Midvale Elementary School
School Community Council Meeting
10/24/22 4:00pm
ATTENDEES
Lori Reynolds, Steve Brown, Heidi Sanger, Alyssa Watson-Siriboe, Maria Guizar, Jason Baxter, Julieta Ayona, Haydee Franco
Call to Order – Steve
Approval of September Minutes: Steve
The minutes are posted on the website. Haydee made a motion to approve the minutes; Julieta seconded. All approved. Minutes passed and can be posted to the website.
Brian McGill Director of Student Services: Life Skills Curriculum
Dr. McGill stated that his department was tasked with creating a curriculum for grades K-8 focusing on skills to help them be successful in school, college, and life: Making responsible decisions, setting goals for positive growth, building resilience, understanding and serving your community, and respecting self, others, and resolving conflict. The School Board set the date of January 6 to start field testing this curriculum; there will be a 3 week window for parents across the district to review the curriculum. School culture and climate is a number one issue for students to feel safe and ready to learn. There was a spike in Office Discipline Referrals last year following the start of the pandemic. The hope is that this curriculum will help prevent issues before they begin. Dr. McGill will leave some of the sample lessons for SCC members to review if interested. There is a Parent Advisory Committee that is also looking at the curriculum; Dr. McGill wants to ensure that there is representation across the district and is visiting both Midvale Elementary and Midvale Middle School. Steve noted that he is on that committee. Dr. McGill offered to come back in January to talk more about the curriculum; Steve noted that it would be great to have him.
Implementation of the curriculum in each school is up to the principal’s discretion; the suggestion is at least once per week for 15-20 minutes.
Haydee noted the deep need for something like this in our school community, stating that losing the option of using Second Step was such a loss for our kids.
Vote: Bylaws and Rules of Order and Procedure – Steve
Members were to review the Bylaws provided at the last meeting. Haydee asked about the number of SCC members and if we could have more teachers come. Discussed that this is the first year we have had this many parents, and there need to be more parents than school staff. Also, teachers are invited to choose committees on which they would like to participate at the beginning of the year. Haydee talked about having representation from the teachers. Lori described the Building Leadership Team which has a representative teacher from each grade level team, along with the coaches and principals/assistant principals; that group helps develop the plans that are discussed at SCC. Lori noted that she would be happy to invite some teachers from BLT to come to the SCC meeting when we discuss the Land Trust and TSSP plans and they can choose to attend if they would like to do so.
The number of school staff that can be on the SCC in the bylaws should have been 5 rather than 6 and that change was made. Jason made a motion to approve the updated bylaws; Alyssa seconded. All approved. Passed unanimously.
2021-2022 End of Year Land Trust Goals, Data Review – Lori
Lori proposed to move the Land Trust goals to the November meeting. Haydee made a motion to postpone this agenda item; Jason seconded. All approved. Motion carried.
October Drill Report: Lockdown on October 7th
Lockdown drill was on Oct 7, 2022. Lori described what this means. Drill went well.
Begin Digital Citizenship and School Safety Report Discussion – Council
Lori recommended going to the https://www.canyonsdistrict.org/safe-schools/ site to review the School Safety Report and the newest safety measures/protocol, the Run, Hide, Fight Protocol. Members should review before the next meeting. Julieta noted concerns in which two students broke their arms within a week. She wondered about recess staff being vigilant. Lori noted that their cameras right now are not good and they have requested new cameras for quite some time; they will have new ones in January. In regard to incidents, all incidents are reported, documented, and sent to the District. The recess aides do receive training and direction; Lori asked that if parents notice that they are not doing that, that they report that to administration so something can be done about it. Lori stated that the safety of our kids is a number one priority. We did add an additional recess aide this year. Lori stated that we will monitor more and address this issue. We will finalize the school safety report next month.
Before the next meeting, please view the videos on this link to learn more about the SCC’s responsibilities with Digital Citizenship: https://www.canyonsdistrict.org/scc-digital-citizenship/. The videos have Spanish captions; they will be redone for next year in both English and Spanish according to District contact persons. Please also read the document below the videos entitled, “Digital Citizenship and the School Community Council.” The document is also available in Spanish and will be sent out to members of the SCC.
All of the technology applications “apps” we use at school have to be approved before being used on any of our school technology. Canyons District also uses Content Keeper which will alert administration if a student searches inappropriate sites, or sites with certain content. Note that 5th graders did a great job making posters about Digital Citizenship and they are displayed in their hallways.
Indoor vs. Outdoor/Weather Discussion –
Currently, it is set that we go outside until it hits 22 degrees. The members discussed this, including different cultural beliefs about weather and illness. The other schools around us are also using the 22 degree cutoff for determining inside vs. outside. If it is raining or snowing significantly, we bring the students inside. Lori noted that there is a red flag that should be posted on the marquee for inside days. The members agreed to keep the cutoff at 22 degrees Fahrenheit.
Agenda Items for November: 2021-2022 End of Year Land Trust Goals, Data Review, School Accountability Report from USBE, finalize School Safety and Digital Citizenship Reports (homework, come with questions)
Adjourn: Steve
Jason made a motion to adjourn the meeting. Alyssa seconded. Meeting adjourned at 5:30pm.
