Takoma Park Middle School

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October PTSA Meeting Notes

Takoma Park Middle School (TPMS) PTSA General Membership Meeting

October 10, 2023, 7:30 – 8:30pm

TPMS PTSA Participants:

  • Erin Martin, Principal
  • Patterson Breeze,
  • Ramata Diop, President
  • Emily Modde, Treasurer
  • Emily Pickren, Correspondence Secretary
  • Jackie Quan, Recording Secretary

Participants TPMS community:

  • Approximately 50 parents
  • Approximately 25 children (ages 8 – 13+ years old)

Guest Speaker: Kaysi-Ann Webley, City of Takoma Park

  1. Welcome – Opening Remarks
    • Ramata Diop, PTSA President
    • Erin Martin, Principal
    • Faye Navabian, MCPS Parent Community Coordinator. Advocate for parents at TPMS, can assist parents in setting up Parent Vue account.
      • Started kindness corner started at TPMS and Blair

Kaysi-Ann Webley, Advocate for Pedestrian Safety, City of Takoma Park

  • Safe Routes to School Coordinator: provided education on safety for pedestrians and bicyclists to and from school.
  • Educate and improvement of safety programming for walking and biking in the City of Takoma Park
  • Hand-outs / cards available for programming
  • “Walktober”  and “Walk to school day”
    • School and city put together program
      • Wednesday, Oct. 4 was Walk to School Day. Urged parents and kids to continue walking and have “Walking Wednesdays”
      • Overcoming barriers and encourage walking: feasibility for parents/students to walk to school
      • Walk to school bus: group of parents may rotate to walk a group of students and have an adult present
    • Walking: prepares students for more optimal focus and mindset before the start of the school day:
      • Helps students expend excess energy for students and better focus on school work
      • Improves brain function due to improved blood flow, which is linked to better academic performance
    • Fall 2023 Parent Survey:
      • 1 survey per household per school, takes 5 – 10 minutes
      • Survey asks: what could it more safe to walk to school?
      • Any safety issues encountered? Survey responses help the city to plan for improvements to promote walking or cycling throughout the city
    • Direct cash assistance program for families who qualify.  If household income is $50K or less can be eligible for direct cash assistance from City of Takoma Park.
    • 2 requirements: live in Takoma park and household income of $50K or less:  applications close Oct 31, 2023
    • Volunteer for safe routes to school program – participants needed for “walk to school day” and “bike to school day” and to make city safer to cycle and to walk!
  • Erin Martin: System-wide Training – Professional learning for staff
  1. School improvement planning
  • TPMS addressing teacher/staff professional learning
    • Part of school improvement plans
  • Student outcomes are predictable by typical historical factors : MCPS is re-envisioning a great need for school improvement plans in an effort to improve student outcomes and improve past trends
  • TPMS improvement planning spans 3 years
  • Digging into conditions to disrupt, dismantle and re-create
  • Planning started spring 2023 via data collection from students, families, staff regarding how students feel about education at TPMS
  • “School improvement” = facility / how human resource and focus improvement focusing on improvement staff practices to improve students / student outcomes
  • “System” typical trends: kindergarten through 12th grade and look at bench mark data points –students at grade level are more likely to graduate.
  • MCAP = metric is a single data point.
  • Question from parent: magnet program students?   Magnet metrics are factored in
  • Parent and caregiver data:
    • “Talking points” : messaging platform
    • Identifying parents engaging with platform
    • Mechanism to view parent engagement and effectiveness and impact of “talking points”
    • Anti-racist audit survey
    • May 2023 PTSA meeting : rich feedback and lots time spent over Summer 2023
    • Academic data: MAP data:  math and reading
    • Intervention data: students enrolled with interventions.
  • Anti-racist audit survey
  • Listening circles: groups by affinity-based groupings – level of support staff needs.  Opportunity for decision-making for school operations
  • Student listening sessions – students are truthful and speak from heart: valuable feedback for school improvements
  • “Referrals” and suspension: “referrals” defined as requests from staff and administrators regarding student behavioral situations – chronic tardies, well-being issues, etc.  What causes students to be late to school?  Such students may need additional support.

TPMS is Top 3 in county in number of after school activities offered

 CARES tutoring: funding for tutoring

    • CARES funding running out
    • Volunteer tutoring to address CAREs funding gap
    • Tutoring to work through missing work from students
    • Some Saturday tutoring sessions to do work
    • Data determined who did outreach : multiple “D’s” and “E’s”
    • Engage in partnership with Univ of MD or Howard – volunteer bodies, numbers, etc.

 TPMS Leadership:

    • Data utilized for TPMS story
    • Staff engaged in root cause analysis to Identify underlying issues / conditions that are roadblocks / barriers to student success – leadership can then address such issues to overcome barriers and improve student outcomes and achieve success
    • Created goals in four focus areas below (see “E”)
  • What dominant culture are serving as barriers: systemically, personally, interpersonally, etc.
  • Deepen understanding processes, ways of being, etc.
  • Create goals: align with county around focus areas

 

  1. School improvement goals / focus areas which are closely interrelated :
    1. Culture and climate
    2. Student well-being : well-being matters, some students have trauma, trauma from COVID – how ensure students are well for learning
      1. Social-emotional needs must be met
    3. Literacy
    4. Math

 

  • Next Steps:
  • Goals to be posted end of October 2023
  • Engage in staff bi-weekly check-ins with staff leadership
  • Engage in quarterly school improvement reflections.
  • Professional development focus
  • Re-envisioning core values at student level: courtesy, safety and integrity (CSI)
  • Parents goals : empathy was critical core value
  • Students needs and goals: they felt less safe in physical education – sport education model revisited based on student feedback:
    • Structure enhanced in P.E. (physical education) curriculum
    • Addressed how to build empathy.
      • Now achieving higher levels of engagement – more teacher presence and feedback as well
  • Parent question: MAP testing
    • Kids good grades but don’t test well : how to prep for MAP similar to SAT prep?
    • Practice assessments available : a lot of information out there – “ iEXCEL “ – personalized intervention and practice : students take pre-assessment and score gives them areas to work on and they also have access to learning modules.
    • Every 2 weeks they can take pre-assessment and they know which skills to work on
    • Not just computational – fact fluency, word problems in there also
  • Emily Modde, Treasurer Update:
    • $22K needed for revenue 2023-2024 school year
    • $1K in this year so far
    • Donations welcome and needed
    • Expenses to date – $2K
    • $36,500 for 2023 – 2024 school year
    • Helped fund kindness corner in the counseling office
    • 6th grade BBQ and a few other events upcoming this month
    • Dance performance for Hispanic Heritage month
    • Financial review: independent group reviewed finances from prior year and all OK and in good standing.  Submit to state PTA.
    • Need parent volunteers for international night!!