Verified EESAC Meeting Minutes

Recording Secretary: Sarah Russell

Location of meeting: Dorothy M. Wallace COPE Center, Room 39

Was a quorum established? Yes

Was the meeting advertised? Yes, 01/27/2014

Attendance

Topics Covered

The meeting was called to order at 8:02 a.m. by Alfreida Joseph-Goins in Room 39 of Dorothy M. Wallace COPE Center.

In Attendance: Alfreida Joseph-Goins, Marilyn Morning, Sylvia Hadley, Tarika Quinn, Constance Gilbert, Sarah Russell, Daisy Butcher, Patricia Florit-Valenzano, Dr. Yvonne Parchment, Annette Burks-Grice, Yvonne Washington, Dr. Sandra Billingslea, and Kimberly Wilson.

Mrs. Goins welcomed Mrs. Marilyn Morning to the EESAC as the new Education Support representative for the rest of the school year. She was voted in by the non-instructional staff to replace Ms. Sheree Cooper in a meeting held on February 10, 2014.

Minutes from the meeting of November 19, 2013 was approved with corrections.

New Business:

Mrs. Florit-Valenzano gave mid-year updates on Mathematics. On the 2013 Algebra I and Geometry End of Course tests 12% of the students scored at level 3 or above. The goal for 2014 is for 39% of the students to score at Level 3 or above – an increase of 27 percentage points. To date the goal has not been achieved. However, students are making progress toward accomplishing the goal. Based on the Winter Interim Assessment, 19% of the accountability group students made Satisfactory Progress and 38% of the students have made limited progress. The middle school students are still being assessed and their progress will be assessed once scores are updated.

Mrs. Florit-Valenzano also gave mid-year updates on Science. On the 2013 Biology End of Course tests, 36% of the students scored at Level 3 or above. The goal for 2014 is for 43% of the students to score at Level 3 or above – an increase of 7 percentage points. The goal has not been achieved yet but desired progress is being made toward its accomplishment. Based on the Winter Interim Assessment, 33% of the accountability group students are making progress in the right direction with Satisfactory Progress while 11% of the students have made limited progress.

In addition to Mathematics and Science updates, Mrs. Florit-Valenzano also gave mid-year updates on STEM. The goal for 2014 is to increase the number of students involved in STEM-related activities and to increase the opportunities for participation in STEM-related activities. At present, the goals have not been achieved but desired progress is being made to accomplish them.
• Entry has been submitted to the Fairchild Challenge.
• Seven students participated in the Regional Science Fair (three more than participated last school year).
• Future entry is planned for the Fairchild Challenge.

Mrs. Tarika Quinn gave mid-year update for Student Services.

Behavior: 69% of students received referrals in 2012-2013. The goal of 68% for this year has not been met. Teachers are encouraged to use student referrals. SCSI has been implemented. No students are in SCSI this week. In-class presentations are being given by Dr. Sandra Billingslea in the parenting classes.

Dropout Prevention: In 2012-2013 there was a 9% dropout rate. The goal of 7% for this school year has not been met. Currently there are 24 students who have withdrawn from Dorothy M. Wallace COPE Center who have not enrolled in any educational institution. Follow-ups have been made via home visits and telephone calls. Mrs. Grice has asked Student Services to put a plan into place to get these students enrolled in school somewhere. Ms. Gilbert asked if there is a way to track where these students went and was given an affirmative answer.

Attendance: In 2012-2013 the average was 85%. The goal for 2013-2014 is to increase the average attendance from 85% to 88%. As of February 10, 2014 the average is 83.6%. One of the barriers keeping students from attending school every day was doctor appointments. Students are encouraged to join the CHI clinic here on-site so they won’t miss instructional time. As of December 3, 2013 there were 42 students enrolled in our on-site CHI clinic.

Mrs. Grice asked are we looking at all strategies in the SIP. Are we looking at modifying or changing any of the strategies? She asked Dr. Billingslea to discuss the RTI process.

Dr. Billingslea spoke regarding RTI. We are looking at teacher lesson plans and asking the school psychologist to look at behavior. She would like to have a graph show attendance from the beginning of the school year to present. She is working with the school psychologist to show her how to do the graphing.

Mrs. Grice said she would like to target the Tier 3 students. Students are still being truant even after a truancy meeting is held with them and their parents. She wants to move toward implementation of RTI. After the truancy meeting we should then put RTI into place because attendance is down this year compared to last year.

Dr. Parchment asked, “Why don’t students come to school?

Dr. Billingslea said most don’t come to school because their babies are sick. We need to encourage students to use the clinic.

Several concerns and suggestions were made in reference to attendance. EESAC members agreed that improving attendance continues to be an issue.

Reading/Language Arts: Ms. Washington said in 2012-2013 20% of our students were at Level 3 or above. In 2013-2014 27% of our students are at Level 3 or above. We have not met our goal yet. We are currently at 27% which is a drop from 29% in the fall. However, we are on track to achieve our goal. In Reading the 9th graders were at 20% in the fall and are at 33% in the winter. This is because of teacher collaboration. We need to do more Differentiated Instruction for small groups. She expects the 10 graders to make gains to 34% in Reading.

In writing 80% of the students are at Level 4. They have made gains. Thirty percent are at Level 3 and 13 students are at 100%. One of the strategies used was to focus on more pre-planning.

Mrs. Goins informed attendees that we will be having reading and mathematics enrichment boot camps to help the students obtain higher test scores.

CTE: Ms. Hadley gave her mid-year update. Her department teachers are focused on Goal #5 of the SIP. By January 2014 participation had increased to 17 students. However, two students have withdrawn. Fourteen students are scheduled to take three to four exams each. Students must bring the certificates they have earned when they take these exams. She uses differentiated studying in the classroom and has put peer teaching in place. Her students have had a “study” boot camp. One of the barriers is that Level 4 students have decreased in their attendance and as a result did not test.

Ms. Hadley said peer teaching has worked well and also the use of online study materials has worked.

Mrs. Goins reviewed the EESAC voting procedures. She said she asked the Office of School Improvement what methods of voting may be used. She was told that we can’t use email or conference calling. Members must vote in person. In light of that, Mrs. Goins said we need to have several alternates from each voting group.

Mrs. Grice requested that each group get alternates put on the EESAC roster so that we may have a quorum as much as possible. Alternates are voted in by their respective groups.

Mrs. Goins presented Briefing #15241 regarding school uniforms. If we are to keep our dress policy as it is we need do nothing. It was the members’ consensus that we keep our school dress policy as it is.

She also said we have $605.00 in EESAC funds and questioned how we wanted to spend it. She mentioned possible areas of student incentives, trophies for Awards Day ceremonies, etc. We may need to call a special meeting.

The next meeting date will be given at a later date.

The EESAC meeting was adjourned at 9:08 a.m.