Public School Partnership

Public School Partnership Coordinating Council Meeting September 20, 2013 1:00 – 3:00 p.m. Reich College of Education, room 124A Boone, NC

Present: Cynthia Altemueller Christy Chenausky Doug Rhoney Anna Lankford Linda McCalister Mike Holden Martha Clark Kim Mattox Jim Brooks Craig Styron Anthony Davis Kourtney Rabinowitz Kim McAulay Rexanna Lowman Melissa Rushing Kelly This Jennifer Hefner Phil Johnson Julie Taylor Keith Hindman Sheila Richardson David Johnson Heather Gilliam-Wall Anthony Davis

Welcome: Linda McCalister Linda McCalister welcomed all new and returning members. All counties were in attendance except Avery. Linda invited the group to share their names, office, and county.

Election of Chair: Coordinating Council Linda opened the floor up for nominations for chair. Jim Brooks nominated Jennifer Hefner of Alexander County and Cynthia Altemueller seconded. Jennifer accepted the nomination and all members approved.

Approval of Minutes: Jennifer Hefner Meeting minutes from April 8th, 2013 were approved by Coordinating Council.

Partnership Information: Linda McCalister Linda showed the members the Public School Partnership website: www.partnership.appstate.edu. She highlighted the tile quilt on the homepage, the calendar, highlights, GB page, CC page, meeting minutes, representatives, photos page, PLC pages, mini-grants, STEM page, International Outreach page, Arts and Education Outreach page . She asked members to send a photo of themselves if their photo was not already listed on the CC page. She also shared what some of the PLC groups are doing this year. Linda shared that the Pakistani Exchange would be bringing teachers and students into Watauga County and that the International TEA fellows would be in various schools in the Partnership. She shared the results of the Needs Assessment Survey and how the college will be using using those results to inform professional development opportunities for schools.

Cultural Arts: Christy Chenausky Christy shared that the new APPlause! series will be kicking off soon. She shared that the Arts and Education Office is offering tours and lunch for groups that want to come to ASU and attend the APPlause! events. Lesson plans are also offered for these events. She also shared that about 200 elementary students will be pairing up with international students to read books together in English. The goal of her office is to share the resources that ASU has with the local schools. She asked CC members to give her feedback if their schools attend any art events here. She also wanted to let members know that this is the last month for applications for Target Field-Trip Grants (https://corporate.target.com/corporate-responsibility/grants/field-trip-grants). She is happy to help members fill out grants if they need help or advice. Her contact information is: [email protected] or 828-262-6084. Lastly, she shared the art exhibits that are on display at the Turchin Center right now. She gave members a poster of the APPlause! events. Math/Science Center: Phil Johnson Phil Johnson shared that there was great success with the summer programs. More people came to the Mathematics Education Leadership Training (MELT) program than the Science program this summer; this is because of the new Common Core Standards. He asked CC members to let him know what they need in regards to science and professional development. Summer Adventures received extra funding this year so they were able to do more this summer. He shared that ASU is hosting the Summer Adventures meeting this Sunday and Monday to begin planning for next year. He gave CC members flyers that contained information about the science seminars. He also shared that he is getting requests for Family Math and Science Nights. He shared that schools are coming to ASU to listen to science presentations of Jeff Goodman and invited CC members to visit the Math/Science Center, located on the first floor of the building. He asked the CC members to help him find science judges for the science fair on December 17th. ASU will be hosting the fair this year and announced that the NC Science Festival will be from March 18–April 13, 2014. He will be giving CC members a newsletter next time that has all the dates and times for upcoming events and contact information. Phil can be reached at: 828-262-3185 or [email protected].

District Sharing: Coordinating Council Alexander: Doug Rhoney from Alexander Central High shared that his school received a Golden Leaf grant and they already started year-long PD. Jennifer Hefner shared that literacy is a major focus in her county. Elementary levels are developing a plan for reading. Many teachers in the county are attending literacy trainings because intervention is huge. Alleghany: Sheila Richardson shared that teachers in her county attended the BUCK Institute (http://www.bie.org/) this summer and that early release days have been popular in her county. Burke: Rexanna Lowman shared that Burke County opened the STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Agriculture, and Math) Academy this summer; students are focusing on literacy, all middle and high school principals are trained on reading scores. Mike Holden shared that his school is trying a new program where teachers are given extra time each week (one hour, twice a week) to do fun activities and integrate literacy, this is also a time for math connections and reading connections. Caldwell: Craig Styron shared that his school is doing data notebooks to look at student groups. Keith shared that Caldwell’s STEM Center has had great success with many visitors. Their next goal is targeting grades 5-8 this year in science to see how to improve site visits. Middle level is working on content integration. Elementary levels are focusing on closed reading and Read-To-Achieve. Caldwell is going to start pushing the “Big Six” to help with the issue of plagiarism with older students. Elkin City: Cynthia Altemueller shared that Elkin teachers also attended the BUCK Institute and art trainings this summer. Elkin is focusing on project-based learning. She shared how the projects are making students and teachers excited about school and learning. She shared that Elkin did receive rubrics for PBL. Wilkes: Anna Lankford shared that Wilkes is continuing the progress with data research. Full implementation of PBIS in all schools K-12 has been successful. Watauga: Martha Clark shared that Watauga County has a new superintendent and they are focusing on instructional materials and working together as a district. ASU: Linda McCalister reminded CC members that experts are available in reading to work with counties. She also encourages counties to work together to share resources and plan professional development. These are ideas that the CC brainstormed that ASU can help counties with: Literacy training for middle and high school teachers (CTE, world language); science education training for level entry or an additional certification; elementary teacher math content knowledge; vertical alignment in math so elementary school students would be ready for middle school math; passing on math alignments to parents; vertical training in writing, especially in terms of research; technology integration (helping teachers utilize technology tools, Web 2.0, teaching online courses and taking online course, integrating technology in a tiered fashion to not overwhelm teachers and principals). Linda shared that ASU will be sending someone to schools to pilot a time for teachers to create a sense of community. Some CC members agreed that would be a good idea to a sharing time.

Jennifer asked CC members to discuss how they are going to share information after leaving this meeting. Many members said they were going to disseminate this information through email, principals meetings, and cluster meetings.

Jennifer thanked everyone for their time and reminded them of the next meeting.

Next meeting date: November 22nd at 1:00pm

Dates to remember: PLC Meeting – October 3rd at 4:30pm GB Meeting – November 1st at 1:00pm

Meeting adjourned at 2:45 p.m.