Curriculum Council Minutes 11/30/23

2023-2024 Ida Curriculum Council Minutes

Thursday, Nov. 30, 2023 8:15-10:15 a.m. 

Middle School Library

Staff and Community Representatives Present:

*Elementary School: Christina Fitzgerald

*Elementary Parent Representative: Sara Batson, Jessica Kisonas

*Middle School: Jen Butz, Audrey Hamm, Ann Capling, Amy LaVigne-Benore, Brittany Pawlak

*Middle School Parent Representative: Amy Strimpel

*High School: Meg Alexander, Caitlin Ryan

*High School Parent Representative: Andrea Allen, Amy Strimpel

*Administrators: Lucy Becker, Allison Bondie, David Eack, Chuck Fuller, Patrick Riley

*Board Member:

*Chairperson: Sarah Ash

 Ida Curriculum Council Minutes for November 30, 2023  

1.  District  

• A Strategic Plan update was given. Meetings have taken place with the administration team, students, and teachers. A community survey was also sent out and posted to the district website. The next steps will be organizing the data that has been collected and setting up meetings to develop the plan in January and February. A few members spoke about their experience with the meetings and how it has been very positive.
• Jean Foster is hosting monthly brainstorm meetings to network with PE/Health teachers. The next one is scheduled for December 18th at 3pm via Zoom. Please contact Jean Foster from the ISD for the virtual meeting link if you are interested.
• Mental Health Roundtable Meetings are held at the ISD, we do not have the date for the next one at this time, but it will most likely be in January or February.
• Summer school planning will be starting soon. Data from summer 2023 showed positive results for students who attended regularly.
• A virtual learning plan is currently being developed for emergencies and special circumstances such as high school spring testing and kindergarten roundup. Per the pupil accounting guidelines, schools must have a plan in place and approved by the Board of Education prior to having any virtual learning.

2.  K-12 Communications: High School Topics

• Leadership update was given by Meg Alexander. The group wrapped up their fall activities with the SPLT marijuana initiative, Homecoming activities, and College Month. They are now working on Give a Kid a Christmas, Operation Christmas Child, display cases throughout the school, and locker signs for winter sports. Their next SPLT initiatives are prescription drugs and vaping.
• Curriculum/Assessment Changes/Needs and/or Updates
  • Landscape Design curse proposal was reviewed and discussed. This would be a semester long course for 10th-12th grade students. A vte was taken and the proposal passed with 18 people in favor and 0 rejections. The course will be offered when it can fit in the master schedule.
• HSSIT (MTSS) – Staff meetings will continue to allow for grade level collaboration time. Teams met during the November professional development days to discuss student successes and concerns.
• Counselor Update - College month went very well and many prizes were given out. Students will have locker signs showing the colleges they applied to, and these will be updated with accepted stickers throughout the year. The fall digital PSAT/NMSQT test went very well with minimal issues. Counselors will be in classrooms during the next month giving presentations to students about goals and post-secondary decisions.
• Harvest Academy was approved by the Board of Education and will be returning as an alternative option for students beginning in the second semester. This program serves students who may have difficulty completing the traditional education program. Currently we have multiple students who have left Ida to go to other districts for this type of program.
• Mr. Fuller is interested in starting a Junior ROTC program. If anyone knows of any veteran who might be interested in helping get this program started in Ida he would greatly appreciate any information you can provide.

3.   K-12 Communications: Middle School Topics

• Curriculum/Assessment Changes/Needs and/or Updates
  • A discussin was held about providing a high school credit for the Middle School Computer Classes. Amy LaVigne-Benore has been working on comparing her current curriculum to the high school Technology for Academics High School curriculum and seeing how they align.  A frmal proposal will be coming at a future meeting once all details have been worked out.
• MTSS – Teams met in November and will continue to meet in the coming months to review data and concerns. Saturday classes will be offered to students who may need extra support in the coming months, details are still being finalized.
• Peer Outreach Program (POP) will be starting soon. This will be a program similar to others that are currently in place primarily for elementary students, but at the middle school level.
• Counselor Update – The digital PSAT 8 test went well, students tested in classrooms instead of the gym due to the technology concerns, but this change seemed to get positive feedback from students. Student Council is holding a dollar war for Give a Kid a Christmas, this is a change from the penny war that has been held previously due to changes at the bank. Students will be walking in the Christmas in Ida parade with a float. Red Ribbon week was held in October and students created posters and read some of the morning announcements. Brittany Pawlak has been in classrooms presenting lessons on various character traits for fifth grade students. She also started a student spotlight where she highlights four students a month who participate in other activities outside of school (ex. baton twirling, farming, robotics, dancing, etc.).

4.  K-12 Communications: Elementary School Topics

• Curriculum/Assessment Changes/Needs and/or Updates
  • Grade levels have been wrking on Mystery Science implementation along with the use of their science kits. Christina Fitzgerald shared how convenient and organized the kits are for classroom experiments.
• MTSS monthly meetings are taking place. The team reviews data and tiered supports for student academic and behavioral needs.

5.  Technology Updates 

• Technology Committee update – none given. A meeting will be held in the second semester.

6.  Parent Group Report

• Parent Group updated was shared by Sara Batson and Amy Strimpel. The fall festival was a success, due to the weather it was moved inside the high school, and everything went very well. Halloween Grams were sold in October and will be sold again in December. All students in the school received at least one Halloween Gram sticker sheet. The Holiday Shop will begin next week, and many decorations will be going up throughout the school in the coming days.  The Middle School had a fall book fair and will be having another one in January. The parent groups also provided lunch and/or dinner for teachers during conferences which was very appreciated by all.

7.  Upcoming Student Events

• Knabusch Math and Science Center Field Trips are available – Spring dates will be sent out in January
• MathCounts is underway and will compete in February.
• Quiz Bowl season is underway. The in-person tournaments will be:
  • 8th Grade Turnament-Monday, March 4th
  • 7th Grade Turnament-Tuesday, March 5th
  • 6th Grade Turnament-Wednesday, March 6th
  • 5th Grade Turnament-Thursday, March 7th  
  • High Schol Tournament-Friday, March 8th

In person tournaments will be held at the community college and volunteers will be needed to help judge, keep score, and be quizmasters; please watch your email if this is something you would like to help with.

• Monroe County Science Challenge - Grades 3-5, December 12-14th. This activity is lieu of the traditional science fair that was held in the past. Students will complete grade level appropriate science challenges against other schools in the county. We will be sending one or two teams from each grade level to participate.
• You Be the Chemist Challenge - Grades 5-8, Date TBD in January or February. This is a new event coming in the winter, more information will be shared once it becomes available.
• Monroe County Spelling Bee – Thursday, April 4th for Middle School students. We will be sending our top two 5th/6th grade and top two 7th/8th grade spellers to this event.

8. Assessment Updates

• NWEA/STAR Reading, K-4 will be done again in January.
• Fall 2023 digital College Board testing went well for 8th and 11th grade students. Scores came back and have been shared with teachers, counselors, students, and families.
• Spring 2023 Testing Windows:
  • 3rd Grade M-Step
    • ELA-April 8th-May 3rd
    • Math-April 8th-May 17th  
  • 4th, 6th, 7th Grade M-Step
    • ELA-April 8th-May 17th
    • Math-April 8th-May 17th
  • 5th Grade M-Step     
    • ELA-April 8th-May 17th
    • Math-April 8th-May 17th
    • Science-April 8th-May 17th
    • Social Studies-April 8th-May 17th
  • 8th Grade
    • PSAT 8-April 8th-26th
    • Science M-Step-April 8th-May 17th
    • Social Studies M-Step-April 8th-May 17th 
  • 9th Grade
    • PSAT 9-April 8th-26th (*tentatively April 11th)
  • 10th Grade
    • PSAT 10-April 8th-26th (*tentatively April 11th)
  • 11th Grade
    • SAT-April 8th-26th (*tentatively April 12th)  
    • WorkKeys-April 11th
    • Science M-Step-April 8th-May 17th
    • Social Studies M-Step-April 8th-May 17th

9. Professional Development Opportunities

• Next PD Day is January 15th, if you have any suggestions or topics in mind, please let Sarah Ash know. CPR training is tentatively on the agenda.
• Educational Technology Group - next meeting will be on Thursday, January 18th from 4-6:00 p.m. at the ISD with dinner provided.
• Michigan Science Teachers Association Annual Conference-February 29th-March 2nd in Lansing
• Michigan Reading Association Annual Conference-March 15th-17th in Lansing
• MACUL Annual Conference-March 13th-15th in Grand Rapids
• AI in Education: Shaping the Future of Learning-March 11, 2024 at the Monroe ISD
• Always available: EduPaths and Michigan Virtual online professional learning. https://www.edupaths.org. www.michiganvirtual.org.  Free, self-paced courses, SCECHs are available for most courses
• For all ISD PD register on the ISD course where/wisdomwhere site:

https://www.solutionwhere.com/ww/monroeisd/

10. Future Meetings

• Next meeting February 29, 2024-8:15am

Adjournment 10:15