SLT Meeting Minutes, April 19, 2017

On April 19, 2017 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, UNIT COORDINATOR ASD
  • PAULA SZUCHMAN, PARENT
  • TONIANN TEPEDINO, SCHOOL SECRETARY
  • DAVID TIPSON, PARENT, SECRETARY
  • SHARI ZISMAN, TEACHER

The following individuals participated as guests at the meeting:

  • Rosa Perez Leonetti, assistant principal, general education
  • Bridget Nash, assistant principal, special education

The following matters were discussed:

Review of CEP goals

Ms. Amato introduced the SLT’s review of the 2016-17 CEP goals.  The school has done well with the  Reading Recovery program, but it is expense – about $5000.  The school probably will not join the program next year and will instead rely on in-house expertise through the Fundations program and similar work.  Reading Recovery offered professional development to reading specialists.  The specialists will retain this training, but they can see more children using a blend of techniques than by staying within the confines of this program.  Although it is hard to assess results in real time, students do not seem to be making tremendous progress under the program.

The SLT discussed the first goal in the CEP.  There was discussion of whether it would be possible or desirable to list differentiated instruction as a goal.  Ms. Amato will keep and possibly add to language in the introductory section about the importance of differentiated instruction.

The SLT also discussed the second goal in the CEP around diversity.  Ms. Amato mentioned that she would be connecting with DOE officials to discuss increasing the number of seats set aside to 50%.  We will also be working to meet the language needs of families who do not speak English at home.

The SLT tentatively agreed to continue the discussion on CEP goals Monday May 8 from 5pm – 7 in the science room.

Principal’s Report 

Ms. Amato mentioned briefly that the school will be doing a competition to see which classroom can collect the most donations for Movers for Mothers to benefit mothers in homeless shelters.

PTA Update:

Ms. Crews sent the following update by email prior to the meeting:

  • Our Silent Auction and Gala on March 18 was a success. The event grossed around 35K and netted about 26 -27K. This matches our performance from past years. We’d like to figure out how to get more parents engaged going forward and bring our attendance numbers up a bit.
  • Our last lice check is this coming Friday, April 21. We sent home a reminder/ fact sheet before the vacation. That note and all documents that will be sent home have been translated into Spanish and Chinese. We have moved rechecks out of the PTA office and to give children with lice a bit more privacy. Recheck day will be Monday, April 24.
  • Our next PTA meeting is April 26th at 6PM!! Childcare and pizza will be provided.
  • Our next event is Arts and Science Day on Saturday, May 13th from 12- 4pm. This event is a true teacher parent partnership. Science day had been a separate event in years past and was organized by the science teachers. Sarah Collins is organizing the science activities this year. Alise Loebelsohn (parent) is organizing the Arts portion. More volunteers are always welcome. Admission will be a suggested donation. We will auction class art projects as we have in the past.
  • Our meeting at the ASD site has been postponed and will now take place on Wednesday, May 10.
  • We have sent out a call for new mini grant proposals. There are a few items that needed further documentation from our last round that we hope to include this time. We are open to new proposals. Voting will take place at our meeting on May 17th.

Committee Updates:

  1. Social and Emotional: No recent activity.
  2. Diversity: Zisman sent notes (attached below) from the March meeting of the diversity committee prior to the SLT meeting.

Ms. Amato called the meeting to a close at approximately 8:30am.