HIGH SCHOOL COUNCIL MEETING
October 2, 2012
Call To Order
The Council Chair, Elisabeth Duncan, called the meeting to order and motioned to
approve the minutes from the meeting on June 5, 2012. The minutes were approved.
School Board Report: David Brashear
David Brashear reminded everyone that the vote for the auditorium project is
happening today and is critical for the school. The Board supports the referendum
after spending a lot of time on it and receiving an overwhelming private fundraising
response. Please be sure to get out and vote for the new auditorium.
The Board is concerned about social issues with teens and parties/alcohol/drugs on
weekends. They are mainly concerned about safety first but also the risk to the
School and community if a tragedy happens. The School is the foundation of our
community so we need to be aware of potential risks to students and the
community. Parents need to talk with friends and set parameters on what you allow
at home. The Board is paying attention to this issue and has a dialogue with SFL
regarding these issues.
Assistant Superintendent’s Report: Dr. Kehoe
Dr. Kehoe welcomes feedback from parents during the year. There has been a
smooth opening to the school year with no construction or flood. Please always
come to him with questions/comments about areas of concern.
Superintendent’s Report: Dr. Quattrone
The school encourages students to take the most rigorous schedule they can handle.
Having the greatest number of AP’s is the most rigorous but doesn’t necessarily
show what students are capable of or where they’re headed. Our small size is great
in terms of personal engagement so we are analyzing whether there’s something
else besides AP courses to help develop students for college and the future.
There are many new and well-subscribed electives this year. The new Art History
Seminar is for kids who did AP Art History and want to develop a broader and
deeper understanding of art history. The School is trying to help kids think critically
about new things and develop new ways of analyzing and understanding them.
Guest Speaker (Staff Development): Denise Lutter
The School started its focus on critical thinking two years ago and how to take it to
the next level. In particular, they are focused on analysis and creating original work.
They looked to outside resources and brought in a cognitive psychologist, Daniel
Willingham, with help of the Bronxville School Foundation. Mr. Willingham is
helping us to understand how the process of thinking occurs and how to actualize
the process in the classroom. With his help we have developed definitions for each
academic discipline (music, history, math, etc) and how to develop a deeper learning
structure. Expanding depth versus breadth will deepen students’ critical thinking
skills and we are working on good assessments to know how kids are doing with it.
The faculty is meeting on this issue in groups of eight and sharing student work and
looking for patterns in both students and teacher work. Sharing expertise is a good
way to build the curriculum in addition to the outside consultant. The faculty is also
looking at midterm exams and whether students are connected to midterms.
To date we have a good definition of critical thinking and creativity, assured
experiences, expanded electives and improved professional culture. Next we will
implement and analyze the program over three years to see how it works and track
its progress over time. The school has partnered with Harvard Project Zero and a
representative came in June to speak with faculty and will come again throughout
the school year to help develop good assessment tools.
The elementary school is also working on critical thinking and how to get kids to ask
questions and develop a passion and understanding about what they’re interested
in to push learning forward. How we know if students are becoming better thinkers
is our big challenge for this year.
Guest Speaker (Health & Wellness): Melissa Shinsato
This year Health & Wellness has two speakers committed and a third is being
negotiated. First is Debbie Stier who will be here on November 1st to talk about the
Ten Secrets You Need to Know About the SAT. The second speaker is Ty Cells from
Youth to Youth Organization who will address peer pressure and living drug-free
lives, how to treat others and decision-making based on what’s cool. The third
speaker is Bruce Weinstein who wrote a book called, “Is it still cheating if I don’t get
caught?” Health & Wellness hopes to have a deal with him soon. In the spring there
will also be a parent/student forum and to talk about texting and driving.
Guest Speaker (Drama Department): Peter Royal
The high school will perform The Diary of Anne Frank. There are 15 cast members,
five female roles and five male roles. There is a strong historical aspect where Mr.
Frank comes back to find out who survived. He only found Anne’s diary for the first
time and Otto Frank got in touch with playwrights who turned it into this play.
Seventy years later it has been published. The play is historically accurate and the
group is doing research on the time period. They hope to share some of what they
learn with other classes including the eighth grade groups who study the Holocaust
in the spring. The show will be November 1st, 2nd and 3rd. It is a very emotional
script about something so tragic and historically accurate.
Guidance Report: Anne Abbatecola
Guidance has been asking kids to speak at grade-level council meetings to talk about
decisions they have made in those grade levels and the impact those decisions have
had on their lives. It has been well received.
Students are really excited about new course offerings and they couldn’t
accommodate all student requests because of scheduling conflicts. AP Scholars have
been announced and there are 38 seniors who qualify and 103 in the entire school.
It is for students who have surpassed excellence on AP exams. National Merit
announced Julia Keating as semi-finalist and eights students were mentioned.
PSAT’s are coming up on October 20th at 7:45am in the Blue Gym. Seniors are
working on college planning and application processing and preparation. Brag
sheets are due from parents/students. Individual meetings with families of seniors
are taking place to finalize college planning. Freshmen transition is going well and
this Thursday is about Personal Responsibility. We have a great group of juniors
and seniors leading the program. Progress reports are due this Friday and will be
posted by 10/15. September 28th was the drop date so anyone dropping now will
have the course show on their transcript unless you are changing levels of same
course.
Athletic Department Report: Karen Peterson
Fall sports teams are getting ready for homecoming. The bonfire and parade will be
on Wednesday night this year so that there can be games on Thursday night instead
of Saturday during the day. We did this to accommodate the PSAT testing which
would occur during homecoming events and make it difficult for student athletes.
The new athletic website is up and running and is linked to the District web page. It
is user-friendly and people seem to like it. Our athletes are doing community
service with the elementary school by helping at recess with sportsmanship. Soccer
teams did a fundraiser and raised $560 for cancer research. Two interest meetings
are coming up for boys swimming and the squash club. The search committee is
making a decision soon on our new boys track coach.
Principal’s Report: Mr. Barton
The high school is focused on academics and extracurricular activities right now.
Keeping kids focused and engaged is one of hardest things. Eighty-minute blocks
give students time to focus but there is a lot going on for kids outside of class.
Teachers are trying to get kids engaged and get them thinking but it takes
concentration and effort. The new Video and TV Production course will be new in
the second semester and they are producing video announcements each week. Chris
Landy introduced new teachers to the high school in a recent video. We are
expecting the quality of school videos to improve as the class gets up and running.
The Bronxville School Foundation donated new monitors, improving video quality.
The Code of Conduct is under review at the Board level and will include cheating.
We need more dialogue in class on what constitutes cheating (sharing homework,
etc) so the kids are clear on what is prohibited. Kids need specific examples so they
understand exactly what it is. Mr. Barton is encouraging teachers to keep talking
about it with students. David Brashear mentioned that the Board is looking at
whether there needs to be policy changes so the code is taken more seriously and
repercussions are in place. The internet has made it more complicated in that you
may share something with someone but don’t know what they do with it.
Guest Speaker (SFL President): Elena Licursi
The SFL is made up of 9-12th graders plus some faculty members and Annette
Adamyiatt. They discuss issues and problems that help improve the quality of life
for students. SFL is supporting two charities this year – Elizabeth’s Hope and JBFC in
Tanzania. SFL is also trying to improve relationships with teachers and working
with the elementary school to get younger kids involved in charity work. They are
trying to orchestrate four dances this year. They are also planning SFL Day where
they plan two days after midterms to focus on relaxing and learning new things
through guest speakers.
Grade Reports:
9th grade: Dessert sale for thanksgiving is coming up so please support them.
10th grade: Had a successful car wash and will sell citrus fruits in the near future.
11th grade: Selling shirts at homecoming and doing poinsettia sale soon.
12th grade: Seniors had a car wash and had a great time. College planning night had
all but ten families in attendance. Next is the annual Halloween event where they
work with the elementary school kids.
Athletic Council Report: Rose Crawford
The homecoming schedule is coming out soon and will raise money through
program sales. Everyone should have received an email on family spirit
advertisements that will make money for the athletic council. They are soliciting
businesses in town to buy advertisements and will collect them throughout next
week. JV teams are collecting money for ads among themselves. The Athletic
Council is looking for volunteer help for the three days of homecoming and need
help Thursday night through Saturday night to make it all happen. It will mostly be
help with concession stand and merchandise sales for Bronco apparel.
The next meeting will be Tuesday, November 6th.