Minutes of the LHS School Council Meeting
October 22, 2007, 7:00 PM
LEXINGTON HIGH SCHOOL
School Council Meeting Notes
High School Guidance Conference room

The LHS School Council’s second meeting of the 2007-2008 academic year was called to order at 7:01 p.m. in the LHS Guidance Conference Room.

Attending: Pat Bonnet (teacher), Dick Brown (parent), Jean Cole (community member), David Colarusso (teacher), Marshall Dury (teacher), co-chair Diane Garmon (parent), Ellen Hilsinger (parent), co-chair Michael Jones (principal), 2 student reps, Tony Porter (athletic director), Adam Seitchik (parent), Sharyn Walczewski (teacher), and Jeri Zeder (parent).

Absent: 1 student rep

Minutes:
The minutes from the September 24, 2007 meeting were approved without amendment.

Athletic Director’s Report:
At the September 24, 2007, meeting, Council members discussed the question of how to include more students in school athletic programs. Certain teams that play at the varsity level, like soccer, experience great attrition rates as students are cut from teams. Athletic Director Tony Porter was invited to today’s meeting to discuss the issue and answer questions.

Over 700 students at LHS sign up for fall sports. One hundred ten boys signed up for varsity soccer, which had only 25 spots and is intended for those with varsity-level skills. Fewer cuts happen at the sub-varsity level, but when the number of participants grows too high, each student’s playing time is limited, it becomes impossible for the coach to manage the team properly, and hiring more coaches and trainers is costly. Moreover, field space in town is limited; even if there were more teams, they would have no place to practice and play. Lexington’s soccer program is the biggest in the league.

Council members expressed concern at the soccer attrition rate from freshman to senior year and wondered how to encourage students to continue playing. Suggestions included starting a non-cut club for soccer. Tony Porter noted that such clubs should meet at LHS because of transportation, safety, and similar issues. He said that LHS’s intramural sports are well attended, and are particularly packed in the winter when they meet inside. Another suggestion was that parents should start directing kids to sports other than soccer.

Council members thanked Tony Porter for approaching sports as an educator and for recognizing that academics come first.

Tony Porter distributed a sheet of website addresses for the LHS athletic program: lhs.lexingtonma.org, scroll down to "Athletic Department." Team sports schedules are at highschoolsports.net, select "Massachusetts," then select "Lexington."

Principal’s reports
MCAS results
Michael Jones distributed the Spring 2007 MCAS Tests School Report, and he discussed the results of the English, Math, and Biology MCAS tests taken by last year’s sophomore class.

MCAS uses the following performance level categories for assessment: Failing, Needs Improvement, Proficient, and Advanced. The state monitors school performance by comparing the number of students in each category over time. LHS has strong scores with good trends: there was progress as more students fell into the Advanced category in both Math and English.

Last year was the first year the Biology MCAS was given. There’s anecdotal evidence that some students didn’t take the test seriously.

Besides MCAS, other tests and indicators show that LHS students are achieving well.

While LHS comes across well in terms of gross MCAS scores, some students are experiencing achievement gaps. LHS teacher Vito LaMura is analyzing MCAS and other data on African-American students. Preliminarily, there appears to be an achievement gap between Boston and Lexington students. It also seems that African-Americans who live in Lexington perform differently from those who live in Boston.

Boston meeting of the Lexington School Committee
Each year, the Lexington School Committee and Lexington Public Schools administrators and department heads meet in Boston. This year, the meeting occurred on October 16, 2007. METCO parents hosted a supper. The School Committee conducted business briefly, then held a question and answer session for Boston parents. Meeting attendees then broke up into school-based discussion groups. Turnout was low. Michael Jones received good feedback on LHS. The Boston parents were interested in Vito LaMura’s preliminary report on the achievement gap. Michael Jones called it a frank, honest, and productive meeting.

About 74 students at LHS are in the METCO program. They get up very early to go to school and have a long ride home.

Updates on School Improvement Plan
Community Service
The Community Service Program (CSP) has become difficult to run and administer. Michael Jones plans to inform the faculty of the issues at the next faculty meeting. Students must clock a required number of approved community service hours in order to graduate.

Two years ago, a committee of faculty members, students, and administrators examined and analyzed the CSP and issued a report with recommendations for restructuring the program. With the failed override of 2005, there was no further action, but the effort has been revived this year. Currently, a committee of 6 people (students and teachers) are in charge of approving community service hour submissions for 2000 students. The committee has no time to act as the social action group it was originally conceived to be, or to help students think about why their community service activities are meaningful.

Many rules apply to the question of whether an activity meets CSP requirements. For example: students can’t claim community service credit for activities done in preparation for a paid position, or for religious programs. A logistical issue for the committee is determining when a particular activity falls into one of these categories. Another challenge that, the way the system is set up, the committee has no way of keeping track of each student’s community service record.

The CSP was originally run by a paid employee. Now it is under a subcommittee of the School Senate. The committee that recommends restructuring the program would like to (1) see the approval process managed by a wider group, (2) improve the educational component by having students spend more time reflecting on their community service experiences, and (3) increase the faculty’s involvement with the program.

Because community service is a graduation requirement, the school should not rely on volunteers to administer it. Community service is part of the LHS mission statement. The next step is to start a dialogue with teachers. The School Council will revisit this issue in future meetings.

Other committees
The Home/School Communications Committee is working on assessments. Other committees are moving forward. Michael Jones will update the Council at the November 26th meeting.

Fiscal Year 2009 Budget
Next year’s LHS budget will be a level funded, no-growth budget.

Social and civic expectations
It is an LHS expectation that students will "learn to make appropriate and healthy choices that foster their personal well-being, and will seek support when needed for academic, social, physical, mental, and emotional issues." A committee is exploring how to measure the school’s effectiveness in implementing this expectation. Michael Jones distributed a draft for future discussion. Ultimately, the committee’s work will enable LHS to set improvement goals.

LEF School Community Grants
$9000 dollars in school community grants are potentially available to LHS from the Lexington Education Foundation, a nonprofit, tax-exempt community organization supporting Lexington Public Schools. Principals may submit proposals to LEF for programs that will benefit the entire school community. In past years, LEF school community grants have funded a consultant to develop a new school mission statement, artwork with the mission statement featured, and the sophomore online writing program.

Michael Jones distributed a sheet describing four potential school community projects. These were developed with input from the Curriculum Cabinet, the Principal’s Advisory Committee, and the PTSA Advisory Board. He asked for the School Council’s endorsement of the projects. They include:

1. Creating and installing 5 more mission statement photo panels, $2125
2. Purchasing 30 copies of the book Instructional Practices that Maximize Student Achievement: For Teachers, By Teachers, for teachers in their second and third years at LHS, $1000
3. Stipends for teachers who work beyond normal school hours on updated standards-based curriculum guides, $3150
4. Summer and vacation stipends for teachers on developing a Freshman Advisory Program, $2700

School Council members praised the idea of the Freshman Advisory Program. Several members questioned using the money for the photo panels. The Council took a short tour of the LHS hallways to view panels already posted. Michael Jones requested that people send him alternative suggestions for this line item by the end of the week.

Other
• The LHS Landscaping Committee wants to start a program that joins students and community members in tending to the high school grounds. The School Council supports the idea, and recommended that the Landscaping Committee pursue it with the PTSA.

• There’s a new school rule that limits dances sponsored by clubs. One consequence of the rule is that school clubs can no longer hold dances as fundraisers. This issue should be taken up with the LHS Senate.

• Theft at the high school will be on the agenda at the next meeting.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:30 p.m. Next meeting: November 26, 2007, 7:00-8:30 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,
Jeri Zeder