all families, “equity in education”

• 2 events- a mini-event to get them thinking and then a larger event in the fall.  Purpose

to build community & summer reading. 

• Celebration of readers

• Some structure so the entire family is involved

• Resources and support piece for parents to help their children.

• Goal:  a book going home with each child.

• Writing journal going home with each child.

• Whatever we can do to help literacy happen over the summer would be great.

The Family Reading Partnership is celebrating their 10th anniversary this year.  Their theme is “At Home with Books.” They will be writing their own book for families and their goal is educate and help support families by having them “buy in.”

Brigid also mentioned that the F.R.P. has experience dealing with publishers and buying

in quantity. Therefore she could try to help us purchase our books at a discount.

As a group, we decided that poetry would fit with our whole school writing and reading

goals.  The following notes are discussion, which brought us to this place:

• Poetry might be more approachable for all parents to read.

• Kg. and 1st grades would benefit from rhythm and rhyme.

• Poetry slam?

• Brod Baggert

• Can be put to music and dance

• Poem recipes or templates for how to write poetry.

• Read short fun poems over the announcements

• Separate books for   pre-k—1st,   2nd & 3rd,   4th & 5th.  We could ask for staff input

as we choose the authors.

• Possibly have a challenge (Rae do the chicken dance?)

• Poetry picnic.  An event for the whole school.

• Postcards are sent home in the summer to remind children of their goals.

• Connections should be made with the 6th  grade teachers to help our 5th graders

develop ideas

Agreed upon:

Poetry picnic for whole school this spring.

Combine picnic with I.C. partnership ice cream social.

Students will receive a poetry book appropriate for their grade level.

Students will receive a writing journal with a note from their teacher and writing a writing

template to help them

write over the summer.  (The first few entries should be taught at school.)

Mid-way through the summer students will receive a post-card mentioning literacy and

summer goals.

Fall activity to celebrate accomplishments.

Next Steps with Staff:

People by grade level to help pick poets/books and activities

Time schedule set

Handbook for parents

Templates for writing poetry (Carol has bookmarked several)

Order post-cards

Lunch, coordinate with Pam

P.T.A. funding?

I.C. grant?

Writing journals (possible ideas include art sketch books, “The Gathering Place” journals, composition books.)

Once favorite poets are identified, call Brigid to discuss discount orders.

Site-base will look at templates and see how we can “tweek” them to help parents.

Jon agreed to help us make a CD of staff members reading their favorite poems.

Principal’s Report:

 Extended Day:

 We have a grant to cover the Extended Day program!  Classes will begin on Tuesday,

April 17th and continue to run on Tuesdays and Thursdays until the end of the year.  By “jumping in” we hope to help current students in need, but also help build a really solid program for next year. This year’s program will focus on direct instruction in literacy for grades k-2.  There will be additional help in the upper grades, but it may be in math as well as reading and writing. Classes are direct instruction and small groups. (Student teacher ratio should be no more than 4:1.)

Arts Integration:

The Irish/Celtic  Festival was wonderful.  Out of 350 students, 285 showed up for the

evening performance.  Teachers called individual families that indicated transportation might be an issue. Several families did receive rides and help getting to the high school.

Technology:

The district has asked us for a proposal, but we don’t know the budget.  Last year we

did not receive alphasmarts, DVD recorder, flash drives, or Proscopes.  We did get carts, projectors, and an “Elmo.”

Summer school:

Summer school will be at Northeast this year.  We are hoping to get long overdue

maintenance work completed.

Next Meeting:

April 25th 5:30-7:30

Agenda:

Literacy Event  (update & work session)

Extended Day- Report on other schools’ activities

Tech. update

Roles:

Facilitator:  Jon Hilton

Minutes:  Ruth Katz

Time Keeper:  Julissa Stamm

Process Observer:  B.J. Bliss

Food: Deb McCall  & Alison Pritz

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download