A close-knit school community located in Arlington Heights, Massachusetts

September 2009 Minutes

Last Updated (Tuesday, 26 January 2010 19:50) Written by Nancy Rhoads Tuesday, 26 January 2010 19:20

Minutes

Brackett School Council Meeting

September 24, 2009

 

Attendance Present: Roly Chaput, Allen Feinstein, Christie Getto Young, Fern LaRocca, Nancy Rhoads, Stephanie Zerchykov, Absent: Nicole Feroleto

 Election of Officers Unanimous votes were cast for Roly Chaput as Assistant Chair and Nancy Rhoads as Recording Secretary for the 2009/2010 school year.

 Meeting Dates The School Council will meet from 2:30 until 4:00 in the Principal’s Conference room on the following dates:

             October 29, 2009                        January 21, 2010                        April 15, 2010

            November 12, 2009                        February 25, 2010                        May 6, 2010

            December 17, 2009                        March 18, 2010                        June 10, 2010

 Principal’s Update

·      There are now 26 students in each of the 3^rd and 5^th grade classes due to budget cuts requiring condensing 4 classes into 3.

·      Amy Puff has replaced Fran Cantelli.

·      The Connections classroom has a new teacher and one assistant. There are currently 6 students enrolled in the program in grades 3, 4, and 5.

·      Changes to the ACE program were discussed. Mies Boet-Whittaker will be at Brackett all day on Wednesdays. For this year, there are no changes to the ACE programming in 5^th grade. Mies will be invited to speak at our next meeting.

·      A grant for emergency planning was received by the district. Allen will speak to Susan Bernhard about including some of the emergency planning information on the Brackett website. Lockdown procedures still need to be practiced.

·      No further contact has been made regarding the placement of a cell phone tower at Brackett. Stephanie explained the new School Committee policy about such inquiries.

·      As discussed in the spring, Brackett will host a pilot program, sponsored by Arlington Community Education, providing afterschool classes for Brackett students taught by Brackett teachers.

School Improvement Plan  We reviewed Allen’s ideas for a School Improvement Plan. It was decided that our next step is to settle on 3-5 goals, prioritized by the Council, based on the survey of teachers and parents. Christie will follow up with a homework assignment for us to complete prior to our next meeting.

 

The meeting adjourned at 4:00.

 

Respectfully submitted by Nancy Rhoads.