School Improvement Team Meeting

Shiloh Elementary Prolab

March 26, 2009

3:00pm – 4:00pm

In Attendance:

Mike Henderson, Principal

Samantha Adams, Assistant Principal

Chrissie Maness, Grade K

James Ottaway, Grade 1

Melissa Ottaway, Grade 2

Angela Foster, Grade 3

Jody Macek, Grade 4

Tim Burke, Grade 5

Cheryl Tarr, ESL Teacher

Sharon Presson, Teacher Assistant

Susan Rodgers, Curriculum Specialist

Crystal Basile, Parent

Anne Wheeler, Parent

Welcome –Mr. Henderson

Mr. Henderson began the meeting by welcoming everyone.

Parent Concerns- Mr. Henderson

No concerns at this time.

Teacher Concerns - Mr. Henderson

*Mrs. Ottaway brought the concern of the cafeteria allowing two desserts.  Mr. Henderson will talk again with cafeteria.

*Mrs. Foster brought up duty free lunch again and Mr. H Henderson explained that it would be more of a grade-level decision.  Mrs. Foster said her grade level will make the decision for her grade level and Mr. H Henderson said that it is something that will be addressed each year.

*Mrs. Maness asked whether or not the PTA will be providing agendas again and Mr. H Henderson said that they will be and they will have pockets.

*Mrs. Macek asked that for the new math curriculum if we could meet earlier because we are a year round school.  Mr. Henderson explained that we would be trained earlier.  She asked if quarterly trainings could happen by being front loaded instead of being taught after the lessons had been taught.  The suggestion was given to have the staff travel for the trainings to be more front loaded.  Mr. Henderson explained that for the new math program we will be trained at the end of this school year for next year.

*Mrs. Rodgers asked why a Korean flag was not represented for a child.  Mrs. Tarr explained it that it was flags of birth countries and not heritages.  Mrs. Maness suggested a title for the flags to explain.

Mr. Ottaway asked about the account for teachers to use if they were a penny or ten cents short. Mr. Henderson informed the team it was not allowed to create an account for that matter.  Mrs. Tarr explained that you can put an alert on your account to receive an email when your balance is low.

*Mrs. Presson asked about the cafeteria walkway and Mrs. Adams said that we have a plan that will most likely begin next year.

Administration Concerns- Mr. Henderson

Beginning of the Year

Mr. Henderson explained that each year we have a retreat that is content driven, administration is considering a team building day instead like Camp Thunderbird.  Teachers discussed making sure that there would still have ample time if math curriculum needed to be covered, etc.   Teachers were in agreement with administration.

Spending

There is certain money that has to be spent by the end of this month.  Mr. Henderson explained that spending needed to be reflective of our School Improvement Plan.  Mr. Henderson explained that we may have another 21st century classroom.  Currently we will have four for the next school year.  Mr. Henderson shared that we may be able to add both fourth and fifth grades with data projectors and document cameras for next year.  Mr. Henderson said that we got a huge donation from a mortgage company who went out of business.

Staffing

Mr. Henderson still doesn’t know a lot about staffing for next year.  He has emailed the staff with information from the Union County website from Jim Stegall.  Mr. Henderson has a meeting next week and will inform the staff as soon as he knows anything.  Mrs. Maness asked about the mentoring program.  Mrs. Rodgers explained that it was going to stay the way it is this year, but has a possibility of changing.

Math Text Adoption

Mr. Henderson explained that the county adopted expressions and we selected investigations, but he reminded everyone that it is a tool and NCSCOS to drive instruction.

Fundraiser final report

We earned just over $6,000 from the chocolate.  We’ve earned $236 from the magazine booklets, but said that we may get more if people order magazines throughout the year.  Mrs. Rodgers asked how it compared to last year and we earned around $13,000.

Globalization

Mr. Henderson explained that he is on a committee for UCPS in order to talk about at the high school level that children can take classes as an endorsement for their diploma.  He asked the team what we could do at the middle school and elementary level.  He said that what we will possibly do for the next school year is give a list of ideas and ask classroom teachers to do at least one.  The following suggestions were given: Flat Stanley, Skype, adopt a country for the entire year and the classrooms could go on different rotations through the year learning about the different countries, Beta Club, celebration with a parade or performance, map of where we’ve traveled or read books about, cook book of different recipes for the countries/families for sale as a fundraiser.

Conclusion-Mr. Henderson

The meeting concluded with Mr. Henderson asking for any other concerns or questions.

The team was reminded of the next meeting, May 27, 2009.  The meeting adjourned at 3:50pm.