School Council Notes 1/4

School Council Attendance:

Anaye Kadwe

Jonathon Sheena

Michelle Caine

Katani Sumner

Tamii Strass

Michelle Wetlaufer

Andrew Sokatch

Ryan Normandin

Ali Abouhilal

Carina Bandasarian

Rachael McNally

Nathanial Scharl

Rakashi Chand

 

Agenda

Social Emotional SubGroup Notes

Name Top SHORT TERM

Priority

Top LONG TERM Priority (2-3 years) One next step:
Rachael Creating a survey based on our priorities (and also items from the original brainstorm) to focus our work.

AS

RN

Dive into the nitty gritty pro/cons that would result from limits on high level classes (and solutions to eliminate cons!) 

AS

Short term:

Long term:

Katani Getting rid of the mice!

RM, JS, RN

AS

AK

AP/Honors classes-Access/Increase total available?, 1)Should there be a limit or incentives to focus on genuine interest areas?

2)How do we create equity in access?

CB

AK

MC

AS

RN

Short term: Talk to district facilities people (Vice Principal contacts) and determine if this is a district problem.

Long term:

Ryan Survey both students and staff around our priorities with an eye for eliminating quarters

MC

AK

Governance/Policymaking: creating tricameral policymaking body that gives real, structural power to students and staff

RM

MC

AK

CB

JS

AS

Short term:

Long term:

Michelle Structural adjustments – remove tracking and levelled labels or make these more like traffic lanes, move away from ‘final’ term grades, more open spaces for S-T interactions

KS

Shift in how success is applauded and celebrated within the school to center our school values more (i.e kindness, empathy, etc)

RM

KS

AK

Short term:

Long term:

Andy Targeted survey: what teachers and students think is driving stress and how to fix it; engage external experts at same time– what has worked elsewhere? 

KS

RM

Explore options for less tracking and more flexible (and growth mindset supportive) grading approaches. 

MC

KS

RM

CB

Short term:

Long term:

Jonathan Improve the WiFi for students and teachers

AS

RN

AK

KS

Driven by targeted survey.

Survey of WIN block usage

Short term:

Long term:

Ananya Giving students flexible timelines for assignments near the end of the term and not cramming in tests or projects before the term ends.

MC

CB

RM

AS

RN

Mastery Transcripts: first survey students and teacher to ask about their opinion and if the majority are for it  then start to take steps towards adopting in

MC

RM

Short term: How can we make sure it happens?

Long term:

Carina Allowing students to go to more than one teacher’s WIN block. Possibly allowing clubs to meet during WIN?

MC

RM

AS

RN

AK

KS

Finding ways to reduce the stress around AP whether it means limiting the amount of AP classes a student can take or making higher level classes available to lower grades.

KS

Short term: We need to see the results of the recent survey sent to students (if this is a popular idea [and I think it is!] we can just push hard to try it for Term 3).RM

Long term:

      Short term:

Long term:

 

Record of the topics we zeroed in on and our notes from the 12/7 meeting

 

Concrete questions: What are the root causes of stress? Of misbehavior?

What is the scope of misbehavior?

How can we increase the opportunity for kids and teachers to connect informally? (“Lion’s Block is not enough”; “not enough places to hang out with teachers”) Where/when can this happen? (12/7)
Ideas for Next Steps: Survey teachers, students, families to get baseline data to begin to answer both concrete and philosophical questions.

Kids want to know why they are doing the survey, to see the results, to know what could/did happen because of the results. (12/7)

Investigate the ramifications of having a limit on the number of honors/AP classes a student can take (“Current system with no limit is bad for many kids but a limit would be bad for some, can’t we do no harm?”; “having no cap on these classes is part of our toxic culture”; “I will take honors history even though I’m not interested in it”). Share what we learn and share info and then survey students, families, and teachers.

Change level of rigor (more doable for more kids) (12/7)

Change the vibe/who feels welcome (12/7)

Could it help to have APs open in 11th grade? (12/7)

What data has been collected by counselors about kids taking more than 3 AP/honors classes? (12/7)

Philosophical questions: We did not get to this on 12/7.

 

Our original November brainstorming session plus notes from the 12/7 meeting.

 

Concrete questions: How are students and teachers experiencing school?
Are we creating new supports or just reducing expectations to reduce stress?
What are the root causes of stress? Of misbehavior?

What is the scope of misbehavior?

Are there gender patterns in the instances of misbehavior?
How can we increase the opportunity for kids and teachers to connect informally? (“Lion’s Block is not enough”; “not enough places to hang out with teachers”) Where/when can this happen? (12/7)
Is there a desire to address the decreasing lack of civility (i.e. “verbal slaps in emails to PTSO”)?
Ideas for Next Steps: Survey teachers, students, families to get baseline data to begin to answer both concrete and philosophical questions.

Kids want to know why they are doing the survey, to see the results, to know what could/did happen because of the results. (12/7)

Analyze who is involved in the instances of misbehavior (Are the kids already on the radar of deans? Is this new behavior this year for some kids?).
Can we avoid “due date” overload at the end of the term?
Can we mandate a break in the 75 minute classes?
Can we create opportunities to have deep conversations about expectations between kids and adults? 

We want kids to be able to grow and develop. We want to inspire a positive attitude?

Investigate the ramifications of having just 3 Terms 

Or

Investigate the ramifications of having semester grades (so term 1 and term 3 would just be a more robust midterm with comments and a grade to date)

Investigate the ramifications of having a limit on the number of honors/AP classes a student can take (“Current system with no limit is bad for many kids but a limit would be bad for some, can’t we do no harm?”; “having no cap on these classes is part of our toxic culture”; “I will take honors history even though I’m not interested in it”). Share what we learn and share info and then survey students, families, and teachers.

Change level of rigor (more doable for more kids) (12/7)

Change the vibe/who feels welcome (12/7)

Could it help to have APs open in 11th grade? (12/7)

What data has been collected by counselors about kids taking more than 3 AP/honors classes? (12/7)

Publicize the supports and supportive policies already in place (retakes on summative assessments allowed; 3rd assessment on one day can be postponed; etc.)
Create a schoolwide policy about late work.
Organize a community forum to address priority goals/issues (based on survey results).
Philosophical questions: What does it mean to be an educator? An educator at South? 
Can our community accept the impact of scaling back (in order to reduce stress)?
Do we need/want final exams? Who decides? When?
What is the purpose of grades? What system do we want at South? Should it be a schoolwide system?
Which policies at South are  incompatible with stated NPS values (i.e. valuing growth mindset; are we really “more than the grades we earn”)?
Where do policies come from? What democratic decision making processes could be implemented in the South community in order to increase buy in? What is the role of South Senate? Faculty Council? School Council?

Traffic SubGroup Meeting:

Rakashi Chand, a NSHS parent, will be the liaison for the Safe Routes Committee. Jenn Martin from Safe Routes to School has agreed to meet at the school to see the traffic patterns in action.