March 14, 2019 at Brockett Elementary School
Click here to download a copy of this meeting’s Agenda.
Meeting called to order by Erin Kirn. Introductions made.
Public Comment:
- Roger Carter’s company WellMed has started the WellIMed Foundation benefiting Idlewood, TMS, and THS. One TMS teacher will receive $500 for going above and beyond. One $500 scholarship is being established for a student at THS with ADD.
Principal’s Reports:
- Idlewood – attended Science Olympiad and won multiple awards.
- Midvale – finished IB/STEM week in lieu of Career Day and closed out their PBLs. IB exhibition occured on 5/14. 5/5 is International Night/Arts Night using IB songs and artwork
- Brockett – Principal Seabrook kissed a pig due to students raising over $10,000 in their Read-a-Thon. News Network being digitally updated to include a youtube update with password for students/parents. Applying for IB in the Fall and beginning training for Ms. Seabrook this summer and meeting with Mr. Arnold regarding funding. May is International month with families showcasing their cultures through stories, clothing, International Mystery Readers, and Taste of Brockett
- Livsey – STEM day was 5/3. International week ended with Field Day. Cross Country ended after 8 weeks 135 students. Family Night Out Block Party had 6 Main Street Restaurants participate and was financially successful. Livsey participated in State Science Olympiad with 58 other schools all over GA.
- Smoke Rise – planting sweet potatoes and corn in school garden, aquaponics garden donation by Lawson Family, Grant for $3000 for robots, Strands of Pearls (girls group teaching etiquette, science and math) began. In Year 2 of a 3 year grant where K-3rd grade teachers are taught how to deepen reading and literacy enjoyment in their students. 4 bikes and 2 tvs were given to the 6 students with the most growth in testing. 2 bikes were donated by a construction company.
- Tucker Middle School – Top 10% Banquet honored the top 10% of 8th graders, International Night is 5/17, IB had their 8th grade community showcase, TMS won 3rd place in the county for reduction in the number of referrals through using PBIS. Math milestones improved. Boys and Girls won their region for soccer.
- Tucker High School – 5/31 is Graduation with 355 graduates. More honors graduates then years past (over 60). Over 11 million in scholarships with more coming in all the time. VEX Robotics placed 6th out of 300 in the world competition in Louisville, KY. Soccer lost in 3rd round of state playoffs, gymnast received silver medal at State. Dr. Parker is creating Data to show recognition for academics as well as athletics.
State of the Region II Cluster – Trenton Arnold
- Region II – 28 schools, 2500 employees, 20,000 students. Using the “De-centralization model” in order to give the feel of a smaller school system. We now have 7 regions rather than 5 in the county.
- We have 200 3 year olds and are looking to add 200 more next year at the Early Learning Center
- We want our students to be college, career, or community ready when they leave high school
- Signing Day which encourages DeKalb students to return to teach in DeKalb County after college
- 2.5% pay increase after an initial hiccup in June. Errors were found and fixed. Working to be more competitive with pay to attract great teachers
- Wrap around services available – Family Impact Hub Center where parents can work to get their GED
- 10 new School Resource Officers and Canine Units were added this year
Instruction
- Many of our Region schools outperform the state average on the CCRPI (all but 5)
- Our Region has 7 IB sites (4 in the Tucker Cluster with the 5th applying and THS expanding IB next year)
- 10 STEAM/STEM schools
- Working toward vertical alignment, especially in supporting math from TMS to THS
Operations
- Work for SPLOST IV & V continues
- Deferred maintenance continues and are working toward having more preventative maintenance
- Additional funds are up for approval for Operations
- Principals are trusted to run building as they see fit and the District wants to say “Yes, if…” not “No, because…”
Climate
- 3 Collaborative Groups working within our Cluster: Lakeside Cluster Summit, Tucker Cluster Council, and Druid Hills Cluster Alliance. TCC has advantage because we have support of the city of Tucker.
- TCC and groups like ours can bring attention to the needs of our Cluster and help in making strategic goals and plans
- Diversity is our strength and a source of pride (International Nights, ESOL families)
- Many successes!
Q&A
- Is there room in the budget for additional Psychologists? Not currently, but there are many wrap around services
- What can we do to help get out the positive word on our Cluster? Use your cluster leaders/website. The county’s job is to support what is happening in the School House Give County feedback.
- Has there been a focus group of parents in private schools? Not that we are aware of
- Is there a way to let people know better what the threat level actually is when there has been a threat against the school to keep it out of the rumor mill? Not really. Letters come from the county and are sent by principals and are kept non-descript on purpose.
- Why are we not more fully aligned with all school being STEM or STEAM certified? Some schools are working on STEM certification, but each school has to come to a collaborative decision about how to proceed with STEM or IB. It is a school decision and is based on the climate of the school. IB is a better choice for some schools and the county doesn’t want to pigeon hole a school into something that isn’t a good fit. Also, lacking certification doesn’t mean the school isn’t still doing STEM activities.
Download Region II Superintendent Trenton Arnold’s “State of the Region / Tucker Cluster – May 2019” presentation here, as a print-friendly PDF.
Updates from DCSD Board Representative for District 4, Allyson Gevertz (Received via email)
- Senate Bill 53. This is the “annexation bill” that would protect DeKalb students from annexations by cities with independent school districts (Atlanta and Decatur). You may remember that in 2017, Atlanta annexed the Emory/CDD area, taking 9 students and $2.5 million form DeKalb Schools. That is still in litigation. SB 53 would have allowed municipal annexations to occur but other mechanisms would be in place regarding the transfer of students and school tax revenue. The bill passed unanimously in the House and Senate but was vetoed by Governor Kemp on May 10, 2019. It turns out the City of Decatur Schools hired a lobbyist (who is also the Governor’s fraternity brother) to convince Kemp to veto. It worked. However, the fight is not over. At a DeKalb Delegation and DeKalb BOE press conference on May 13th, we vowed to protect our students and revive the bill next session. DeKalb Senator Emanuel Jones said he is reaching out to the Governor for answers.
- It’s budget season! Right now, the preliminary budget includes salary steps for teachers (retroactive to January 1, 2019), additional interpreters, additional funding for deferred maintenance, and more. Across the county, stakeholders have asked for facilities to be a top priority. Which also leads to. . .
- SPLOST. Due to increased construction costs, the District will need to make changes to the SPLOST V project list. No recommendations have been made yet, but recommendations will come to the BOE in June. So far, the Operations staff have floated options which include decreased scope, project cuts, and the possibly of a GO bond which could go to voters next spring after public input in the fall.
- Questions? Please contact Allyson Gevertz via email at allyson@allysongevertz.com or visit www.allysongevertz.com for more information.
Allyson Gevertz’ next “4 Feedback” event will be at Oak Grove Market on Thursday, May 16th from 8-10am.
Thanks was given to Rich Benevento for TCC website creation and management.
Meeting was adjourned at 7:35pm.
Download a printer-friendly version of these notes here.
This concludes TCC meetings scheduled for the 2018-2019 school year. The 2019-2020 schedule will be posted to this website over the summer. Please email questions or any agenda ideas
to tuckerclustercoucil@gmail.com. Thank you for your support!