LJH Discussion

Thanks to everyone who came to discussion last night...Below is a summary of the meeting.

• Five Star Program-A committed group of community members in Plymouth are raising money for LJH to bring the Five Star program to our school.  Five Star is an after school program that has three seasons.  Students meet eight evenings after school during each season.  Five Star recruits coaches from the community.  Activities focus around core character traits.  The staff would be involved in the sense that we would have a staff meeting once each season so the Five Star people can communicate what is going on and how we can reinforce things in our classrooms.  You can learn more at http://fivestarlife.org/ 
• Fundraising-The group decided to experiement with something new next year.  The idea of a walk-a-thon was discussed, a fun fair, and other unique ideas.  We will spend some time this spring working on what it will look like, but we will not be selling things.  It is also very important that everyone understand we will be holding one fundraiser in the fall.  All groups will be invited to participate in the school wide fundraiser so the money is distributed out.  
• Last Day of School-We discussed what the last day will look like.  We would like to leave this up to the teams.  Reid and I will help in anyway you need us to.  The teams need to start thinking about the last day and communicate that out to myself.  I'll then share with the other teams so everyone knows what is going on.  Possible activities (not exclusive) could include a field day, movie, cook out, breakfast, etc.  I think it might be a good idea to run some classes in the morning and then have activities in the afternoon.
• Dress Code-Refer to the handbook page 17.  Reid or I will come over the announcements next week to remind students what the policy concerning shorts and skirts are.  Dress code is a team effort.  If we notice a student wearing something borderline at 1:00 p.m. we assume it isn't a problem because nobody sent them to the office.  
• Homework and Tests During ISTEP-This is a larger concern now that ISTEP is in March. In early March we are going to have a lot of kids out.  When kids are out, they have to come in to testing and then miss more class for make ups.  If they have tests and homework they not only have make ups from the day they missed, they have work from the time they spend doing the make up testing.  This doubles the problem.  Homework and tests are also a concern for students who do not miss school.  The applied skills portion of the ISTEP is not easy and adding tests and homework on top of the ISTEP is too much for some of our kids.  At this time, a policy will probably be put in place during future testing periods that restricts homework and tests during the 4-5 days of ISTEP testing.  This would mean there would be 8-10 days next year we would not want teachers to give homework or tests.  Please provide any input you may have.
• Summer School-It looks like summer school will probably be a two week jump start program at the end of July and early August.  More info to come soon...