Urban Montessori Charter School
Minutes
Academic Oversight Committee Regular Meeting
Date and Time
Tuesday May 18, 2021 at 4:45 PM
Location
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Meeting ID: 510 290 4005
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PER GOVERNOR NEWSOM’S SHELTER IN PLACE EXECUTIVE ORDER DATED MARCH 19, 2020 (WHICH IS HERE IN ITS ENTIRETY) AND BY ORDER OF THE HEALTH OFFICER OF THE COUNTY OF ALAMEDA DATED MARCH 16, 2020 (WHICH IS HERE IN ITS ENTIRETY):
THIS WILL BE A VIRTUAL-ONLY MEETING
THIS WILL BE A VIRTUAL-ONLY MEETING
Join Zoom Meeting
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Meeting ID: 510 290 4005
Passcode: 510 290 4005
Important Notice: Due to increased demand, dial-in by phone audio conferencing capabilities may be unavailable. During this time, Zoom strongly recommends using computer audio capabilities (or via phone with the Zoom app) while on wifi.
Members: Olivia Couch, Jan Faraguna, Hae-Sin Thomas (Chair)
Urban Montessori Charter School welcomes your participation at Board meetings. The purpose of a public meeting of the Board of Directors (“Board”) is to conduct the affairs of the organization in public. Your participation assures us of continuing community interest in our school and assists the Board in making the best decisions for our school. To assist you in the ease of speaking/participating in our meetings, guidelines are provided at the bottom of this agenda. All materials for all board and committee meetings, including audio recordings of Regular Board Meetings, are available via http://www.urbanmontessori.org/board_of_directors.
Committee Members Present
H. Thomas (remote), J. Faraguna (remote)
Committee Members Absent
O. Couch
Guests Present
D. Bissonnette (remote), K. Feeney (remote)
I. Opening Items
A.
Call the Meeting to Order
H. Thomas called a meeting of the Academic Oversight Committee of Urban Montessori Charter School to order on Tuesday May 18, 2021 at 4:48 PM.
B.
Record Attendance
C.
Approve Minutes from April 20th, 2021 Rescheduled Meeting
J. Faraguna made a motion to approve the minutes from RESCHEDULED Academic Oversight Committee Regular Meeting on 04-20-21.
H. Thomas seconded the motion.
The committee VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.
II. Academic Oversight
A.
Instructional Updates: In-person and Distance learning!
- Continue to have lots of fun with students on campus!
- Really great to see students interacting and enjoying each other too
- Tons of lessons going on. 6-7 lessons even though 1/2 day. Curricula guide that teachers developed this year has been very helpful and supported really delivering many lessons each day and week.
- Finishing 3rd round of NWEA MAP testing and will start last round of DIBELS soon.
- Attendance overall still 95%. Chronic absence 13.3%. Some families who picked in-person had incorrect expectations that they could switch back to distance for a vacation. Working on families for independent study where appropriate. SPED students do have higher in-person attendance.
- Talked about continuing to encourage vaccinations.
B.
Summer School!
- Planned for June 9th to July 2nd for 8:30-12pm for 5 days/week.
- Will have the capacity for ~50 students based on staffing. One class for rising K/1, two classrooms of rising 2-7th graders. Resource specialist also will do push in/pull out.
- Criteria: students through extended school year (all) and low growth based on assessments.
C.
Learning from Distance Learning Success to inform 2021-22
- Considered one of the strongest distance learning models in the city.
- Academic gains actually made, including for African American students.
- Common curriculum across levels. Using pacing guide based on Public Montessori in Action to ensure lessons throughout the year.
- Utilizing data to identify students who needed additional support and in what areas and giving additional interventions for those students. Especially for early literacy. Thinking creatively to meet students' needs.
- Do you feel tracking independent/asynchronous work was helpful? To what extent?
- Seesaw was helpful as a tool for follow up in distance learning.
- Had started to implement structures in classrooms around lesson tracking and follow up work due. Seesaw further helped that.
- Student portfolios - working on implementing a system for this, may use Seesaw to support.
- Parent engagement - understanding and helping to student work and accountability
- ideas: portfolio think will help continue this. Building out parent education sessions - not well attended but those who do attend find very helpful.
- Still think accountability is challenging - knowing what children are supposed to be working on. Tracking, reflecting, monitoring work for students is important.
- More regular 1:1 conferencing with students. Built into schedule.
III. Other Business
A.
Discuss 2021-22 LCAP
- Edits are in progress! School-wide goals drafted, metrics and actions drafted. Reflections done.
- Public hearing next week.
- It's a good time to review. Please do!
- Questions from community on arts integration and culturally relevant materials and anti-racist pedagogy
B.
DRAFT Calendar of Regular and Committee Meetings 2021-2022
- Not able to access document. Will table.
- Draft plan to continue same day/time.
IV. Closing Items
A.
Adjourn Meeting
There being no further business to be transacted, and upon motion duly made, seconded and approved, the meeting was adjourned at 5:55 PM.
Respectfully Submitted,
H. Thomas