First Semester Report Contract Grade

Site Team Member

This is my second year of being a member on the site time. I volunteered to be on it my first year at Birchwood and have continued to be on it this year. I will not beable to be on it next year because I will have already served for a two year span. Our team is made up of three teachers, our principal and several other parents and school district employees. Together we make disicions for our building. Last year we were very involved with setting up our schools gaols and plan of action for the building. We had to rewrite many of the gaols that were already in place and change several other things. This year we have had to take a look at our gaols and see if they were met or are being met. We have also had to ajust a few other things with in our plan of action. We also discuss how to spend money within our building. This part of being on the site team is not of interest to me as much as of communicating with parents. Many of our parents didn^Rt even know we had our kids take Scholastic Tests. It was suggested we send a weekly calendar home with information about the weeks activities so that parents would have a better idea of what was happening in the classroom. It was also suggested that parents sign tests and the students so fixed at home. As a building we are really trying to change the look of our school. We are working extremely hard at changing peoples a attitudes about our school and with our new Core Knowledge curriculum we are teaching we are tring to have our school looked at as a high quality school.

the actual talking about our building and how to improve it and what is happening within it. I enjoy hearing the parents thoughts and feelings on things that are going on. I am not afraid to speak out for what I think is workable and what I think is not workable. There are a lot of great ideas that are always coming up but as usual it always comes down to the teachers to implement what ever is suggested. Our building is currently working with a new curriculum and working at trying to stay open and increase enrollment. We have a lot of pressure on us to do well and make this work. We have meetings once every month on the same night as PTA meetings so that people can come to one meeting and then stay for the other if they choose. It only takes up one night instead of two. This year we have made lots of good decisions. Our last meeting we discussed several ways of communicating with parents. Many of our parents didn^Rt even know we had our kids take Scholastic Tests. It was suggested we send a weekly calendar home with information about the weeks activities so that parents would have a better idea of what was happening in the classroom. It was also suggested that parents sign tests and the students so fixed at home. As a building we are really trying to change the look of our school. We are working extremely hard at changing peoples a attitudes about our school and with our new Core Knowledge curriculum we are teaching we are tring to have our school looked at as a high quality school.

-- Anonymous, February 22, 1999