September 14, 2021 BLT Meeting

Members Present

• Tom Brown
• Tim Snyder
• Jen Anderson
• Laura Tutt
• Eric Noble

New Business

PD for the staff. Tim will be sending draft to staff to have it voted on at Wednesday meeting. Who votes? Jen will get ballots for everyone and put it in their box.

Curriculum night is September 23 at 6:30. Teachers will send out a Teams link and decide if they want to do their own class or a grade level meeting.

6:30-7:00 K-1, 7:00-7:30 2-3, 7:30-8:00 4-5. Specialists will work with grade level teams and get assigned a time.

For teacher directed staff meetings, get grade levels to be in charge of certain days where they will send out email for agenda items and facilitate. Just yellow days.

LASER: Make sure school and LASER are on the same page when it comes to quarantining and working with students who are out of school.

October 12, 2021

Members Present

• Eric Noble
• Tim Snyder
• Krysta French
• Tom Brown
• Laura Tutt
• Jen Anderson

Vote for PD for the year

• 21 approve and 2 abstain
• PD Approved

Rainy Day Recess protocol

How do teachers feel about making the rainy-day call on their own? Should Tim make the call? Lunch recess will be outside regardless of weather unless conditions are too extreme. Tim will try to make rainy day lunch call as early as possible.

Teacher use of Seesaw and Schoology

Preference is for Schoology, but some teachers have been using Seesaw. Tim thinks it should be consistent across the school. Some teachers are sending the information via email. Laura will do a quick tutorial at the October 13 staff meeting on how to upload to Schoology.

If a grade level team is using Seesaw as a curricular choice, then that would be okay, but should not be happening if all members are not using it.

Tents outside

Stadium seats outside for kids to sit on instead of cold ground.

Designate Facilitator, note taker and time keeper

Laura Facilitator, Krysta notes taker, Jen time keeper.

How can we promote our school to the community and be able to talk to our neighbors about Laurelhurst?

Put on Agenda for next meeting.

Did you know questions about our school. A sense of consistency and community.

November 9, 2021 Meeting

Members Present:

• Tom Brown
• Jen Anderson
• Laura Tutt
• Tim Snyder
• Krysta French

Not Present:

• Eric Noble

Agenda

PR Ideas

• What is there to celebrate at Laurelhurst:
• UW music collaboration
• Writers In The School (WITS)
• Reading Specialist
• Math Tutors
• Can meet the needs of all students through our services
• Experienced staff with very low attrition rate
• Strong ELL program
• A diverse population representing many cultures and countries

find families who feel great about Laurelhurst and have them write positive reviews so that we have recent reflections/reviews of our school online find ways to get our positive experiences and programs out into the community

Did you Know? section in the PTA Newsletter for parents learn great facts (old and current) about our school community; could highlight one fact each newsletter 

Our size, because of the small size, students are known by one another and many staff members

more visibility around enrollment; lawn signs at enrollment time, advertising around enrollment dates (fliers distributed in the neighborhood)

Staff coming together to discuss What are we?

Family of staff; family community feel

Action Plan

• Positive reviews on Good Schools by members of the school community. Will be done by PTA and parents ASAP.
• Yard signs or fliers (with QR code linked to video or did you know?) to promote enrollment (January); discuss with PTA. Krysta will send Sabina an email about future agenda items; discuss with PTA re: money for yard signs and fliers ASAP.
• Snippets or videos from teachers to post on Website, PTA website, Facebook page, other social media (since we cannot have tours/people in the building). This will be a long-range plan.
• Contact Videographer/Drone. Tim will do this as part of our long-range plan.
• Promote our size as comparable or better than many private schools. All of us will do this through reviews and Did You Know?
• Three Words that describe Laurelhurst. BLT members will ask constituents. Part of our long-range plan.
• Core Value Protocol. Krysta will get this information as part of our long-range plan.
• Did You Know? blurbs from specialists and program heads and community members (e.g., Cope Miller, Jean Amick, Dixie Porter, Coco Sherman, Jill and Jeff Wood, Stephanie Neffner).

Tom (specialists)

Laura (WITS)

Tim (SEL)

Jen (Ellen, Math tutors, a Community Member)

Krysta (PTA)

By December BLT meeting—come with summaries written up

Roles for next meeting

Facilitator: Jen

Notetaker: Laura

Timekeeper: Tom

December 14, 2021

In attendance:

Tom Brown, Jen Anderson, Eric Noble, Krysta French, Laura Tutt, Tim Snyder

Notes

1. “Did you know?” statements: A few have been submitted, need a couple more.
2. Yard Signs: 2-week turnaround, plant them around neighborhood around Jan.3 when enrollment begins-Tom will get website set up and QR code. He will give the QR code to Krysta. She will contact sign company and have them made.
3. Sign at City People’s and Flooring America: “Enroll Now at Laurelhurst Elementary”- Jen will go talk to them.
4. Substitute pay: Most certs have subs, but many IAs do not have subs. In the past, sub pay has been divided amongst sped staff. Tim will ask sped staff about what they would like to do-come up with a couple options and bring it back to the BLT.
5. Parent volunteers: Tim will look into SPS volunteer requirements- vaccinations, attestation, trainings etc. Tim will have list of requirements by January BLT. In lieu of in person volunteering, maybe we could have a list of “ways to help teachers”? Parents could help via Teams?

January 11, 2022

Members

Tom

Tim

Jen

Laura

Eric

Krysta

LASER

Notes

Looking into laser staff to help out on recess. Might happen the third week of January. Current enrollment is 55. Trying to have the gym until 4:30. Just afternoon for the kids. Eric is going to look into the Pre-K program again to see if it would be viable for next year.

Update on the Laurelhurst yard signs

30 signs arrived today. Putting up in strategic areas around the area. Put near daycares and child centers. Whatever is left over can go into PTA board members yards. Jen and Krysta will put signs out.

Literacy month ideas

Tom will find out how many languages are spoken at Laurelhurst.

Do a Windows and Mirrors lesson for the kids?  Have Krysta send Tim any presentations she has on Windows and Mirrors to possibly use at a staff meeting.

Update teacher recommended booklists at a staff meeting.

Do we do a dress up day for a literacy day? Dress up at the end of the literacy month.

March 8, 2022

Member Present

Tim Snyder

Tom Brown

Jen Anderson

Laura Tutt

Krysta French

Budget for next year

We are losing a 1.0 FTE and a 1.0 IA. Library, Counselor and Reading Specialist are all funded at .5. We will not be losing a teacher because of a retirement.

PTA has stated that they can fund Library and Counselor to full time for next year and Tim believes he has Equity money to bring the Reading Specialist back to .8. We also can expect $30,000 in funds from FOLF to use at our discretion.

Tim will meet with staff on Wednesday to talk about the current staffing situation and money available. BLT members will talk to their constituents and see if they have any other ideas for the budget. BLT members will meet again in a week to discuss and finalize the budget.

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March 15, 2022

Members Present

Tom, Laura, Tim, Jen, Krysta

Notes

PTA has agreed to fund .5 library, .5 counselor and .1 reading specialist. Tim will find .2 to bring the reading specialist to a .3 and thus a .8 total.

The school will have 1/3 of the funding next year for tutors.

Staff will vote on the budget tomorrow at the staff meeting.

Parent volunteers for the remainder of the year.

Classrooms need to have an intentional purpose to have a volunteer. Each classroom has the same process for bringing in volunteers.

Have a K-1 or possibly all grades parent pick up and walk through the building. Kids could stay in the room and parents could come to the classroom to get them and do a walk through.

Literacy Month- Getting books to classrooms by the end of the month.