Great Expectations Team Notes

GET members met on Monday, March 3, 2008 at 8:15 in Mrs. Mahoney’s room. Present were: Lisa P-Z, Lance, Lisa C., Jean, Susan, Kathy W., Jeanie, Kelly, Laura, Nicole, Susie, Pam, Wendy

The agenda included items from the following systems:

1. Leadership

Members who attended the Families and Community Engagement conference on Feb. 11 and 1 2 reported some of the main ideas from the conference including schools having a “welcoming spirit” and gaining community and parent involvement. The Governor’s fatherhood initiative “Watch Dogs” was mentioned. Schools shared what is working to get their community involved at school. Some mentioned using “incentives” to improve family attendance. Kelly, Lance, Pam, Susan, Susie, attended along with Karen D. & Kristin C.

The group who attended the FACE conference will meet to share main ideas and ways to incorporate most relevant ideas into our School Improvement Plan.

2. Schoolwide

The 3^rd quarter assembly will be on Thursday, March 20 which is the last day of the quarter. We will change the time from first thing in the morning, because 4^th grade has missed an amount of plan time twice. Wendy will develop an abbreviated assembly schedule to create an amount of time at the end of the day, so no one group misses Expressive Arts classes, but all will be a few minutes less. Kathy and Kelly are organizing assembly 3 which will include the second grade class on stage singing Abigail Moseman’s song “I Am A Randolph Super Hero”. Mr. Wheeler is teaching the song to all students in preparation for the assembly.

We reviewed second quarter office referral statistics and think time numbers. Parents of children who have office referrals or think times have already received a personal contact about that incident, but we need to all make it a point of explaining the behavior expectations at school to families of repeaters. Additionally, we should develop a series of classes for parents on teaching compliance and expectations for “best behavior” or “socially appropriate” behavior of children. If we offer a class, we should also have a print or media version of the resources to hand out to families who don’t attend, but need the information. If necessary, we will explore “incentivizing” the sessions to increase attendance.

We talked about reminding parents to not pull into the parking lot to drop off students in the morning. We talked about policing the jaywalkers on 37^th and D Streets. Wendy reported that Licoln Police Captain Koluch will help with increasing patrols whenever available and letters to offenders when Dr. B. sends license plate numbers and a description of the offense (not following traffic plan, parking in bus lane, speeding, not stopping for people in the crosswalk, etc.).

Lunch tags have eliminated the problems with children changing their lunch choices from what they ordered. Dr. B. reported that seeing the A and salad badges has helped ensure students take the correct lunch. Badges must be worn on the students’ shoulders to be visible.

There is no April meeting.

The next GET meeting is scheduled for Monday, May 5.