Group: Gifted and Talented Advisory Council

Date: Tuesday, Sep 20, 2011

Time: 5:00-6:30 p.m.

Location: Hortonville High School – Library

246 N. Olk Street, Entrance #1

Hortonville, WI 54944

Minutes

General Business

• Call Meeting to Order (5pm)
  • Cathy called the meeting to order at 5:02

• Members Present
  • Cathy Mertz, Mary Claypool, Amy Bergman-Valla, Emily Burghardt, Aimee Stevens, Greg Gorski, Darin Driessen, Dan Ohlmann, John Brattlund, Deb VanDalen, Lisa Borowski, Barry Hoff, Maria Konecke, Rachel Lenz, Renee La Fluer-Linder, Cindy Hogan

• Approve new parent co-facilitator
  • Amy Bergman-Valla will serve as Advisory Council co-facilitator

• Review Council By-laws for proposal
  • Council meetings every other month with sub-committee meetings during alternate months
    • Discussed Article X – Meetings under bylaws
    • Council members felt that alternate meeting months was a great idea because it would give sub-committees the opportunity to focus on their efforts
    • The new meeting schedule will be posted

Parent Involvement

• Introduction idea for SENG book study (10 min)                                       Cathy
  • Cathy explained the background of our book study and asked Council for input on structuring and promoting it.  Some suggestions included:
    • Online forum discussion
    • Check to see if book is available on an E-reader
    • Divide up chapters and assign to specific Council members who will then provide a short review at a future meeting
    • Use GATE parent distribution list to invite others to participate
    • Let parents know a few copies of the book are available for check-out
    • Mary will be responsible for posting/updating the book study with two new chapters every other month
      • Postings will include brief summary and guiding questions

• Summary in newsletter to increase awareness of council (5 min)      Cindy
  • Barry shared background on original GATE parent group
  • Council discussed ways to get more people involved:
    • Provide food and raffles
    • Send out reminders
    • Ask parents to invite two or three other parents
    • Provide opportunity for students simultaneously
    • Contact GATE families via Skyward
      • Mary worked with Cory on this.  Right now she is able to form GATE groups per site on Skyward, but we don’t have “permission” to send out mass emails, yet

Build and Improve Program

• Conclusions from Surveys (15 min):                                                 Cindy
  • Elementary students
    • In general, the summary showed that students are happy with current programming and services and that they understood how they were indentified                                

• Teachers
  • The summary showed that teachers appreciate the resources and GATE staff support

• Parents
  • The summary showed that parents feel GATE programming has had a positive influence on their child’s academic achievement and personal growth
  • Parents said they feel connected with GATE staff and have a good understanding of how their child’s needs are being met

• Review Council’s subcommittees                                                     All
  • Mary reviewed each sub-committee’s tasks and members
  • Council members were given the opportunity to sign up for new and/or additional committees                                                                    

Standing Topics

• GATE Staff Updates  (10 min)                                              
  • Lisa’s Update:
    • Chris wants to see Lisa and Deb working in the classrooms at least 80% of the day so Lisa is following that as she schedules her services
    • Teachers provide their lesson plans to Lisa prior to their team teaching.  This gives Lisa time to develop extension units/activities.
    • Offering a book study for third and fourth graders is being discussed
    • Aimee shared her positive experiences with pre-testing students in math.  This strategy allows her to focus more specifically on each student’s skills/needs.
    • Lisa has established and sent out her topics for this year’s Lunch Bunch meetings

• Deb’s Update:
  • Deb explained how we were able to get more students involved in LEGO League this year
  • She is spending a great deal of her time with LEGO League logistics (i.e. ordering materials, contacting coaches, soliciting funds)
  • She described last summer’s two-day LEGO League camp that she facilitated
  • Deb shared that she is getting into classrooms and working directly with teachers and students
  • She is also attending team meetings

• Review annual GATE events that we keep this year (10 min)            Mary
  • Mary will share information about Spotlight on Education Expo – a community-wide event scheduled for March 15^th, 2012 at the next meeting

• Annual WATG Conference                                                              Mary
  • Mary shared information about this year’s conference and invited Council members to attend
  • Lisa’s WATG award was acknowledged