HiCap Parent Council Meeting
June 14, 2022
12:00 pm – 2:00 pm
Appointing new council members for 1 year appointments:
Hollywood Hill EAP – Stephanie Morgan
Motion by Lyn Trier. Seconded by Liz Smith. Passed unanimously.
Kokanee EAP – Ramesh Chundru
Ramesh ran for Woodinville feeder pattern. Bylaws allow us to make an exception and appoint him even though technically he is not eligible.
Motion by Terri Kashi. Seconded by Liz Smith. Passed unanimously.
Choice HS – Megan Montano
May have to withdraw later if kids are not in school because of Covid.
Motion by Lyn Trier. Seconded by Liz Smith. Passed unanimously.
Reading discussion – High Achieving vs Gifted. Is there a distinction? (
Terri – Unfair to kids who work hard but just missed qualifying for HiCap
Austina – Should program be only for kids who have high IQ instead of achievement? Our district is based more on achievement, but some are based more on IQ. Attitudes across the country are all over the place. Larger national community is beginning to believe IQ is an artificial restriction and is used often to deny services to minorities, poor students, English learners, etc
Carson – IQ tests can be taught, so not a good indicator.
Rebecca – Label of “are you gifted” is cruel and unfair.
Imen – Highly capable does not necessarily mean high achiever.
Austina – Does our HiCap program serve gifted students, high-achieving students or both?
Lyn – Really depends on the teacher and subject. But overall, more geared to high achieving.
Imen – More geared to high achieving. Several teachers are unwilling or unable to differentiate within a non-EAP classroom.
Introductions of members (for Amity’s benefit)
Amity updates: implementing a new EAP reading curriculum.
Amity - Teachers are being trained now and end of summer. Students will be integrating reading and writing together, which Is different than In the past. They will be given one grade level above, but may be graded at grade level. Still having discussions about that. Called “Into Reading”. Looks promising so far.
Austina - More aligned with science of reading, including for dyslexic students. More phonics, which is a positive step.
Amity – More language learner components too. Will take some time for teachers to implement and perfect. Fills some holes for writers that have been lacking as they enter middle school. Feedback is welcomed during the year.
Austina – Teachers writing more explicitly than previous curriculums. The big question is how well it works.
Amity update: Screening & Assessment –
Pretty much constantly screening and assessing throughout the year. Finishing tomorrow.
Amity -- Surveys – Some responses from high school senior survey. Waiting for more.
Amity – Parent satisfaction survey will be sent later this week.
Amity – Council brainstorming list was appreciated. Always more to do. Online program is her baby. It’s not perfect, but it’s a way to get accelerated math to students who otherwise would not receive it. Some of the students using it flourish. Many positive comments, although some negative as well.
Austina – Parent survey will tell if parent satisfaction has increased for single-subject qualifiers.
KP Wang – Is it possible to implement new EAP reading curriculum for students who are dual qualified but chose to stay at home school? Can parents get access to these resources online?
Temorah – Into Reading is all K-6, not just EAP. Every classroom in district will get access and can online access to any level they want. But they only get printed materials for their grade. Every teacher should be differentiating by student level.
Amity – Teachers are learning and implementing new curriculum, which is a huge task to learn even just a single grade level. But may be too much for teachers to also grant access to higher levels for students. Don’t want to over-promise what teachers can handle, especially in the first year of teaching new curriculum.
Austina – 5 open positions still on the Council.
Summer Events
HiCap Parents Council Meeting (Zoom)
June 14, 2022 10:00 am-12:00 pm
Steven leaves for Field Day and Carson continues the notes:
We still have open positions for Bear Creek Campus, Ruby Bridges, Wellington, Inglemoor Feeder Pattern, and North Creek Feeder Pattern
Try to recruit for open positions (especially Ruby Bridges for summer EAP playdates)
Candidate only needs to send a statement to council and we can vote on appointing them at the next meeting
Summer events/playdates
Process to reserve school playgrounds (per Vanessa Greek, Ashley did it right so you can talk to her)
Contact: Building Principal, Elizabeth Williamson (hicap@nsd.org), and Vanessa Greek (vgreek@nsd.org) as she knows of any reservation, construction, etc. conflicts
Reservation and Insurance checklist
Reservation requires insurance, but this is not something that the HPC has
Might work around this by having building staff or maybe if done in partnership with the PTA (so we use the PTA’s insurance)
In the past it has tacitly been done under the district’s insurance; if no longer the council may need to find (and fundraise to pay for) insurance
Expect every EAP school to host at least 1 summer event
The best time to host the event is the time that you can make it happen, bonus points if you have 2
No date or time will be perfect, there will always be conflicts. The families who most want the playdate will usually find a way to be there
The EAP rep doesn’t need to be there (they are allowed to delegate), but it is nice to have the rep there to answer questions
Austina wants HCP & Elizabeth to share info about the playdates
Playdates are particularly important for 2nd graders and students entering an EAP class for the first time
Playdate essentials: Nametags for kids and parents plus writing utensils
Nice if you can have some teachers and/or principal show up and talk to the new families
It is great to host playdates at the school, where possible, because at least students and families get to see the playground
Karishma shared that she chose to have her playdates on the weekend with one in the morning and one in the evening
Karishma also has the Bingo template that Carson shared last year (see end of document for image)
Middle school playdates: Do we do them? If so, what has worked?
Canyon Park hosted an event at a Menchies; if you filled out a Bingo sheet (each person could only sign a sheet once), you got a piece of candy
Might not be a great mingling event as it might not help new people meet others
WEB Day (Where Everyone Belongs) on the first day of school is good to help introduce new kids
We are open to a rep wanting to host something for a group that hasn't been represented
Less worried about Wellington as they don’t have new students
Really need to get Ruby Bridges covered
Is there a way to get to know your community for high school?
Could send info to Elizabeth (about an event) and she can send it out to the appropriate families
The district cannot send us a list of families for privacy reasons
We can encourage people to get on the HPC list and could also create a Google Doc of names if they want to sign in
We get ONE message from Elizabeth, so get it all together and do it right
How do we deal with expenses and reimbursement of expenses for playdates?
Must have name tags and pens, also good is some kind of food item that has few allergy issues (like Otter Pops)
We previously discussed a cap of $50; Carson shared that that was more than enough for the nametags and two 100 ct boxes of Otter Pops she got for the playdates for Canyon Creek last year
Lyn prefers to handle reimbursements electronically; email her at lyntrier@gmail.com
Lyn has not yet met with Lauren to receive the treasurer stuff and Lauren is about to go to Europe for 3 weeks
New reps need to get a photo (headshot) to Ashley
Ashley and her child will get together with Qing to handoff the website info and then Ashley’s kid will update the website
Spotlight update
Spotlight recognitions were announced via MailChimp
Austina also sent a message individually to each teacher and cc’d their principal and Amity with a note of congratulations
Meeting times
Austina and Amity checked the calendar for the next school year and the 1st Tuesday of the month from 10 am-12 pm seems to work consistently
This schedule will start on September 6th, 2022
There was recognition of how much time Austina will save not having to ask everyone to vote on a meeting time each month
Will meetings be in-person or hybrid or Zoom
Hybrid can be hard for the person online and is often not as pleasant
We would need a room for approximately 20 people if we meet in person and Amity need to reserve the room
Austina conducted a straw pole of opinions (in-person vs. hybrid) using Zooom reactions
Also acknowledged that meeting format is also dependent upon what the district is able to supports
Amity proposed that we have a purely virtual meeting on September 6th (after travel and all of the summer and to see how things stand with corona in the community) the have a hybrid meeting on October 4th after which we can look at attendance, and the experience with both and make a decision and we all agreed to do this
Asked Amity if it is possible to put a link to the HPC on the district hicap page (much as elementary schools would have a link to the PTA page)
Amity said yes
Angie can make this happen
Request for any committees to share if they have something to report
Myriam with high school (common course catalog/equal rigor)
We need to figure out what is next if anything
We had been working on creating a common course catalog for the comprehensive high schools (Bothell, Inglemoor, North Creek, Woodinville)
We have not done much for the last few months, but we need to be acting soon before the catalogs “go to print”
Request for others who are interested in this work (beyond the high school reps) to contact Myriam to join the group
Encourages people with kids in elementary and middle school to help
Progress is slow so if you want the change in place when they get to high school, start now
Where are we on the effort to standardize names or change offerings?
Started more about content and rigor, e.g. some US history courses have finals and others do not
Later, focus became on what the course content is
Want to leave teachers freedom to choose material
Also want to make sure that kids all discuss for example a Shakespeare play
Desire to have course descriptions be less generic and more specific
This might reveal differences between the high schools (in content or rigor)
Hopefully, this leads to positive change, e.g. all schools should teach all topics covered in an AP course before the AP test in May (this is not currently the case)
There was an effort to review courses across buildings, anything new?
Nothing new to report
Most energy has been on transition (superintendent)
Michael Tolley (interim superintendent) is aware that the committee has met since he was part of it
Might need to sit down and look at which goals are currently realistic
Common course catalog had seemed achievable
Progress in this area has been hard and slow
Need to make catalogs clearer, especially for families without prior US high school experiences; content of the course helps them understand since they can relate to that
Review AP courses across subjects and buildings
We can ask for these results to be shared
In the future, we should add a question to the senior survey along the lines of: “Were you well prepared by your teacher for AP exams or did you have to study some topics on your own?” The answers to this could help reveal differences in experiences across buildings (or even within)
Observation that most of the people working on curriculum for science and social studies rolled off the board (and for the subtopic of professional development as well
Professional Development (PD) with Carson
Teachers, counselors, and staff need a baseline of what is normal for hicap students
Counselors at two middle schools have said that 504s are only for students who struggle; one school said they weren’t needed because teachers provide accommodations to everyone anyway
Struggle seems to to be defined as poor grades, not by medical disorder or need (to not work twice as hard to achieve good grades)
Intelligence may be hiding hicap students’ struggles, but does that make them less qualified to receive accommodations?
Austina shared a reframing of ADHD from her graduate school studies: It is not that people with ADHD cannot focus, bu that they can focus on somethings
They cannot always control their focus
General assessment of people with ADHD
They struggle when things are: rote, repetitive, or too easy even if it is very, very, important
They succeed when things are: interesting (what is interesting is very personal), novel, new to them, challenging, or urgent
It isn’t fair or nice to require a fire drill (urgency) to get things done
Carson shared learning from a podcast (https://shows.acast.com/618c3caaa322d1001350082c/episodes/dr-russell)
Adhd behaviors are symptoms
Behavior is an expression of the disorder like sneezing is an expression of an allergy
Just as you wouldn't ask a kid with allergies to control/reduce their sneezing, you cannot ask/expect a person with ADHD to control/reduce ADHD symptoms
When pollen count is high, you might expect a person with allergies to sneeze more; similarly when stress or anxiety are high, you can expect to see more ADHD behaviors
Sources for the discussion at the beginning of the meeting:
Our discussion reading for this meeting will be:
https://www.nagc.org/blog/bright-vs-gifted-unnecessary-distinction
(The popular “gifted vs bright/high achieving” chart this article referring to is found all over the place, and even showed up on the NSD hicap website about a decade ago. A few examples:
- https://mtischer.santancharterschool.com/gifted-resources/high-achiever-or-gifted/
- https://www.raytownschools.org/Page/1464
- https://www.google.com/amp/s/coppellgifted.org/2009/09/16/is-your-child-a-high-acheiver-gifted-learner-or-creative-thinker/amp/)
