Menlo Park Academy Governing Board
Minutes
Program Excellence Committee Meeting
Date and Time
Tuesday October 18, 2016 at 5:00 PM
Location
MPA Conference Room
OUR MISSION: Menlo Park Academy is a public school that develops the potential of gifted learners through an exemplary program of rewarding experiences that nurtures the whole child.
Committee Members Present
Beverley Veccia, Doug Thompson, Suzanne McFarland, Teri Harrison, Tom Creamer
Committee Members Absent
Carol Ryan, Susan Zambo
Guests Present
Beth Turk, Cathy Aldrich, Jeff Jaroscak
I. Opening Items
A.
Record Attendance and Guests
B.
Call the Meeting to Order
Suzanne McFarland called a meeting of the Program Excellence Committee of Menlo Park Academy Governing Board to order on Tuesday Oct 18, 2016 at 5:15 PM.
C.
Approve Minutes-9/20/16
Approval of the minutes were tabled due to lack of review by the committee.
D.
APPROVE MINUTES - 5/24/16
Cathy Aldrich made a motion to approve minutes from the Program Excellence Committee Meeting on 05-24-16 Program Excellence Committee Meeting on 05-24-16.
Suzanne McFarland seconded the motion.
The committee VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.
E.
APPROVE MINUTES - 5/12/16
Cathy Aldrich made a motion to approve minutes from the Program Excellence Committee Meeting on 05-12-16 Program Excellence Committee Meeting on 05-12-16.
Tom Creamer seconded the motion.
The committee VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.
II. Program Excellence
A.
Special Education Report
General discussion to review the implementation of the Special Education program and how to monitor and report monthly on the status of how and when the students are served. C. Aldrich will work with B. Turk to develop an aggregate data form with columns/spread sheets to include the number of IAT's and referrals, number of students receiving any service including IEP's, 504's, Speech, OT and PT and where they are in the process, how many have "graduated" from services.
In addition, a separate monthly report will be required from the Dean of Students regarding the number of Suspensions, Discipline referrals, etc.
In addition, a separate monthly report will be required from the Dean of Students regarding the number of Suspensions, Discipline referrals, etc.
B.
School Culture/Climate & Discipline
General discussion on methods to employ to create a POSITIVE school climate using Responsive Classroom techniques. Keep the students engaged and active - refrain from "herding", busy work and using removal from recess as a discipline tool.
Need to write out MPA "Non-negotiables" about how our program is operated. B. Veccia and S. McFarland will work together to write the non-negotiables. Will need to have a one page summary for ease of use in the classroom.
Also discussed using HSSE (High School Survey of English Teachers) and Lessonplan.com to help with regualr administrative review of teacher's lesson plans and helping them to be mindful of "Menlo instruction". Discussed advantage of having new teachers learn the Menlo way without unlearning or moving away from practices from other places of employment.
Need to write out MPA "Non-negotiables" about how our program is operated. B. Veccia and S. McFarland will work together to write the non-negotiables. Will need to have a one page summary for ease of use in the classroom.
Also discussed using HSSE (High School Survey of English Teachers) and Lessonplan.com to help with regualr administrative review of teacher's lesson plans and helping them to be mindful of "Menlo instruction". Discussed advantage of having new teachers learn the Menlo way without unlearning or moving away from practices from other places of employment.
Jeff Jaroscak left.
C.
Student-Led Conferences
General discussion of implementation of Student-Led Conferences. It was decided that conferences would be conducted with the advisory teachers responsible for the conferences with their advisory class students with short written comments from the subject area teachers. Students and parents may request that a subject teacher sit in if needed.
D.
2015-16 Acceleration Data
Tabled.
E.
Ninth Grade Proposal
III. Charter School Legal Conference
A.
News From Charter School Legal Conference.
S. McFarland reported on topics from the Charter School legal conference.
IV. Closing Items
A.
Adjourn Meeting
Tom Creamer made a motion to adjourn the meeting.
Cathy Aldrich seconded the motion.
The committee VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.
There being no further business to be transacted, and upon motion duly made, seconded and approved, the meeting was adjourned at 8:00 PM.
Respectfully Submitted,
Cathy Aldrich