In attendance:
Kate Dodge, Allegra Miller, Jeff O’Hara, Betsy Knox, Carla
Wuthrich, Jamie Cudney Kitty Fraizer, Frank Twarog, Laurie Parker-Clark, Carly
Epstein, Laura Howard, Aaron Kimball, Anna Main, Catherine Goldsmith, Jim
Goldsmith, Chrysanna Burke, Erin Walker, Barb Galgon, Tanya Jones, Laura
Carotenuto, Ali Douglas, Alesia Depot, Doug Stewart, Sarita Baker
Welcome to HCS:
Presented by Jeff O’Hara and Allegra Miller
·
Allegra and Jeff have split the various
responsibilities of daily administration, but either can be contacted with
questions/concerns.
o
Allegra is the primary principal for pre-K to 4th
grade.
o
Jeff is the primary principal for grades 5-8.
·
Both Co-Principals will be attending all PIE
meetings in efforts to increase communication within the school.
·
This year a “Program Council” has been
established. A trustee/representative from each grade level is selected by
their peers and will serve on a monthly committee to meet with the Co-Principals. The intent of this is to be a sounding board
for administration and to provide shared leadership for all faculty and staff
within the building.
·
Open House: September 25th
(Wednesday)
o
This year the format will be slightly different.
Open House will begin at 5 pm. At this time, teachers can share students work
in their respective rooms. Dinner will start serving at 5:30, with the Open
House closing at 6:00.
o
Dinner this year will be a whole wheat pasta
dinner with vegetables harvested from the garden for both the sauce and the
salad.
o
Eventually, the hope is that this night will
evolve into a “Curriculum Night”. As this evolves, there will be a larger
conversation about if the dinner should stay on this night, or be a separate
event.
o
The shift to a Curriculum Night will help in
keeping families/parents of children in middle school engaged. Typically, it
has been noticed that parents/families stop attending Open House around 4th
or 5th grade.
o
Curriculum nights at other CSSU schools are done
different nights by grade level. This is
a model that is being explored for HCS in the future.
o
Concerns were shared about making classroom
viewing available for working parents; it was agreed that the Open House would
end at 6 or maybe 6:30 [instead of 5:45 as originally planned] to accommodate
for this. Watch the Viking and the HCS home page for confirmation on timing for
this event.
·
Lunch Schedule:
o
Lunch is 20 minutes for each grade.
Kindergartners are coming in 5 minutes earlier to allow for learning “hot lunch
routines” and the overall lunch routine.
o
The salad bar (filled with fruits and
vegetables) is available with any meal bought.
Teachers are helping kids pick out a vegetable and make great healthy
choices.
o
Microwave use is being reserved for older
students (grade 3 and up).
§
Adding the microwave was a Student Council
initiative. Jeff will be following up with that group to see if this is still
an important amenity to have in the cafeteria.
·
The Viking:
o
The Viking will have a HCS focus and eliminate some
outside programs and advertisements.
Community events will continue to be posted, but organized
differently. Non-profits groups (Cub
Scouts, Girl Scouts, etc) that are directly tied to the school community will
continue to be posted in The Viking.
o
The new administrative assistant, Karen, will
help keep the FaceBook page updated, the HCS Home Page updated and support The
Viking.
o
The Viking will continue to be published every
two weeks.
·
Use of School Space:
o
HCS is the last of the schools in the CSSU to
not charge a fee to outside groups for rental space.
o
This year, a rental fee will be charged. This is a learning process and the fee for
some non-profits that work directly with HCS students will be waived. See Jeff for more information if you are
interested in hosting a group at HCS.
o
Money raised will help offset some of the
budgeting challenges and go back into building maintence and upkeep.
·
Open Question Time:
o
A parent asked about whether more grade levels
could do before-school parent meetings.
Should the curriculum night idea evolve, this might replace this event
some teachers provide.
§
It was also noted that the teachers that offer
this are going above and beyond the school’s expectations.
o
There is now one crossing spot and crossing
guard available to help children cross the street safely both before and after
school. It was noted that having 2
crossing places could be confusing to motorists, so it was reduced to just one.
(Crossing is at the more northern driveway across Route 116).
o
Jeff will begin to monitor the drop-off area by
the doors in the morning and to keep parents from using the bus lane.
o
Concerns were raised that buses are moving
before all children are seated, that seats are not being kept for kindergarten
students in the front few rows, and that doors are opening before the bus has
come to a complete stop. Allegra and
Jeff will follow up on these concerns.
o
Playground supervision is being done with Kate
Meyers (behavior interventionist), Liz Lach (Head of Part Two), and a variety
of para-educators for grades K-5.
§
Allegra noted that should there be a concern
reported by a child re: the playground, the earlier it is shared the easier it
will be for the child to recall and share the events with principals.
§
Children are coached by teachers about how to
address playground conflicts as they arise.
§
Bullying and harassment are things that are taken
very seriously across the state.
·
Ask open-ended questions to get information from
your child. Again, the sooner the concern is shared/addressed the better.
·
If it sounds like it’s happened more than twice,
it is considered bullying. Harassment
has more to do with identifying a child by a specific group (religion, race,
etc).
·
HCS’s website has a bullying form on-line that
parents can submit. Kate and Jeff will immediately start an investigation that
will include conversations with those involved. The link is right on the HCS
home page on the left.
·
Parents encouraged Jeff to make the bullying
form something that parents are more aware of.
·
David Rast (guidance counselor) goes to each
classroom (all grades) to address bullying and to make sure that students know whom
they can talk to when something happens.
o
Conversation/presentation topics for the first
hour of the PIE meeting are tentatively slated, but open to change. If anyone
has an interest in a certain topic (budget, switch to common core, bullying,
etc) please contact Kate Dodge.
(
dodgeopton@gmavt.net )
Business Meeting:
·
Report to the Board: This is a new
segment of a PIE meeting. The co-principals will be sharing the information
that they share with the school board on a monthly basis. These reports will be posted on the HCS
website.
o
Kate will start sharing PIE updates with Allegra
so that the HCS report to the board will become more well-rounded.
·
Fundraising:
o
Help is wanted to support various events year
round and to join the planning/committee on a monthly basis.
o
Box Tops: A reminder to cut out the Box Tops
neatly (they are not accepted if they are not cut on the dotted line).
o
Buy Local Coupon Books will be sold to benefit
HCS. They will be sold at the main
office, at the Harvest Festival, and at the Open House.
o
Red Barn Fundraising will be doing the fall HCS
fundraiser. It is slated to begin Sept 16th. Parents can also choose to donate directly to
the school by writing a check to HCS PIE instead of shopping in the catalogs.
·
Staff Appreciation:
o
Staff appreciation will continue to have the
events as last year and will be organized primarily through Sign Up Genius.
o
People are invited to share their own staff
appreciation ideas. Contact Ali Douglas with ideas/questions:
littletreekarma@gmail.com
·
Enrichment:
o
Carla Wuthrich shared her interest in exploring
enrichment opportunities for all children at HCS. Many ideas are out there, the
possibilities are endless. If you’d like to be part of this conversation
contact Carla at:
cwuthrich@gmavt.net to join the emerging conversation.
The main focus now is understanding where the
current needs of the school are to plan support around going forward.
·
Communication:
o
PIE has several spots on the HCS website,
provides blurbs for The Viking, updates the calendar on the HCS website, and a
FaceBook group.
Volunteers are needed to
assist Kate in keeping all of these avenues of communication going! Please
contact Kate if you are able:
dodgeopton@gmavt.net
Next PIE Meeting is October 7, 2013 at 6
pm.
