HiCap Parent Council
Meeting
Feburary 8, 2023
5:00 pm – 7:00 pm
Hybrid: In-person & Zoom
1. Discussion
about whether evening meeting is better for people than day-time meeting
a. Problem
for many parents with kids’ evening activities / dinner.
b. Good
for parents who work and cannot attend meetings during the day.
c. Difficult
to schedule far in advance because school evening events schedule is not always
planned in advance, such as music concerts.
d. Overlap
with PTA meetings.
e. Would
more working parents sign up at reps if we have evening meetings?
f.
Generally evening meetings are just the Council without
district administration.
g. Night
meetings might work better if later.
Amity Updates
2.
Next
meeting moved from March 7 to March 21 from 10-12. (Originally scheduled for
3.
30
kids left to test across the district. Hope to finish next week. IOWA testing
was today for NorthShore Networks. Have been very flexible accommodating
vacations.
4.
Will
be conducting a testing experiment on Friday with using Google Translate for
one child from Turkish language. Question about whether it works out and how
long it takes. Worth trying because it’s a middle school student, not
elementary.
5.
Qualifying
1st grade students:
a.
Math-only:
155
b.
Reading-only:
76
c.
Reading
& Math: 495
d.
Total:
726
6.
Qualifying
numbers seem to be consistent each year, not including a covid spike. Not a
huge 5th grade spike anymore since students are often captured along
the way.
7.
Other
Qualifiers
a.
5th
grade: 169
b.
4th
grade: 140
8.
How
students qualified:
a.
Most
students qualified by taking IOWA.
b.
A
few via SBA in grades 4 & 5.
c.
Some
via both IOWA and SBA.
d.
Just
2 via SBA, IOWA and Local Norms.
e.
262
1st graders just via NNAT.
f.
Total
of 1708 students qualified.
9.
Demographics:
a.
Over
50% of NSD is white. Second highest demographic qualifying is Asian, but don’t
distinguish within “Asian” further.
b.
745
white students qualified
c.
2
or more demographics: 166
d.
113
hispanic/Latino
e.
6
unknown
f.
23
African American
g.
4
American Indian / Alaskan Native
h.
156
multi-lingual
i.
89
with IEP
j.
114
from low income
k.
90
with 504 plans
l.
Can
be in more than one category
10.
Qualification
status letters should go home after mid-winter break, if not before. Depends on
whether graphics office is working over mid-winter break.
11.
Need
to finalize wording of the letters, which includes scores whereas emails do not
include scores to prevent mistakes. Some parents of non-qualifying students are
offended by the wording of the letters.
12.
Discussion
about whether there is an opt-out for parents who do not want to be notified
about screening results, particularly for special education students who did
not know ahead of time they could opt out of the testing.
13.
February
18 – District asks parents to decide who have already been notified. For those
who have not yet been notified, the request is to decide within a few weeks
after being notified.
14.
Kindergarteners
are just assessed, not screened. State best practice.
Council
Questions / Updates
15.
Choosing
between EAP and other programs (Chinese, Spanish, PACE)
a.
Sunrise
has a Chinese program, but would like to participate in EAP too
b.
Not
a true immersion program, but more like a language class. Some parents are not
happy with the immersion program because of that.
c.
Not
a possibility to do both though
d.
This
issue was explicitly discussed when the Chinese immersion program was begun.
e.
One
option is to offer after-school foreign language classes for EAP kids.
16.
High
School Math Course for triple jumpers…
a.
Inglemoor
– quasi differential equations course because of IB where first semester is
Calculus B/C review. Inglemoor was already offering a 3rd year
calculus class, but could be redundant for students from Woodinville and
Bothell.
b.
Woodinville
does not have enough triple jumpers to offer anything, but will take it at
North Creek and/or Inglemoor. Probably 1st or 7th period,
in part because of band students.
c.
About
1 dozen kids in each school this year. Will be more next year. And not all are
planning to take this class. Could take AP Statistics, Physics, College in High
School, etc. So district is looking at synergy across schools, including
potentially online.
d.
North
Creek will offer linear algebra.
e.
All
schools will have a course after next year when there are many more students in
this situation.
f.
Trying
to coordinate with Transportation to ensure equity.
17.
High
School Registration
a.
There
are info sessions for incoming families
b.
Woodinville
is doing pre-sessions for HiCap, Spec Ed and Multi-lingual.
c.
Inglemoor
-- IB Info session on 3/2 at 7 pm for current 8th graders
d.
Bothell
High School is doing info session at Canyon Park at 3/2 as well. Problem for
BHS students who may want to consider IB.
18.
NSD
Neurodiverse Families meeting
a.
Not
just a 2E group
b.
Had
15 people at meeting
c.
5
people asked about whether they could do an evening meeting instead of daytime
d.
Some
HiCap families with IEPs
19.
What
options are there for a rising 6th grader to accelerate math if they didn’t
qualify for hicap (via testing or SBAs)? Is it possible to request an algebra
readiness test?.
a.
Could
take summer math courses that the district offers
b.
Take
6th grade math over the summer and then take 7th grade
challenge math
20.
District
document that discusses algebra readiness screening.
a.
Has
nothing to do with HiCap
b.
Screening
based on existing district data: grades, SBA & i-Ready
c.
Confuses
(and upsets) parents
Council Business
21.
HPC
Budget
a.
Filed
990, so up to date.
b.
$489
in the bank as of end of January
c.
Spend
$130 per month: Survey: $55. MailChimp $88.
d.
Need
donations before run out of money
e.
Cannot
currently afford insurance
f.
Will
be getting $300 donation for employee volunteer matching from Nordstrom thru
Benevity.
g.
Income
from Amazon Smile, about $200 this year, but that is ending.
h.
Can
ask PTAs again to donate
i.
Should
ask community for donations, including for insurance
22.
Donation
Link for Council Webpage – Fixed
23.
AIM
- Association Insurance Management Inc
a.
Need
$1M liability: $225
b.
Suggestion
to add Directors and Officers Liability: $75
c.
$255
per year for these 2 coverages. Others are un-necessary.
d.
Most
playdates costs are paid for by donations for HiCap reps who plan them. Maybe
$30 - $40 when asked for reimbursement, but no one requested reimbursement last
year.
e.
Motion
from Lyn to purchase insurance – once we have the money to cover it. Seconded
by Karishna. No objections. Ayes: 8 in person, 5 online. No’s: none. Motion
passes unanimously.
f.
Karishna
volunteered to draft an email to HiCap mailing list requesting donations
24.
Volunteer
to redesign website to make it look nicer. Could buy an off-the-shelf template
for $50 with offer to donate the money for it. Simple html requirements. $6 per
month for hosting. Current webmaster (high school student) would be willing to
do the grunt work.
Discussion Topic – Neurodiversity: The
Future of Special Education?
https://www.ascd.org/el/articles/neurodiversity-the-future-of-special-education
25.
Austina took a class by this author in her grad program.
26.
Author is not a gifted expert or even 2E expert, but is
out-of-the-box thinker about what to do with Special Education kids.
27.
Saw unicorns and rainbows and structural system that is
not designed for unicorns and rainbows.
28.
Dovetails nicely with end of average ideas. We are
capable of doing more than we think if we don’t focus on all following the same
timeline.
29.
Problem if supporting worthiness of special needs
students as a moral obligations, but not HiCap students.
30.
If support Special needs students and do not frame
their needs as a negative, that may negatively affect fundraising and other
efforts by interest groups.
31.
Just because a student can fit in a general ed program
does not necessarily mean getting their needs met.
32.
Universal Design for Learning (UDL) -- Neuro-diversity
strength based standards means letting students use their personal strengths (artistic,
oral, etc.) to determine how to meet project requirements. Not quite there in
the district, but some teachers do currently encourage that.
33.
Challenge with this approach is that both teachers and
parents get worried when kids are allowed to not do the hard thing that they
are not good at. While it may grow their strengths, it does not address their
challenges and get them to grade level for a particular skill. Would need to
convince parents especially that developing a kid’s strengths is better for
them long term.
34.
What is the balance between letting kids develop their
strengths and working on their weaknesses?
35.
Is there too much focus on identifying and fixing
problems (deficits) instead of focusing on their strengths, and they will be
more engaged since they are interested and working on things they enjoy and are
good at.
36.
Works really well for 2E kids to focus 100% on their
strengths
37.
Could some of this be incorporated as best practice,
not just in HiCap classrooms but all classrooms? Flexibility in assignments
could be relatively easy for a teacher to support. But again, parent and
teacher expectations are a critical factor. Would require parent education so
parents are not concerned their kids’ weaknesses are not being addressed.
