Location: HCS Flex Space
Attending: J. O’Hara, R. Kring, J.
Goldsmith, C. Wuthrich, J. Cathcart, S. Riley, T. Jones, A. Douglas, R.
Wuthrich, N. Wood, C. Goldsmith, S. Lepple, K. Dodge
CELEBRATIONS / Partner appreciation
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In honor of Staff Appreciation week, multiple
appreciations were shared
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The question was asked if the tradition of
starting meeting with appreciations or celebrations should be restarted
PRINCIPAL UPDATE
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Staff
○
14 leaving; 5 retirements and others are leaving
for a variety of reasons
○
There will be a celebration during an in-service
lunch time and at a staff social event at Rocky Ridge
■
All leaving staff will be honored
■
A special recognition is planned for retiring
staff members
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New Hires
○
There were many applicants for open positions
○
New Hires need to be approved by the board and
all were unanimously approved
■
Natalie Cowden will be the 1st grade
teacher
■
Rebecca Zavadil from Bristol Elementary will be
the 6th grade teacher
■
Other teachers will be announced at a later date
●
Kim O’Brien (3rd grade) and Erika Bickford (4th
grade) have just been approved by the board
○
Special Education hires
■
CSSU hires for Special Education
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A special education hire is planned (filling
Kristen French’s position)
■
Alicia Kurth will replace Laura Smith and comes
from WCS; will be a part-time special ed administrator and will be split
between Charlotte and Hinesburg
○
Principal Search Update
■
There were 12 applicants, 3 were
interviewed. It was reflected that this
was a relatively small, but successful pool of applicants. Suzan Locke has been
named the new co-principal
■
The new principal will be at HCS on 5/11. Agenda includes a school tour with Jeff,
coffee and social with staff, and a parent group welcome and outdoor walk
■
The co-principal split of K-4 and 5-8 is still
under discussion
■
Rachel, the parent representative on the
principal search committee, commented on the rigorous review process; she commented
that parent/ PiE questions were part of the interview
○
Act 46 Update
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http://act46.cssu.org/
■
The Info Night at CVU was informative and the
committee was well prepared
■
There is a public forum on June 6th
for final comment/learning before vote
■
Vote is on Tuesday 6/7; vote must be unanimous
across towns (exception St. George)
○
VEEP and elimination of 4-Winds program
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HCS selected VEEP because of alignment of with
the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
●
http://www.nextgenscience.org/
■
Decision to bring on VEEP was made at the CSSU
level
■
http://veep.org/
○
Shift in school day for 16/17 school year
■
Early release has been approved by the school
board
■
Starting with the 2016/2017 school year,
students will be released an hour earlier Tuesday afternoons
■
It is important that all teachers and select
staff are able to participate in professional development so after school
activities that are lead by teachers and select staff will be held Tuesday
afternoons
●
There will be no sports activities on Tuesday
afternoons
●
The school library may also be closed Tuesday
afternoons; this decision will be made
in the near future
■
Jenni Cathcart has volunteered to create a
parent survey to understand enrichment desires and for the early release hour
●
Survey results would be shared with area
providers (Imagine, Annette’s, Wiggle Room, Rec. Dept., Library, etc.)
●
The goal is to get the survey out in the 5/13
Viking
●
PiE will help distribute the survey for greater
parent participation
■
THANK YOU JENNI!
○
PBL/SBG parent info night follow up plan
■
PiE will provide help Jeff to prioritize parent
questions that were not answered at the PBL/SBG info night
■
Questions and answers will be shared through
multiple channels including HCS site, Facebook, and the Viking
■
PiE will discuss ways to continue to discussion
on this topic in 2016/2017
Upcoming Awareness & Planning
●
Staff appreciation week
○
Ali Douglas walked the group through the week’s
planned activities
○
Thank you Marsi, Kerry, Nancy and Ali for
planning a great week!
■
All week- Kids will get the opportunity to give
their appreciation to teachers
■
Monday- Kerry N. created small tokens for each
teacher in mailbox
■
Tuesday- Each staff member will see a flower
with their name on it
■
Wednesday- Joy Madden is offering massages to
teachers and staff
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Thursday- Doug Stewart and Jennifer Greenwood
coordinating the Lunch being brought in with parents providing sides and
dessert, more sides are needed!
■
Friday- School board is supplying bagels and
coffee
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Honoring our Retirees with Books for HCS library
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Plans are in place to honor retiring staff with
a book dedication
○
Books will be displayed at the 5/24 ice cream
social
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An article is planned for the local paper
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T-shirt contest/fundraiser
○
Winner is Cody O’Neil, a 6th grader. Cody
received a Ben & Jerry Vermonster gift card. Congratulations Cody!
○
The final t-shirt design was refined by HCS
parent, Tomlynn Biondi
○
While originally planned as a fundraiser, the
group decided to not add another fundraiser this year
○
The team is exploring ways to sell t-shirts this
school year as school spiritwear
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Small playground
○
Playground was installed on Tuesday, 5/3
○
The lead installer for the main playgrounds
(Bob) and his crew donated their time to install- THANK YOU TANYA for
coordinating!
○
PiE provided lunch as a thank you
●
End of year hike/scavenger hunt
○
The board discussed whether to continue with the
end of year hike
○
June timing is challenging
○
One suggestion was to have a PiE
social/scavenger at one or several of the summer concerts in the park on
Wednesdays in July
○
The group will make a final decision at the June
PiE meeting
PiE Business / Financial Update
●
Was low interest in Spring grant cycle
○
There was discussion about what may have been
the reasons behind the dip in interest; teachers too stretched, timing not
right?
○
Someone asked if grants should be consolidated
into one cycle or should the Spring cycle be earlier
○
Jenni suggested doing a survey to get teacher
feedback; she will figure out the right mechanism to solicit feedback and will
work with grant team to create questions
●
Jim shared a financial snapshot of 2016/2017
year and a proposed 2016/2017 budget
○
Proposed budget more closely aligns with
historical dollars raised
○
Meeting attendees voted to approve the proposed
budget - the vote was APPROVED
●
HCS Chair Transition Plan
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PiE is looking for a new chair or co-chairs
●
There was discussion about balancing continuity
and bringing in new leadership
●
Carla to write a short description for chair
position to be shared with the community
○
If you are interested or want to learn more
about the role, contact Carla, Jim or Aimee
○
Thank you Carla for all you have done for HCS!
Recent activity, reflection and follow-up
●
HCS Garden
○
Teacher survey yielded good information for how
teachers are using and could use garden
○
Seed & Sample was successful! Thank you to all the parent volunteers who
made this happen.
○
Jeff has some personal contacts to help deepen
curriculum connections to the Garden
○
Have asked some staff to be the summer garden
maintenance person
○
The garden team is looking for someone to look
out for grant opportunities, contests, etc. and to spearhead the research to
implement
■
Interested contact Heidi Simkins, Susan Lepple
or Aimee Frost
■
Will post opportunity in Hinesburg Record, FPF,
Viking and Facebook
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Family Dance
○
Jeff shared he heard positive feedback about the
Family Dance
Upcoming Events
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May 24th - Celebrate our retirees 4-5:30
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June, PiE year end debrief meeting and social
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Fr, 6/10 last day of school
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Su, 6/26 Hinesburg Night at the Lake Monsters
