April 9, 2011 FOSB Retreat Notes

Attendees:

Kelly Bryant (Chair), Jane Davies (Chair), Jodee Reed, Lance Adams, Caitlin Racey, Jodi Russell, Susan Motte, Megan Ratcliffe, Katherine Ropp, Melanie Shelton, Sarah Kopf-Patterson, Katherine Ropp, Brian Williamson, Jen Millen, Caleb Banta-Green,  Robin Lofstrom, Carita Polin, Sally Massa, Beth Armitage, Sam Starr, Dorothy Jacobsen, Amy Gross, AJ Silva, Zara Kublin, Lisa Crozier, Marian Wagner, Karen Dugan,  Hillary Leonard, Rolf Sonnerup

Board Introduction and Announcements (9:20-10:00):

• Playground Update:  Lance Adams and Robin Lofstrom gave update of playground history with update of recent playground presentation from designers.  They were not pleased with the 400K price tag and then met to cut down to more reasonable 200K plan.  The playground very intentionally is designed to support ASD, which also satisfies the needs of all children.  They are continuing to think of grants to pursue – Robin has been doing a lot of work applying for these grants:  one is with Dept of Neighborhoods (want support from parents, neighbors) and with King County grant.  This will be discussed more on Thursday.
• Elementary Expansion Update:  Jodee Reed gave an update.  There is a movement to expand elementary school to 2 classes per grade.  This fall would start by expanding to two full K and two full 1st grade classes.  This will be discussed more on Thursday.  Marian Wagner gave teacher perspective of how this change has grown from the concern that the current pool is actually too small per grade to effectively balance and grow the overall classroom culture in ways that allow them to best support the children.  The teachers are working hard to balance/maintain the current culture and this growth will still allow Salmon Bay to have smaller school feel.  Sally Massa then gave a description of the intended plan once the growth ripples all the way to 5th grade with the future loops once the growth happens:  K/1, 2/3 and 4/5 with two classes at each grade.  Brian Williamson reiterated teacher support of the idea as being the best possible one for the children.

Alternative Education Discussion (10:15 – 11:45):

• Caleb Banta-Green reviewed alt ed quality indicators and gave an update about the process he and Megan Ratcliffe have been going through to advocate for alternative education schools and then discussed decision that was reached to self-audit alternative schools.  We, as a school, completed the audit in the recent survey creation, completion and analysis.  John Miner is the acting Director of Alternative Education.  
• He reviewed the survey results, which had an overall very positive self-assessment.  In general 75% of the respondents rated almost all categories as high or very high and examples of the categories are:  quality of education, learning emphasizes discovery, inquiry, inter-disciplinary studies, teacher’s learning about each student’s needs/talents, children feel belonging, vision of school implemented …  Caleb also noted that on average people who rated “teachers develop a rigorous curriculum” lower also rated that alt ed was less important to them now they were in Salmon Bay.
  
  He then split the meeting into small groups to discuss areas for improvement and then groups gave summaries. 
  
  Vision Group:  gaps in current vision statement exist in assessment, relationship (parent, teacher, admin), leadership – these could be added to have a more complete vision statement, but is not essential that this is added.  Jodee pointed out that every 5-7 years a school should revisit, reaffirm and possible expand/change vision to accurately reflect school’s vision.
  
  Decision Making/Leadership support of vision/Vision implemented:  Might be good to get more information in this area to clarify what specific frustrations are behind the lower 25 percentile to better lend insight to possible solutions. 
  
  Rigorous Curriculum (discussed by two groups):  Learning happening and may not always look like it is happening because it grows naturally in a non-stressful way, but is happening.  The discussion highlighted the need for better communication with families about what learning looks like in the classroom and how it fits into long term goals, e.g. reading and writing is not an expected outcome for kindergarten, but rather part of a multi-year plan.  Also there is social learning that may cause waiting and other behaviors, which is social learning and is a different type of learning.  It was acknowledged that it is difficult to engage each child at exactly the right level of academics while balancing the needs of the entire class.  Carita Polin  stated that smaller classes and more narrowly defined by age better support differentiated learning.  Jodee clarified that rigor does not need to mean “hard”; it should more be defined as how broad and how deeply you are challenging their thinking. Within individual classroom, there could be more support from parents in the classroom to potentially support differentiated learning and that right now the lower and middle learners may have more support than the accelerated learners at times. 
• Thank you Caleb for doing such a great job with this overall creation, roll-out and analysis!!
• Jodee distributed report on Operational Assurances That Support an Innovative Learning Environment School (ILES) for future reading.

PTO or PTA Discussion (11:45-12:30):

• Jane Davies introduced topic on our history as a school about our not being a PTA and that we periodically revisit this as we are today.  There are advantages to being able to access the larger, more organized group that has centralized meetings and resources that we are currently using and there is a feeling by some that it would be good to include.  The group discussed how joining the PTA would impact our group autonomy, which is highly valued.  We had a show of interest in doing this by voting, although an actual vote would occur at one of the two next meetings.  There was significant blocking, so we will need to discuss this more.  It was discussed that if we end up staying a PTO, that we should change our name PTO from FOSB, so all parents in the school more clearly understand the group and its function. 
• Then, we broke for lunch.

Joint Decision Making at Salmon Bay (1:00-?):

• Jane Davies and Kelly Bryant introduced topic by saying there are some topics that are teacher driven, some parent driven, and so on and the decision making may be just by teachers at times solo at times with parent input; some jointly and some parent decision.
• The role of the BLT was discussed and how members are representing interests of teachers and parents.  It is an advisory or decision making body that Jodee explained is extremely helpful to a principal to get input into key areas facing school.  Agenda items often come from Jodee to get input areas she would like to raise awareness and gather input.  They are chartered with school improvement plan, budget and professional development.

I left at this point and may have missed closing points.