WA School Council Minutes
Westford Academy
School Council
Present:
Faculty: Jim Antonelli, Wendy Pechacek, Stephanie Devlin
Parents: Silas Mark, Clare O’Brien
Students: Aastha Gupta, Sophie Jiang
Minutes
Thursday, October 10, 2019
6:00 PM
● Welcome back - Goal for tonight is to review our goals and share ideas for new directions for the coming year.
● Introduce new students - Sophie is returning and Aastha is new. Both are seniors.
● Review norms and meeting protocols- Jim reminded the committee of our norms including confidentiality, respect for each person’s perspective.
● Jim asked for feedback from the students on the safety drill this afternoon. Students felt the word “will” was too direct and perhaps should be changed to “would” (go to Crisafulli for example). Aastha suggested talking through what students would do in each of the locations they travel to in a given day. (library, cafeteria, hallways, PAC, etc.)
Aastha requested that each piece of information is repeated so that students can catch what is being said while also barricading and moving furniture, which can be loud. Also a suggestion that a capstone project could be to look at how long it takes to get across the building from various points.
Five other towns had law enforcement representatives here and learned from what they saw.
Clare reported that the experience was very eye-opening for her German exchange student.
Jim talked about the doorstop device that the state fire marshall is not allowing. We are still researching avenues to get approval for these devices.
● Jim asked for feedback for classes that reported to DLT. Sophie said it was really loud and there was no WIFI. When she was in the PAC for a DLT it was much quieter. Stephanie had classes sent to DLT with Google classroom assignments. The 3 junior classes had 95% completion. The younger class didn’t do as well but the students also reported it was tough to concentrate. Jim explained that this is due to budget cuts last year and a loss of 15,000 for sub coverage. We are working on a variety of options including sending students to DLT with google classroom assignments from the missing teachers.
Stephanie asked how attendance was working since the teachers did not get attendance sheets back. (or only one or two of the five)
● Clare asked about parent/guardian notifications. Some parents are asking how they can gain access. The teacher building reps will be discussing this tomorrow. Grade 9 for transition and then 10-12 upon parent request.
Teachers are not to send notifications after the end of the school day just to be sure students aren’t surprised by anything. We are still learning how to use notifications, how to set a time to send, etc. Ask Stephanie and Marianne to review with teachers via email how to set notifications, etc.
Aastha mentioned not being able to send docs to her parents that need to be printed and Sophie said she can’t access her other gmail address (for college emails and apps). Both feel that is really challenging especially for seniors. Also impacting students for printing as many students can’t get the chromebooks to communicate with their home printers (Mike Wells) Silas explained that is usually a security measure.
Aastha did say that fewer teachers are asking for students to provide a hard copy of their work. It is mostly English teachers at this point.
Look at a list of suggested, inexpensive printers that are compatible with chromebooks.
● Jim got feedback from a parent that the back to school night is very inconvenient for working families. Clare mentioned that some parents might not be aware as early as they need to be that 10th and 11th needs to report at 3 pm. Perhaps highlighting in the letter even more about that timeframe.
Parents thought that it would be great to have the presentations available online so that they could extend the amount of time with each individual teacher.
● Introduce four NEASC recommendations for growth
1. Vision of the Graduate and Core Values - Dan Twomey will come to our next meeting to lead that discussion. Currently working on surveys of all constituents. Parents just received emails on each of these and students will receive it next. Jim mentioned an acronym at NAHS that every student learns from kindergarten to grade 12 that reflects their common values.
2. Written curriculum for every subject area - we are working on this (UBds and pacing guides)
3. Google classroom - moving to a single platform in every classroom - we are in good shape
4. Common planning time for teachers - will work on a plan for this
● Review School Improvement Plan from school year 2018-2019
Jim will send a copy of the plan from last year so they can review
● Other
Stephanie referenced up the idea of removing midterms
Silas asked about the outcome of the dress code. The school committee approved it, including our recommendations. Silas checked for the 3rd paragraph in our handbook and didn’t see it (for B Ware)
Ideas to promote the GPA (Guidance Peer Assistance) program included: video of a “mock” session with a GPA to display confidentiality and utility of using them. Buttons to identify the members on their backpacks - “Ask me about” button (someone in GSA has a button machine); pictures or poster on monitors throughout the day - need to get the word out that this resource is available.
Sophie asked whether anything was going on with cheating and a schoolwide policy. She feels cheating has increased and it is mainly stress driving them. She mentioned an incident last year where someone reported suspecting a cheating incident and it didn’t appear that anything ended up happening. We cited the policy in the handbook. Teachers have flexibility with the first incident but not moving forward.
Highlight Time Management worksheet at course planning time for all parents as a reminder.
Motion to approve with Amendments:
Clare – motion
Steph – second
6-0 Approve with Amendments