WA School Council Minutes

Westford Academy School Council

7:45 AM - 8:45 AM

Principal’s Conference Room

In attendance: Hansen Shieh, Mia Votano, Sahil Dua, Michele Curtis, Mark House, Christine Schurman,  Lauren Clark, Amanda Welch, Russell Coward, Dan Twomey

Agenda:

1.) Approve minutes from the last meeting

2.) Discussion: Open portal for Powerschool

Discussion at last faculty meeting: teachers are doing very different things– some use google classroom for everything, some use PS

Open portal: Live grade, at any-time a parent/caregiver can login and see grades and attendance, updated grade every X weeks (DT)

Parents/caregivers perspective: which assignments my student has to complete so they can help with gentle reminders is the most helpful part (MH), students need to be accountable for their work as well (CS)

Teacher perspective: assignments of different weights, wide range of how people grade, contract – change in working conditions, requirement of grades to be put in X weeks, facility is divided (RC)

Student perspective: checklist at the middle school level is important, students need to figure out a system that works for them, having grades accessible is helpful for most kids (MV), reduce long term stress (SD)

More transparency and more consistency,  uniform (LC)

Pilot in December 

Previous district had an open portal, teacher updated grades every 2 weeks (AW & LC)

3.) Update on School Start Time

Subcommittee presenting TBD

Budget will be an issue this year

3 bus runs– hidden 4th bus run that is very early

1 bus run is getting into the building by 6:55am

4.) Other

College applications: smooth this year, always some panic before the 11/1 and 11/15 deadlines but overall was very smooth

Student updates: lots of school work, hectic at end of Q1, a lot of tests at the end of the quarter 

Upcoming events: Production week, Darba celebration – over 300 tickets sold, basketball tournament, JV football game on Friday afternoon, Thanksgiving luncheon, charity walk on Sunday, Q1 grades are released at the end of the day through PowerSchool

Trustees mtg: Postponed until December, next year asking for 14 passenger van/bus

Referral update: outside referrals to date– 20 referrals.  On average there are 82 referrals each year (an average over the last 4 years).  Last year there were 61 referrals that were made.  Large jump in our referral numbers when we have a provider to refer to. We had a bump in numbers during the 21-22 school year when we first had PBH come into WA.

Student perspective: More focus as juniors, have to be committed to activities, Parent perspective: 10th grade son doing better than 9th grade

Student stress survey: will be presenting to school council in December (DT), stress shouldn’t be removed,  faculty in general thinks there should be some academic stress (RC), purpose of the survey: feel the most stress is within peer group and at home– share this information with the community, determine if and where changes can be made (DT), where is the productive struggle (CS), Student perspective on where the stress is coming from: depends on the student, family pressures for some students, peer pressures
 

Next meeting: December 14th at 7:45am in the principal’s conference room