Bella Vista SCC Meeting – November 15, 2021
Welcome – thaks to everyone for coming (Julie, Megan, Jessica, Tanya, Tracy, Principal Gardner)
- Overview of today’s agenda
- Brief review of last meeting’s minutes
Question about meeting frequency
Disciplinary issues climbing through the fall – why?
- Leadership team happening 11/16 to try and find some solutions.
- Likely seeing two years’ worth of student behavior issues in one-difficulty returning from a year of online learning.
- November referrals (needing assistance from administration or documentation in writing) slightly down from past months.
- Vast majority of behaviors occurring within the classroom.
- Mondays and Wednesday are long days in classroom-likely contributing to harder behavioral days.
- Around 10 students accounting for the huge majority of referrals.
- tudent support team meeting once a month to discuss and make plans for students who need extra or alternative resources.
- Reading scores started at 57% (same starting point as last year); math scores started at 49% (up from 41 % last year).
Incentive Updates
- In October the school did a Lexia challenge, which asks students to meet minimum reading minutes in order to earn grant money.
- Broadcast a movie and enjoyed pizza, drinks, and cookies to celebrate meeting Lexia goals for October.
- Highest number of minutes read in the state!
- November/December initiative-personal goals. every week there’s a new goal, and every Friday there’s a new incentive for meeting that goal (extra recess, upcoming are bubble-pop toys, mittens, and king-sized candy bars)
Emergency Drills
- November – complete bomb threat drill last week.
- December – active shooter information, (but only for teachers and employees).
- January – fire drill within first ten days after holiday break.
- February – shelter-in-place.
- March-hazardous materials cleanup.
- April-earthquake (will participate in teh Great Utah Shakeout).
- May-public health emergency (again, information only for teachers and employee
- 5. Social/Emotional learning
- Has been a hot topic among district school board meetings.
- Second Step program has come under some scrutiny.
- One lesson within one unit had a link to a website that some may find questionable.
- Has been removed from the district entirely.
- Principals have met to find a replacement program or strategy to address those needs-will also be discussed in leadership meetings with different to bring kids together in the classrooms and having morning circles as an opportunity to address some of these developmental topics and struggles.
- Utah curriculum currently doesn’t contain any requirement for social/emotional learning-if state school board changes that, it will open opportunites for pursuing new programs.
Faculty Update
- Staff shortages and covid difficulties-overview of how faculty is coping with it. Everyone is doing the best they can with limited time and rescources.
- Certainly a stressful time, but teachers are stepping up and making it work.
- Two or three days per week where we do’t have subs.
- Interventionsists and others are being pulled in to sub.
- Can’t get instructional aids to apply.
- diddn’t get parents responding as volunteers to be last minute subs-consider reaching out to parents again explaining the options for helping as substitutes.
- Minutes approved and meeting closed.
