HiCap Parents Council Meeting
Fill ins: Randy Graybeal in for Ruthe Graybeal; Jasmine Fry in for Terri Kashi; Tessa Blocksom in for Gavin Doyle
NVP candidate: Megan Montaño
Megan has kids in NVP in both primary and secondary and proposed taking on both roles
Megan does not currently plan to have her students return to in person learning once vaccines are available for students aged 5-11 years, and is likely there for the whole year
Motion by Lyn Trier to appoint Megan to cover both positions but leave the 2nd position open if another candidate comes forward; Seconded by Hillarie Windish
Chu Xu amends motion appoint Megan, but not leave a position open for 2nd NVP rep
Discussion: pro- we can appoint anyone we want for any position due to last bylaw change; con- delivery of learning is very different between primary and secondary and if we don’t continue to have a parent who sees both in their own home and NVP continues beyond this school year, we should still have a person at each level
Chu’s amendment passes
Subsequent vote on Chu’s amended motion passes and Megan is appointed
Article discussion: Neuroscience of High IQ Brain website https://www.gro-gifted.org/the-neuroscience-of-giftedness/
Article makes it clear that people don’t outgrow giftedness
Giftedness affects behavior
It is the job of a parent to guide kids through struggles because they have a physical brain difference, not an attitude problem
Differences in sensory reactions (e.g. tags, texture of food) aren’t choices and allow parents to “choose battles” and also talk through differences with their kids
This research is really recent, done in the last 5-10 years
There are structural changes and they really matter
Sensory and emotional parts of high IQ brains are larger and this helps explain their big emotions and textural sensitivities
Question: Are these findings shared with staff- Not yet, but Amity can share
Like that there are physical differences: this can change the argument from eliminating gifted education to working to identify minorities and other underrepresented groups who also demonstrate these physical differences
Topics for future discussion: Social emotional or something to help parents make transitional choices (if we want this as an event, we need a person to volunteer to spearhead it)
Amity updates
Screening and Testing
We are in the middle of screening; last test scheduled to be on November 15th
There is an extreme lack of guest teachers/paras in the district
In order to not stress the system, Amity is doing a lot of screening
Amity will also have to start subbing (on 10/28, district office personnel with teaching certificates were asked to fill sub positions)
These issues may push the schedules
IOWA testing will follow
Hope to get middle schools done by Thanksgiving
Elementary schools are scheduled to be covered in the first 3 weeks of December
All make ups will be done in January (want screener makeups done in November)
Sending out a lot of Blackboards to get permission for IOWA testing for qualified students
90%of 1st and 5th graders have talent the screener
~100 fewer 1st graders were dual qualified via NNAT3 (got a score in 95th+ percentile) than last year and wonder why
Maybe due to the fact that due to the pandemic, students are new to school and the screen or environment is thus much more unfamiliar to students
Maybe 2020 was just a particularly large class
ELL numbers might be low because they were tested for HiCap but might not yet be marked as ELL in the system, so number might go up as those items get linked to students in the system
Request to define acronyms
ELL: English Language Learners; however names will be changing to Multilingual Program and English Language Development classes (changing to be coming from a position of strength rather than deficit)
FRL: Free and Reduced Lunch
IEP: Individualized Education Plans (may have test accommodations)
504: medical accommodations (may have test accommodations)
Private and Homeschool testing is likely to happen in January
Professional Development (PD)
Amity met with 36 EAP teachers on 10/27/21 to prepare for parent/teacher conferences and review grading practices
She has gotten to meet with some AAP teachers in 2 middle schools; she will work on getting to the other middle schools later
High School Common Course Catalog meeting update
Working on teasing out what the course catalog can and cannot solve, but it is a starting point
Looking at the differences in culture and rigor among the 4 comprehensive high schools: Bothell, Inglemoor, North Creek, and Woodinville
There are 4 Regional Area Superintendents (RASs) and we have met with the RASs who represent the North, Obadiah Dunham, and East, Michael Tolley, regions
Our ask: similar rigor and grading policies across the district
Previous wins: implemented a waiver for system to help HiCap students access courses that might otherwise require a prerequisite
Next meeting is on course descriptions and we need to provide an example of a course description that we like
Steven build a course catalog tool that is more searchable than the current giant .pdf document and works on both mobile and web browsers (as an example it is currently loaded with the course data for Inglemoor)
Desire to get a demo of this put on the next course catalog meeting
Concern that while this is an awesome tool, it might take away from the discussion on good course descriptions
NVP Update
Working on making outdoor testing slots for 1st grade NVP students (most students can test online)
Megan was invited to join the HiCap Parents Council (HCP) because she drove work to get this screening done outdoors
There was originally a problem with the form families used to request the outdoor testing, but it has been corrected
Have gotten fewer responses than hoped (20 out of 74; only sent to people who needed to fill it out)
Council questions for Amity
When is IOWA testing? Parents are asking.
IOWA testing will occur form 11/15-12/17
Hope to have the approximate schedule (when testing will happen at each school) on the website once it is et
Amity cannot work around individuals’ vacations
When are EAP answers due for NNAT3 qualifiers?
Currently 11/05, but will work to change
Ask families with placement concerns to say yes to accept EAP placement first, then get them on the waiver list (for younger siblings)
We cannot finalize waiver requests until we know the class sizes for the sibling classes which happens late in the summer
If families do not get their waiver, they are allowed to go back to their neighborhood school if they decide that is best for their family
Are we clear about this with our families?
We cannot be as clear about this due to character limitations on the 4”x4” space available to us
There is a link there for more information where this can be clearly stated
Amity voiced that there is no way that a letter can be supportive, but conversations can
If people call her, she will have a conversation with them
Parents also need to know that they can change their mind and go back to their home school
Strong belief that parents talking to other parents and sharing our experiences with others facing the EAP choice is supportive
Desire to have an “About EAP” presentation on Zoom
Feel that HCP can help as an adjunct but that this message really needs to come first from the district
HCP role might be the “supportive touch”
Amity said she needs to look at her calendar to see if/when she can get this done
Ask to see if we can move the response deadline until after this information can be shared; Amity will see if it is possible
Thoughts about how HCP can help get information out
Post on the NSD Facebook page to let parents know about the HiCap Facebook page if they have questions
Share information in your school’s (or feeder pattern schools’) PTA newsletter; we can also share commonly answered questions in the newsletter
Elizabeth Williamson shared that as she helps answer questions for the HiCap department, she is also letting parents know about her own experience as a parent of hicap students and pointing them to the HCP to help get more information
When will makeups happen? We hpe NNAT3 make ups for 1st graders are done in November
Amity, Angie, and Elizabeth told that they are free to leave or can stay to listen to our discussion of our priorities for the coming year
Discussion of Council Priorities for the Year
Goal of limiting to three priorities
Cannot be a priority if no one is willing to lead it
Among the top vote getters:
Common Course Catalog- leds by Myriam Juritz
Hillarie Windish has volunteered to help spearhead issues of curriculum
NFP (Northshore Family Partnership) has already worked on finding effective writing curriculums; Terra Droney would be happy to share what they have found and lead the group focused on improving Writing curriculum
Some concern about pairing writing with reading as some students who qualify for reading also have dyslexia or dysgraphia
Talked about how there are accommodations like typing work or voice to text programs that can help students with these issues and that would be aligned with universal design (and could also help students who are not 2e)
Also talked about how if students want to have advanced classes that evaluate books, they will be required to write at the level of those accelerated classes
Not sure that 2nd grade would be the appropriate place to jump (guessing it might be in middle school), but part of the committee’s job would be to figure that out
Interest in researching PD ideas/rules- Audrey Kozel interested in making sure this isn’t lost
Audrey remembered there may have been a legislative effort to improve this
Austina shared that there was a bill up in the legislature for PD for administrators, counselors, and principals that has come up each year for about the last 3 years and every year it doesn’t pass because it is too expensive and it has now been decoupled from other issues because it is preventing them from passing as well
Asked what high school teachers know about having a HiCap kid in their class since they aren’t really isolated at that level (and maybe only known for a small note in Synergy)
Probably not much
Experience of triple jumpers getting less help when asking a teacher for help (told they can figure it out themselves) than their classmates who are closer to grade level
Audrey volunteers to lead this group
Asked for details about where Hillarie sees the Issues with curriculum focusing
Want to see how support can be given to kids in science and social studies (where curriculum is not advanced)
Wants to look at what other gifted students are doing nationally and world-wide
Look to see if there are advanced curricula out there
Offer that as PD got more votes that curriculum and has a leader, perhaps that one should the the third priority
Felt that we really needed to do some “prework” to figure out what the issues and possibilities are in the area of PD and that this feels like it should be a level below the three main priorities and perhaps rise higher when we know more
Austina shared that the only person who can require HiCap training is a building principal
Suggestion that just like we were told in August that it is important for parents to ask what the schools Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) plan is for HiCap students, it can be important for parents to ask what the HiCap professional development plan for your school is as well
Aim for the next meeting to be in the first week of December
