INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT 196
Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan Public Schools
Rosemount, MN 55068
Educating our students to reach their full potential
Gifted and Talented Advisory Council (GTAC) Minutes
April 22, 2014
DRAFT
Present: Parents: Kimberly Bernstein, Sophia Lai, Nidhi Sen, Sofia Troutman; Teachers: Jason
Elias, Tiffany Kienitz, Trisha Miller, Janet Rohlf; Administrators: Tom Idstrom, Noel Mehus; District
Office Staff: Steve Troen, Pam McDonald, Mary Spychalla
Welcome, Agenda Review, Approval of Minutes
Mary Spychalla, Secondary Gifted and Talented Teacher on Special Assignment, welcomed the
council and reviewed the agenda. The council approved the February 11, 2014 minutes which will be
posted on the district website.
Elementary/Secondary Updates
Highlights include:
 Young Scholar events - Third graders visited the Minnesota History Center; fifth graders
attended the Black Snowman at the Steppingstones Theatre; third grade families are invited to a
Marvelous May family field trip at Lebanon Hills Regional Park to enjoy fishing, geocaching,
hiking and a bonfire. Over 700 Young Scholars are enrolled for the summer Day Camp at
Cedar Park and Falcon Ridge June 16-20. The theme is Nature’s Engineers. About 80 high
school and college students will be hired as counselors.
 Gifted and Talented (GT) students from eight schools attended the True Story of the Three
Little Pigs at the Stages Theatre.
 Young Scholar (YS) specialists attended a ½ day training on Teaching Writing for Social
Justice which was sponsored by the University of Minnesota.
 Students from nine elementary schools will display their inventions at the Minnesota Inventors
Congress.
 Elementary GT and Young Scholar students will attend the Young Authors Conference at
Bethel University in May. In March students from the middle schools attended a similar
conference at Bethel.
 GT and Young Scholars from four elementary schools attended Junior Achievement’s
BizTown recently. This field experience has students role-playing the running of a community
for a day.
 GT students from both elementary and middle schools qualified for the state Geography Bee in
St. Cloud.
 Congratulations to Pam McDonald, elementary GT/YS Teacher on Special Assignment and
Theresa Back, Scott Highlands communications and GT coordinator for receiving Outstanding
Service Awards. They were honored at a dinner in April.
 The district-wide Summer Challenge Academy for Academically Talented Students who are
entering 6th, 7th and 8th graders will be held July 21 – 25 at Falcon Ridge. Registration forms
can be downloaded from the district Gifted and Talented homepage or obtained at any middle
school.
 Middle school GT coordinators visited the GT/YS 5th graders at their elementary feeder schools
to explain the Summer Challenge Academy and distribute registration forms. They will return
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later this spring to discuss programming and services for GT/YS middle school students.
Parents of 5th graders who have questions about middle school are encouraged to contact their
GT coordinator.
The April issue of the Presence, the district middle school GT newsletter, is posted on the
district GT webpage under “What’s New.” Articles focused on the state spelling and
geography bees, chess club, speech teams, state Future City competition awards and the
Summer Academy.
The American Studies 7th grade online class will visit the History Center to view the World
War II exhibits and participate in a class titled Rebuilding Shattered Lives. The 8th grade online
class will attend the Festival of Nations. It looks like all 7th graders who have participated this
year are interested in enrolling in the 8th grade online Global Studies course.
Middle school administrators are analyzing data to determine which 6th graders are ready for
Accelerated Algebra 1 in grade 7 and who would benefit from Pre-Algebra. Current 5th graders
will be screened for appropriate 6th grade math placement in late spring.
Middle and high school teachers will be participating in the CIA (Curriculum, Instruction,
Assessment) Institute during the secondary Staff Development Day. The theme is Learning
from Each Other with 64 sessions being taught by district staff in the areas of technology,
planning equity, assessment, instruction and curriculum.
To help ensure a smooth transition from 5th to 6th grade, GT coordinators met with the
elementary GT/YS specialists to answer questions about middle school.
Membership Update for 2014-15
Pam McDonald, Elementary GT Teacher on Special Assignment, presented certificates and flowers to
the members whose terms are ending. Tricia Miller has been an elementary teacher representative and
Sarah Glad has been an elementary parent representative. These positions will be advertised and new
members will be chosen for next year.
District Technology Vision Update
Steve Troen, Director of Teaching and Learning, explained the work of the district’s Learning and
Technology Task Force and highlighted the district’s learning and technology vision. In 2013, at the request of Superintendent Berenz, a task force was formed to create a vision
for learning and technology in District 196. The 37-member Learning and Technology Task
Force, consisting of teachers, media specialists, technology staff and administrators, met several times
through the spring and summer of 2013. In the fall of 2013, recommendations were shared with cabinet
and the school board. In January through March 2014, the steering team presented the task force’s
vision and recommendations to various stakeholder groups in our district.
Some of the questions the Task Force discussed included:
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How are we, in District 196, currently preparing our students for success in a rapidly changing
digital world?
How might we prepare our students?
How might we fully utilize mobile devices and other technology in our classrooms?
Do our students “power down” when they come to school and “power up” when they leave
each day?
How do we ensure that we are not just integrating and using technology for technology’s sake?
What is our larger purpose?
How might our students’ learning experience be further enhanced with technology?
What is OUR district’s vision for learning and technology?
All staff members were asked to view, reflect and dialogue with their colleagues on a series of
screencasts which framed the big picture vision. An opportunity to offer feedback and ask questions
was provided. Staff members were invited to apply to participate in a 1:1 Beta group for the 2014-15
school year.
Below are the links to the three screencasts links that were sent to staff. In addition, attached are
graphics that capture the work of the task force.
 Screencast #1 – Task Force vision for a dynamic student learning experience, enhanced by technology: http://youtu.be/bXvzMXeKVp8  Screencast #2 ‐ Professional development and increasing access to mobile technology: http://youtu.be/Y9EqHJJFIBs  Screencast #3 ‐ A potential implementation scenario for 1:1 technology and Beta opportunities: http://youtu.be/wZaQDdeW8uQ Teaching and Learning Department Restructuring
Steve Troen explained the Teaching and Learning Department restructuring which will occur
beginning July 1, 2014 due to the increasing work load and the changing type of work within the
department. Four coordinators will have been hired in the areas of PK-12 Specialists/Arts/Electives, 612 English Language Arts/Literacy, PK-12 Science/Math/STEM, and PK-6 Literacy Collaborative. In
addition, several Teacher on Special Assignment (TOSA) positions were eliminated and others were
created. The TOSA position that directly affects GTAC is a new K-8 GT/YS TOSA. Pam McDonald,
current K-5 GT/YS TOSA was recently hired for the K-8 position. Steve and Pam thanked Mary
Spychalla, who previously retired but has been currently serving as part-time 6-8 GT TOSA, for her
service during the last several years.
Transition Theme Update
At previous GTAC meetings, members were asked to respond to questions about transitioning of GT
students from elementary to middle and middle to high school. In order to get a more detailed picture
of the transition opportunities between middle and high school which are currently in place as well as
those which might be considered in the future, the high school administrators were asked to respond to
a series of questions. Their comments have been compiled and were distributed to the GTAC
members. It was suggested to ask the high school administrators to a future GTAC meeting to discuss
the next steps.
Communication Theme Update
Last year GTAC members brainstormed questions dealing with communicating GT programming and
Service options. Pam and Mary responded to the ones that had not been answered previously. These
included:
 Could a document that shows the math curriculum progression from grades 6–12 be published
and distributed to elementary parents? Mary explained that a draft will be presented to the
district’s Math Think Tank group this spring and after approval, it will be available for parents.
Included will be the math courses in grades 6 – 12 and the state benchmarks at each grade.
 How can we have transparency in the programming and GT services/opportunities being
offered across 18 elementary schools? Pam stated that the goal of elementary GT/YS services
is to be transparent. GT/YS information is on the district and school websites. In addition, a
booklet on school choice which includes details about each elementary is mailed to each
household that has a kindergarten student. She explained that some opportunities may be
different across schools due to demographics.
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Should the Young Scholar name be changed since all students should be scholars? Pam said
that the term “Young Scholars” came from the program in Fairfax County, Virginia and is used
nationally in an effort to find and serve learners from under-represented populations.
Accessing Information Theme
Using questions that GTAC members created previously, the group discussed how GT/YS students and
their parents can access information about opportunities. Statements included how schools can
motivate GT/YS students to try the offerings available at each school, how to provide opportunities to
many students, and how to encourage YS students to see themselves as scholars
Themes for 2014-15
Possible ideas for next year include:
 Technology
 Special education students in the mainstream classroom
 Space concerns especially at the elementary level with the all day kindergarten
 Push-in model
 What does a scholar look like?
 Developing the K-8 lens
2014-15 Meetings
September 16, 2014
November 18, 2014
February 3, 2015
April 21, 2015