September

Picadome Elementary

SBDM Meeting Minutes

Thursday January 18, 2007

The Picadome School Community is committed to all students becoming lifelong learners through academic success and responsible citizenship.

The meeting was called to order at 3:25 p.m.

Members present: Stacey Davis, Kathy Cleary, Darla Simms, Ricki Rosenberg, Steve Stone and Bill McMakin; Absent- Jeff Mefford

Visitor: Becca Stouffer, student teacher

I. The minutes of the December, November and October meetings were read and approved with minor changes.

II.                 Budget
  A. School Council Instructional Funds (SCIF
        Council reviewed the SCIF printout (see attached) A budget transfer of our Average Daily Attendance (ADA) second month adjustment will need to be completed in order to be able to spend these funds.
               Furniture and fixtures code continues to have $959.85 encumbered in library funds. Miss Simms will check on this.
        General supplies code has $15,813 remaining, which means 44% is remaining in this account. Teachers need to spend their allocated funds by February 1, 2007. After that, special requests can be considered. (Time for Kids, for example, is usually purchased from this general fund for the next year.) Expenditure of copier funds is on target.
B. Activity Fund
            Council discussed the Activity Fund.

III. Information Items
A. Student Achievement Data

Students are currently taking the PAS (Predictive Assessment System). Preliminary results show good reading scores, and lower in science. Final data will be shared at our February SBDM meeting along with Success Maker Math data. Kindergarten students do not take the PAS; they use MST (Math Standards Test).

Bill McMakin, primary writing teacher, will be reporting on growth in primary writing for the Request for Proposal (RFP) mid-year check. Second Semester he will begin teaching open response questions, as well as continuing real world writing. For the on-demand/open response coach RFP mid-year check we will use the on-demand scores from our 2006 KCCT student scores and a January on-demand prompt for progress data. It will be difficult to get reliable scores since the scoring rubric has changed and the state has not identified the cut points for novice, apprentice, proficient, and distinguished. The open response part of the RFP will use September Learning Checks and January open response questions for the mid-year check. Students who are below grade level have been identified for our Watch List. Teachers are providing interventions for these students.
B. ESS program
Mr. Cooper will coordinate our ESS program (Extended School Services). We hope to start in February. Our program will include reading, writing and math and will focus on novice students moving to apprentice and may include some low apprentice students to ensure that they progress.

C. Social Studies Textbook adoption
Mr. Cooper will coordinate our textbook adoption. He has put the samples received from various textbook companies in the classrooms for teachers to preview and identify strengths and weaknesses.

D. SBDM training
All SBDM members must receive annual training. On-line training is available at an expense to us. Our district is scheduling an additional training (which would be free to all schools in the district) in February. Members who cannot attend the district training need to complete the on-line training.

E. Reports from Committees
There were no committees reporting. Miss Simms will check with the Student, Faculty, and Parent Support Committee about the parent survey; we will need this information/data as we complete our Comprehensive School Improvement Plan. The Technology and Instructional Practices Committee is working on the technology curriculum review including “i-safe” (internet safety). We already have the information from the Needs Assessment Committee to begin identifying strategies for school improvement plan.

F. Recycling
Bluegrass PRIDE has a waste-buster program for schools. A 28-year school teacher veteran, Maxine Rudder, has aligned this program’s curriculum with the State Core Content 4.1. There are three levels. We may start at the medium level, Champion Waste-Buster, and next year move to the highest level, Elite. There is a one-day trash collection to see how much trash is generated. This program is already in 38 schools (public and private) in Fayette County. Blue Grass Pride will provide a person several hours per month to coordinate the program. After discussion of this program, council agreed by consensus to begin the program this school year.

G. Flu Clinic
The flu clinic was cancelled by the district due to liability concerns.

H. Security issue - blind spots on the playground
Council members discussed the issues with the playground; several questions came up: Has the play structure reached its life expectancy? Should we begin to replace parts as they become too old to be safe? The Neighborhood Association helped build and fund the structure, so they would need to be informed of any decisions. It was refurbished last in 2004, when the new swings were installed. We may need to create a playground committee. Currently we have regular inspections by our staff monthly and report conditions to the district. Do we need annual safety inspections from an outside expert, either from the company that designed it or perhaps from Parks & Recreation? We need to ask FCPS playground inspector to do a summer inspection before we involve other agencies.

IV. Action Items

A. Senate Bill 168

We met our target for math but not for reading. Our goal is to close the achievement gap in reading and math for low socio-economic status (SES) students. In reading, out target was to have74% of our low SES students reading at the proficient/distinguished level in on the 2006 Kentucky Core Content Test (KCCT). The state had set a minimum goal for 68% of our low SES students to be at the proficient /distinguished level; our actual percentage of low SES students scoring proficient/distinguished on the KCCT in reading was 62%.

2007-2008 Senate Bill 168-Gap Reduction

After much discussion and review of our 2006 Kentucky Performance Report Data, council agreed by consensus to keep reading as one of our Senate Bill 168 goals, to add Science because there is a large gap in science, and continue math so that we make sure the gap is closed. In all three subject areas, our identified sub group will be low SES students. Our goal in each subject will be between the superlative and the minimum (projected increase of 16% in reading, 20% in science, and 10% in math).

Council discussed additional strategies to support our Senate Bill 168 reading goal including: add Success Maker Reading, analyze Accelerated Reader (AR) data to see if it is working for all students.
Research on Success Maker Reading in Cedar Rapids, Iowa school district found an increase of 13 months of progress in reading in six months. The cost is roughly $13,000. Stacey volunteered to look for any research that has been done with the Success Maker program.

We also discussed the need to support our Senate Bill 168 target for Science. We may not be getting enough science in the primary to be prepared for science at the 4^th grade level. Other possible strategies included: write an RFP to hire a science coach, provide materials for content area science reading, make sure all science kits are updated, and have a professional development session where the core content at each grade level is assigned to either the Science Lab Teacher or the classroom teacher to ensure all content is covered.

B. School Improvement Plan
Council members need to review the handout from our December meeting to be ready to discuss the strategies to include in our plan.

V. Public Comment-none

VI. Professional Development request-none

Suggested items for our February agenda:
Budget transfer for ADA money that is still sitting in contingency
(will be doing next year's budget in March)

School Improvement Plan

The meeting was adjourned at 5:25.