SILT MEETING MINUTES FEBRUARY 14, 2001

1. Craig Stickling explained about the "Turn Off T.V." program during April 23 - 27. Last year over 200 students participated; some grade levels also had activities. Information will be sent out to parents at the beginning of April; within this information will be coupons for areas businesses for the students to enjoy (eating, activities, etc.) Mary Ellen, Kelly, and possibly Dawn Hostetler will contact businesses for coupon donations. Dawn Finneran will work with Craig to prepare the packets. We will see if the PTA would be interested in giving a coupon for one free ticket for our carnival in May. Craig has books about this project if anyone is interested in reading about it nationally.

2. Coincidentally, C. B. Smith has a School Family Night at the Peoria Chiefs baseball game on April 27. Each student (and teacher?) will receive a free ticket to attend this game. If parents or others are interested in more tickets, they will be able to call the Chiefs ticket office or just purchase them at the gate that evening (no money collection or business for teachers or our office).

3. Cindy reported that the School Improvement Team discussed movement toward structure in writing with writing as our school goal. Dr. Cathy Toll will present our inservice this Friday on Writer's Workshop. The School Improvement Team members checked with constituents and reported back to the committee about continuing inservices and lunch meeting with Cathy. The consensus was to discontinue with Cathy after this Friday. We have no more inservices until late May. Our Goals 2000 grant was originally for $8,534.00; we still have $5,737.05 left to spend this year. Our next plan is: (a) We will try to get subs for teachers to go to other classrooms in or out of the district to observe classroom setups and writing in action. We have a few names of possible people to observe. Please let Cindy know if you know of any teachers who would be willing to have observers in their classes. (b) We can order books and/or supplies to help us with our writing improvement. (c) ???????

4. In our grade level meetings, we often get too bogged down with housekeeping (ordering, planning units, etc.). We can do this for part of the time. We need a portion of the time to talk about school improvement; for example, we can share writing samples, discuss the rubrics, etc. Another idea is to share a teaching strategy, have all of the teachers go back and try it in class; then we can report back on progress, problems and share reflections.

5. Bus Duty staff: Please try to tell Becky or Cindy about your duty when you call in sick. Also... those of you who are in a location by those people: please remind Becky C. or Cindy about that absent person so someone can replace that duty person.