Parents as Partners, 4 October 2008
Attending: Julie Mueller, Laurie Lavallee, Woody Martel, Dorothy Dickson, Nancy Bissonnette, Laurie Singer, Kelley Charland, Conny Thoma, Amy Golodetz, Linda Fortin-Mitiguy, Gail O'Connell, Mary Lou Lord, Sharon Sturm, Laura Cunningham Firkey. (Two not on sign-in list - 16 counted)
The meeting was called to order promptly at 6:30pm. Those present introduced themselves
NECAP tests are coming up. Parents as Partners will provide snacks for students during the testing. There are 359 students and we will provide three snacks for each student. Volunteers will divide the snacks by grade level: 113 for sixth grade, 105 for seventh grade, and 141 for eighth grade. Sharon will work on getting apples. Conny will make a Costco run for bananas and apples and drinks. Linda thinks her husband might donate some snacks.
Recycle Bank grants are available for environmental awareness. Households earn points for recycling that are converted to donations for charities and schools. A volunteer will look into this further.
Vision Statements: Teachers have worked on vision statements, which were distributed at the meeting:
A white paper has been drafted by the state board of education related to best practices in schools in Vermont, and was presented recently at a summit meeting of many different schools and agencies. How do we get everybody from the Governor's office down to buy into these concepts? Decisions are being made around this vision for all Vermont schools. A timeline was created with specific activity plans through 2018. This vision conference translated into a basis for meetings with teachers here at ADL. The discussion was much more focused and specific than on the state level, but the teachers did a great job of thinking outside the four walls of the school in their process. Distance learning, in/out of school options, connecting with students across the world, and other ideas came up. The vision statements will become a measurable action plan with concrete steps to measure progress.
A parent feels that it's important to make sure all students are impacted by these statements. Laurie responds that they tried to stay away from the word "all" because of expectations that sets up. A parent feels that some education funding from the state should be non-negotiable. Laurie indicated that the topic was discussed at the summit.
A parent likes the service learning component. Laurie says that several teachers went to a "Kids' Consortium" conference this week, and we are hoping for grant funding to promote service learning. 7th graders are working this year on a service component around hunger that ties into the community. Community service is different than service learning. Service learning has an education component to it that informs and involves participants to a greater level, empowering them to be able to make an actual change and make an impact on a community need. The service is directly connected to the learning.
A parent promotes the importance of civics education as a way to encourage contribution to local and larger communities. This ties nto the second vision statement developed by the ADL staff. Shared decision making appears at ADL in the form of the Peer Leadership council. Laurie would like to have student representatives on future hiring teams for staff members. She emphasizes that the vision statements were written through an adult lens. She encourages contact via e-mail or other means if anyone has feedback on this document.
Progress reports will come in the mail on Friday along with an opportunity to purchase ADL sweatshirts.
Laurie wants to know what kind of project PAP would like to take on this year for building beautification. Laurie suggests that the kids might appreciate a locker-room spruce-up. Laurie will ask Peer Leadership for suggestions. That project typically happens in Jan/Feb on a Saturday so students can participate (with a parent) if they want to.
Sharon, Kelly, Theresa, Mary Lou, Sandra Pinto have stepped up as parent reps for their grades. Parent reps will contact the team leaders for their grades.
Book Sale: Charlee Day and Heidi Clark will co-coordinate in November and April. Sale times will happen in the morning and after school, sometimes during the day, and probably on an evening. The evening sale may happen in conjunction with some other evening activity at the school. Julie will check with Charlee to see if last year's sale in conjunction with Medieval Night made sense for sales or not. The first week in April will be the musical. Parent-Teacher conferences are April 2 with an early release, and if possible we will try to schedule in conjunction with that event.
GASP: Laurie will get help from Dorothy Dickson and Ann Malle for this March 13 event.
Dance: 10/23-24 no school for teacher convention days. 10/17 is our next dance. 214 kids attended the September dance. Laurie Singer feels that this was a very fun dance, that everybody had a great time together, and that the DJ was their favorite. The DJ closed out with half a song because they were short on time to try to get one more request in.
8th grade activities for the end of the year - sleepover, dinner, cruise on Lake Champlain before promotion night followed by certificate presentations and a dance. A parent requests that if funds run short for these activities that parents can be notified early to try to raise the needed funds to make all this happen. Mrs. Singer indicates that after staying up all night at the sleepover she looks great and does well until about 10am. Seventh grade parents usually help set up on promotion night.
The meeting was adjourned at 7:22.