The first Local School Council (LSC) meeting of the 2017-2018 school year gave an overview of changes and concerns that have occurred.

Resolution:

The LSC commenced the committee honoring Aaron Powdermaker, a 2017 graduate, for his award-winning play Pencils and Pens in the 31st annual Young Playwrights Festival. His play will debut at the Pegasus Theater in January 2018. He is credited, on behalf of the LSC, for continuing the Lane tradition of excelling both academically and creatively.

Homecoming Game:

Principal Tennison said that our scheduled Homecoming opponent, Whitney Young, recently was unable to play a game. According to Whitney Young’s newspaper, the Beacon, their season may be canceled if their number of football players doesn’t increase. This could mean that Lane might not face Whitney at Lane’s homecoming game. However, Tennison said there is no need to worry.

“We’re waiting for their final response, or we’ll find another team to come and play us,” Tennison said. “We’ll do something. We’ll have our rally, we’ll have our dance, so all of that is happening.”

Quick Reports

• Tennison took some time to turn the attention towards the new lights in the parking lot, which came as a result of donations from parents, alderman, Second Century and the Cubs.
• Tennison addressed the Ventra card concerns stating that they do not know when students will get them but that students will be receiving a text message when they are ready. Some students don’t have a Ventra card because they purchased one late, or they stopped working. However, Tennison said another reason students Ventra cards aren’t working is that once they hole punch it, they deactivate it.
• This new school year Lane admitted an additional 300 students, increasing the student body to 4,442 students. Lane also hired an additional 31 teachers, who have been paired with previous Lane teachers to act as their mentors. Lane also offers these teachers multiple professional development meetings.                                                                                                                                                               “[It] offers a deeper structured support to get at those elements discovered through interviewing in terms of our priorities,” Tennison said.
• Since school began, female athletes and girls taking physical education have been changing in the bathrooms. Tennison reported that they hope to have the girls back in the locker rooms— which haven’t been done since the 70’s—by mid-October.
• Tennison also announced that the school year’s theme is kindness and the “power words” he associates with it are empathy and respect.                                                                                                                   “It’s not just how I interact with other people; it’s the way teachers should react to each other, it’s the way teachers should respond to students,” Tennison said. “It’s the way students should respond to each other.”
• The LSC committee was happy to report that extending Quickstart by two days made the process faster. They also reported that because of the Credit Card payment option, more seniors paid their fees.
• Tennison also announced that course teams have been meeting to rewrite the curriculum for the entire building.                                                                                                                                                                    “We’re aligning it to AP, which is common core aligned,”  Tennison said. Along with the curriculum changes, students will notice that Lane will no longer have midterms. Instead, teachers will give out unit tests and any tests that fit the teacher’s curriculum. Which, according to Tennison, has received positive feedback.

Culture of College and Career

Tennison announced that new changes in the College and Career Center such as the addition of two new counselors, new computers and the addition of circle tables —which symbolize that everyone can move forward together. The College and Career Center will be writing surveys to determine which colleges to tour and why Lane students are looking into certain universities.

Tennison’s three-year Goal

This current year’s goal is a common unit plan with summative assessment—an assessment used to measure the students learning at the end of the unit and comparing it to a standard, these used to be midterms. The second year will focus on tasks aligned with summative assessments, meaningful homework and grading.

“The third year goal is then grading formative assessments, meaningful homework and everything mirrored to the summative assessments,” Tennison said. “It’s basically understanding by design but doing it for the entire building.”

 These formative assessments, according to Scholastic, are done by teachers during a unit of study to modify their teaching method, if needed.

CIWP

The CIWP, which stands for continuous improvement work plan, will work in the off years to continuously monitor progress. Assistant principal Allison Hildebrandt, will be leading the CIWP’s work. Emily Haite, the LSC chairperson, will serve on the CIWP as the LSC representative.

“Currently our CIWP priorities are balanced assessments and grading,” Tennison said. “ It’s supposed to focus on formative assessments, but we need to have summative assessments before we can have formative, so that’s why we’re working on the curriculum.”

 Other priorities of the CIWP include professional learning, meaningful collaboration, and a multi-tiered system of support which will focus on social-emotional learning.

Fundraisers

The LSC approved eight school fundraisers, some of which include: 

ROTC fruit snacks from November to December

Snap Raise Online fundraiser which will go from Sept. 18 until Oct 6.

The Art department’s mint and gum sale from September to January.