On November 16, 2016 the School Leadership Team of The Children’s School (“The SLT”) held its regular meeting in the science room at 7:30am.
The following members of the SLT were present:
ROSA AMATO, PRINCIPAL
CHERI ANDERSON, PARENT
ROSEMARIE ASTARITA, PARENT
SHARON BARONE, TEACHER
NINA CREWS, PTA
DAVID HO, PARENT
MICHAEL O’NEILL, TEACHER
UNYQUE RENCHER, PARA
KIANAH SMITH, TEACHER
PAULA SZUCHMAN, PARENT
TONIANN TEPEDINO, SCHOOL SECRETARY
DAVID TIPSON, PARENT, SECRETARY
SHARI ZISMAN, TEACHER
The following individuals participated as guests at the meeting:
Bridget Nash, Assistant Principal, Special Education
Yvette Agas-Bautz, Parent Coordinator
The following matters were discussed:
I. Approval of September Minutes:
The SLT approved the minutes from the October 2016 meeting presented by the secretary with the spellings of attendee names corrected.
II. Updates on C-30 Process for Filling Assistant Principal Position
Rosa introduced Interim Acting Assistant Principal Rosa Perez-Leonetti. The position will be posted November 16 – 30. Ms. Rosa is looking for someone with strong instructional and curriculum experience and some special education experience.
Ms. Rosa will be forming a C-30 committee and needs volunteers to participate. Interviews take place in the evening, and the committee must interview at least three candidates. Paula, Cheri, and Kianah volunteered to serve on the committee.
III. New Proposed Bylaws
There was consensus that the clarification “though it is not forbidden” should be added to the end of the first bullet point in Section 1.2 of the new proposed bylaws as a clarification.
There was consensus that the duties of the secretary should be modified to include responsibility for either taking or overseeing the taking of minutes and modified additionally so that the secretary is not required to “ensure” that committee updates are circulated before each meeting.
David will work with Angela to make these and other modifications such that the bylaws are in a form ready to be approved at the December meeting.
Ms. Rosa discussed the need to make SLT meeting dates more available to the school community (including publishing them on Konstella).
IV. Wellness Policy Meeting Update
Paula is planning a meeting of the wellness-policy committee on December 6 at 8:30am. Fred Cosentino has volunteered for the committee. The committee will discuss what content might be possible and desirable to include in a wellness policy and seek ideas and feedback from the school community.
V. Principal’s Update
Ms. Amato presented the principal’s update. Middle school applications are due. The administration has been trying to get more middle school information to parents and held a panel with middle school representative the previous day. There is another panel on November 29 in which parents form local middle schools will speak about their experience in these schools.
Ms. Amato formed a principal’s advisory committee, which includes teachers from every grade, specialists, and someone from ASD site. The advisory committee provides an opportunity for staff to report back to the principal and for faculty members to have voice in important decision about the classroom. Other teachers are welcome to attend. The next meeting is November 22 in the library. The school’s homework policy will be discussed.
Kindergarten enrollment will run from November 30 to January 12. The school will have one open house. Ms. Rosa is exploring the idea of student-led open houses with fifth graders highlighting what they are doing and learning in the school.
VI. Art Update
Michael noted that the Winterfest concert is December 21: 9am for pre-k – second grade and 10:45am for third to fifth grades.
VII. PTA Update
Nina presented the PTA update. The annual appeal is launching.
Roots & Community was a success.
The PTA book fair happened this week.
The PTA has received good feedback on Konstella. Class parents especially like it.
The PTA is working on a plan to spend PTA funds in a productive ways towards the school’s needs. There will be call out to the whole school as to how to spend the funds (as with last year). The goal is to vote on the ideas at the January meeting. There will be a similar process in the spring.
The PTA will no longer assemble winter baskets for fundraising.
VIII. Committee Updates–will be first next time
a. Diversity
Shari presented a brief report on an issue facing the diversity committee. The committee’s resources are stretched and the committee would like to discuss extending responsibility for outreach and recruitment beyond the committee to the entire school community. The committee believes an organized effort from the school would be good. The need to coordinate with city councilmembers was briefly discussed.
Ms. Rosa called the meeting to a close at approximately 8:30am.