November 13, 2023 – Minutes – Sprucewood Elementary

School Community Council Meeting Minutes

Sprucewood Elementary

November 13, 2023

Members:

Faculty	Community
Cathy Schino (Principal)	Mindy Cupello (Chairperson)
Emigh Lo (K-2 Teacher)	Jen Bradford (Vice-Chair)
Jen Dean (3-5Teacher)	Jason Dyer
	Alex Horwood
	Alicia Lemus
	Dustin Ondrasek

Members Absent: All present

Call to Order:

Mindy Cupello called meeting to order at 4:05

Approve last month’s meeting minutes:

1st motion to approve Mindy Cupello

2nd motion to approve Jen Bradford

Review current year’s LAND Trust plan, data and expenditures and review if on course or if amendments are necessary
- Our LAND Trust plan focuses on student growth in English Language Arts (ELA). The entire budget is dedicated to paying Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) aides salaries. We will receive growth data for ELA after the January 23rd & 24th Acadience benchmark testing window that is assigned at the district level. We are on course with all action plan steps and budgets.
- Will review growth data during February’s SCC meeting using the January data

Review/Discuss Sprucewood’s Attendance Plan

Sprucewood Elementary School’s Attendance

Attendance Goal: All students will attend school 90% or more of the school year. In order to achieve this goal, students cannot miss more than 17 days of school over the course of the entire year.

School attendance is very important. Every absence from school interferes with your child’s opportunity to learn. There is a growing body of research showing that Chronic Absenteeism, usually defined by researchers as missing 10% or more of the school year (including excused and unexcused absences), has a significant negative effect on student achievement and may put a student at academic risk. The goal for Sprucewood Elementary is that all students miss no more than 9% of the school year, to help every student be successful now and in the future.

School Success Goes Hand in Hand with Being in School Every Day! Did You Know?

Many absences, even in kindergarten, can cause children to fall behind in school.
Missing just a day or two every month can make it harder to learn to read by the third grade.
Students with too many absences struggle to catch up, even with take-home assignments.
Attending school regularly helps children feel better about school and themselves.

What Can You Do?

Develop a regular bedtime and morning routine.
Avoid missing school unless a child is truly sick and seek help if chronic illness is a challenge. Check with our school nurse or office staff if you are not sure about when to keep your child at home due to illness.
If your child seems anxious about going to school, talk to teachers, school support staff, or other parents for advice on how to make him/her feel comfortable and excited about learning.

Types of Absences:

Valid Excused Absence: An absence excused with approved verification (ie. doctor note, dentist note, legal note, wedding announcement, obituary, or other approved verification).
Guardian Excused Absence: An absence excused by a parent/legal guardian without approved verification. Parents must call the office or send a note within one week of the absence. The limit is five (5) days each school year per Canyons District policy 500.35; any additional absences without approved verification will be considered unexcused.
Unexcused Absence: Any absence without a valid excuse.

Communication Procedure for Valid Excused Absences:

Illness or Medical Appointment: Parent provides a note from a health care provider to the front office.
Family Death, Family Emergency, Religious Holiday: Parent provides notification to the school that the student will be absent (obituary, wedding announcement, etc…).
Procedure for Education/Vacation Leave: A student may be allowed up to ten (10) days for education/vacation leave in a given school year if prior arrangements have been made with the school for the student to make up his/her homework. Prior to education leave, parents complete an Education Leave/Vacation Form for approval. Teachers will complete the “Work to Be Completed” section and determine a reasonable due date. School administration will verify education leave.

Unexcused Absences

# of Unexcused Days Absent	What Happens if my student accumulates unexcused absences?
0	Compulsory Education Information: notice included in online registration and in other publications sent to community and patrons.
3-5	Phone Call or Email from the teacher and/or the attendance secretary. They will inquire if the student is doing okay, express concern, and ask what the school can do to support the student making up work and not falling behind.
6-8	Notification of Attendance Issue/Truancy Citation #1 – The attendance secretary will send, via both email and regular mail, a letter from the principal explaining that the student has missed six unexcused days of school and reminding the parent of the importance of regular school attendance. Parents contact the principal within 3 days to discuss their student’s attendance.
9-11	Notice of Compulsory Education Violation/Truancy Citation #2 – The attendance secretary will send, via email, a second letter from the principal explaining that the student has missed nine unexcused absences. The letter will include a scheduled appointment for parents to meet with the principal, discuss the attendance, and develop a plan for improved attendance. A copy of the letter will also be sent to Suzanne Ren, District Truancy Officer, who will send a hardcopy of the letter via certified mail.
12	Notice of Habitual Truancy/Truancy Citation #3 – Suzanne Ren, District Truancy Officer, will send the Habitual Truancy Citation Letter #3 through certified mail warning of the pending court referral. A Court referral will be made if the student has five more unexcused absences during the school year beyond letter #3.
17	Court Referral – The court referral may result in a class B misdemeanor with the potential of a $1,000 fine and 180 days in jail.

Item for Vote: Do you vote to keep the attendance plan as proposed, or make changes?
Member Name	Member Vote/ any additional note
Jen Bradford	Questions on excusing absences on skyward. Who does that? (office staff) Can parents excuse on skyward? (No- attendance has to be recorded at the school level)
Mindy Cupello	What happens if a student has chronic absence? (all absences, any type, can put students at risk once they go over the 10% threshold) What is the process? (see unexcused table in plan) I like the plan
Jen Dean	I love the attendance plan as it is written. Attendance is vital to success at school and having a clear plan with action steps is needed and important.
Jason Dyer	Try to streamline the attendance forms from parent square communication and office calls
Alex Horwood	It’s important parents understand the policy Excused vs. unexcused if understood makes sense
Alicia Lemus	I communicate with the teacher on absences (we have a system for teachers to communicate that to the office so the absence code is correct)
Emigh Lo	I like the attendance plan I think it looks great.
Dustin Ondrasek	Is someone in charge of listening to attendance calls? (Yes- The office marks the attendance on skyward and it is coded so teachers know that the student is absent)
Cathleen Schino	The goal of this plan is to help everyone understand the importance of attendance. When kids are sick they need to stay home. When kids are well, they need to come to school. This plan educates everyone about the importance of consistent attendance. We want to address the chronic absenteeism due to unexcused absences, not the excused illnesses or trips.
Vote Summary: Proceed with attendance plan as it is written, increase the size of “unexcused absences” over the table

Review/Discuss Electronic Devices Plan

Cell Phones and Other Valuable Property

Possession of a cell phone is a privilege that may be forfeited by any student that uses the phone inappropriately. The school and District will not be responsible for preventing theft, loss of or damage to cell phones brought to school. Cell phones may not be used during classroom time, instructional activities or field trips. Phones must remain off during these times and stored in a backpack. In addition, if the phone becomes a distraction it will be taken away for the day (like all items causing distractions) and given back to the student at the end of the day.

If parents permit their student to bring their cellular phone to school the following procedures must be followed.

Phones must be off during the school day.
Phones may only be used before and after school outside the building.

Electronic Devices

Electronic devices are prohibited at school. Students and parents must assume the risk if a student brings an electronic device to school. The school will not be responsible for lost or stolen electronic device. Any use of an electronic device that exploits personal information, disrupts the educational process, invades personal privacy or compromises the integrity of educational programs is strictly prohibited. Students violating these guidelines will receive appropriate consequences.

Item for Vote: Do you vote to keep the Cell Phones & Electronic Devices plans as proposed or do you vote to make changes?
Member Name	Member Vote/ any additional note
Jen Bradford	Are teachers informing parents that the student’s watch is distracting? (Yes- we use a discipline dashboard where this distraction is recorded as a minor and parents are called or sent parent square message) Consider including “smart watches” in the language with “phone”.
Mindy Cupello	I like the plan
Jen Dean	Electronics are very distracting in school. I like this policy the way it is written.
Jason Dyer	Just say “technology” blanket statement
Alex Horwood	Supportive of no phones at school. Use “electronics” instead of just “phones”
Alicia Lemus	I agree it is important to keep electronics away during school hours.
Emigh Lo	Watches cause more fear and anxiety than they relieve. They can cause a big issue in the classroom. Parents reaching out to students instead of to the teacher is extremely distracting to learning. .
Dustin Ondrasek	Distracting at school. Phones & watches should be put away during the day. Call the school with issues. Supportive of more strict expectations.
Cathleen Schino	Our Building Leadership discussed the importance of teaching students how to be a responsible device user at school. If devices are a problem during the school day, it gets taken away for the day as per the language in the plan.. If teachers are experiencing a repeated distraction with a child during the day, teachers will log this as a minor behavior in discipline dashboard and communicate with parents through phone or parent square. Chronic minor can turn into an Office Discipline Referral (ODR) and a more structured plan will be put in place.
Vote Summary: Will keep the plan but change the wording to say devices instead of just phones as technology options have expanded

- Other
  - Follow Up on Safety Plan
    - Since our October 16th meeting we have:
      - announced our #1 safety concern (respecting personal boundaries) to the students on morning announcements
      - shared the safety focus on the Falcon Report (aired October 30th)
      - student reporters have begun creating personal boundaries skits to show on future Falcon Reports
      - continued to teach Thrive Time Lessons every Tuesday
  - Parent Square Messaging from SCC

Should we have messages sent to all families from “SCC” posts?

If yes, then how often? How do we decide on the messaging (who will draft, will we vote first, who sends it to the Principal to be posted, etc?)

Item for Vote:
Member Name	Member Vote/ any additional note
Jen Bradford	Are parents aware of the SCC committee as people that we can reach out to if we had concerns or questions? Wasn’t personally aware of the SCC and what the committee does, or that the information is available. Can we make the information a little more visible, not just on the website?
Mindy Cupello	Let’s keep it simple
Jen Dean	I think everyone has the information on the website and what we post there is really good.
Jason Dyer	Are we opening a can of worms if we open up a forum for others tell us what they want SCC to address? We follow an agenda form district. Let’s keep to that and not have others take over our meetings too much?
Alex Horwood
Alicia Lemus	Can we add SCC message to the marquee?
Emigh Lo	We can do a parent square message after each meeting
Dustin Ondrasek	I think we should just send a message that has a link to the website.
Cathleen Schino	I’m on board with adding this communication. When the information is available to our community then they get to choose how they want to interact with it.. We just need to decide how the SCC wants to disseminate the information. All info from our meetings are already posted on the Sprucewood website. All community members are welcome to attend. The challenge is some people might not want to go find the information on the website.
Vote Summary: Let’s send short update once monthly on parent square with a link to the web page that houses all the details. Let’s try it the next few months and see how it goes.

Adjourn until next month’s meeting December 11, 2023
- Meeting adjourned at 4:56pm