SAC Meeting Minutes

1. Welcome and Introductionsa. Mrs. Gunderson welcomed everyone to our first SAC meetingb. Everyone went around the room, said their name, and why they are here, and

whether they are a parent or a teacher.c. Mrs. Gunderson and Mrs. Falzone shared personal Circle Maps.d. Meeting participants played a few rounds of Quiz-Quiz-Trade as an “ice breaker”

activity.2. Pinewoods’ Status and Data Update

a. Shared information about FSA – Have not received full data yet. b. What we do know is that only 9% of our 3rd grade students fell in the bottom

quintile. (Level 1)c. Of that 9% who scored a level 1, only 2 students were retained.d. FCAT Science – Mrs. Falzone shared our data from the last 5 years. We are

currently at 70% proficiency. 27 students earned a level 5 (top three in the district for level 5s!)

e. Mrs. Gunderson shared:i. Our current enrollment numbersii. Described the structure of our classrooms (strategically heterogeneously

mixed)iii. Discussed differentiated instruction in all classroom settings

3. What does it mean to be in a co-teach classroom? – Presentation by Mrs. Sanderson and Mrs. Hengstebeck.

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f.4. 2015-2016 Academic Priorities

a. Mrs. Gunderson discussed the 2015-2016 Academic Priorities:i. Data Driven Systemsii. Standards Based Instructioniii. Student Engagementiv. Professional Learning Communitiesv. Student Achievement and Development

b. If you have any questions about the Academic Priorities, please contact Mrs. Gunderson.

5. 2015-2016 SAC/SIP Goals and Fundsa. SAC is made up of (listed below), representative of the ethnic, racial, and economic

makeup of the South Zone.i. Parentsii. Teachersiii. Studentsiv. Administratorsv. Support Staffvi. Business and Community Members

b. The S.A.C. writes the School Improvement Plan (SIP) with the common goal of continuous improvement. The SIP includes measurable goals.

c. Budgeti. We were allocated $3,664 this year.ii. 100% of the SAC members (11 members total) approved the allocated

monies to be spent on the Ready Florida program that we use for WIN (Standards-Based Intervention/Enrichment).

iii. Our DAC Representative will be Chris Patricca and our alternate will be Karina Leposa-Schmitt.

iv. Our SAC Chair will be also be Chris Patricca.6. DAC Update - Notes from Chris Patricca:

a. Dr. Adkins – he is absolutely humbled to be asked to take on this role. It’s a District that he’s been a part of for 20 years. He started at Pine Island Middle School. He went to Gulf Middle and taught. He was also at Dunbar for 5 years. Then, he moved to the district office. He has watched our student population explode and seen the opportunities and challenges that come with that kind of growth. His daughter is a teacher at Cypress Lakes H.S., teaching biology. That makes him even more invested in the system. To be in this role, it’s important – regardless of the time frame, he wants to move the District forward. He will miss Dr. Graham. She came during a time of great difficulty and took the reins and brought us to this point... We need to all work together to move together...We do have lots of challenges.

i. The state assessment progress monitoring is a challenge. We are going to take this on and move forward with it.

ii. There’s a national teacher shortage. We hired 600 teachers this summer alone. What do our local colleges and universities produce? 146 teacher grads from FGCU and FSW. Not to mention the needs of other, neighboring districts. We need to get creative in attracting and keeping teachers, but our base pay is low, particularly our benefits package. We are working with the School Board to make some changes there. The teacher is the most important factor in a student’s success.

iii. Trying to find bus operators that will transport our students to and from school every day is also a challenge. Right now we have 747 routes. Compensation is part of the problem. Typically, driving a dump truck pays better and has the same CDL licensing requirements. Not to mention the fact that the hours are more regular.

iv. They are working diligently on the strategic plan. Working on different systems to improve systemic efficiency so that we can do more with less. Making some tremendous improvements in our pay delivery system.

v. Student assignment – it meets some of our needs in that we have capacity in different parts of the county. But, we also have almost too many options. Some elementary students have 17 options to choose from. They are working on innovative solutions. We also have students who don’t have proximity to schools. We also have schools where we don’t have students. We have to maximize our operating dollars. We have a real need for capital. We are growing by 2k students per year – that’s essentially a new school per year.

vi. During this Superintendent transition, we can’t just sit. We have a lot of work to do. We have a great team. We have some outstanding teachers in this district. Outstanding principals. We have a fantastic group of people at the district. We have a great board. Our mission is to bring all of us together, our teacher, our principals, our community and our Board and keep this moving forward. He is excited.

b. Pam LaRiviere was the Board member at the meeting. It’s been a work filled week. They have spent a lot of time communicating with staff members, community members, etc. She enjoys making that connection. It’s been a great start to the school year. The only glitch was one school did not have ac at the beginning of the day. But, it was fixed before long. Friday, October 16th, beginning at noon and

Saturday, the 17th – they will discuss options and what the board feels the community would like to do – proceeding with an interim super and a search for a new perm. Super. We will likely go the route of a national search because so many community members are asking for it. Our strategic plan is our driving force and she is excited about it.

c. Dr. James Short from District Technologyi. We have 5k classrooms in the school district and 57k Windows computers

and 18-19k chrome books. To get all of that ready, we had to put wireless access points in every classroom in every building. Plus, we need internet connectivity throughout the district. Think of the problems in your own home and you can imagine the scope of the issue they face.

ii. Typical classroom, k – 12 – you see a teacher with a teacher computer, a presentation cart, with a doc camera, an audio system. K – 5, there are 3 – 6 computers at the back of the classroom. We have computer labs. At the H.S. level, there are lots more computer labs and tech. and career education labs. We have Microsoft computer classes, robotics classes, etc. Then, we have our middle schools. 18k Chrome books with few issues was a tough undertaking. There is professional development that does along with this – we had to prepare the teachers to use these, too.

iii. Focus is the grading application used in the schools – they are working on being able to show us the individual grades, not just the bottom line grade average.

iv. The push for the 1 to 1 initiative is that FL signed a law mandating electronic curriculum across the board. We had to have content in electronic format. To deliver it to kids, the district had to find a way to do that. They’ve been trying to find a device that did what it had to do, but was affordable. Google stepped in over the last year or so, such that the District no longer relies on Microsoft products and now relies on Google.

v. Next year, roll out to high school – 24k students. We are not sure for the following year at the elementary level. Grades 3 – 5 will probably get chrome books and k-2 will get some other type of device that is more like a tablet.

vi. Are we looking to blanket the schools in Wi-Fi? As of today, 100% of classrooms in the district have Wi-Fi in the classrooms.

vii. Professional development plan – train the trainer – 4 teachers at each middle school attended training and then brought that back to the schools for summer professional development days.

viii. What happens to the devices at the end of the year? At the end of the school year, there’s a profile window that can be deleted and that child’s profile is deleted. They are stored on a shelf for the summer. They are very rugged devices. They have 3 year warranties. They are drop resistant up to 3 feet. They expect to get 4 years out of them. They are water and spill resistant. If you pour a glass of water on them, the water will actually be routed off of the keyboard. We have accidental damage protection for the devices so they will be fixed if they are broken accidentally.

ix. Teaching kids to type – each of our schools at the elementary level has programs available to teach keyboarding in the classroom. We don’t want them to use the 1 finger typing method. We do not yet require a keyboarding class.

x. We will retire the windows computers as we get more chrome books. We pay $750k/yr. for Microsoft licensing on their products. $30 per chrome book for licensing for the life of the device.

xi. BYOD for all kids in the district.xii. What are we doing about libraries and BYOD? We use Destiny as the library

repository. We are trying to purchase electronic books and reference materials at each school in the district. Can we get the word out to the

parents? They can access the public library – over drive – from the school website?

xiii. Go to the teacher for questions on how to use the technology.xiv. What are the devices for k – 2? A tablet device that does not exist yet.

d. Elementary Breakouti. Has the pendulum swung too far in the opposite direction – are we testing our

kids enough? Dr. Adkins – the testing calendar that was presented to the board was bare bones – we are hopeful that the board will finally adopt it. It is paired down as much as possible according to the state. The teachers put together a plan during the summer, we want that adopted.

ii. VAM scores – any raise given to teachers must be linked to performance – a highly effective teacher gets the highest pay increase. 50% has to be the value-added piece. The data from last year is not available.

iii. Uniforms – can we get uniforms in the school and how?7. ESE Advisory Council - Notes from Tammy Sturtevant

a.8. Good of the Order

a. Mrs. Mackereth shared that the Pinewoods website would be changing shortly. If you are looking for something specific or would like something to be added, please email the webmaster.

b. Meeting participants discussed issues with the car line in the mornings. Some participants had suggestions, which were helpful, but unfortunately not feasible (i.e. parent volunteers).

c. Meeting participants were reassured that the line is completed by the time the bell rings each morning and very few students are marked tardy on a daily basis.

d. PTO shared information about upcoming fundraisers, Pinewoods’ nights at local restaurants, and the Fall Festival.

e. If you are interested in volunteering for PTO or at any events, please contact PTO.