Murch Development Team

MDT Meeting Minutes for September 26, 2006Open
The meeting began at 4:30 with introductions. We now have a community representative, Brenda Smith (a former Murch parent) and a new staff representative, Erna Marcus.
Review of Local School Plan (LSP)

Carolyne began with a review of our LSP that now includes the testing data and final numbers from the 05-06 school year and projected numbers for 06-07 school year. Things to note:

• There are clear differences in the testing results from our white and non-white students. Murch is strongly committed to reducing this achievement gap, while at the same time addressing the needs of those students who are already achieving at an advanced level. At the meeting, the MDT increased the percentage of students who are performing at the proficient level in reading and math in all the subgroups.
  

• Carolyne and the teachers now have the data to figure out strategies to help lower performing students. They want to add new(er) students as a subgroup for data analysis. In particular, they want to know how newer students to Murch are performing compared to students who have been at Murch for longer.
  

• Concern was expressed about the new test being very language based. This may have created a bias against students who are English language learners or those who have a language disability.

Review of the Murch Budget
The focus of this discussion was how to use the extra position that is in the Murch budget. The plan was to hire an enrichment resource teacher, but we were not able to find someone over the summer, and unfortunately the person we discussed offering the job to at our September meeting has decided to not work full time this year.

The consensus from the teachers is that they want to hire a third 6th grade teacher. Carolyne reviewed some of the ramifications of creating a new 6th grade position at this point: special ed would have to move out of the main building, Murch would not have control over who we would hire, and the person hired would probably have seniority over any of our new hires and thus they might bump a new teacher out of Murch if we ever had to cut back on teachers. Many parents had voiced their views to MDT parent reps that they want a Spanish teacher. However, based on last year’s experience of being unable to fill that slot, and this year’s informal survey of remaining openings in other schools, it was determined that a Spanish teacher slot would likely go unfilled, and we would then lose a staff member for the school. Carolyne feels that looking for a resource teacher is better for the vision of the school, but she is also mindful of teacher morale.

After a long discussion, the consensus of the MDT was to look for a technology coordinator who could work with the students and the teachers to better use the new computers that we have at Murch. This person could provide some of the individual and group work with students, as well as teacher training as we had hoped the enrichment teacher would have done, and also potentially alleviate some of the load on the 6th grade teachers by working with small groups of students.
Other Business

Ms. Tracy was in a car accident and will not be back for several weeks. Unfortunately because of confidentiality concerns, parents cannot assist in the office. Carolyne is looking into hiring a temp.
The Home-School Contract between parents and the school was not sent home this year. Carolyne is thinking of making it available on the website and/or giving it to families during parent conferences.

AdjournmentMeeting was adjourned at 7:15 pm.

• Signed
  P Joos
  30 Sept. 06