Waddell Language Academy SLT Meeting: February 22, 2016, 4Pm, Media Center

Waddell Language Academy SLT Meeting: February 22, 2016, 4pm, Media Center

Upcoming meetings: April 18, 6pm and June 6, 6pm

Next PTSA meeting: March 17

Kathy Price opens meeting by providing high school continuation information.

She passed around the brochure that Herr Nuss created for parents getting involved with the school.

Rampage is now more robust, extra information, “middle school matters” included. Kudos provided by the audience.

South Meck will be visiting the 1st week in March. Dr. Furr will visit. Cards will be available and due on the 15th.

I. AdvanceEd Survey Update

Dr Eybl provides AdvanceEd Study Update. Coming week of March 13. March 13-16. They’ll arrive Sunday night and will be in school Monday-Wednesday depending on the info they get. Monday 14 th, we will learn which schools they visit and who they do interviews with. School visits are done, and stakeholder interviews are completed. They usually don’t tell ahead of time who is selected.

Dr Eybl provided an overview of the effective learning environment observation tool. They want to know about children and the learning environment. Equitable, supportive, active learning environment, digital, well-managed. Scale of 1-4 of whether it’s very evident or not observed. This isn’t about the teachers. It’s about the students and the educational environment. Differentiated learning opportunities that meet students needs, listening for learners with different needs, equal access to classroom discussions, line leaders, do students know rules, are consequences applied in a clear and consistent manner, etc. Opportunities to learn about backgrounds of others. Are children demonstrating risk? Are they interacting positively? Do they look like they’re enjoying learning?

Looking for alignment of CMS Strategic Plan 2018 to learning environment. 50 page doc available online.

Goals: ensuring people are college and career readiness, closing achievement gaps.

Recruit and retain a premier workforce.

Cultivating relationships with families, businesses, church groups, etc.

Promote health, security, customer service.

Optimizing district performance, increasing data at Waddell. Including MAP and Dibels data. School performance and improvement.

Inspire and nurture creativity and entrepreneurship. Learning everywhere all the time. (All middle school students have Chromebooks; Chromebooks don’t go home yet); e2d, sponsor a lemonade stand to raise funds for those who live in “technology deserts”: Hotspots for families AdvanceEd team will have read all the submissions to date. Parents will be contacted if they are to be part of the stakeholder meeting.

Mission and vision statement is on Waddell website. Language skills, students are on a global scale and will be competing for jobs.

They will come 1 day to do these observations—it takes about 20 mins to do an observation in a classroom.

This is all part of the district accreditation process.

2 students were recognized at the awards ceremony last week for Do the Right Thing. They are nominated by Officer Wilson. These are middle school students.

II. 4-5th Grade Japanese Teacher

Parents in the Japanese program wanted the SLT to discuss the issue of additional Japanese instructors. There is a recognition that such a teacher depends on staffing and allotment. To date, the 50-50 model in Japanese has worked, but there’s no position available to hire a teacher. Dr Eybl said the Japanese spots are harder to find, and there are few in the area. She said Waddell will get teacher allotments soon and then will be able to see if there is a spot for an additional Japanese teacher.

Parents asked if there other creative options such as sharing a teacher with other schools? Some comments from parents are that it’s not even at 50-50. Creative solutions—extra assistant? Sharing with South Meck or another program? There is the Saturday Japanese school in Waddell. Does the staff know anyone who could become a teacher? Some have been approached but the openings aren’t always there. “Chicken or egg” role.

Teachers are allotted according to # of students and Dr Eybl can decide which counts go where.

This is the first time the 5th grade Japanese class has been “full” and hence the need for a solution parents are happy with.

There is a negative impression that the Japanese program isn’t treated the same as other programs. Question raised, perhaps reallocating teachers who may have skills flexibility to open a spot for a full- time Japanese hire?

There is also the issue that CMS is not paying for the visas. During the 1st SLT meeting of the year, Mara Cobe, CMS World Language Specialist, (?) from the district suggested that parents go directly to the board about that issue and ask for that position to be reinstated. Waddell has not yet actively pursued that approach.

Parents noted that if language immersion is key, then there need to be teachers to support it.

III. Coffee with Principal Update

Coffee this past Friday. “Sparsely attended”

Dr Eybl gave a recap. Minutes will be out shortly as well as the budget update.

PTSA will be moving to PTSO. Update provided at event by Adrianne Johnson. A factor affecting allotment, millions due to charter schools which are coming. Also lots spent on changes to transportation. They saved $4MM by having the Shuttle stops.

CMS will look at surveys for reassignment. 150k families at CMS. Only 29k have responded to the survey. They feel that’s not enough to base their recommendation.

Friday is the tour for rising 6th grade parents. 8:45-9:30.

March 1. A few groups.

Online signups will be held for the tours.

Nations Ford Elementary. Our start times won’t change. Nation’s Ford will change from 9:15 to 4:15pm.

Recording meetings – audio or video —CMS needs to record if parents record. Dr Eybl says we don’t record meetings—it’s unclear what will happen with the recording so best to just say no.