Educational Excellence
School Advisory Council

6611 Country Club Middle School

Pending EESAC Meeting Minutes for:    10/16/2018  08:10 AM

Please contact the school for a formatted hard copy of these minutes.

Recording Secretary:    ELDA ESTRADA

Location of meeting:    COUNTRY CLUB MIDDLE SCHOOL

Was a quorum established?    Yes

Was the meeting advertised?    Yes,  08/23/2018

Attendance:

Members Present:

Lima, Cynthia (Principal)
Curry-Coffee, Nicole (Union Steward)

Karan-Miyar, Duysevi (Teacher)
DOZIER, RITA (Parent)
GARY, YVONNE (Parent)
Estrada, Elda (Alternate Parent)
BROWN, SAIDAH (Student)
DOZIER-DANIELS, JORDYNN (Student)
SHEARN, MAHYA (Student)
Estrada, Daniel E (Alternate Student)
RODRIGUEZ, EVELYN (Business/Community Representative)
SEDENO, EDDY (Business/Community Representative)







Members Absent (Excused):

VIillazon, Jacqueline (Alternate Principal)
Leon, Michelle (Teacher)
Cannon, Claudette (Teacher)
Javed, Elba (Educational Support Employee)
Pino, Marisol (Alternate Educational Support)
RIVERA, KARINA (Parent)
GRANDA, LILY (Business/Community Representative)

Members Absent (Unexcused):

Stephen, Josmeen (Teacher)
Phillips-Ingraham, Tawana (Teacher)
Martin, Myra (Alternate Teacher/Paraprofessional)
ALI, SAUDIA (Parent)

Others Present:

JULIA POLANCO- COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT SPECIALIST
Norelys Guaimares (Parent)
Monique Brunson (Teacher)
Dr. W. Edward Mitchell (Parent)
Mahya Shearn (Student)
Isabella Manzini (Student)

Topics Covered:

Meeting called to order at 8:10am

Review and Approval of 9/12/18 EESAC Minutes by EESAC Chair no corrections needed.

REPORTS/UPDATES
Updates on school improvement plan

Phase 2 of the SIP will be sent to the faculty, some elaboration was needed but no changes were necessary. In order to Incorporate STEAM and Fairchild into the SIP certain verbiage needs to be added , we would need to match the STEAM initiative to the focus which is Science and learning gains in ELA and Mathematics. STEAM is an acronym for Science,Technology, Engineering, Art and Math and how to incorporate all of these subjects in one lesson. The teachers involved are Math teachers, Science teachers, CTE teachers like Ms. Brunson. Ms. Aguila and Mr. Uban.

Ms. Miyar added that the teachers did a workshop on STEAM on early release day, in which the teachers came up with 2 projects that we were going to be working on that had to do with STEAM.

Ms. Lima added that for professional development she is reaching out to different departments in the district for guidance.

PARENT AND FAMILY ENGAGEMENT UPDATES- Ms. Polanco

TITLE 1 UPDATES- Ms. Polanco introduced herself as the New Community Involvement Specialist. On September 12 we had our first Title 1 meeting, there were 212 parents in attendance. We discussed the Parent and Family Engagement Plan, (PFEP) as you look through the plan you will see that procedures have been put in place. More flexibility was added in the morning and afternoon for parents to be able to attend. Accessibility of languages translation of materials in Spanish, and Creole. Also, we have the parent academy meeting and we have a resource center in which we give parents information brochures, flyers, handouts, tutoring, a room with a computer where parents can come in and we can work with them in helping them get familiar with the applications like grade book. I think its exciting because the parents don’t know and just to guide them and let them know that there is help for establishing a portal and being able to explain to them. A lot of them don’t speak the language so by the time they leave they are more relieved and they can understand a little bit more about the school system. It is very rewarding to see the parents able to understand. I am very surprised I have only been here a month and I see so much help in the school and the community itself that parents are not aware of and it is our job to make them aware of all there is to offer. Thank you so much if you need any help please do not hesitate to contact me or Ms. Perez we are in the office Monday -Friday.

Ms. Lima sent a picture of Ms. Polanco on the Remind application so that everyone can meet her since she does not come to our faculty meetings.

STUDENT UPDATES

Homecoming Dance is the 25th of October and it is going to be in the cafeteria at 5:30pm. Remind the students that Homecoming is for everybody. Ms.Lima added that for homecoming the school resource officer will be on campus like every year since she has been at the school.

PARENT UPDATES

What did parents think about the open house? Parents agreed it was very informative. Community members added that there is an invitation open for the parents next week on the 24th,25th, and 26th of October. If you have a small business or a nonprofit we are having a facilitator from google come in and hold workshops on how to get your business online. It’s a great opportunity to get people familiar with working online with google.

Ms. Curry Coffee added that she asked to be on the agenda for model UN. Ms. Miyar asked to please email her so she can add it to the agenda. Anything that needs a vote would be emailed and then can be placed on the agenda. Ms. Curry Coffee excused herself because she was attending a PD on campus regarding model UN.


PRINCIPAL UPDATES
Ms. Cynthia Lima


I wanted to mention that every student in 6th , 7th and 8th grade took an I-Ready diagnostic test, sixth graders were used to it from elementary school and each student through their ELA classes received a letter to the parent indicating what is the difference between the diagnostic and the actual I-Ready lessons and based on their scores how many minutes per week the child had to be on I-Ready.

Algebra 1 EOC -We have 3 sections of Algebra. I met with Ms. Hopkins. We stared a Saturday school "Back to Basics" tutoring opportunity we had the first one and now we are having the second one on Saturday. We already identified some students that even though they passed in the denominator because they scored a 3,4,5 in the seventh grade mathematics and they count in the denominator, so if they are taking any High School course that is not tied to the EOC they will count against our school grade, but we want to do what is best for students because that grade counts towards their high school credit. So, we already identified one or two students where it is not to their benefit to be in Algebra 1 and have been placed in Pre Algebra .

Topic Assessments-
Topic Assessments have begun. For Civics there is a total of 5 of them for the entire year for 7th graders. We started topic assessments. We did the first one for 8th grade Science and for Biology and we have done the first one for all 6th, 7th and 8th grade Mathematics. ELA is a little different- this year we are going to incorporate the I-Ready growth monitoring exam or assessment because we didn’t do it last year. We give the student the AP1 we give the Mid Year so it looks like there is a large increase of scores. But , when the assessment is given we don’t get the scores that we predicted. Our focus is still Science. Additional research classes were opened after my budget conference. There are four sections, so we have about 100 students who are taking Science in 8th grade and an additional lab or an additional class to focus on the 6th and 7th grade benchmarks that the students are weak on. We need to make sure that the students do well in the Science test so they can go on to High School.

Learning gains- We need to be very aware of the referrals we are writing so that students can be in class. We need to be sure that students are in class to learn.

Locking of the perimeter- Even before any strategy had occurred it was very important to lock the perimeter. I would lock the two smaller gates, now the parking lot gates are locked also. Teachers have a 45 minute lunch so some teachers step out for lunch. Last month this came up at the leadership meeting. I sent an email to all the Department Chairs, advising that each Department Chair was going to receive a key to the gate and they would assist in the safety of the school. This means that the Department Chair would either give the key to the teacher or come up with a system. The gate will remain locked at all times, the department chair or whoever leaves for lunch will lock the gate and be responsible. Please be advised that the main office door is always open and you can walk to the parking lot.

Morning traffic- Parents and employees are parking in the driveway, apparently a parent called and said they couldn’t drop off their child because the faculty was blocking the driveway. Now the police officers are ticketing folks that are parking in the driveway for long periods of time. At the last EESAC meeting I mentioned that teachers are sharing best practices this last meeting we had Ms. Iribar sharing on common board configuration. The last two teachers that presented got a certificate and a $5.00 dollar gift card to Mc Donalds, courtesy of Ms. Lima.
We have a no opt PD day on October 26th and November 6th, teachers must register for PD days.

Quarter one comes to an end this Thursday, if parents are having an issue with one teacher Ms. Perez and Ms. Polanco are taking the information and sending it to that one teacher. The teacher is fully responsible for contacting the parent scheduling a conference if needed. What was happening is that there wasn’t enough time in the morning for conferences. I noticed several conferences where some teachers did not have issues with the student and others did. It was a bit demoralizing so now if the student is having a problem with one teacher that teacher is fully responsible for contacting the parent.

Articulation and Magnet recruiting- Next week we have three of our feeder Elementary Schools visiting our school. Joella Elementary, Spanish Lakes Elementary and Charles D Wyche. PSN is not participating.
Labels have been ordered and I sent out a letter to all 5th graders letting them know a little bit about our school. We do parent tours every Wednesday, I try to schedule them all on one day a week.
The tour depends on what the parent is more interested in. We went to the Superintendent's town hall meeting at Miami lakes Tech and I want to thank the Mitchell family. Mrs. Mitchell was there with their son and I know Ysabella and Ms. Gary were also there. It went very well, the Superintendent was there talking about the importance of the referendum which is going to support teacher pay and school safety and security. In regards to money, I know that everyone asks the EESAC for funds but we are not a very large school so we get $5.00 per student, we have as of right now $ 3,455.00. We approved $2,999.00, to be transferred to the Principal to be used for student incentives. The school system does not give me money to buy food and fringe benefits for the children. The money that I get allocated are for teachers, insurance, security, custodians, custodial supplies, paper and the school website. T Shirts were purchased, I can't purchase for all students in Civics so they are given to the top 5 in every Civics class. They can wear them every Friday for participating in the camp . I don’t like to take EESAC money for awards or trophies. We payed through the principals account for the awards last year.


Ms. Villazon is working on after school tutoring ESOL before school and After school.

Clear Book Bags Initiative- We did get about 51% percent of the vote and many parents changed their mind. Right now it is not a concern if we have to check a book bag all we need is reasonable suspicion. I think that the parents that even voted for it were ok with not implementing it for the students . Some students do have it and we can encourage it, but it is not something that everyone feels strongly about right now especially that many of the students have smartphones or things that they don’t want anyone else to see.

NEW BUSINESS
EESAC Chair

EESAC stakeholders training on October 26 on a teacher planning day. I recommend that everyone go parents teachers to get more information on how EESAC works.

Mahya has a question regarding student ID’s -Ms. Lima replied that they have arrived, but the ID’s are very soft. We will buy a laminating machine and laminate them.

Next EESAC meeting will be November 20th at 8am

Meeting is adjourned at 8:54am