Grade 5 Parent Transition Advisory Group Meeting

3/6/07 Minutes

1.    Orientation Plans – (Ken Platz) - There will be several orientation meetings this year.  Orientation for students transitioning from:

a.    Grade 6 to grade 7 - April 3rd.

b.    Grade 5 to grade 6 - April 17th.

c.    Grade 4 to grade 5 – April 24th. 

All orientation meetings will be held at 7 p.m. in the HarBur Cafeteria.  

Additional meetings will be held during the summer at a date and time to be announced.

2.   Selection Process – (Paula Schwartz) – There will be 10 grade 5 classroom teachers selected from the staffs at the two elementary schools.  Nine of these teachers have been selected.  One more will be selected later this month.  Teachers in specialist areas (Art, Music…) will be determined within the month.  This is a very complicated process due to the number of partial Full-Time-Equivalent positions.  We expect that there will be an increase in the areas of Reading, School Nurse, Administration and Librarian.  Tanya asked that we show the breakdown by class.  For example, if there are 213 students, this would translate to 21 students per class.  Ken explained that we will ask for parent and teacher input in determining how to place students on a team which has at least two friends and which will be balanced by gender, towns, ability, special needs, and learning styles. 

We will not be notifying students of their teachers until we are sure that there are no more changes.  This will likely be during the summer.

3.   D.A.R.E. – (Paula) - We expect to continue the DARE program at grade 5 with assistance from the resident state troopers.   The program will be evaluated after one year.

4.      Day Care – (Michael Landry) - We have been meeting with the Executive Director of the Boys and Girls Club of Bristol to request that the current daycare problem at Lake Garda School be replicated for the 5th and possibly the 6th grade.  The Executive Director has indicated that this would be possible and that they would initiate a letter for us to send to families.  The program would be housed in the cafeteria at HarBur and will be an activity oriented program including homework help.   At times the gym, fields and possibly a classroom will be used depending on what was available.  Transportation issues will need some clarification.

The Boys and Girls Club will develop a brochure and application with fee structures for distribution.

5.    Special Education – (Linda Carabis) – There will be a special education program similar to the ones in each of the elementary buildings.  An additional special education teacher will transfer to the middle school.

6.    Update on End-of-Year programs – (Elementary Principals) – Each of the elementary schools will have activities on the last day or two of this school year to recognize the outgoing students.  Flag Day will also be celebrated at Lake Garda School on a date to be determined.

7.    Next Steps – (Paula Schwartz) - We will publish the orientation information on our website as soon as it is available.

Our next meeting will be on Thursday, April 26th at 9:00a.m.