Transcript April 1 PTA Meeting Agenda • • • • Quick Review of the “Why” Strategic Plan Review DCPS Budget Review/Language Decision PTA Budget Review/Discussion.

April 1 PTA Meeting
Agenda
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Quick Review of the “Why”
Strategic Plan Review
DCPS Budget Review/Language Decision
PTA Budget Review/Discussion
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Why?
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Brent 2015-2020 Strategic Plan
Brent will become a highly effective, inclusive,
field experience school where all students grow
and advance through productive struggles and a
whole-child approach that promotes academic,
social, and emotional development in order to
produce confident, self-reliant, and selfmotivated students ready for any opportunity.
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Gaps to Greatness: Brent’s Challenges
– School-wide progress has been inconsistent: Brent has made
improvements in some areas, (e.g. writing), but has fewer advanced
students and more below-grade level students than comparable schools;
across all grades and demographic groups.
– Behavior is the #1 challenge identified by teachers; followed by
insufficient time
– Compared to comp schools, Brent has dramatically fewer staffing
resources to address above challenges
– No formal enrichment program to serve students ready for additional
challenges
– Uneven training in Brent’s educational approaches among teachers/aides
– Teachers ultimately responsible for delivering majority of academic and
behavioral interventions with limited time and support
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How are we going to get there?
• Small class sizes
• Two educators in every classroom (1 teacher and a full-time, highly
qualified aide in every class)
• A strong behavior team: a behavior tech for daily interventions and
full-time professionals for long-term behavior change
• A school wide enrichment program that deepens learning and
challenge for all students, with dedicated staff and curriculum
• Professional development: Teachers/aides trained in RC,
Investigations, R/W Workshop, behavior management and
differentiated instruction w/in 3 years
• A strong specials program in art, music, science, PE, library and
language
• A strong field studies program that is curricularly aligned, with
dedicated staff and established relationships with key institutions
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Short-Term Recommendations: Begin to
Build Brent’s Support Team
• Reprioritize PTA funds to hire a behavior tech ASAP to
address SY 2014-15 challenges—already in progress
• Redirect school budget and PTA funds to hire as many high
quality teacher partners as possible for SY 2015-2016
– Most flexible staffing resource to address wide range of
needs
– Behavior, academic intervention and enrichment
support;
– Frees up teacher time for academic support/enrichment
planning with more staff available for lunch/recess duty
– Frees up “specials” teacher time to enhance specials
offerings instead of delivering academic support
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Add’l Short-Term Recommendations
Academic support and enrichment
• Develop prioritization strategy for intervention and use of specialists’ time
• Audit and prioritize professional development resources to critical gaps
• Put system in place to identify above grade level students
• Identify a staff learning enrichment coordinator to create a SY15-16 pilot
program for integrating academic enrichment
Communication and best practices
• Identify a Communications Coordinator (staff member) to develop additional
and improved communication channels with parents
• Create a system for staff to identify and share best practices (around
communication, field experiences, math fluency, reading skills, etc.)
Field experiences
• Identify a Field Trip Coordinator (staff member) to develop vertically
articulated field experience program
• Create Communication Protocols for field experiences
• Establish formal partnerships
• Create a database of parent contacts
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What can we do in SY15-16?
• My request of PTA to support the strategic plan:
• Funding for 1 behavior tech
• 4 additional teacher partners
• Support for field, enrichment, and communication
coordinators
• Requires $164,860 in new money for SY15-16
• These additions would allow us to implement
about 40% of the staffing plan in the first year
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DCPS Budget Highlights
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DCPS Budget Highlights
• Additional SpEd teacher (now four!)
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DCPS Budget Highlights
• Additional SpEd teacher (now four!)
• Full-time social worker (currently 0.5)
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DCPS Budget Highlights
• Additional SpEd teacher (now four!)
• Full-time social worker (currently 0.5)
• Additional 4th grade teacher & classroom (now
three!)
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DCPS Budget Highlights
• Additional SpEd teacher (now four!)
• Full-time social worker (currently 0.5)
• Additional 4th grade teacher & classroom (now
three!)
• One teacher partner (Strategic Plan Initiative)
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DCPS Budget Highlights
Additional highlights:
• DCPS has committed $350k for a project to
include:
– Transformation of current staff lounge to a
classroom space
– Transformation of four end hall closets to become
usable student/office spaces
– Upgrade student bathrooms
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Language Decision
• Language will remain full-time, ECE-5th
• Language will remain an exposure program, introducing
students to language acquisition
• Relied strongly on:
– Recommendations and criteria of WG3
• Ability to learn language
• DCPS articulation
• National data supports Spanish (see next slide)
– Parent input through two parent surveys over two years, LSAT
mtngs
– DCPS language recommendations and focus on vertical
articulation
• All of these sources prioritized Spanish
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American Council on the Teaching
of Foreign Languages
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Brent PTA SY15-16 Draft
Budget Proposal
Wednesday April 1, 2015
PTA Budget: Major SY15-16 changes
Draft PTA budget proposes:
• About 10% increase in fundraising for FY15/16
• About $19,000 from Steve and Kate Camp
• Reduce PTA subsidies of classroom supplies & field trips; increase fees
– Student supply fee $75$100
– Field trip fee $25$60
– Springboard before-care? How to have it in a way that is more
accountable and financially stable?
• Various reductions across the budget, notably:
– School operating costs—more funded in DCPS budget
– Grounds maintenance
– Small $$ events, etc.—now rolled into one Front Office line item
What will we get for it? Draft
proposal fully funds strategic plan
SY15-16 request
Draft PTA budget proposes:
• Funding 1 behavior tech (up to $45,000)
• Funding 4 aides ($28,000 each)
• Funding for enrichment, field experience, and communications staff
coordinators, planning and implementation (about $10,000)
• Continued professional development for teachers
Together with DCPS Budget, in SY15-16 Brent will have:
• 1 full-time social worker and 1 behavior tech: two-thirds of the staff
recommended in the strategic plan
• 5 high-quality aides: nearly 40% of the 13 aides (1 per class)
recommended in the strategic plan
• Pilots launched for enrichment, field experience programs
Brent Needs Your Help
• Big sacrifices on the part of Brent Administration: no AP,
instead reading specialist and science for our students
• Focus, prioritization and increased effort on the part of
teachers and staff
• Focus, prioritization and increased effort on the part of
parents
– Achieving this plan requires trade-offs—more activities and
services will be fee-based, with PTA funds subsidizing families as
needed
– Support Brent fundraising efforts: Annual Fund, Xmas Sale, Gala
– Join PTA fundraising, communications, and facilities committees
– Volunteer as a room parent or field trip lead
– Be ready to contribute your talents, connections, time
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Brent needs your help
• Big sacrifices and effort on the part of Brent Administration
– No Assistant Principal, instead reading specialist and science for our
students
– Continued leadership and management of major initiatives
– Continued progress reporting to all stakeholders
• Focus, prioritization & increased effort on the part of teachers/staff
– Assistance with transition to classrooms with 2 educators
– Completion of training to ensure high-standards across grade levels
– Taking on leadership roles in enrichment/intervention,
communication, field experience program
• Focus, prioritization and increased effort on the part of parents
– Achieving this plan requires trade-offs—more activities and services
will be fee-based, with PTA funds subsidizing families as needed
– Support Brent fundraising efforts: Annual Fund, Xmas Sale, Gala
– Join PTA fundraising, communications, and facilities committees
– Volunteer as a room parent or field trip lead
– Be ready to contribute your talents, connections, time
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