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Minutes - February 20, 2014

Montgomery County Schools

Certified Staff Advisory Meeting

February 20, 2014

Minutes

 

The Certified Staff Advisory meeting for Montgomery County Schools met Thursday, February 20, 2014 at 3:30 pm in the Board Room at the Central Office. Members of the advisory who were present included: Christine Stackhouse, WMHS; Terry Maness, MGES; Carol Mosley, PSES; Tonya Little, TES; Jennifer Hare, EMS; Beth Bailey, CES; Ericka Shaw, MLA; Shea Walter, WMS. Also present from the Central Office; Katie Hursey, and Dr. Dale Ellis. Absent: Adam Garner, EMHS; Kathy Bodien, GRES

 

Dr. Ellis called the meeting to order and welcomed those in attendance. He reviewed the 2014 Strategic Plan. The advisory committee was then given time to review the strategic plan in groups and make suggestions for what should be added or omitted for the 2017 Strategic Plan. The following suggestions were made:

 

·         To review the Attendance Policy in relation to tardies (coming in late or leaving early) – there was confusion if tardies counted towards an absence – Dr. Ellis will review the policy with Dr. Lancaster and Kristy Buchman.

·         To review the Teen Pregnancy issues. It is a culture issue and will take a culture change, and asked that parents be educated as well.

·         The group suggested removing teacher retention, and changing the goal to Teacher/Staff Satisfaction. This could be measured through use of surveys.

·         The OSS Suspension Rate was discussed for elementary. It seems to be going up, because there is nothing to do with students.

·         Community partnerships were discussed. The group felt this was a hard goal because the number of businesses is limited in the community.

·         The group suggested that parent contacts stay as a goal.

 

The following questions were addressed that were presented by the advisory committee prior to the meeting:

 

A teacher stated that whenever he needs to use contact information from Home Base to contact a parent, it seems to be incorrect information for many students. Is there any way for the information to be current to make it easier to contact parents? Dr. Ellis will discuss this with Dr. James and Kristy Buchman.

 

The only concern submitted to me was about the MOY testing window. There was some PD scheduled during this time and several teachers lost a couple of assessment days. The suggestion is that this window of time be blocked and allow everyone adequate time to complete literacy and math benchmarks. Dr. Ellis will discuss with Deidra Steed.

Would it be possible to have high school guidance counselors work 11 months, and have staggered entry (so that at least one guidance counselor would be here at all times)? Administration is working to pilot a program to allow counselors to work a couple weeks during the summer for a stipend.

It seems that we are being asked to do more and more with regard to non-teaching duties, e.g. taking up money at ball games, on 5 or 6 occasions per year. These evenings may not finish until well after 8:00 pm. When a teacher clocks in at 7:00am, (or even 7:30am), this makes for an extremely long day, especially when travel time is factored in (45 minutes to 1 hour for some people). We are all prepared to do our part for the school and the students, but this one is getting harder to swallow!!

Last Tuesday, (Feb. 11th), TV Channel 12 had at the bottom of the screen "Montgomery County Schools - Closed". However, a phone message later that night had a different message. If at all possible, it would be nice if all of the messages that go out to the staffs were the same. When I saw the TV message I assumed no-one would be working Wednesday, and I did not worry about listening for my cell phone the rest of the night. Dr. Ellis will look into this.

There being no further questions, the meeting was adjourned.