HiCap Parents Council Meeting
No Reading/discussion today
Discussion of Spotlight nominees
Do we want to limit this to one person per level? Not necessarily, if we can write a good story about what they do to share with others
Short list: Determined by the number of votes and most in-depth number of nominations (comments)
Do we want to vote based on comments or by “power” checklist items people suggested?
Feel written comments would be more helpful
Terri & Imen will condense and present the data via email
The point is to share the story, so we really need to see what people wrote to help elevate good practices
Will vote later via survey or email
Lynne has a record of nominating two teachers, but neither are on the list
Same for Hillarie (1 of her 2 nominees is recorded)
Maybe there was an error in the Survey Gizmo export or elsewhere?
Lynne’s auto replies are dated April 11th
Suggestions for future improvements
Don’t run the survey during spring break next year, as many probably missed it due to that timing
Maybe another survey tool would work better
We can discuss more ways to improve this in the future at the next meeting
Amity Updates
Testing is wrapping up
NVP outdoor testing was done last week (got a break in the weather)
There are a few testing dates in June for transfer/new-to-district testing for placement next fall
There are a few out-of-district waivers hoping there will be space
EAP locations were finalized 2 weeks ago and are live on the website (https://www.nsd.org/schools/programs-services/highly-capable-services/services-programs/eap)
HiCap department sent sample Blackboard messages to schools that they can customize and send out to their families
They had to make sure schools got access to their list of hicap families so that they could send out the welcome messages via Blackboard
People should know their EAP placements now
Families do NOT need to re-enroll at new school, fill out a waiver, or contact transportation (all of this gets figured out in district)
If a family go a welcome message from the wrong school, they should contact HiCap department
There was a suggestion to consider sharing this information in PTA newsletters
Amity shared that the placements are personalized; some families get waivers/variances to keep siblings together
Families should know where they land as “placement has been decided”
New families should have been contacted already
Amity notes that not all districts approve waivers for the length of a child’s career at that school level; this is something Northshore does well
Professional Development
There will again be Summer Institute in August
Elementary: focus will be on the new ELA program
Secondary: hope to focus on understanding hicap students
How do we get people to attend?
Some training will be in person and some will be virtual
Amity is talking to Austina to see who to bring in as Austina is already engaged for those dates
More intentional focus on middle school AAP
Class composition
AAP curriculum
Will have to work through the Curriculum Materials Adoption Committee (CMAC) process
Amity is focusing on ELA and social studies, but also needs to do science
Might be a Springboard supplement for ELA
Work is being done on an ethnic studies course for high school, maybe more for middle school?
Amity asks if we have suggestions of places to look for curriculum
Terra will send her an email of ideas
Request for a suggestion of ways to prepare new principals taking on hicap for the first time
Amity shared that the new Sunrise principal, Micahel Griffin, may not have much hicap experience, but Amity will talk to him
Her perspective is that he will be a good learner and a quality fit
Mr. Griffin joined NSD (from Seattle SD) during the pandemic
He was Principal at Lockwood for a year (they have EAP) and then at Woodinville High School as an Assistant Principal
Terri commented that there is not a strong writing curriculum
Middle school work is graded based on a rubric
This does not clearly highlight what students are doing wrong and what needs to be improved
Amity asked specifically if there are any recommendations for social studies programs for middle school; Terra said yes, but the ones she had reviewed would not necessarily be good for large groups
Amity will also talk to Melissa Riley, Assistant Director of Equity Pedagogy and on the Ethnic Studies Pilot Work Team
Myriam stated that curriculum uniformity should be looked at for more levels and also evaluated for how it is taught in every school; this is not just a high school issue
High school working with Steven Gearing (sp?) to look at course rigor along levels, where they are in school, and outcomes (colleges and college success/graduation)
Is being examined and also school by school
There is progress just slow
Stephanie shared that kids don’t know grammar which also makes it harder to study foreign languages (as they aren’t already familiar with parts of speech or tenses)
There was no explicit grammar in K-5 before the new curriculum
Grammar instruction at these levels is teacher dependent rather than systemic
Parent Survey
Austina expects this to only be a minor update so we can compare it to the previous year it was conducted
Austina and Carson are working on the updates
This survey is sent to hicap families and asks about their satisfaction with programs
Historically, EAP families are happy and Single Subject Qualifier (SSQ) families are not happy
Expect we’ll see more happiness for math SSQ’s in 4th/5th grade due to offering of accelerated math
Asked to look at doing something similar for 2nd and 3rd grade
Amity cannot expand at this point because she ran out of money for FTE (Full Time Education)
FTEs follow up with kids doing work on Edgenuity and make sure they are on track and answer questions
There was a suggestion to add questions to find out if a SSQ is doing walk to math or Edginuity
Survey additions
Add NFP
Make sure Innovation Lab HS (ILHS) is present on the school lists
Shouldn’t need to add ILHS specific questions about satisfaction for hicap as that should come based on their answers to later survey questions
Amity would like to get the survey out before seniors check out so we can get their feed back
The Senior Survey is a different thing; it asks hicap designated seniors to reflect on their experiences of hicap education
We should do this again as well, as it went out late last year and we are among the first years where students have been able to be in hicap from 2nd-12th grades
HCP can prepare the survey, but the HiCap department needs to send this one out (HCP doesn’t have access to student lists)
Elizabeth Williamson asked about summer playdates
If we want the hicap department to share our playdate information, especially for new, incoming students, we should send it to Elizabeth (ewilliamson@nsd.org)
We expect this planning to happen in a month as new council members take over EAP spots
Council (and community) members are welcome to plan playdates that occur before school gets out, but traditionally, these happen over the summer
Amity, Elizabeth, and Angie leave
Council Updates
Treasurer’s Report from Lauren
We have just over $1,300
This is about 10 months' worth of expenses
Fiscal year runs from July to June
If we need money for summer activities, we might need to do a call for donations
We have 11 EAP schools
Estimate $50 per school
Maybe we could ask for donations to sponsor 1 school’s summer playdates
If PTAs have a welcome committee, maybe we could combine playdate efforts with them
Lauren will not be treasurer next year (she won’t have a student in the district) so someone else on council will have to fill the position, but it is neither hard nor time-consuming
Election
About 2/3rds of the council positions are up for election this year
Austina can cover the election emails and survey/voting, since she isn’t up for election this year
We need to decide the election schedule
We need to decide if we keep positions as is or if we should split alternate programs
Terra’s thoughts
Next year the Bear Creek Campus will house Northshore Virtual Program (NVP), Northshore Family Partnership (NFP), and Northshore Networks (NN)
She believes that it will make sense for one representative to cover this school
ILHS needs its own representative or something else
Megan thought it might be better for the Bear Creek Campus programs to have their own representatives because the programs might have different needs
Bear Creek Campus is getting a new principal to oversee all and the programs will be working concurrently
This information makes it sound like it will work better to have one representative to meet with the principal
Suggested that We have a Bear Creek Campus rep and a Alternative high school rep to cover ILHS and Secondary Academy for Success (SAS)
Suggested made to call it Choice High School Rep
Motion made to disband NVP & alternative programs representatives and move to Choice High School Rep (covering IHLS and SAS) and Bear Creek Campus Rep (covering NVP, NFP, and NN)
Motion seconded
Motion passes
Nomination form will go out in a few days
Initial date planning:
Nominations accepted May 18th-June 1st
Voting June 3rd-10th
Transition meeting during the week of June 13th
Comments on initial plan
Maybe run voting May 31st- June 7th
People don’t really need a week to vote
Close on June 5th or 6th
Evening transition meeting picked for June 7th at 7pm via Zoom
In the next few days/week after transition meeting will have a daytime meeting with Amity et. al.
If end voting on June 5th, it leaves a day to let new representatives know they need to attend the evening meeting on June 7th
Final dates
Nominations accepted May 18th-26th
Voting May 31st-Jun 5th
Evening transition meeting on June 7th at 7pm
Daytime meeting with Amity TBD
If you are not running to fill your current position, encourage someone else to run to fill that spot
