Tucker Cluster Council Virtual Meeting Agenda with Minutes from September 21, 2021
Welcome Introduction – Sabrina Chambers & Stephanie Wilson (TCC Co-Chairs)
The meeting was called to order at 6:30PM by Sabrina Chambers. Our focus for the year is on communications. We want to help facilitate information both downwards from the district to our stakeholders and upwards from stakeholders to the district.
School Updates (Including COVID) – Tucker Cluster Principals
Brockett (Principal Antoinette Seabrook)
- Seeking IB authorization – 12 of 26 teachers through r’qrd course; seeking grant for other teachers to go through the 2.5 day training; grant would pay for training & subs
- Nurses position is open
- Enrollment has increased since beginning of school year – up to @415 students
- Smaller enrollment has allowed for smaller classes which has in turn allowed for teachers to provide more detailed attention to students and address learning loss from last year and a half
- COVID
- Only a couple of covid cases
- Custodians walk through every 90 minutes and spray high touch areas; practicing social distancing; making use of seating charts
Idlewood Principal (Principal Robin Elder)
- So excited because for the first time have had parents to serve as officers on PTA & run for PAC
- COVID
- cleaning regularly
- Have had several cases & exposures
- Planning to try moving to half capacity in the cafeteria so that students don’t always eat in their classrooms
- 1 Million word challenge kicked off last week
- Spent $15K on manipulatives for every classroom
- Working on STEM certification
- Amazon Future Engineers will fund computer science program for STEM
- Continuing to analyze data and working on learning loss from past year and a half – working in chunks
- Have a star sub and 2-3 subs who come regularly
- Just so excited to be back in the building and teachers are very enthusiastic
- Focusing on small group instruction for guided reading and guided math
Livsey (Principal Shawna Pickett)
- STEM certification received at end of May 2021
- Enrollment is good – around 368 students – class sizes of 18-22 across all grades
- Small class sizes make it easier to assess learning loss
- STEM refresh
- Refresh of aquaponics pond
- New partner with Science Atlanta
- Girls Who Game and Girls Who Code programs active this school year
- Star Sub position is open (but haven’t struggled to find subs)
- 1 cafeteria worker position is open
- COVID
- Similar cleaning procedures to other schoools
- Keeping kids in “pods” of assigned seats even as they move throughout the building to other classrooms/spaces
Midvale (Ashley Little the IB/STEM coordinator filled in for Principal Dr. Tara Dougherty)
- Have their IB/STEM reevaluation in May 2022
- Did big refresh of all IB/STEM units & PBLs
- All grades will be working in the garden
- Partnered with local Boy Scout to have some planters built
- Parent who is a landscaper drew up a 10 year plan
- Home Depot donated plants
- Great way to be outside during COVID
- Also a great way to be transdisciplinary
- Have group of dedicated subs
- Looking forward to continued partnerships with the community
- COVID
- Similar procedures to other schools
- Also hand sanitizer avail through out school
- Marks on floor in hallways for social distancing
- Similar procedures to other schools
Smoke Rise (Principal Pamela McCloud)
- Received STEM certification in the spring
- Starting STEM garden- vegetables & flowers
- Trilliam(sp?) is helping with garden
- Received sign to let everyone know they are a Title I Distinguished School
- $5,000 donation from Smokerise Civic Association for outdoor items and classrooms
- So excited to be in new building!
- Around 465 students
- Shout outs to PAC & CAC for helping them to get acclimated and being so supportive
- All teachers are doing a great job!
- Shout out to Mr. Arnold who has been very supportive as well
Tucker Middle (Principal Dr. Kathy Cunningham)
- No attendee or update
Tucker High School – Dr. Eric Parker
- Enrollment @ 1600 – down from pre-pandemic years when it was @ 1800
- Excited about new IB Career Pathways program
- Health Science added this year – have classroom set up to look like a hospital room
- Emory Healthcare a potential partner
- After evaluating the 4.5 week data – seeing need to figure out how to fill in some of the learning gaps
- Starting remediation tutorial program
- Hoping to improve attendance
- Started the year with 10 teacher positions needing to be filled – down to 4 – 1 business teacher, 1 english teacher….
- Working on socio-emotional learning with counselors and teachers – with plan to infuse it in day to day curriculum
- Many students had trauma over the past year and a half
- Trying to increase ELL outreach to parents – have built up some communication procedures – but continuing to evaluate and improve
- Homecoming next week
- No dance but fun week still planned
Board of Education Updates (BOE Rep District 4 – Allyson Gevertz & BOE Rep District 6 – Mr. Diijon DaCosta)
Ms. Gevertz:
- Mrs Gevertz thanked principals for their updates and their COVID efforts; reports indicate Dekalb is actually doing really well as a district covid-wise
- Tune in tomorrow night at 6 for the Superintendent’s Medical Advisory Roundtable – will be addressing questions from the community
- Vaccine mandates haven’t hit our area yet
- Offering $1,000 to job candidates who are vaccinated
- Incentives to schools who reach 90% vacc of staff
- Other retention and longevity incentives
- CMP
- District wide meeting in September to share CMP plans
- Regional town halls in October for stakeholder input
- Looking at consolidation – because we have too many buildings
- Staffing
- Staff shortage district-wide (but actually a nationwide problem)
- Espec bus drivers, custodians, clerical staff, etc
- Have called BOE meeting next Mon to discuss staffing issues
- Talking to other districts about what works as far as hiring, subs and retention goes
- BOE asking that stakeholders be patient
- Using CARES act money wisely
- Staff shortage district-wide (but actually a nationwide problem)
Mr. DaCosta:
- Vice chair of BOE – represents Idlewood in our region
- Thanked everyone for being committed to the process
- Renamed Library for former principal Rosemary Malone
- Wants to be invited to school events!
- Superintendent’s goal is to keep all our scholars in classrooms
- 72% of the budget directly impacts schools
- Staffing – up to 6% retention salary increases and a longevity program with $1,500 incentive
- Spec Ed has a major shortage across the nation
- Wants to continue to promote Dekalb County School District as one of the prominent school districts across the country
- Edulog parent portal app for bus locations/info was launched
- CMP – there are talks of a new building for Idlewood
- Need all parents, teachers, supporters to tune into the input meetings in October and provide feedback
DCSD Region II Updates – (Region II Superintendent Trenton Arnold)
- COVID
- mitigation strategies working
- Reporting structure for schools is now an e-format that is quicker and sends notification automatically to nurse, Board of Health and superintendents
- Have process/matrix in place for larger issues – to help determine if need to shut down class/school/cluster, etc
- Has to do with # of cases/exposures & can the school still run
- Staffing
- Do have labor shortage – but national problem not just specific to Dekalb
- Rolled out incentives and other programs to recruit people
- “Why Choose Dekalb” Program
- Encouraged us to put it on TCC website
- Trenton is always actively recruiting employees for Dekalb himself – encouraged all of us to do the same
- Hiring folks who have had an atypical route to education sometimes yields the best employees
- Edulog – feel free to share any bugs with the app so that it can be fixed and optimized
- Several meetings coming up
- Medical Advisory Roundtable – Wed 9/23
- Targeted date for CMP District town hall not avail yet
- Region 2 Town Hall tentatively scheduled for 10/6
- CMP tied to Nov SPLOST
- Trenton can’t advocate one way or the other
- If we don’t get SPLOST passed we will have bigger funding issues
- District undergoing COGNIA reaccreditation
- Stakeholder survey available to be taken
- Focus is back on instruction – teachers are working harder than he’s ever seen
- Want to do everything they can to provide structure/support to get students caught up and provide wraparound services
- Kudos to bus drivers, custodians, principals, teachers etc
Tucker Youth Sports Program
Mrs. Simone Paceley & Mrs Angela Malik
- Co-founders of Tucker Youth Sports program
- Gave brief bios
- TYS’ goal is to bring info about sports in Tucker into a centralized location – become a one stop shop for info from parents of young kids just entering rec sports all the way through high school
- Don’t want kids to leave Tucker/Tucker sports programs because facilities are not up to par compared to Gwinnett neighbors
- Want to bring/keep kids both in the local Tucker Rec programs as well as at the high school
- Need engaged parents to help start new programs – ex. Lacrosse at THS
- Currently working with Coach Lee at THS to start girls football
- Also hope to help parents with the NCAA process
- Working with donors/city of Tucker/businesses
- Pandemic caused kids to become socially anxious – sports a good way to help them
- New website launching Oct 18th – www.tkrys.org
- Download the presentation here
Closing Remarks / New Business
- Responses to Community questions and other issues brought to our attention
- Work orders being looked into and a better communication process is being considered
- COVID process has been simplified by the the district so principals able to report quicker and more efficiently
- Exposure means within 3 ft for >15 mins
- If your child actually has an exposure there will be an additional form of contact – either by email or phone and given additional information about quarantining
- If 5-11 year olds are able to be vaccinated the guidelines will be revised
- Community question – How will TCC represent Region 2 in the CMP process? – We are here as a conduit for information – will try to disseminate info as quickly as possible – and will also attempt to amplify the voices of our schools’ PACs
- Can the PACs meet with the CMP firm? Yes, that would be possible – contact information will be provided to PACs who request it
- Mr Arnold pointed out that every time the TCC meets it is an opportunity to have everyone at the table and this leads to advocacy – it is an opportunity to learn, support and advocate for one another
- Will there be surveillance testing in the schools? No updates, but things continue to change, district has offered mobile vaccine and testing sites and will likely continue to do so
- Later this year we hope to talk about Carnegie language tracks and encouraging 5th grade students to apply for STEM and how we can help facilitate that
- Community concern over decline in orchestra program and also difficulty in continuing to participate in music programs if involved in IB/STEM at high school level – Dr Parker said he can follow up on this issue
- General announcements:
- Hispanic Heritage Month
- Livsey Movie on the Green
- Livsey needs help with their chain link fence
- Midvale looking for donations for their garden
- THS promoting soccer tryouts – also looking for sponsorship and/or scholarships for team/players
- Althea Prince recruiting parents for THS PTSA
- Mr Arnold said a final thank you and encouragement/excitement about the direction the cluster is going
Meeting Adjourned at 7:56PM