• Shearn’s SDMC
    February 11, 2014
    • Minutes
     
     • Attendance
    Push Everyday- Review Data (made 98% last year.. need 98.1% this year)
     
    • Safety (Walker)
    o Review suspension data
    o Approval of School Wide Dismissal (need approval dates from Keafer and Garson)
    o Principal 200 Club (Adair)
    o Approval of the School Wide Rules (Adair)
    o Review of School Wide Policies Draft (Adair)
    o In school suspension (Garson)
     
    • Finance
    o Activity Funds (Buck)
     Teachers not using funds- can be used for incentives, field trips, etc
    o Grade level funds will be $200.00 per teacher. Can only be used for intervention no
    enrichment. Needs to be spent by March 15. Any leftover will be used for summer school.
     
    • Construction (Buck)
    o Concerns
     
    • Lighthouse Team
    o Keafer, Adair, Whitten and Garson
     
    • Staffing
    o Hourly Lecturer for 3rd Grade
    o Dual Language Kinder Teacher
    o Recruitment on Saturday
     
    • Professional Development
    o Questions/Concerns/Needs
    o Dr. Tanner and Dr. Miller Cultural Responsiveness (Early Dismissal 19th)
    o PLC Needs
     
    • Academics
    o Be sure everyone is focused on objectives, questioning, data and Differentiation
    o Leader in Me Roundtable during PLC on 1/21
    o Looking at Data, Interventions Planning and Differentiation
    o Dual Language Kindergarten approved
    o Dual Language PreK
    o Benchmark Testing Calendar should be final
     
    • Support and Volunteers
    o Mission Southwest
    o Willow Meadows
    o Houston Chinese Church
    o Head Start
    o Parents
     
    • Other business
     
    Shearn SDMC Minutes
    February 11, 2014
    Members Present
    Bill Buck- Principal
    Sandra Adair- Assistant Principal
    Sherry Walker- Professional Representative
    Andres Monroy- Classroom Teacher
    Katherine Keafer- Classroom Teacher
    Eric Whitten- Classroom Teacher
    Kendra Carraway- Head Start
    Bob Chenoweth – Mission Southwest
    Marisela Aparicio- Paraprofessional Support
    William Hannan- PTO
    Karla Lopez- PTO
     
    Attendance
    Mr. Buck said that we are again below 98% on attendance. Teachers said that we are still not having our desks cleaned so Mr. Buck will follow up with Maintenance on this.
    Mr. Buck said that he and Mrs. Adair can have lunch with students. Kindergarten is doing snack parties on Fridays. Mr. Buck said that we should bump up the incentives using grade level activity funds. So far none of the teachers have used funds. Mrs. Aparicio said that we could start only accepting doctors’ excuses. Right now Mrs. Aparicio when she gets notes on illness she inputs it as an excuse. If most notes are being handwritten then Mr. Buck should be notified and we can set up a conference.
     
    Safety
    Mrs. Walker has the information on the go bags. She is putting one together on the go bags to introduce to Safety Team. The bag will have safety information on each child, emergency contact phone numbers, Individual Health Plans, and medications are listed. The Safety Team will learn how to use an inhaler and an Epipen. The go bags will have information on ALL 4th grade students for 4th grade teachers because of departmentalized classes. The go bags will have information on ALL 5th grade students for 5th grade teachers because of departmentalized classes. Mrs. Walker said that there is an increase in bullying in 4th grade and 5th grade. Mr. Vasquez has been talking to the students, but teachers are wondering what else they can do. Mrs. Walker will get with Mr. Vasquez and Officer Martinez will come out and do another presentation. Mr. Buck said that the police can come out and give them a citation.
     
    Review of Suspension Data
    This report shows that Shearn has 86 suspensions in 2012-2013. This could include 1, 2, or 3 days. The second highest is 34 and they have 896 students. Early dismissal training by Dr. Tanner will be followed up by coaching with Dr. Q. Miller. Mr. Buck said that we are on the track to meeting the same numbers as last year so we need to make some changes. Ms. Walker said that the teachers in the past were doing more home visits and that changed the culture a lot. Mr. Jones did the in school suspension and kids did not like it at all. In school suspension counts the same as out of school suspension. Mr. Whitten suggested having lunch with those students and jump on when they are behaving positively. Mr. Monroy had a talk with his class about praising the students who have a difficult time with behavior and help build that student up. Mr. Monroy thinks we should put the emphasis on the positive model of what to do or how to react in a certain situation.
    We need to change the fact that teachers are telling the students that they cannot see their mentor. We need to see their mentor as an intervention not as a reward. A lot of issues that occur are due to inconsistent medication. Ms. Walker says that it is important to learn coping skills and to go through a counseling process.
     
    The Leaders in the Pride –Principal’s 200 Club
    Teachers will receive tickets and they will write a ticket to students that are displaying the 7 habits. A teacher who has tickets will give them to ANY student they see displaying the 7 habits. When students are given a ticket they get a positive phone call home and they post on a 200 bingo chart. We will start to implement this next week and a letter going home tomorrow about the program.
     
    School wide Rules
    We are working on the school wide rules and will meet on the 21st of February as a Lighthouse team to discuss the rules and make adjustments.
     
    School wide Discipline Plan
    Mr. Buck said to review the draft discipline plan and SDMC members share it with their colleagues so that we can come back with our thoughts at the next meeting and make any adjustments.
     
    Discipline Documentation Log
    Teachers have to document the behaviors of level 1 issue before sending in a referral. The SDMC will review this with other staff members and come back with ideas/suggestions
     
    In School Suspension vs. Computer Lab Data
    Ms. Walker is hesitant because whoever we put in the in school suspension that they may be pulled in to another classroom or place. Mr. Buck said that they could not be pulled. Ms. Keafer said that there should be something immediate and we need something. Mr. Monroy said we have to come up with a specific plan on what students will be doing and who will be in charge. Ms. Keafer said that we could do a trial situation on Thursdays and Fridays. Ms. Walker said that she would be punished when she was younger on Saturdays and that she didn’t remember why she was getting in trouble because she did it on Tuesday so immediate consequences are very important. Mr. Whitten said we can focus on after school detention. If it becomes inconvenient for parents then it will be something that is more effective. Mr. Hannan was saying that after school detention or in school suspension puts everything on the school; however we can’t control what the parents do. Out of school suspension is not deterring the kids
    and the parents are not being inconvenienced. We will have in school suspension in the library on Thursday and Friday. TAs will rotate through the position as the chaperone of the students in ISS.
     
    Activity Funds
    Fifth grade has had fundraisers so that the grade level can go to Austin. The sales can go on, but they cannot go under the covering on the front. Mr. Buck needs to know about the fundraisers. Mr. Buck said we can use grade level funds to help with incentives. These can be used for pretty much anything. Funds could be used for a popcorn or pizza party.
     
    Grade Level Funds
    Mr. Buck will provide $200 for teachers. These funds can only be used for intervention NOT enrichment. Interventions can be manipulatives, reading libraries, and test taking materials. It can’t be used for field trips. We are paying for tutors out of intervention money. Summer school will be at Shearn and we will have to have money to save to pay the teachers. Any money not spent by the grade levels will be used for summer school. Right now the district is only providing funds to hire 3 teachers for the summer school.
     
    Lighthouse Team
    The action teams met last Friday and the meetings were successful. Ms. Keafer’s action team discussed having media leaders that help with the laptop carts and Mr. Whitten discussed how his action team is writing a school song to Katy Perry’s song Roar. We discussed having a student lighthouse team that are leaders and that there are other students that would meet with the student lighthouse. There could be meetings that are focused just on student lighthouse team and then larger meetings that include more students who want to come.
     
    Staffing
    Hourly Lecturer 3rd grade
    Dual Language English Teacher
     
    Professional Development
    Dr. Tanner and Dr. Miller will be working on Cultural Responsiveness during the early dismissal next week.
    We continue to focus on building positive relationships with our students so that we do not have to send students to the office or have them suspended.
     
    Academics
    There was confusion about the released STAAR and the benchmarks. Mr. Buck doesn’t know when we are going to get the MOCK STAAR tests from Roberta and Dana. They will be used by the teachers however they want to use them. The mock tests can be used however will be helpful. Benchmark testing calendar should be finalized now
    including the Release STAAR Tests. Ms. Keafer asked if the calendar could be cleaned up for better organization.
     
    Mission Southwest
    The first Saturday (April 5th) we will have the workday at Shearn. The PTO and Mr. Chenoweth exchanged information to work together for the workday. We need teachers and staff to provide us with a list of things they may need in their rooms or on the grounds.
    Mr. Chenoweth showed us the flyer for mentoring. He has great quotes on the flyer about the difference a mentor can make. At Rodriguez there are 3 churches involved. The Bishop at one of the Methodist Churches has required the church to tell him what schools they are working with.
     
    Houston Chinese Church
    On April 26 there will be a community health fair. There could also be registration for Pre-K. There will be health screenings and possibly immunizations depending on the legality. Last year there were 80 parents that came and there may be more people coming because they are opening it to their church. The Community Health Fair will be from 8-12.
     
    Head Start
    For the bilingual classrooms Ms. Medina is at her capacity. Mr. Villa is at 18 or 19. Ms. Banks has 13 kids and Ms. Boggs they are at 16. The parents are just not interested in joining and in Ms. Boggs there are parents that are over income. Ms. Walker said we need to focus on positives on the program. There are some negative connotations and some have changed. They are working towards communicating closely with Ms. Aparicio and working with her for registration.
     
    Parents
    The PTO is going to sell bouquets. Fifth grade parents are in charge of carnations and are running that fundraiser. Mr. Buck said to come up with a list of activities and the dates for each of the activities. They will send out flyers on polo shirts and sweatshirts again. Mr. Buck stressed the importance of a calendar from PTO so there is not duplication on sales with Grade Level Fund Raisers.