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Community Council Minutes

October 20, 2022

Community Council Meeting Minutes

October 20, 2022

Attendees

  • Members Present

    • Parents – Alicia Willoughby, Monica Cameron, Lacey Boggess, Sarah Heilig, Marinda Fowler, Lindsey Campbell, Kathryn Buxton
    • School  Members – Becky Dills, Kelani Maughan, Kim Vorwaller

  • Members Absent

    • Parents
    • School Members

  • Guests

    • Parents- 
    • School Members- Brent Ludlow, Shawna Blamires 

  • Meeting held in the council room of the front office at OSE from 4:00-5:10 PM on Thursday, October 22, 2022. Notes were taken by Marinda Fowler.

Welcome

  • Mrs Dills welcomed everyone 

  • Approve September Meeting Minutes

    • Meeting schedule is posted on school website
    • Lacey Bogess votes to approve, Monica Cameron seconded.

Minutes

  • Reading Data presented by Shawna Blamires, Instructional Coach

    • Orchard Springs Data Wall presentation
      • Last year we lost some ground at the end of the year. 
      • Benchmark Goals
        • K-2 really struggling. Still trying to make up for pandemic years. This is across the district, state, and nation. Everyone is significantly lower than two years ago.
        • BOY Testing--5th grade came in higher on the composite. Red is the mask year.  Differences are noticeable over the past three years. 
        • Tests change throughout the grade levels, but we should still see growth. We gained growth in K and 1st last year. Second grade last year kept the first grade measure of nonsense words. We are still diagnosing fundamentals and filling in holes. By the end of year, we’d met district-wide goals for accuracy and nonsense words.
        • 3-6th green and blue proficiency levels are much higher. We want to be 80% of students at benchmark or above. Currently our sixth grade is sitting at 79%. 
      • Pathways of Progress Growth Presentation (different measurement)
        • Compares kids to other children in the same percentile from beginning to end of year.  Discussed typical growth for students who started where that student started. 
        • Two years ago  71% and last year 62% of students made typical or above typical growth at OSE. We did not meet our goal last year of 80%. This year’s goal is 70% typical growth. 
        • Five levels: Well Below Typical Growth, Below, Typical Growth, Above Typical Growth, Well Above Typical Growth
        • We can’t get all our kids to benchmark unless they are making typical growth. The more growth, the quicker they get up to the blue level. 
        • Likelihood scales on charts and tables. Starting to look at data differently. 
          • Green-60 to 80% chance of still meeting benchmark goals
          • Blue is the new green. Those that are in the blue area have a 90% or above chance of meeting subsequent benchmark goals in coming grades.
        • We are feeling the impact of covid in kindergarten and 1st grade--hardest hit because these three-and-four year olds missed out from social interactions while everyone was stuck at home. 
    • Grade Level Data Wall Closer Look: 3rd Grade
      • Last year’s 3rd graders all hit proficiency goals
      • Fewer kids at benchmark this year
      • We saw a huge summer slide this year. Bigger dip this year in third grade BOY scores.
      • Accuracy is the first thing that has to be fixed. Some students need to slow down, some need to decode, but the third grade team is looking at all of those things.
      • Spread increases every year. 
      • Lowest green this year is at 220 composite score. More than half of the kids are above that. highest scores are near 500 and lowest is around 10. 
      • We can only control so much so teachers shouldn’t feel bad about the spread, we just have a way to show what they are dealing with. 
      • What we need is parents to read with their kids at home! Reading aides make a huge difference. Mr. Ludlow made a plea for the SCC to keep paying for these reading aides.
      • Alicia asked why not put the kids in classes according to skill level?
        • You need a spread. Teachers would quit if they had the bottom groups. 
        • Kids benefit from being in classes with higher levels. 
        • Can we give the higher kids more enrichment? Are we losing those kids? 
          • Different grades do extension work. 4th grade does it all year. 3rd grade waits until later in the year because all the info is new in 3rd grade.
          • Mrs. Dills mentioned why the Gifted and Talented programs were discontinued--research showed that it does not benefit top or bottom learners. GT students were given more homework and made less progress.
          • Mr. Ludlow- talked about research backing why or why not to use ability grouping. Locks down success by creating a scheduling constraint. Less of those programs means that more teachers are able to open up classrooms for all levels of kids. 
          • Ability grouping creates self-esteem problems for kids because they see where they are at and they know. They give up hope for being at the top of the group. 
          • Working on Walked Intervention. Every student walks somewhere and is given extension learning. We need structure and funding in place to make that happen--but it is in the works.
          • Monica brought up 4th grade Dyad reading and teaching kids unity by pairing them up to help each other and building them up. 
    • Closer Look: Kindergarten Data
        • How do we develop goals within the district when we are full-day and other schools are half day?
        • Data shows an all-day program is the best way to help the kindergarteners.
        • KEEP data was created to show the growth in Kindergarten. All Day is a huge cost, so the state and district is trying to collect data to prove its effectiveness and raise adequate funds to implement the program statewide.
        • We only have three classrooms in Kindergarten because our school was based on half-day Kindergarten. 
        • We are one of two non-Title One schools in Weber County School District.
        • Only three students are choosing to do a half-day schedule right now. 
        • Need to do KEEPs test before class groupings are created. 
        • Loving Mrs. Gilbert’s All Day Kinder experience and all that she has brought to our school. Mrs. Gilbert’s  class has quite a huge spread. 
        • Kinder classes are at 25 students. 
        • Aide time is for 20 minutes reading intervention. 
        • Parent and staff support is happening. Parents are helping with extensions. We get a lot of volunteers in early grades. This is the first year some of these grades at OSE are able to have parent volunteers. Parent volunteers are needed more in older grades. 
    • Is this information available to be emailed? Could there be a different slide show with teacher names removed for privacy? Can we use this data to get more parent involvement? We want an invested community. 
      • Correlation between student performance and parent involvement. 
      • There are generational attitudes perpetuated. Sometimes parent priorities are not teachers’ priorities. Teachers will work just as hard but with one leg of the stool missing, sometimes two when the kids give up on themselves too. 
    • Utah Data Gateway--School Report Card found online (utahschoolgrades.utah.gov)
      • Achievement: Commendable
      • Growth: Exemplary
      • Overall Grade: B
      • In every area, we are in the top 4 schools in the District
      • Orchard Springs has one of the best PLCs Mrs. Dills has seen. We have a school highly committed to seeing growth in students and our report card reflects that.
      • We are still getting started! We are just a baby school still. Jr. High staff has seen the difference and come to us to ask what we are doing that is different. What we are doing during the day is making the difference. 
      • Our building has a culture that extends beyond test scores. By countless measures that don’t show up in test scores we are finding high amounts of success! 

  • Last two items need to be moved to the next meeting due to time constraints. 

    • Next meeting agenda: November 10, 2022 at 4:00 PM
      • Review Plan/Budget Expenditures
      • 2022-2023 Plan
      • Math Data presentation by Mrs. Blamires

  • Watch for virtual training email from the state. 

  • Two PLC aides still needed! STEM and Computers needed as well as aides and cafeteria workers. 

Meeting Dismissed

  • 5:08 pm - Alicia Willoughby motioned to adjourn, seconded by Kelani Maughn. 
  • All approved.
  • Adjourn.

Next Meeting

  • November 10, 2022 at 4:00 PM at Orchard Springs Elementary