Principal's Newsletter
March 4th, 2016
WOWs
Thank you Drew Button for staying on Reading Night to set up and run the music in the cafeteria!--Sherry Reagan
WOW to Kody for staying late at our last STUCO meeting when a student wasn’t going to get picked up until 6pm, allowing me to make my daughter’s basketball tournament game!! Cheri Hosea
To all of you who flipped pancakes, cooked sausage, poured drinks, greeted families, took pictures, read books, cleaned dishes, ran the sound board, recruited volunteers, scooped butter, danced in the Harvey costume, organized, planned, strategized, designed, set-up, tore down and supported an epic Harvest Ridge Family event…WOW!--Greg Vest
A HUGE thank you to the over 35 Harvest Ridge staff members who truly helped to make the One Book, One School, One Community kickoff event a success. All the little details add up, and your willingness to help out in every way is appreciated! Daisy Skelly
Carol Tooley's advance notice on schedule changes for her testing has been appreciated. Also, Daisy Skelly's work with students in my room has been beyond helpful for math. Much apprciated.--Nancy Jeffrey
RRR will donate $186 to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in honor of Mr. Wall. They earned the money by selling concessions at the PTO Movie Night last Friday.--Donna Baeten
WOW to Linda Appelbaum for winning a donation of 7 peaceful cloud/kite skypanels for our classroom through USA Skypanels. I think the skypanels bring a calmness to our room and they look great. Come by Room 51 and take a look. Thank you, Linda!--jamie McCoy
WOW to Joyce Highfill for helping me be Harvey the Hawk on our Humphrey Family night. She stayed later than expected and helped me out tremendously!! --Kim Masterson
WOW to Greg Vest for his oversight of the Humphrey family event!!!! Great job Greg!--Linda Murphy
WOW to Tessa for her diligence to attendance issues!! --Linda Murphy
I may be overlapping the WOWs of others, but I was so impressed by all the work Daisy Skelly and her crew put in for the Humphrey event. I saw many people working all night and there was evidence that many hours had been put in before the event. We reached many families in a positive way, and I am proud to have played a small part in it. --Donna Baeten
A million WOWs to Melissa Barth, Lisa Chamberlain and Maggie McCarthy for years of cherishing and challenging their students with different abilities. WOW also for teaching all of your students through exceptional modeling how to have compassion for and help these special students. What a beautiful life lesson you are teaching! This is just one of the many ways in which you have made an amazing difference in the lives of all the little ones in your care.
WOW to Stacey Schuette and Karen Brockland for all their help with putting together the packets for the One, Book, One School event. Your students did a fabulous job!! You are greatly appreciated!--Jodi Fitzgerald
WOW to Ruth Zerface for creating labels for One Book, One School. Your help is always greatly appreciated!--Jodi Fitzgerald
WOW to Todd and Chris for helping create a fun obstacle course for the students to enjoy at the One Book, One School kickoff. You are greatly appreciated!--Jodi Fitzgerald
WOW to Kristy Giacomarra for greeting the librarian from the McClay branch and helping her set-up for the One Book, One School kickoff. You are greatly appreciated!--Jodi Fitzgerald
WOW to Angie Regan for taking the time to help me learn how to do some different things on Aimsweb and for helping me problem solve a student need. You are greatly appreciated!--Jodi Fitzgerald
WOW to everyone who taught Aniya White, Austin Tatum, Ian Pierce, Kalale Reed or Isaac Mejia-Troop. Our 5th grade Hawks did an amazing job at representing The Ridge when they presented at METC this year!! Everything you taught them about public speaking, manners, problem solving and collaboration has really paid off for these amazing young computer programmers! http://pattonvilletoday.com/students-become-teachers-at-metc16/--Eleanna Liscombe
A huge WOW for Mrs. McCoy, Mrs. Schuette, and the wonderful Room 51 paras and students for stapling, counting, and getting all the book fair flyers ready to go home. I so appreciate all that you have done for me. Thanks so much!!--SHanna Bradley
WOW to Linda Carr for always being willing to help in my room at the end of the day when I am unavailable. I really appreciate it!--Karen Brockland
WOW to Jodi Fitzgerald for asking Jaime and I if we had any students who would need accommodations for the obstacle courses during the family event. Thank you again for thinking of our students!--Karen Brockland
I just wanted to send out a huge WOW to our Parent Involvement Team. Needless to say the pancake dinner was a huge hit. The next day a Humphrey book was left in my classroom. I kind of chuckled thinking I would never figure out the owner of the book! Then I turned the book over and there was a label with the child’s name. Every detail has been so well planned! I wanted to thank everyone involved with this awesome event!--Maggie McCarthy
I’d like to thank Hasan and Chris Rector for helping me troubleshoot sound issues at the Humphrey Family Event last week. –Mr. Button
Big WOW to Mrs. Fazio for always giving me practical ways to be a more effective teacher. She does my observations and has setup time for me to observe Mrs. Liscombe (Amazing!), gave me a resource to increase cognitive engagement, and provided suggestions to have more success in my class. And she’s nice, Thanks! –Mr. Button
WOW to room 51 for assisting with one of my students while others in my room were taking their Gallileo Test.--Karen Brockland
WOW to Jane Hepler who does in amazing job keeping our building budget organized.--Dr. DeWeese
Reminders
When picking students up from recess please make sure you are on time.This will help make sure the next recess is getting started on time and will hopefully cut down on issues in the cafeteria.
Math Lesson Studies and PD
Where is Your Principal?
Tuesday, March 8th- PLC Meetings, PTO Meetings, 504 Meeting, Math Lesson Studies
Wednesday, March 9th- Referral Meeting, IEP Meeting, Math Lesson Studies, Math PD after school
Thursday, March 10th- Coffee Talk, Behavior Check In Meeting, Parent/Teacher Conferences
Friday, March 11th- Open
Monday, March 14th-- Administrator Weekly Meeting, Counselor collaboration day
Tuesday, March 15th- Parent/Teacher Conferences
Wednesday, March 16th-Referral meeting, EDM, Executive Cabinet Meeting, SPED file review meeting
Thursday, March 17th-PLC Meetings with Sherri Lorton
Friday, March 18th-CIA Meeting
Behavior Committee Decisions
Moving forward we will be using Zones of Regulation. Staff has received professional development on this practice in the past. The committee will be providing additional PD and resources to help support the implementation in all classrooms. The major/minor form that was implemented this year will continue next year. The committee will also provide some PD at the beginning of the school year on how to use the form. The data being collected through the use of this form has been pivotal in the Behavior Steering Team to be able to provide interventions. The committee agreed that the common language provided in the Hawk Habits will continue in the future as well.
NESTS was part of our discussion. An idea was brought forward to provide a better focus to NESTS next year and have students complete community service projects in an effort to increase community engagement. The fine details have not been ironed out, but research will continue on the needs of our community and ways students can support those needs.
At the next meeting the committee will discuss the parts of PBIS to implement next year. The group will work out a plan to seek building input on various items related to PBIS. The plan is to gather input from staff at the April faculty meeting. After gathering input from staff the behavior team will work on the Behavior portion of the School Improvement Plan on April 25th. If you have any questions about anything related to the behavior committee please see your representative.
Evaluations (Same information we discussed at the faculty meeting)
How does an administrator know what is being taught in the curriculum since they have so many grade levels to cover? We look it up and read it. We have every grade level curriculum printed in a binder and we have access to HowellNet. If we are unsure then we reach out to Carrie Hepburn or Sherri Lorton. For Math we have access to Pearson or we just ask if we can see the teacher manual while we are in the observation.
What is the timeline for entering scores into NEE? We typically try to enter them while we are in the classroom. However, sometimes we need to look up something in a curriculum document. We do our best to get them in within 24 hours as long as we can get to the information we need before entering score.
Can scores be changed? Evaluation scores are not negotiable.The purpose of the post conference is to reflect on the lesson and discuss next steps. If the teacher does not agree with a score given during an evaluation the teacher may submit an explanation in writing. The letter will need to be given to the building administrator to be placed in a teachers file and a copy must be sent by the teacher to the Human Resource department to be placed in the teachers personnel file. Focus on the feedback, not the scores.
Current Building Average Score by Indicator
1.2 Cognitive Engagement- 5.5
3.1 Curriculum Implementation 6.4
7.4 Formative Assessment 6.4
How is administration ensuring consistency on scores so one is not giving low scores and another high scores for the same thing? Administrators throughout the entire district participate in training every summer. As an administrative team we meet weekly to look at NEE scores. We discuss various scenarios and how we would score it by looking at the rubric descriptors. In some buildings all three administrators evaluate together. While this is a great practice, we chose not to do that this year because having all three administrators in for a walkthrough was causing some anxiety. In the future this might become a practice to ensure even better consistency and to address this concern.
Timeline for Evaluations
Non-Tenured Summative Evaluations were originally due on March 15th. However, because we need to submit the NEE data form and have this as part of the summative conference that date has been extended. Your evaluating administrator will meet with you as soon as your NEE data form can be completed and all 6 evaluations are complete. At that time a cover sheet, a signed copy of the summative evaluation including administrator comments and your NEE data form will be submitted to Human Resources.
Tenured Summative Evaluations are due on April 30th. The same information will be submitted to Human Resources.
Formative Evaluations are due April 30th. The NEE data form will stay in the teachers building file until the teacher is placed on a summative evaluation. At the time that a teacher is placed on a summative evaluation NEE forms from the formative years will be submitted to Human Resources.
All teachers on a formative or summative evaluation will need to update their NEE form as soon as you have your data from this quarterly benchmark.
Administration is aware that there is some comparing of evaluations happening. While we know that we cannot stop that practice, we really would encourage you to seek the evaluating administrator before seeking someone who was not in the evaluation. Every observation and conference is an opportunity for growth. There are a ton of great things happening in our classrooms everyday. Focus on what you are doing right, approach the feedback with an open mind, reflect, collaborate, and make small changes. All three of us are here to help. We don't have all the answers, but any one of us will work with you to meet expectations.