TAC-February

TAC-February 2015

In many of the questions, editorial comments are removed for brevity and sensitivity and only the actual question(s) are printed for publication.

Faculty and Staff, if you have any questions regarding matters that relate to a specific person, please see the Principal.

1A.  What is the justification for paying a stipend to a teacher for MAGPI?   

MAGPI is ongoing academic support that occurs almost every morning throughout the year.  It involves multiple students receiving additional support based on their deficits.  The teachers work directly with students during this time and plan work for any aides who work with the students.   The supplements that MAGPI teachers receive are in line with other supplements in the district.  Non-athletic supplements range from $14, 319 for band supplements to $1000 for lead technology teachers.  Various supplements are given for sponsoring scholars bowl, technical theatre, math support at all levels, science support at the secondary level, etc. 

This is a commitment to provide tutoring for these children throughout the school year.  Results have shown the students who receive this additional assistance grow dramatically.  These efforts are aligned to doing what is best for our students.  It would be inaccurate to link this to an hourly rate because additional time is spent outside of the communicated MAGPI hours.  Teachers who provide this service are unable to spend the time from 7:45 to 8:00 am getting ready for the day, so they must do this at another time; therefore, it is not considered “double pay” for that 15 minutes each day.  It is communicated that MAGPI begins at 7:30; however, the reality is that many students arrive prior to that time, so we begin providing this help earlier.  There is additional work that goes on outside of the 7:20 – 8:00 daily window.  The MAGPI teachers spend their own time interacting with teachers, and even parents, of the students in MAGPI, either determining what the student needs or providing feedback.  The MAGPI teacher will also spend their own time determining the work to be provided and checking the daily work as a formative assessment.   The rate for providing these services for the year is in line with other stipends or extra-curricular pay provided in our district.  If other teachers are qualified to provide this service, are willing to commit to all of the duties outlined above, and be held accountable for the growth of these students, we will be happy to put you on the list to be considered in the future if one of the slots becomes available.

1B. Are the MAGPI teachers teaching prepared lessons or do they work with children based on their individual needs?  If so, do they plan for the aides that are also teaching MAGPI classes and making sure that they have all the materials they need?  How was the cost figured?

MAGPI teachers are not receiving supplements that are out of line with the others.  See response to 2A.

1C. Were these positions and salaries being advertised. 

Positions with supplements are not advertised.  The principal has the authority to secure appropriate personnel for those positions.  Naturally, a math teacher would be preferable over another teacher.  Another math teacher was given the opportunity to teach during MAGPI, but was not interested in tutoring every morning before school all year long. 

2. Could more paid positions be put in place to challenge high achieving and average math students?

A paid position would depend on if funding was available to meet outside school hours.  The Math Team meets for higher achieving students-based on Global Scholar scores and teacher recommendations.  Also, 4^th and 5^th grades have a higher level math class.  We can discuss a Math/Literacy Club to meet possibly during intervention for the upcoming school year.

3A. Who is supposed to write plans for Tier 3 instruction?

Within the Literacy area, Mrs. McGough consults and works with the Tier III interventionist on plans for the students she serves.

Here is what the TCS RtI Handbook says about Tier 3 interventions:

·         Who develops the student’s goal/intervention plan?

The PST.       

·         Who provides Tier III instruction?

The PST will determine who provides Tier III instruction. 

·         When is Tier III instruction provided?

The PST will determine the time of Tier III instruction.  The PST will consider the student’s schedule when determining the time. It is important to note that Tier III instruction will require the student to miss something in the classroom.  Tier III instruction is reserved for the students who need this extra support to meet grade level expectations.  The population of Tier III should be less than 5% of the total school population.

The handbook does not address who provides the plans for instruction.  As we have gone through this process over the past few years, it has been determined that the classroom teacher knows the student weaknesses and is the one most qualified to provide work for their tier 3 students.

We currently have only 19 students out of 992 students receiving Tier 3 intervention which is less than 2% of our total population.

3B. Could you please clarify the job of the Reading Coach and Math Coach? 

This question has been answered at the December 2013 TAC meeting.  Copies are kept at the Board and in a binder in the front office.

4A. Why does the library open at 8:45 when there is a teacher and two aides in there? 

There is an intervention group that meets in the library from 8:15-8:45 each morning.  The library serves 6 classes a day and that is our only planning period for the entire day (both librarian and aides).  The library aides shelve books, catalogue new books, and repair old books during this time.  Intervention isn’t over until 8:45 and there should be no movement of students in the halls.

4B. Why is a child allowed flex time every other day and not daily?

We have 1,000 students in our school, in addition to teaching 6 classes each day, therefore making flex time every day is just not feasible.  Students are encouraged to check out two books and finish both books before coming to flex time.  If students are making good choices with their books (not choosing books that are too easy), and are reading both books before coming to flex time, every other day is practical.

5. Last year equal access to the computer labs was a problem, since math teachers were scheduled for 30 minutes each week for student to work in DreamBox.  This year math teachers have 1 hour each week instead of 30 minutes and literacy teachers have no time to be able to use the computer labs for research, publishing writing pieces, or utilizing AR 360.  Can literacy teachers have some access to the computer labs?  Can one lab be for literacy and one for math?

 

Lisa and Kelly are aware of this problem and are looking at schedules to adjust them to be more fairly usable.  Kristi is going to review the lab sign up and cart checkout too.  There is a future Chromebook purchase that will ease some of this also.

6. Is there a way for teachers to get some kind of break on Club Days? 

The problem is that we can never begin on time because it takes a full 10-15 minutes before everyone is all in the room.  We will give them 15-20 minutes up front (for a break) and begin "exactly" 15-20 minutes later.

7. The students need 30 minutes of physical activity every day.  On cold and rainy days, the students do not have recess or courtyard time.  Could a “Plan B” be put in place to meet these requirements?

Check into an app for exercise or dance and/or possibly meet with your partner teacher’s class for 15 minutes of physical activity.  Once there is a school split there will be other rooms open for different options.

8. Is there a curriculum committee in place at TCS?  Are resources, math books, etc. a possibility for the near future? 

A textbook committee has been formed and there is a math curriculum committee in development now headed by Beth Bruno.

9. Would it be possible to strategically plan one E-learning day each 9 weeks or trimester to designate as a teacher planning day or a day for parent conferences?

E-learning days are TCS system decisions and the 15-16 school year calendar draft is out now.

10. Can we please consider having CAD on another day of the week next year?

There isn't another day that would work as well as Monday.  Meeting to plan for the week is best at the beginning of the week or the very end of the week.

11. Please clarify CAD ending times on Monday. 

This is a CAD decision.  Please discuss your ending time with your group and come to an agreement on your ending time.  You may also reference the September 2014 TAC minutes.

12. Could blog posts be limited to Monday-Friday (8-5)?  Could all other correspondence be limited to school hours?  (Family new/emergency could be an exception.)

When the Blogs are sent out, it takes 24 hours for them to be delivered to staff.  You can flag your posts with different color flags to read at another time. Blog posts serve as one of many methods of communication for parents and staff.

13. Is it possible for us to go back to quarters instead of trimesters?

We initially changed to trimesters because of the change to standards based report cards.  There are pros and cons, but the trimester gives more time between the progress report and actual report card to make adjustments and help students close the gaps.

When the schools split, report cards would need to be sent out at the same time for each school.   In other words, each school would not want to send a report card to K-2 students at the end of each trimester, and to grades 3-5 students at the end of each quarter.  That conversation can begin with the primary teachers, but I am certain they will not want to complete their comprehensive standards- based report cards every nine weeks. 

14. Will we continue to report standards on the report card?

We will engage in conversation regarding what is best for children (and their parents) as it relates to reporting standards on report cards for the 2015-2016 school year.