Minutes from Parents as Partners
Sept 4, 2008

Parents as Partners, 4 Sept 2008

The meeting started promptly at 6:30pm. After introductions, Lorrie Picard detailed past efforts related to GASP, since it is her last year here. Lisa Cray, her former co-coordinator, no longer has students at ADL. Lisa and Lorrie would meet in the beginning of February to plan, and the whole thing is done by the end of March. Lorrie would like a 6th grade co-coordinator. Lapicard(at)aol.com for anyone who's interested.

Laurie Singer reports that the faculty and staff worked on cementing the mission statement: A community developing a respectful environment for lifelong learners in the global society. Staff will split into groups to work on vision statements, expecting to end up with six to eight vision statements that relate to different student groups and other groups associated with ADL (parents, staff, community, etc). This will not be a static document, and is expected to change and evolve and to include action steps.

The staff read a book last year that they will use to create strategies related to "differentiated instruction," so that students will encounter a consistent response from all staff on this topic.

• One component is "assessment FOR learning," as opposed to "assessment OF learning," which involves checkpoints along the way instead of an end-of-unit assessment. As an example, students may be asked to drop a note at the door that conveys two things they grasped from that day's lesson and one thing they just didn't get. This will guide the teacher's lesson plans to cover things students aren't getting, so there are no surprises at the end of the unit in terms of understanding the material.


• Staff will post in their room an essential question related to the current unit of study. The students will get a better concept of the "big picture," and of why they're being asked to do various tasks or why they're covering certain materials. This concept will be phased in at different speeds for different staff members. A parent suggests communicating the essential question to parents, and some staff members already do that on web sites and through other means.


• A third strategy is work by teaching teams that will come up with their own goals for their teams, whether that's by working to make more connections between their disciplines or giving students a choice about how they can express proficiency in a skill.

Colchester HS uses differentiated instruction and has done so for 6-7 years. They assess students' learning styles when the students come in to the school and work with that information to challenge and instruct students.

The staff is moving forward with their teaming model and will decide by November what staff members will work in integrated teams. Two four-teacher teams will work with 7th and 8th graders, and will loop with their students. One team will work with the rest of the 8th graders. Looping will minimize transitions, and the team concept will better serve students with low and high proficiency levels. A January meeting is expected to inform parents about the teaming concept. That meeting will also address the 8th grade Connected Math program, including how it leads to HS Algebra.

Question: How does foreign language fit in with the team concept? Laurie Singer says that foreign language concepts are still under discussion. Ideas include scheduling foreign language during the UA time slot, and making it multi-age. Nothing has been decided at this time.

Question: How are the kids doing? Laurie Singer says everything is off to a good start. Lockers still stymie some sixth graders, but they have generally figured out where they're going.

Positions open:
Parent reps - communications links between teaching teams and parents in that grade. Parent reps might call around to find parents to staff a teaching event or bring snacks based on the spreadsheet generated from the parent volunteer forms people have submitted. Theresa and Tim Jerman will take 6th grade, Mary Lou Lord may take 7th grade. Sharon Sturm will do 8th grade.

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Julie reports that we got a whopping $495 from the Hannaford Helps Schools program - we encourage all parents to put their Hannaford Helps Schools slips into the ADL slot through December!

Box tops is ongoing, and we got $145 from that last year. Bring box tops into Barb at the office. Ann Malle is the box tops queen.

The annual Baked Beads event in Waitsfield yielded $40 last year based on receipts turned in here and sent back to Baked Beads.

In the past year, money has been used for:
New bins for the lost and found (parents are reminded to put names in all items of value that come to school); supplies and paint for volunteers who came to paint the cafeteria; teacher appreciation week.

Julie is looking for volunteers to donate breakfast foods and drinks for the 6th grade parents' breakfast this coming week. About 50 participants are anticipated. Kelly will provide paper products. Sharon will bring two gallons of juice.

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Open house is 9/25 at 7pm.

First dance 9/26 at 7pm. $4 to get in with permission slip. Staff members are chaperones within the dance, parent volunteers staff the food table. Laurie and Woody will staff this one. March and June dances are just for 8th graders. The March dance involves 8th graders from EMS as well - we alternate locations with them for these events.

NECAP testing will happen the week of 10/13 with makeups on the end of it. Sometimes PAP provides a snack on the first or last morning of the testing. We will consult with staff members and bring up options at a future meeting.

Charlie Day has been the book sale coordinator - Julie's not sure whether she will do that again this year. One sale happens close to Christmas and then around Medieval night in March.

There is no known date yet for the June Promotion Night.

PAP meeting dates are the first Thursdays.

Question: When will the web site be updated? Laurie Singer says that all teachers should soon be using and updating it regularly.

Snack Shack - Julie needs volunteers to staff the table and to shop at Costco for supplies. The more parents she has who can staff the table even once a month, the better.

Any receipts that need reimbursement need to go to Barb, who will write a reimbursement check.