Community Council Minutes March 1, 2017
Bates Community Council Meeting Minutes
Wednesday, March 1, 2017
Council Members In Attendance:
Naomi Trammell Angela Citte Community Members:
Keri Fidler Sheril Thompson Michelle Welling, PTA
Marlisa Lund Marjean Swanson Jill Ramage, Bates
Jamie Marsh Kitty Barney Mindi Gifford, Bates
Emily Tree Amber Booth
Justin Bailey Shamae Koer
Bonnie Wallace Charlotte Harp
Meeting conducted by Naomi Trammell.
Welcome & Call to Order – Naomi
*Thank you everyone for your good ideas, valid questions, opinions, and support for the students,
teachers, and school.
*Goal for our group is to determine if the school has a need, and if it is important to discover
how we can support it.
Review of previous minutes - Keri Fidler
*No changes were made to January’s minutes. Bonnie posted them on the website.
*All information relating to fund allocation needs to be discussed in a meeting. If emails are sent
in this regard, they need to be approved as official minutes. The state suggested that if a
discussion topic comes up between meetings, the council needs to schedule another meeting
to discuss it.
School Updates – Council Members:
*Literacy night was a success and many expressed they enjoy the night being tied to the One
School-One Book initiative.
*Max Barker, Evelyn Johnson, and Marjean Swanson attended Project Lead the Way at
Green Acres. They expressed that Bates teachers are doing just as good of a job if not a
better job at science.
*3/13 Chinese Immersion Parent Meeting; Email from Senator Hatch about the benefits of an
immersion program went out today.
*3/15 Kindergarten Roundup
*Upcoming Events: Dare, Maturation, 1st, 2nd, 5th, & 6th grade plays, NOJH Play-Mulan
Teacher Survey Results and Push-In data
*Kitty presented results on current year student keyboarding progress.
**Discussion about how it would be really helpful to see growth from August until now or
year-end to see if students are improving in speed and accuracy in addition to passing
off modules.
**Discussion about maintaining data to watch for growth by comparing years.
**Data shows some classes are doing much better than others, which is likely attributed to
the amount of time those students have access to computer lab and Chromebooks.
*Mindi and Angela presented background and data for reading push-ins
**Program initially was a pull-out program with lowest readers being pulled out. Those students
missed class instruction and felt bad being pulled out.
**Push-ins accomplish same goal and more.
***K-3 classes are split into small groups.
***Students are paired with other students at similar reading level.
***Students work on reading fluency, phonics, and comprehension.
***Most classes do this for 30 min/day, 4 days/week. No students miss whole class
instruction during this time.
***Very valuable for all reading levels to move students to typical growth.
**Since this began, Bates has seen growth in all levels and all classes.
***DIBELS is used for state data reporting in grades K-3.
***Discussion about expanding the program to include 4th grade.
*Substitute Hurdles
**Discussion about how to recruit and retain best substitutes
***District offered substitute training at no cost.
***District had a contest to have each school sign up new subs. Bates sent emails to
promote the need for subs.
***District pays for subs when it is teacher sick leave; school pays for subs for training
or other purposes.
***Average sub wage is $8-10/hour
***Discussion about partnering with Weber State for Star Tutors & Just Serve
***School employees feel we already have good substitutes and it is not necessary to do
anything more to attract the good subs and keep them wanting to come to Bates.
***We should talk to legislators and talk up subbing with parents/neighbors.
*Volunteers
**Marjean shared her thoughts on classroom volunteers
***Volunteers are loved, and appreciated, and wanted
***Challenges: consistency, training, scheduling, students missing whole class instruction
***FERPA
***Immersion classes have too many volunteers and other classes don’t have enough.
-Discussion about sharing volunteers with classes
**Justin shared how important it is to have a volunteer program in place.
***Having a program in place to schedule volunteers with advance or short-term
notice would be helpful to the whole school.
***Key is to take burden off teacher and use a volunteer coordinator (paid) to
ensure volunteers are scheduled and complete assignment.
***Kitty shared her plan to apply for a grant in order to hire an Americorps
volunteer coordinator. A grant will cover 50% of salary if the position covers
a 3-part need: community outreach, counseling assistant/track attendance,
and whole group instruction.
Current Trust Land Spending Report-Kitty:
*Current spending discussed.
Grants:
*Kitty has applied for a $5,000 grant through the Weber School Foundation for Chromebooks.
**This is available every three years. Last one was for a Smart Board (used in library).
**School will most likely receive this grant in fall 2017.
*Kitty has applied for a $72,500 grant through the Honda Foundation for Chromebooks, and iPads
**Discussion about why we need iPads when the District will no longer be supporting the
funding or updates for them.
***Reading aides use them for progress monitoring, and it is easier for younger grades
to use them.
**Some of this could cover other technology
***The school has 28 projectors over ten years old. This will cost $24,000 to replace.
***It is cheaper to replace the unit than to replace the bulbs.
**Ideal would be to lease 1 set of Chromebooks per grade 1st-6th.
***We currently have 3 sets: 1 set PTA paid for a 1-year lease; 2 sets are currently
leased by school; 1 set we own but will need replaced in 3 years.
Proposed 2017-2018 Plan-Kitty:
*Estimated distribution will be $71,608.
*Kitty presented her amended plan to include the increased distribution.
*Discussion about the new items on the proposed plan.
**Original plan discussed in January included: Reading/Computer/Art aides, 2 sets of Chromebooks,
and a computer cart.
**New proposed plan includes: Nikky folders, textbooks, art supplies, an additional set of
Chromebooks, additional computer cart, headphones and mice for computers, maintenance of
computers, and approximately
$16,400 in additional funds for Reading/Computer/Art aides.
***Providing push-ins for 3 classes at a time would require hiring 2 additional aides per
30 minutes, for a total of 8.
**Discussion about which of these costs should be covered by the school and by land trust funds.
2017-2018 Budget Proposal
With proposals from January and March 2017.
|
Money Spent On: |
Original Council Budget from Jan ’17 Comm Council Mtg. |
Amended Budget Proposed by Kitty at March ’17 Comm Council Mtg. |
Difference |
|
Reading/Keyboarding/FAME aides |
$38,600 |
$42,000 |
+$3,400 |
|
Nikky Folders |
$0 |
$1,000 |
+$1,000 |
|
Textbooks-Visible Learning for Literacy*1 |
$0 |
$1,300 |
+$1,300 |
|
Fine Arts Aide*2 |
$0 |
$6,500 |
+$6,500 |
|
Art Supplies*3 |
$0 |
$1,500 |
+$1,500 |
|
Lease 3 sets of Chromebooks Jan (2 sets), March (3 sets) |
$5,000 |
$6,825 |
+$1,825 |
|
Purchase New Computer Cart Jan (1 cart), March (2 carts) |
$1,400 |
$2,600 |
+$1,200 |
|
Purchase Headphones/Mice |
$0 |
$1,200 |
+$1,200 |
|
Purchase iPads for Computer Monitoring |
$0 |
$1,000 |
+$1,000 |
|
Repair and maintenance of equipment/hardware as needed*4 |
$0 |
$1,483 |
+$1,483 |
|
Keyboarding/Computer Aide*5 |
$0 |
$6,500 |
+$6,500 |
|
Total: |
$45,000 |
$71,908*6 |
+26,908 |
1. Vote to move $1,300 from Textbooks to Technology.
2. Fine Arts Aide was originally included in the reading/keyboarding/FAME aides category.
3. Vote to move $1,000 of the Fine Arts Supplies budget to Equipment Repair due to a $1,000
carry over in this fund from 2016-2017 year.
4. Vote to increase this budget by $1,000 from Fine Arts Supplies, and $1,300 from Textbooks
for a total of $3,783.
5. Keyboarding/Computer Aide was originally included in the reading/keyboarding/FAME
aides category.
6. This figure does not match the total estimated budget allocation of $72,608.
*Discussion by council with recommendations from Naomi, Emily, Justin, and Marlisa about
responsible use of funds.
**Look into cost evaluation-source quality products at value pricing
**Why does District require schools to use textbooks for professional development and
then not pay for them?
**If District will be purchasing more Chromebooks for the schools over the next 5 years,
Bates should watch to make sure we are not stuck in leases we don’t need.
*Motion to move $1,000 from art supplies to repair and maintenance of equipment. Approved.
*Motion to move $1,300 from textbooks to technology. Approved.
Finalize Plan
*Kitty will finalize plan. If anything needs to change we will need to discuss it at another
meeting per state requirements.
*Budget will be sent to District/State and council members will be required to electronically sign
the budget. This electronic signature is not an approval of the plan, but agreeing that members
took part in the process.
Thank you to members leaving:
*Angela Citte, Keri Fidler, Jinny Marker, Jamie Marsh, Naomi Trammell, Emily Tree, Amber Booth,
Deby Pippin, Marjean Swanson
Returning Council members:
*Justin Bailey, Stacy Harris, Marlisa Lund, Julie Simmons, Kitty Barney, Charlotte Harp, Shamae Koer,
Sheril Thompson, Bonnie Wallace.
Elections:
*Julie Simmons will lead elections
*There will be 4 open parent seats (to maintain the requirement that there are at least 2 more
parents than employees.)
*Teachers only need 1 new member this election cycle
*Voting for seats will be 4/24-5/5
Meeting Adjourned.
Assignments:
*Kitty Barney:
**Finalize 2017-2018 Plan and send to committee and District.
*Teachers:
**Review/Approve 2017-2018 Plan
*Council:
**Review/Approve 2017-2018 Plan