Feb 2006 :::
LT Community Advisory Council Minutes
February 15, 2006
School Climate at LTHS
I. LTCAC Call to Order and Announcements (7:20pm)
A. Tom Kokontis called the meeting to order.
B. Minutes: The members in attendance unanimously accepted the minutes as written for the meetings of 11/16/05 and 1/18/06.
II. Superintendent Report (Dr. Kelly)
A. LTCAC members are invited to the Grand Opening of the new Performing Arts Center on 2/27 at 7 p.m.
B. Willow Springs property: LT signed an intergovernmental agreement NOT to sell the property for 30 days. There will be a special board meeting on 2/16 to decide whether to sell. A report from the consultants is expected tomorrow that will be pivotal in making the decision.
C. Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University is partnering with LT whereby all aviation students can enroll in E-R and earn 15 university-level semester credits.
D. Facilities: The Field House will be opening soon, and the board will be making decisions on the tile for the pool area.
E. The Reading Task Force: There’s been a great new development. They are meeting with LADSE superintendents to discuss a K-12 reading program for special ed. and regular ed. for all 19 districts.
III. School Board Member Report (Al Polich)
A. At the November meeting someone asked about military recruiting. Here are some answers. The military are treated the same as any college except that the military comes every month to the campus while most colleges come twice a year. The military recruiters sit outside the cafeteria. They are not allowed inside the cafeteria, and are not allowed to "buttonhole" students. The school must report a list of students’ names to the military, but parents can "opt out." The form to opt out is given out at registration and is available by downloading from the Internet, or parents can call Jennifer Bialobok.
IV. Old Business
A. Tom announced that students and faculty who missed a meeting of the LTCAC due to finals will be given an excused absence.
B. Tom asked whether there were any changes or additions to the recommendations from the last meeting on substance abuse issues. There were none.
C. Update on Web site from Purple Monkey: The Purple Monkey consultants returned to present two designs that they’ve come up with. Present were Russ Klitchman, CEO; Diane Nighswander, Director of Project Resources; and Agnes Williams, Art Director for the LTHS project. The consultants explained the process used to design the LTHS web site. First was research, consisting of talking with many different groups that will be using the site; planning, including obtaining feedback from groups as to what should be on the site; and the actual design phase. Both designs were intended to present LTHS as warm and welcoming, using the color palette of the school colors, blue and gold. The logo is the subject of a student design contest. In both designs the top menu has topic-based navigation while the side menu has audience-based navigation.
D. Vote: The members voted 23 to 9, choosing the first design, with an orange (yellow) wrapper instead of the light blue shown.
V. New Business
A. School Climate at LT—Guests from the Peaceable Schools Initiative (PSI), Jeanne Widing, Social Worker; Carol Promisel, Biology Teacher; and Annette Bryja-Orrico presented information about the program; a question and answer session followed. Jeanne talked about the history of Peaceable Schools. This is an LT program initiative driven by community members and funded by a grant. It started with diverse members of the community participating in a 3-day workshop on "How to make LT better for all kids." Out of that workshop came five elements of the program.
1. LTCAC - The Community Advisory Council is an important element of the program to make sure that all members of the LT community provide input into the school.
2. The Alternative-to-Suspension program—the program provides students who are up for suspension with an alternative coping mechanism. For example, students may be offered the opportunity to take an anger management class in lieu of suspension.
3. Staff Development—this is the Teacher Training part of the program.
4. Students—students come together to work on diversity and student climate issues.
5. Steering Committee—the committee worked on implementing the overall program.
The goals of the teacher-training program are listed on the handout:
1. Personalizing relationships and learning in the classroom.
2. Co-creating a caring, respectful, and responsible learning community.
3. Meeting developmental needs of diverse learners.
4. Integrating life skills into daily classroom practice.
There are currently 6 teacher-trainers, who conduct teacher training, which is required for all new teachers during the summer between the first and second years. The training models techniques from the manual, Partners in Learning. Advanced training workshops and one-hour "refreshers" are offered to more senior teachers.
The Peaceable schools student group is run like a club. It is sponsored by 3 teachers. There are 30 core students, with another 25 that participate in some of the activities. The group conducts fundraising, charitable activities, and activities to enhance the school climate. The focus is on training students on a positive climate and being ambassadors for building tolerance and reducing conflict with other students in the school by modeling appropriate behavior. Some of the activities are:
1. Study break at the Corral during finals that included tutoring
2. PSI week that included random acts of kindness, meet and greet
3. Diversity lunch: this was an opportunity for students to have pizza and be seated randomly with people they might not ordinarily sit with; with conversations facilitated by PSI students.
4. PEP week "peers educating peers" - various clubs had booths where students taught other students mental health skills
5. Student-teacher forums - these forums were led by PSI students. Teachers brought their classes to participate in the forums where students brought concerns to panels of teachers and administrators and would try to resolve the concerns.
CAC members asked if there were noticeable changes before and after the program was initiated. There was a reduction in suspension levels, due in part to the use of the alternative to suspension program. There was also a reduction in misconducts. Students seemed more comfortable with each other, even in different academic levels. Teachers were more mindful of getting kids to work with each other, using collaborative techniques and more group activities. The program reinforces the importance of the non-academic activities, and gives teachers permission to take time to do them. The goal is to make students feel comfortable, belong, enjoy being there, and to feel part of a group. The grant included funding for a follow-up student survey comparing PSI-teacher classrooms to non-PSI teachers. The PSI-trained teachers had higher instances of students saying the teacher was "helpful" and "cares about me."
Some examples of classroom techniques taught in the PSI teacher-training include striving for a comfortable environment in the classroom, using grouping strategies in assigning students to teams, making sure that students learn each others’ names, using evaluation tools so the students can provide feedback on the course to the teachers, and having the students share information about themselves.
B. Small Group Discussion and Recommendations—Each table met and wrote out a list of recommendations, which were turned in to Angela for review at the beginning of the next meeting.