Steely (Leadership Team Representative)

Math 2 (Turner)

Math 3 (Johnson)

Math 4 (Steely)

American: Yow

World: Johnson

Civics: Haith

Physics, Chemistry & Physical Science: Montgomery

By June 2026, the World Language Department will develop a vertically aligned curriculum map outlining key concepts, cultural topics, and strategies for each course level, with a focus on preparing students for AP. Monthly meetings during the 2025–2026 school year will track progress, with a mid-year review in January.

French Lead: Angela Hagler

Latin Lead: Jeremy Heffner

*World Language will meet at least once a month as a group PLC to work on our common PDP goal.

Through Round-Up time as an extension of the curriculum or bi-weekly within the course, I will integrate data collection, literacy, calculation skills and data interpretation strategies in my classroom in order to support academic and cognitive growth. Student growth will be evident with science state, local and national exams like ACT.

Resource: https://www.nextgenscience.org/search-standards

Activities/Actions:

· With the team work from the PLC, use small group learning activities/explorations empasizing data collection, literacy, calculations and interpretation

· Evaluate and vet resources for student success for use in following semesters

Expected Outcomes:

Increased achievement levels and proficiency, increased promotion rates, and increased graduation rates. Course educators and round-up groups will have a diversity of student centered actitivities that increase data literacy and interpretation. In the long run, student growth will appear on state, local and national tests like the ACT.

Department Understudy: VP Allen, Padawan Montgomery

Leadership Understudy: Brooks

Through Round-Up time as an extension of the curriculum or bi-weekly within the course, I will integrate data collection, literacy, calculation skills and data interpretation strategies in my classroom in order to support academic and cognitive growth. Student growth will be evident with science state, local and national exams like ACT.

Resource: https://www.nextgenscience.org/search-standards

Activities/Actions:

· With the team work from the PLC, use small group learning activities/explorations emphasizing data collection, literacy, calculations and interpretation

· Evaluate and vet resources for student success for use in following semesters

Expected Outcomes:

Increased achievement levels and proficiency, increased promotion rates, and increased graduation rates. Course educators and round-up groups will have a diversity of student centered activities that increase data literacy and interpretation. In the long run, student growth will appear on state, local and national tests like the ACT.

Action Step 1: Identify categories and determine need for differentiated levels for the student literacy self-assessment. Check for existing tools, templates, and resources.

Timeline:

• August 2024 to May 2025

• How will your department help our school to achieve one of the SIP Goals?

• What action steps have you taken or will you take towards your departmental PDP goal?

• How is your department planning together to maximize Round-Up Time for supplemental remediation and/or enrichment? (departmental make-up work room, enrichment ideas related to department...)

• What questions do you have?

• Make note of attendance.

SIP: Encouraging reminders of post-secondary opportunities in the arts

PDP: Planning a Cafe Concert for the community

Round-Up Time: Week 1 plan is to introduce the procedures and setup for Round-Up time.

Tell us in advance if this is the reason.

Teachers can then arrive for department meetings.

I will get my own insurance

Also, we continue to show our students that we care and are invested in them personally and in their success.

We plan to use some of our PLC time to discuss engaging ideas for Round-Up time.

Present at 9/24 Dept. Meeting: Hagler, Heffner, Curvelo-Velez, Meinert, Patron, & Mendoza. Rodriguez was at a Dr. appointment but alerted us about that prior to today. Mr. Wertz attended as our admin rep.

Martin will give a presentation at our next PLC on how to use IC to enhance parent contact.

Our department will host interest groups to promote our programs to the larger student population

Attendance:

Baker

Hackstall

Bassett

Arrington

Canon

Brown

Gatling

Hanlon

McCorquodale

James

Chapman

Multiple teachers voiced displeasure with being asked to attend a meeting for NTA that was described as "staff updates" before department meetings

For SmartPass, we knew that the D Bldg restrooms would be the most visited -- they are serving the highest amount of classes. Talked through what to do for Round-Up time with using SmartPass. Teachers who are sending students to a designated math round-up session will create the pass for their students, NOT the hosting teacher.

Talked about EduClimber and how it is not very user-friendly compared to Educator's Handbook. There is a desire to create a "roster" like in Educator's Handbook where we can track groups like sports teams for coaches or caseloads for EC teachers.

For committees, we discussed taking to the Discipline Committee what happens to a student that is swept and sent to ISS. Notice would be nice so that we can ensure that the student has work to complete on Canvas or on paper, or that they even made it to ISS.

Action items:

Resolution to Math Vacancy position

Round-up time will be handled within each PLC group -- targeted students will be requested to come to Math sessions during Math teachers' plannings

Attendance

Connolly

Lasher

Steely

Lee

Miller-Nelson

Caldwell

Davison

Davis

Noyes

Bowman

-We are also partnering with Ms. Bruce to organize EL Senior meetings to meet with college representatives and address post-secondary goal questions in smaller groups with EL students.

-We plan to maximize round up time by supporting seniors with post-secondary goals including GAP and college application support, supporting students at risk of failing classes, and supporting students with literacy goals.

-PDP goals took a backseat to Verification Day prep and follow up, but we met with most teachers initially to discuss their students and are starting to see where the greatest needs are.

-In attendance for after school make-up mini/sub dept. meeting: Patron (she went to the morning WL Dept. meeting as well as meeting one-on-one with me) and Rodriguez

• Literacy across the curriculum reflections.

• Round-Up Time department plans

• Questions

• Attendance list.

Caddell will spend 70% of dept money due to all of her materials being consumable.

Difficult to assess Round Up success since we've only had one per period

Expectations still unclear about Round Up for small group arts pullouts during planning period days

Articles

Upfront Magazine

NGPF

Shared verbiage on writing with English

Text analysis

Johnson, wesney, Haith, Perry, Corriher, cutshaw, marston, yow, martin

- SmartPass

• No Device = No Pass

• Viewed/Discussed SmartPass Infraction Response

- SWEEPS

• always sweep during 1st block

• Do not follow students during sweeps

• Teachers have autonomy to let students in

- UPDATES

• Sophomore Class Meeting during Round Up

• SAVE Promise Day Virtual Pep Rally during Round Up

• Future Focus Night 4:30-7:00

• EOQ is October 31st; call parents of failing students

• HPC coming Friday 10/24 for ENG II PLC & 4th Block Observations

• Mandatory English Training for new grammar/vocabulary program on Nov. 3rd; semester 1 = training; semester 2 = implementation

• Tuesday, Oct. 28th Peer Observations; English & Social Studies combined

- PDP Goal 1

• schedule library sessions; using Beanstack to log and incentivize reading

• Virtual Training for AI PD session to be sent out by Hunt; must be completed by Nov. 7th

- Round Up Time

• intended for targeted instruction, not core instruction

Brown

Church

Hanlon

James

Gatling

Bassett

Ms, Mac

Lindsay

Baker

Flynt

Arrington

Canon

Hackstall

Chapman

Wertz attended as admin rep.

Literacy: Most of our classroom time is spent on activities related to literacy: reading, writing, etc. in different formats.

One example is giving students self-assessments that can then be used as data for the teacher when lesson planning for revision and reteaching.

PLCs and the upcoming EL presentation on Nov. 3 are good resources.

Round-Up Time:

-EL Data

-Pulling kids for makeup work/review

-Use assessment data to prepare fun enrichment activities

-Club meetings

Concerns:

-Students being allowed to use devices other than their school Chromebooks.

-Teacher autonomy is appreciated in many ways ... but a question was raised if items like the tardy policy and cellphones might work better with school-wide policies and consequences.

For Literacy strategies, we discussed use of the MLRs provided by the district in the classroom. There are multiple options, and we discussed the common practice of starting small and implementing one. We also discussed the difficulties in the modern math classroom in terms of varying levels of proficiency and comfortability in math discourse among different groups of students.

For round-up time, we are going to continue to implement targeted review/remediation/enrichment among students as determined by individual PLCs.

Questions

Where is the ISS room housed permanently?

Attendance

Connolly

Lasher

Miller-Nelson

Steely

Mac

Turner

Lee

Floyd

Caldwell

Davis

Noyes

Sometimes students are sent back from ISS after being sent there. Why does this happen?

If we are sending students to ISS and their grade is impacted because of it, can we be assured that Admin will back us when the parent calls?

What does No Device - No Pass mean? What device? Their chromebook?

Students wandering the halls at lunch is getting really bad. Something needs to be done.

Leadership team Jennifer Johnson

• Department Attendance

• Duty reflection (bathroom post)

• Student attendance ideas

• Data reflection (SAEBRS)

• Complete Survey: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdNCz4xDoiJPhzfXwBTkZeAud3jHLW3Wtf86ccAZc9W7PEvgA/viewform

  
  

Mama Mia! fundraiser is coming soon

Orchestra students received a 'Superior' rating at the GCS Orchestra Festival last week

The Arts programs are collaborating this year for the Cafe Concert on May 12.

SMARTPASS issues.

TIER 1 - 1-5 Min late. Classroom consequence

TIER 2 - 6-15 Min. Admit student but submit referral for skipping.

TIER 3 - Beyond 15 min - SKIPPING - send to ISS.

Duties - Bathroom duty - Students are deterred by teacher presence.

Attendance - Rewards/monitor - Verbally acknowledge that they were missed upon returning.

—Only 51% of staff using SmartPass: be sure to use it consistently

—Thought: We need to end passes with fidelity (when you send kids with a pass but the teacher receiving doesn’t end it).

—Email admin after write-ups.

—Desire for admin consistency in expectations and consequences for write-ups.

—BATHROOM Oversight: It is difficult to have bathroom duty and lunch duty on the same week (in terms of both being interrupted and, more importantly, being available for IEP meetings, tutoring, or separate setting). Data needs to be pulled for which gender of teacher needs to be assigned per bathroom (D-Wing: male, A-Wing female, etc.). Bathroom “closed” divider was helpful and now is gone on D-Wing. Students having required or limited routes back to class after lunch would help because many students are wandering instead of returning immediately (or taking an unnecessarily long path). Positive: Having a bathroom monitor does deter a few students from lingering, but it is not deterring them from visiting in clumps or being on the wrong hallway.

—Drills and SEL week are upcoming

Bathroom duty has been hit or miss. Math teachers have noticed an improvement in the Upstairs D boys bathroom. Less students use the bathroom when teachers are present. The Upstairs D Girls bathroom has recurring issues with recurring students loitering and/or vaping and ignoring the teachers on duty.

For the new entry process, is it possible for us to extend first block by 5 minutes daily? Don't officially say that class starts at 9:20, but just extend the block til 10:54. This will help recover lost time for students who are given grace from being late in classes where we want maximum instructional time.

It is also being requested that Early Dismissal for sports be sent as early as possible, with a list of students so that attendance is marked correctly. Spring Sports are the ones that have the most early dismissals.

For SAEBRS, we think it would be beneficial to increase the sample size on students. Individual teachers and individual classes are different, so student scores could vary wildly depending on the teacher/class they are being scored from.

Attendance

Connolly

Johnson

Turner

Miller-Nelson

Steely

Ramsey

Bowman

Davis

Caldwell

Lee

# Student Attendance: Some teachers in SS land tie daily attendance to opportunities to complete test corrections. Discussion centered around possible whole class incentives for attendance. For example...if my block one Civics class averages 95% for Monday through Thursday, then Friday they have the opportunity to do X,Y,Z (could be class outside, 20 minutes of an appropriate show, a game-day [standards based of course]). There are creative non-financially straining options for incentivising both attendance & engagement. Perhaps we generate some suggestions as a staff and have a "bank" that teachers can choose from. Could be a good action item for the Attendance Commitee. Smaller class specific incentives are easier to execute than whole school ones, more nimble, and more collectively accountable.

# SAEBRS Reflection: TBD. It's difficult and abstract to reflect on results that we haven't fully digested. One concern is that the results could be skewed based on the relationship with the submitting teacher. Data may be more valid once several more 'rounds' are entered for individual students.

# PDP Goal Reflection/General Concern: Round-Up time seems to have morphed into a logistical 'catch-all.' This is not what it's supposed to be, especially when teachers have prepared for a remediation/revisiting session....but then find out the night before or the morning of that students will be pulled for a function unrelated to core instruction. This is especially crucial in our S2 AP, EOC classes...we still have the same test date and we had a problematic first two weeks of the semester.

1. Hallway & Bathroom Monitoring

Staff discussed ongoing concerns regarding student roaming during instructional time, particularly during lunch blocks. While some hallway monitoring systems have improved behavior in certain areas, inconsistencies in adult supervision and enforcement were noted as ongoing challenges. Concerns were raised about bathroom duty, vaping detection measures, and the effectiveness of student monitoring during transitions and dismissal.

2. Dismissal & Supervision

There was discussion about teachers walking students during afternoon dismissal to increase adult visibility and reduce students lingering in hallways or returning upstairs. The importance of consistent adult presence during transitions was emphasized.

3. Teacher Coverage & Attendance

Staff reflected on class coverage practices, emphasizing fairness and accountability. Concerns were raised about teacher absenteeism and its impact on student learning continuity. The importance of maintaining instructional quality, even when coverage is required, was highlighted.

4. Academic Performance & Data

Administration shared that academic performance data shows improvement compared to the previous year, particularly in science courses. Staff were encouraged to review individual and departmental data to understand areas of growth and continued opportunity.

5. Attendance Concerns

Chronic absenteeism rates have increased slightly from the previous year. Sophomores currently show the highest absentee rates, followed by juniors and freshmen. Discussion centered on motivating students and families, engaging community partnerships, and exploring creative incentives to improve attendance. Classroom-level strategies for encouraging attendance were shared, including positive reinforcement systems and scheduling high-engagement activities on commonly missed days.

6. Funding & Enrollment Challenges

Broader district-level concerns were raised about declining enrollment, funding limitations, inflation impacts, and per-pupil funding stagnation. These financial pressures were acknowledged as contributing factors to staffing and program limitations.

7. Promotion of Advanced Coursework

The group discussed strategies to increase enrollment in Honors, AP, and dual enrollment courses. Key themes included:

• Better onboarding and informing students about course expectations

• Promoting benefits and clarifying rigor

• Ensuring equitable placement practices

• Exploring creative scheduling models
  There was agreement that students need clearer guidance about the value and expectations of advanced coursework.

8. School Events & Logistics

A proposed school-wide spring event generated discussion about logistics, supervision, scheduling conflicts (including senior events), and adult expectations. Staff expressed support for community-building activities but emphasized the need for detailed planning and structured supervision to ensure safety and minimize disruption.

9. SEL Week & Literacy Integration

Upcoming Social Emotional Learning (SEL) Week plans were shared. Activities will integrate literacy and SEL, including classroom discussions, writing support sessions, and spirit days. Teachers were encouraged to participate in school-wide challenges promoting engagement and community-building.

10. Safety Drills

Upcoming required drills were announced, including fire, tornado, and lockdown drills, with timelines aligned to district and state expectations.

Also, math teachers wish there were a different system rather than having a "home block" every week. It is hard to accomplish anything in a set block when students are going various places any given week, and then it is hard to get in a routine for establishing a room during the one planning period per month. AP Teachers would love to have AP review sessions, but it becomes difficult when you basically can only do one per month.

Discussion: We need schoolwide cell phone/tardy policy that is simple, efficient and sustainable.

Discussed mini grants.

Career Expo tomorrow.

Look at information from Bowman email about important events.

We got a nice shoutout for our Afrolatino Expo!!!

Still need to find department head for next year.

We discussed the importance of having a shared calendar for all in-school events to prevent conflicting dates.

Band/Orchestra/Choir room HVAC systems have been fixed!

Auditorium doors need to be locked whenever not in use. Students are leaving trash and messes.

In attendance: Tim McLaughlin, Sarah Corriher, Stuart Cox, Ashley Yow, Virginia Cutshall, Chase Johnson, Matthew Johnson, Evonda Haith, Matthew Marston, Jonathan Martin, and Daniel Perry.

Analyzed Teacher Working Conditions survey. Data shows the school lacks a clear vision and seeks improvement in discipline procedures. Teachers state tardiness/skipping/hallway disorder is high. Teachers overwhelming believe students do not bring weapons and do not pose threat of theft.

Meinert will be department chair for next year.

Round up - looking for ways to keep track of students during that time. Consider doing it bi-weekly. Can the schedule change so time is equally taken from each block?

How are we using the time currently to implement mtss?

We need a uniform plc structure and we need direction in what the plc goals are.

Common assessments are needed.

We need a monthly staff meeting. The flex PLC day doesn't give enough time and it is not consistent.

Common planning if at all possible.

Cheating is becoming a huge issue and there are not enough consequences for students who are caught. Can we tell them not to wear hoodies on test day.

Wayground has tech to check for right clicks.

Field trips are becoming a huge issue getting in the way of instruction, especially during AP testing.

• There has already been an improvement in student behaviors.

• Tardies and absences need to be addressed- we have a uniform tardy policy that is not being followed by all teachers. We understand our absence policy is highly regulated and out of our control.

• A more common presence of admin coming through classrooms for both struggling teachers and for substitutes would be a huge step. We are asking for more random walk throughs of rooms.

• A common cell phone policy for all classrooms is needed as well. Many teachers have adopted their own. Students place their cell phones in a designated location upon entering the room.

• We have school expectations for field trips already. We are still seeing last minute field trips just before testing (May/June) and students who are failing or have low attendance who are going on these trips.

• Department Meetings- Please have an agenda complete and ready well in advance of these meetings. Currently they are being sent the night before the department meetings. They are also filled with new information that was never discussed at leadership. This makes it difficult to know/understand the information.

2- Round Up

• Round up needs to have access to taking attendance.

• Students that are struggling or failing often go to a preferred teacher or activity, rather than the class they are struggling or failing during round up. Currently many students believe they can just go wherever they desire during round up.

3.- Thank you to the admin for showing up each day and doing your best to handle the multitude of situations that occur. We do see the efforts and have noticed improvements.

Continued agreement on previous discussions -- AllTimely worked better than SmartPass, the use of a "home block" decreases productivity and utility

New observation: many students are opting to skip Round-Up time. There needs to be an attendance component so that way students are accountable for remaining on campus. Also, students are getting pulled from their EOC math courses' round-up time in order to do other things. If we are keeping the "home" blocks, there needs to be a hierarchy of what round-up session students are attend, particularly if they are in an EOC course, AP Course, or are failing.

New business: devising a plan for Math 1 and Math 3 reteaching after the first EOC and before the re-take