Wednesday, April 15, 2020

Minutes from 4/14/20 Meeting


HiCap Parents Council Meeting
via Zoom with Amity Butler and Angie Hancock
April 14, 2020
1:00 pm – 3:00 pm


  1. New EAP sites next fall – Families have been notified.
  2. Will work on parent survey ideas for district. District wants to take over control of the survey, but possibly use HiCap Parent Councils survey device.
  3. Plans for next fall – concerns for missing school. Everyone is missing school. Parents are probably more concerned than students are.
  4. Algebra readiness testing – There is a plan. Not perfect, but there is no perfect plan. Best plan they can get accomplished prior to middle school registration. Planning to test students tomorrow via Zoom. Had to make sure Riverside was ok with that plan. A new adventure for proctoring over Zoom. Four different sessions tomorrow.
    1. Mr. Keeler sent an update to Bear Creek parents addressing the concerns. Amity saw email before it went out.
    2. This is not a HiCap test. They took it on because the HiCap Department knows how to test online. Not every department knows how to do that.
  5. Angie – Number of students who were offered HiCap services and their responses. Not all families responded to accept or not accept services. If so, they reached out via email, robocalls and school principals. If no response, they can mark it as no response and students are treated as if they did not accept.
  6. Numbers of EAP students in each grade at each EAP site. Given the numbers, there will definitely be some split classes. As of now, no changes are planned for the list of EAP sites. Numbers do not reflect waivers and students moving in/out of district. HiCap may share the numbers, just with disclosure that the numbers are not final.
  7. Canyon Creek discussion
    1. Discussion about whether students at Canyon Creek will be split into those designated for Skyview and Canyon Park middle schools. No current plan or explicit rules, but will probably be mixed.
    2. Canyon Creek is one of the few EAP sites that do not fit the middle school feeder pattern.
    3. Have not looked at split at Canyon Creek by middle school.
    4. Placement forms, but CC says they do not have parent contact information for incoming families. Angie says they should have it though if they look at assignments for next year.
    5. Presumably an issue for other EAP schools as well
  8. Parent Survey
    1. Angie copied old council survey and is tweaking that.
    2. Want it to be a quick survey
    3. Overall goal of survey is to gauge parent satisfaction
    4. What questions does the council want asked?
    5. Will survey go out to parents of high school students as well? Angie says yes. Austina wants to know whether high school HiCap students are getting their needs met
    6. Austina suggested a question about satisfaction with new EAP sites
    7. Will parents or students know which test is which? And what does it mean to enjoy taking a test? Remove the questions.
    8. Need demographic of neighborhood home school, not just which EAP school they attended
    9. Add question about whether parent felt the screening and assessment process was fair.
    10. One survey response per student, not per family. Have tried in the past to have separate responses for each child within a single survey, but was too confusing.
    11. Angie will send out the survey questions for us to provide feedback.
    12. Can the survey be translated into multiple languages? Robocalls are translated via Google translate, which is not perfect. Distinction between home language and preferred language, but English is preferred language for 90% of families.
  9. Austina gathered questions from people via Facebook group
  10. Waivers – Why have to wait until August? To make sure people who move to district can land first, and then worry about waivers.
    1. Lots of waivers to Liota have been granted already. Same with Canyon Park.
    2. Perhaps middle schools have a better history of knowing their staffing needs and waiver requests better. More about principal discretion and numbers.
  11. Transition Activities – Stress because they are not going to happen because of COVID, particular for Bear Creek.
    1. Can Dr. Reid do a call with Bear Creek parents like she has for 8th, 11th and 12th graders?
    2. Jasmine – Dr. Reid did not have a lot of answers to specific questions. Perhaps getting principals of incoming elementary schools together instead?
    3. How about each incoming principal host a Zoom meeting with EAP kids? Or parent arranged similar to EAP play dates? How about a parent-focused meeting since parents are probably more stressed than kids?
    4. Amity thinks each principal could do an evening meeting with parents. Or maybe a video welcoming kids and giving a virtual tour. Kids would probably be less interested.
    5. Not sure how to get kids to meet each other online and interact.
    6. Could the district send out a notice to new parents and parents who are switching schools?
  12. Discussion about teachers, particularly Mr. Symons at Lockwood, was unaware kids are being transferred out of Lockwood.
  13. Hiring and training for new EAP teachers
    1. Amity – There is a plan, but not fully defined yet. Have to honor collective bargaining, seniority, etc. for where existing EAP teachers will be next year.
    2. There should be an EAP spot for each existing EAP teacher that is displaced, but not necessarily in grade or location they want. Process has started though.
  14. Portfolio reviews & private school testing issues
    1. Portfolio reviews were completed on time
    2. Has first review on Thursday for private school and outside school-district reviews. Don’t have many, so they are not done all the time. Will do another round in June and then throughout the summer.
    3. Portfolio reviews are done anonymously. The screeners have no idea which student they are looking at. Race, ethnicity and other demographic data is hidden. Just the criteria that are considered during the appeal. If new criteria are later considered, they go back and re-examine a student considered prior to the new criteria being considered.
    4. What to do when there is no data and no test was given? No good answer.
  15. Algebra readiness testing – Some kids will be tested under adverse circumstances. Are results considered differently?
    1. Purpose is to avoid placing child in a class that will be too hard
    2. But if parent wants their child to be placed in Algebra in 6th grade anyway, they can choose to take that on.
    3. Sessions are being run around Amity’s schedule and when people are available to help with any IT issues. Angie and Amity are proctoring the testing tomorrow.
    4. Sessions are scheduled by classroom. Possibly makeup time on Thursday.
  16. High school
    1. Are incoming 9th graders going to be ready for pre-calc? They will have to do an assessment at the beginning of the year. Everyone is in the same boat. Amity has contacted middle school teachers for transition from 5th to 6th. She could contact 9th grade teachers as well.
    2. Registration questions – Are counselors working? They should be. Last week was Spring Break.
    3. Lack of communication from BHS compared to other high schools
    4. HiCap info nights happened at some high schools. Woodinville and North Creek happened. Inglemoor and Bothell did not happen. (Discussion about info nights at Woodinville and North Creek, effectiveness and involvement of counselors.)
  17. Innovation Lab High School
    1. Is happening next year
    2. Everyone who wanted a spot got in
    3. Can we get numbers on HiCap kids who enrolled, particularly doubly gifted
    4. 30% HiCap enrollment
    5. Enrollment: Around 150 9th graders and 50 10th graders
    6. Lack of athletics and music is a deal breaker for many kids
  18. Distance Learning Impacts
    1. Any knowledge of in-school HiCap services? They should be providing what they got in class, and it should be easier or at least not harder. There is guidance for teachers, but do not know how parents feel.
    2. Returning library books – There is interschool mail. So not a big deal.
    3. Ready for next year’s curriculum – Concern at every grade. No one knows.
  19. Curriculum updates – dedicated curriculum for EAP, AAP and in-school. Nothing is happening on that now, but want to keep it on the radar.
  20. Funding stability from State because of COVID – Danger for funding in general, but HiCap is not specifically at risk. Just potential for across the board funding cuts.
  21. Long term numbers – Reminder to keep an eye on them.
    1. Underserved populations – difficult number to assess
    2. Most students in >95% ITBS but 85-95% Naglieri were single-subject qualifiers, not dual qualifiers.
  22. Post Amity/Angie – Election discussion
    1. Need new positions for Ruby Bridges, Canyon Creek, Hollywood Hills and Kokanee and Innovation High School
    2. Steven or Carson or Bonnie for Canyon Creek
    3. Dropping Shelton View, Wellington, Woodmoor and Bear Creek
    4. Need new rep for Lockwood, Skyview Middle and Canyon Park Middle
    5. Bonnie no longer meets requirements for Bothell feeder pattern
    6. Lauren could take over North Creek High School
    7. Should include a note in the email invitation for the survey sent by the district
    8. Need someone who is not running to be in charge of elections
    9. Austina is not up for re-election and will handle the elections