Chairperson

Mrs. Polley

Principal

Dr. Zito

Teachers

Mrs. Campbell, Mrs. Russell

Parents

Mrs. Cole, Mrs. Hawkins, Ms. Porter, Mrs. Musgrove (parent & PTO President)

Business/Community Partners

Charles McMillan (not able to attend); Jennifer Hodge; Jeff Brinson Pastor Stephens (not able to attend)

N/A

TOPIC

DISCUSSION and Summary*

Opening: Pledge Allegiance/Inspiration

The meeting was called to order at 7:38 AM.

A quorum was established.

The council was led in the Pledge of Allegiance by Mrs. Polley.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES:

It was moved, seconded, and carried that today’s agenda be approved and also that the minutes of 09/12/2025 be approved.

Special Presentations to the Council

None

NEW BUSINESS:

Policy Positions:

School Cash Online -

·         Mrs. Polley made an Open Records Request, asking why the transaction fee for School Cash Online is $1.00 per item (not per transaction)

·         Now Mrs. Polley is wanting to make an Open Records Request on behalf of the GSS School Council.

·         At issue is transparency. Are parents absorbing the cost for the district‘s contract with School Cash Online? Or is it truly a transaction fee?

·         When asked why the district went cashless, the district’s answer is, “to protect teachers.”

·         Some discussion ensued about the possibility of making it an option for parents at Open House to pay cash for dress downs.

·         Mrs. Musgrove offered again that all dress downs could be run through PTO to avoid the per item transaction fee.

·         Motion made, seconded and carried for Mrs. Polley to make an open records request on this matter on behalf of GSS School Council.

School Council Involvement:

·         There is a draft policy that will limit the involvement of school councils in our district when it comes to hiring principals to developing the profile of what they are looking for in a school principal candidate.

·         It was queried if this was a reaction to GSS being involved in the two interviews of candidates for principal. 

·         Reason why? None stated.

·         Wording in the draft is that school councils “may interview…” not “shall….”

·         Dr. Zito proffered that some schools have no say at all in their principal selection as their principals are transferred from another school.

·         Mr. Brinson asked us to define “involvement.”

·         It was noted that as a school council, our only part in the interview process is making a recommendation.

·         Mrs. Hodge noted that having a school council is a state law.

·         Mrs. Porter noted that having a school council with parents there [in the interview] is as helpful to the principal as it is to the parents.

·         It was unanimously voted upon for Mrs. Polley to draft a letter to the School Board and to the Superintendent to keep the language in the policy that school councils can interview principal candidates for their school.

PRINCIPAL'S REPORT:

Updates:

·         Enrollment: Current enrollment at GSS is 1632 (as of 11-14-25).

·         100% of classrooms using Standards Based Learning

·         Three Initiatives: Positive Narration; Student-Led Discourse; Active Monitoring; working on increasing Student-Led Discourse

·         Family Engagement – Great turnout for Trunk or Treat and the Military Breakfast (will need to engage Community Partner to assist with the cost next year)

·         December 4 – Begin 12 days of Holiday for staff and some for students

·         Staffing Update: Mrs. Smith-Henry moved from 1^st grade to 3^rd grade open position (Mrs. Johnson relocated with family to Orlando, FL); a veteran teacher and a SPED teacher from another school needed a place to go, so we were able to fill the 1^st grade vacancies.

Discipline:

·         Student Incivility – Most common incident; Fighting is 2^nd.

·         We are following the District’s matrix for discipline; may take a hit on our CCRPI score, but the necessary changes will be worth it in the future.

·         Consequences for fighting – NO TOLERANCE

·         Social media almost always at the bottom of the fighting

·         Some discussion about having 7^th/8^th Counselor Ms. Smart provide student guidance sessions and information on a regular basis to parents in a newsletter, (ex: Tip of the Month on FB page; Links to reading materials for parents)

·         Mrs. Porter suggested a Panel for parents with Police and Guidance Counselors with a take-away for parents

·         SCCPSS Code of Conduct does not currently address online postings in its policies

·         Mrs. Polley – Host a Parent Night after the holidays to address these matters

·         Tardies – Too many students arriving after 7:30/7:40

·         Posted in Parent Newsletter every week to be on time.

·         Springlake Car Ramp, Mr. Brown counts 60+ cars after 7:30 every day.

·         Tardies to class another matter.

·         Mrs. Campbell noted that tardies to class is partly in due to teachers inconsistently applying 6-step discipline plan across the board.

·         Mrs. Polley asked if we can have our own school policy on Tardies to class?

·         Zito: Yes, can do that but must publish it to the parents first.

·         Mrs. Porter noted that we need to have in-between class expectations made clear to parents at Open House

·         Reinstitute Bell Schedule from last year with tardy bell for each class.

Other:

·         Assessments – BOY Testing provides a baseline; MOY assessments will take place the 2^nd week of December.

·         We will get good data from this test

·         Indicator on the test with predicts their performance on GMAS.

·         Behavior System – Currently using PBIS system, but sporadic use and not everyone using – no consistency. Posted in Parent Newsletter every week to be on time.

·         Obvious that we need a school-wide policy.

·         Research done by Ron Clark Academy – House system – it works!

·         GSS Stable system – 8 stables; color-coded

·         Named for various horses; quality for each; a character; a symbol, a power, and a chant for each.

·         Your stable represented by a colored lanyard.

·         Town Hall meetings in January to explain it to the various grade levels of students where at the end they can pick their lanyard.

·         Every person in the school in a Stable.

·         Keep your stable color throughout your years at GSS

·         Promote Pride, Unity, and Inter-grade level cooperation; older students mentor younger students in same stable.

·         Access to Class Dojo to gain points; cannot lose points, just don’t earn them for poor behavior; can award points in the hallway

·         Points go for the Stable, not individual children

·         GALLOP acronym will replace TRROT; posters printed for GALLOP

·         Roll out in January

·         Staff Tee-shirts with color of stable

·         Stables Bulletin Board with points accrued for each

·         Quarterly awards – dance party, pizza party, etc.

·         Mrs. Porter noted that students can get upset; cautioned us to be aware of how to present winning stable

·         Also, lanyards go in backpack? No, collected at end of day before they leave. Will have plenty of extra for lost lanyards and new students

OLD BUSINESS:

Discipline Policy:

Some discussion about how the discipline policy is going.

Next Meeting Date:

04/10/2025

Adjourned:

8:40 AM

Chairperson

Mrs. Polley

Principal

Dr. Zito

Teachers

Mrs. Campbell, Mrs. Russell

Parents

Mrs. Cole, Mrs. Hawkins, Ms. Porter, Mrs. Musgrove (parent & PTO President)

Business/Community Partners

Charles McMillan; Jeff Brinson (not able to attend); Pastor Stephens (not able to attend)

N/A

TOPIC

DISCUSSION and Summary*

Opening: Pledge Allegiance/Inspiration

The meeting was called to order at 7:32 AM.

A quorum was established.

The council was led in the Pledge of Allegiance by Mrs. Polley.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES:

It was moved, seconded, and carried that today’s agenda be approved with a change to the wording under New Business from “Introduction of Officers” to “Election of Officers,” and also that the minutes of 04/11/2025 be approved.

Special Presentations to the Council

None

NEW BUSINESS:

Election of Officers:

·         The following officers were elected by overwhelming majority:

     Chairman: Jasmine Polley

     Vice Chairman: Principal Amanda Zito

     Secretary: Laura Lee Russell

School Council Training (McMilian)

·         It was noted that the School Council hasn’t changed much over the years at GSS.

·         Chairman Polley noted that it was gratifying that the SCCPSS Board followed the state mandate and allowed our school council to be involved in the selection of our new principal.

Policy Positions:

·         Discipline Policy:

·         Chairman Polley noted that while we do not have the problems that some of our other schools have, our students do leave GSS and go on to those schools later.

·         Our current discipline policy is “Restorative Justice”

·         Fighting is not safe

·         Recording one another on phones must be addressed.

·         Speaking to students to explain why this is not good; reasoning with them may bring cooperation.

·         Parents in meeting noted that communication this year has been good.

·         New Hampstead High School has a Dean of Students, and this has made a difference in disciplinary matters at that school.

·         Principal Zito noted that changes are needed to the behavior policy due to some alarming incidents in schools throughout our district.

·         Chairman Polley proposed sending a letter from School Council to the Board of Education to make a policy review, particularly regarding the implementation and outcomes of the restorative justice model. We each had a copy of the drafted letter.

·         A motion was made and seconded to send the letter as drafted (with a punctuation change).

·         School Cash Online:

·         SCCPSS and GSS have gone to a cashless system for receiving money/payments from parents for field trips, dress-down days, etc.

·         Problem is that School Cash Online, the RFP company that we currently using, charges a fee for every single item being purchased or paid for online, not a “per transaction” fee.

·         Example: Dress down day is $1.00, but a $1.00 fee is attached for each item. If a family has 4 children at GSS, the $4.00 they would pay for dress down is suddenly now $8.00 due to the added fee per each item.

·         Problem also with the collection of data – what are they doing with our data?

·         Mr. McMilien asked, “Why go cashless?” It is too much responsibility for the teachers in far of keeping track of who gave what and making sure that the parents get receipts for amounts $5.00 or more, as well as having it turned in by a certain time, and cannot keep funds overnight.

·         Mrs. Musgrove suggested that a work-around might be going through PTO – funds paid and collected by PTO; PTO writes a check to GSS.

·         Mrs. Campbell asked if there might be another RFP company we could use. SCCPSS has used School Cash Online for years.

·         We will address this issue again next time under Old Business.

OLD BUSINESS:

None

PRINCIPAL'S REPORT:

School Improvement Goals:

·         Writing: 100% of students will be using the graphic organizer for writing.

·         DIG (Differentiated Instruction Groups) – 1 week on Math; 1 week on Writing initiative, using the graphic organizer (K-8 – expectations differ by grade level)

·         Math: Show a 3% growth in Math on GMAS

·         MAP Data – it gives us data, but will need to get training. MOY data will give us more information.

·         Other initiatives: Three for teachers:

·         Student-led discourse – students are leading in discussions

·         Active monitoring – teachers constantly circulating, monitoring progress and collecting data using roster on clipboard

·         Positive narration – focus on the positives – PBIS

·         Looking for Business partners to donate things: Items to recognize and encourage staff/students (10 or less kinds of gifts)

·         Recognize teachers for perfect attendance

·         Draft a generic letter to drop off to businesses to request gift cards/services, etc.

Current Numbers (Students and Staff):

·         As of 9-12-2025, we were on Day 40, and our enrollment was at 1,631. FTE counts are lower because we do not include preschool.

·         We had a vacancy in 1^st, 3^rd, K Para

·         At Day 10 we lost a 1^st grade teacher, gained a 2^nd grade teacher, added 2 new SPED

·         1^st grade SPED teacher moving to Middle School

·         ESOL Para moving to K Para position

·         1^st grade position filled; hired a 2^nd grade teacher;

·         Gained a teacher from another school;

·         McKenna moved to Gifted and vacancy filled by a new 6^th grade ELA teacher.

·         Still have a 1^st grade SPED teacher and SPED Para positions to fill.

·         Challenging time getting people who want to interview.

Discipline:

·         We are below last year’s numbers last year at this time: 5 fighting referrals and 10 for student incivility. These are the highest numbers.

·         Administration sat down and looked at behavior to get an overview – looked at last year’s numbers and issues.

·         PBIS Rewards – from last year – are we taking advantage of this resource?

·         TRROT – Posters will be posted throughout the school and smaller posters made to put in all classrooms. We want to push it because it also aligns with PBIS; use this verbiage in the classroom.

·         Have cameos on Morning Announcements

·         Positives:

·         Two days for Open House was good

·         Every student was tagged at beginning of the year for how they go home.

·         Teachers trained at duty to look for tags on bookbags to ensure students are in the right place.

·         Added a 2^nd car rider drop-off line on the Highlands side in the AM

·         Added a second entry for students in the mornings on the Spring Lake side to be scanned for security

·         Have music outside for the morning; may add a second speaker for music at the bus ramp.

Fighting:

·         Need parent involvement

·         Recently child taken to the nurse in a wheelchair; Mrs. Cole asked if this is something that could be addressed through Class Dojo to the parents; cannot violate child’s confidentiality

·         Can address this issue via Class Dojo only if it is a continuing problem in a classroom.

Open Discussion:

Advance Content & Stallion/Blue team:

·         Some parents concerned that their students were dropped from Advanced Content program but not notified until Open House

·         Ms. Bourne has a rubric that give the criteria for how a student qualifies and how a student is chosen

·         25 is the cap for class size for Advanced Content

·         Asked for 7^th and 8^th graders to stay in once in the program.

·         Conference with parent if a student is not maintaining an 85% grade point average.

·         Mrs. Campbell met with Dr. Zito; agreed to have the list solidified by May so parents can make plans; also involve advanced content teachers to make selection for the fall.

·         Behavior expectations are different for Advanced Content students.

·         Could there be a conversation about increasing the numbers for advanced content? Perhaps have two Advanced Content classes per grade level? Have to have enough students who qualify.

·         Students upset about the Blue Teams and Stallion Teams. In their minds, they know that the Stallion Team classes have a larger number of students with learning needs (and behavior issues). The “feel” the difference. They do not like the labels.

Crossing Guard Safety:

·         Will discuss this at the next meeting.

Next Meeting Date:

11/14/2025

Adjourned:

8:35 AM