School Leadership Team

 

SLT Agenda

Thursday, September 18, 2025

1.  Review of Minutes from June 2025
2. School Goals 2025-2026
   1.  Academics (school and district)
   2. Parent Engagement - SOAR, Classroom Connections, Parent Cohort Groups
   3. CEP
3. Parent Workshops (revisiting from last year)
   1. Re-survey teachers?
   2. STEM night — revise plan so it qualifies for T1 if parents agree?
4. Principal Updates:
   1. Construction
   2. Library 
   3. New Teachers
   4. Class Size 2025-2026
   5. Tech Teacher Position

5. Title I Update
6. New Business

 

SLT Agenda

Thursday, October 16, 2025

1.  Review of Minutes from June 2025 and September 2025
2. SLT dates & positions for the 2025/2025 school year
   1. Chairperson
   2. Secretary (minutes)
   3. Stipend Coordinator
3. SLT ByLaws for 2025/2026 school year
4. CEP School Goals 2025-2026
5. Sub committees for SLT
6. Title I Updates
7. New Business

Attendees:Principal Rolon, Barbara Robinson, Iris Lapidus,  Brenda Zuckerman, Jeannie DeCicco, 

B: It's 7:34 officially starting.  Review of the minutes from June.  Everything has been corrected.

Jaz: Can we ask questions or follow up?

Barbara:  Did anything have anything that needs to be fixed?  Approving?  Yes.  The next one we need to look at is Sept. 18th.  I fixed stuff.  Anything that needs to be fixed.  No.  Next is the SLT dates and positions for the next school year.  

Jeanie:  Are we keeping the third Thursday?   Are we keeping?

Valina:  Some are talking about Thursday or Friday.  I would like to be focused.  

JR:  Missing two people.  

Vainal:  I wish we can do evenings, so we can get things rolling.  We are on the meeting date.

Sasha: Fridays are better.

Bar:  Sasha can’t vote because she’s not part of the SLT.

Valina:  I think we should handle SLT business.  Looking at Fridays rather than Thursdays.

Jeannie:  That would be Nov 14, Dec. 19, Jan. 16, Feb. 27, Mar. 13, April 24, May 15, and June 12 (these are the future meeting dates)..

JR: Are there any conflicts.

Sasha: No more POs, after March 15th

Barbara: Found the testing dates.

Sasha: there was no new board

Bar:  Amit are you ok with Friday mornings?  Instead of Thursdays, we are doing Fridays.  

Melissa:  when do we go on break?

Val:  It is the 23rd

Bar:  The positions within slt.  We have chair person, stipend.  Chair calls the meetings, sets the agenda, and is also responsible for the zoom links, maintaining the video and downloading into the folders dn communicating with the district.  All the meeting dates, attendances, minutes and agenda.

JR: Uploaded.

Jea: Then we house one in the building.

Bar:  giving 10 day notice, reviewing the minutes… is there anyone interested in chairing the position?  

Jaz:  Do I review the minutes?

Bar:  I review the minutes, so that everything is correct.  We have to invite two people from the district.  CSE and Sonia.  If you look at the last email, you can see them on the email.

Mel: Did the district people respond?

Bar:  the names of all the people on the SLT, dates, links, if changing, they need t be notified in advance.  I send the minutes the attendance and agenda every month.

Sasha; Do the bylaws need to be uploaded.

Sonia:  It can be.

JR:  It is a significatate amount of work.

Sonia: You can cochair because it is alot of work.  

Val:  I will cochair.

Bar:  We need to come to concsensue.

Jaz and Valina will cochair the SLT.  Yes we all agree.

B:  Now we need a secretary.  All the attendance sheets, bylaws, names and contacts.

S:  Aren’t the minutes supposed to be a certain way.

V:  I learned the hard way.  Discussion about, so conversational.

Iris:  I am not trained to take minutes.

Jea:  Does anyone want to take the secretary position.

Sonia:  doesn’t need to be complicated to write the minutes.  

We can rotate the position.  I will take it, if we can get software.  

JR:  Maybe I can get a program.  We will discuss it.  

B:  we have to agree on the agenda meeting.

Son:  Does anyone have any agenda items.  We can decide the day of the meeting.

Val:  No necessarily all agreed upon.

SOn:  I will send it to everyone the day of.

Bar: We are trying to stick to CEP goals and items.

Mel:  I have two questions.  All have different agendas, how many days should I submit before meeting?

Son: That depends on the team.  Half your morning will come to figuring things out.  Know what the agenda item is.  

Mel:  If we all have different agendas, can we all bring in our different ideas?  

Val: That can happen the day of the meeting.

Jea:  We always did 10 days.

JR: its not anything you can talk abou school wide.

Mel: How do we communicate.  

Jea: It was always 10 days before.

 JR: send out two weeks before the meeting.  I leave it wide open.  But if too many items

Bar: Stipend coordinator.  Has a job at the very last meeting.  Informing people of the meetings they attended.  10 dollars for every hour they attend.  Brenda volunteers.

Brenda

Bara:  Next item SLT bylaws.  This is what they chair person will do.  Updating the bylaws, I make a copy of last years and needs to be updated.  Change anything youwant.  Last page, sign it page.  Bring to next meeting so it can be approved.  We just changed the day of the meeting.  Find th resection of the bylaws that says day and change it.  

Jaz: So section six we change.  

Bar:  We are going to look through the bylaws and change.  Bring the changes to the next meeting and then we approve or not.  Team composition, does anyone have anything you want to change in there.

Mel:  How can we add members.  

Bar:  We want representatives from the younger grades.

Sas:  Can title one position be added to the SLT?  

Son:If you’re chaired.  The title one person is just there to talk about title one, not officially a SLT

If SLT elections, then title one person gets voted in, now central is going to get involved.  Trying to get a president.  Need a PTA president, a PTA president is mandated.

JR:  What does that mean?  Are we a functioning SLT?

SOnia:  As long as you have quorum

JR: We are a legal SLT?

Sonia: Yes

Mel: We need a PTA president

Val: we have a possibility.

JR:  Hopefully we get someone.

Bar: We need to look through every section.

Mel: how do we go about increasing now.  Now we need teachers need to 

Jea: We need a PTA president first before increasing

Son: I’m waiting to hear back from central.  Is there a deadline for how long?  Increase in team is also by budget.  

Jea: When we have the next SLT meeting.  A lot of new teachers.

Bar: we have to agree.  Expectations of team members.  

Val: we can go to 17 members.  

JR: we will talk to about new members in november.

Son:  you prose now and you can fialize in november.

JR:  Next section.  Any section of the bylaws you want to revise.  

Sas: Should there be title one for the year?  Those items are discussed.  You won’t always have a title one.

JR:  You can

Bar:  where would that go in the bylaws

Sas:  should there be a title one discussion 

JR: That title one is standing business.

Sas: we should add title one as an order of business.

Mel:  What are the committees?

Val:  We don’t do much of these things.  Not completing tasks.  I can start with me and Jazmine.  It will be helpful.  

Mel: We need some sort of committee.  That represent each grade.  Just something.  At every meeting.

JR:  Every committee presents.

Mel: I don’t mind telling what's going on in 4th or 3rd grade.

Sas: Sub committees don’t get paid.  Just getting feelers.

B: SWD and community .

Val: Let's finish the bylaws.

B: Let’s set the agenda for the next meeting.  I’m going to forward you all the information.

Jea: gmail will be great to send things off.  I usually take a picture.

Sas:  we have a meeting of the parent engagement policy.  

JR:  I will set up my meeting with title one.  Im thinking hybrid, so we can get more parents.  Let's do time limits.  I also have to talk about CEP goals.  

JR: i have i-ready data.  To have a workshop.  I have two teachers who are willing to do it.  It is next wednesday.

Jaz:  Is it in person, yes.

JR:  Just quickly, what you’re looking at is students on or above grade level.  Math looks horrible now.  We usually look great at the end of the year.  Reading looks better than last year.  These are the kids coming right out of the summer.  These are called screener assessments.  Then there are diagnostic assessments three times a year.  The K does not do the i-Ready reading, they use acadiance.  We use too many assessments.  Math we are required, reading not.  I will resend with clear headings.

Sas:  We need performance by standards.  How does it look for all students?  We need a breakdown by ENL and SWD. NYs wants 95% participation rate.  NYS.ed.gov is able to provide all data for our schools.  

JR: There is a big lag.  They will lump everything together.  

Ba: Any new business.

Val: We are not adding anything to the bylaws.  Except date and time and membership.  Committees are mentioned in the bylaws.  We would have to have a consensus.  It can be parents and teachers.  

Jaz:  Are there any updates on clubs?  

JR:  I have a plan.  Parent cohorts.

Val:  What happened to our carnival? 

JR: I was told and now the money got snatched out of our budget.  Our number of ENL and SWD dropped.  Change budget by 140,000.

Meeting adjourned  8:48.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SLT Minutes September 18, 2025

Barbara: We have quorum because we have 2 parents at 7:34 AM

Valina: I looked at my emails; not recalling when the last meeting was. 

Jeannie: It was May 29th.

Barbara:  I moved a copy of them into the September folder.

JR:  Can you please explain to us all the rules about quorum.

Sonia: If you have a quorum, you can hold business; you can conduct business.  You can continue as normal.  

Barbara:  Does not stipulate that you have a certain member.

Sonia: You can have a meeting.  PTA is separate.  

Barbara: Mandatory members do not have to be here for quorum  

Valina: As a volunteer person.  I shouldn’t have to hold meetings every two weeks.  

S:  You’re responsible for holding elections otherwise it would be me and the principal.  It states whoever exists on the board; you’re responsible for holding elections.  

Barbara: Valina is recording secretary.  

Sonia: She needs to make sure the positions are filled.

JR:  Can I help?

S: This is what the parents argued for.  Need all THREE mandatory members for a PTA to exist.  One mandatory member.  Regulations state the one member will have to hold the elections

Brenda:  Can teachers try and help and send DOJOs to the parents.  

S: Sending should have happened already.  It should be Valina because she is the PTA.

B: The minutes were placed into the folder.  

Sa: I couldn’t access it.

V: We usually get an email

B: Pass on the review of the agenda.

JR: School goals and academic priorities.  Set the stage.  First you'll see the district priorities.  Will use tiered professional learning to support teachers in providing small group instruction to promote increased student achievement.  Looked at data and scores.  Students lacked certain skills.  Piloted programs in Ms.  Lauro's classroom.  Piloted different things in K-2 and 3-%.  K-2 center based activities.  Skills and literacy based.  Letter recognition, fluency, anything that the teacher decided based on what the student specifically needed.  3-5 departmentalization activities.  Working on needs.  Kids are excited because the classes are split up.  

Sas: we were not told which classes and which teacher.

Jaz:  Is it random?  

JR: No it is based on their assessment score and what their need is.

Sas: we were not told which teacher they were going to.  Third grade has started.  

JR: On the second page of the hand out.  Foundational skills in K-2 Hegrity, UFLI, Fundations and Wilson fundations the three resources.  Plus the HMH.  As far as the literacy interventions that will be SPIRE.  Ms. Pharboo will be taking grades 2-4.  Supplemental materials will be i-Ready.  Teachers will be using the i-Ready curriculum.  From the district.  Ms. DiCicco will be using SPIRE, Sound sensible.  RTI are children who need extra support.

M:  These are the children who need extra support.  Because they are not identified.

JR: This child is behind and this is support.  If they do not catch up then the school goes from there.

Jeannie:  RTI letters go out to the parents.  The school doesn’t need permission.  It is just an extra service.

JR:  We have tutors from CUNY.  

Sas:  Are they starting?

V:  My tutor gave you this.  

JR:  You had to have signed a letter.

M:  Is it a half hour?

JR:  One on one.  Under the approach column. This is what was adopted for the upper grades and the other column is for K-2.  So the chart gives us the possible benefits and the possible costs.  Obviously we look at the costs and minimize it.  The tutors showed success in the i-Ready scores.  The district wants the kids on the i-Ready for a certain amount of time.  We are hoping to see movement in the scores.  Vision statement for the school.  Basically small group instruction for the students.  

Sasha: Where does the date go?  Permission.

JR: The scores goes nowhere, it stays in house.  It is for the teacher.  What the teacher should focus on.  It explains what the teacher should be working on.  It is a way of teaching.  We are looking to close foundational skills.To be on grade level, so that they meet grade level by third grade.  Sometimes they come to us from other schools below grade level.  The city mandated curriculum.  They are going to do the same thing for MATH next year.  The city has not decided yet.

Next generation standards.

Bar:  We now have the full SLT team.  We need to introduce ourselves (we all went around and said our names) Right now we have 4 parents.  We have 5 teachers.  Sasha is there in the capacity as Title One.  The Title One speaks when it relates to title one spending.  What is the action plan?  Do we need to do a workshop?  First order of business is to make a plan.  They are not a part of the decision making.

JR:  That is where we are at with school goals and district goals.  Want to talk about the CEP.  Last year we had our ELA goal. Last year from 48 to 60%.  At the end of the year.  We hit 68%.  Almost 69%.  I actually want to go to 75%.  We are looking at state tests for this one.  

Bar:  The scores come in over the summer.  We are setting this goal for ourselves.

V: Can we change the number?  

B:  By June of 2026 the school will have 68% to 73% of their students will get a 3 or 4 on the NYS ELA.

JR: For math we focused on algebraic thinking.  This is the area we need to improve. Right now we are at 74%.  We used the i-Ready scores.  

 

Mel:  the state has a higher value than the i-Ready scores.  

B:  We were at 74%.

Val:  Lack of information.  If I know more how the i-ready differs from how the state tests.

M: We need an i-Ready workshop.  I can’t conceptualize what it looks like.

JR:  i-Ready is a contracted vendor that we have to hire.  It turned out to be a lot better than it used to be.  It gets them used to being online.  

JR:  The state exams are only for grades 3-5.  The lower grades can look at individual skills.  For math we do use i-ready math.

V: We do goals 3-5. CEP goals only 3-5.

JR:  the school is based on 3-5.

B: Do we want to table this goal?  Or do you want to do it now.

JR: We talked about parent workshops.  They never happened..  We need a i-Ready workshop now.  

S: Can we do it outside of it?  It has nothing to do with Title One.

JR:  I’m going to schedule an i-Ready workshop.

B:  In order for it to go out to teachers it has to be posted for 10 days.  Teachers need to apply.  Then you review the people who apply.

M: My concern is this time.  Holidays.  Unacceptable, I need the workshop so I can understand what to happen.  I don’t know what I’m doing.  I need the workshop pronto.

V:  There is a reason that parents volunteer.  Rotating parents, rotating teachers.  Come ready we have so many questions and no answers.  The teachers should have been contacted.  We don’t prepare for these meetings.  Send documents long in advance.  To be able to set goals and complete them.  Having same conversations over and over again.  

S: Had sub-committees in the past. Be more engaged.

Jaz:  Do we have to have the teachers teach i-Ready or contact the vendors?  

JR: I don’t know if they do have parent workshops?  Don’t know how much they charge. Parent engagement event.  SOAR awards, classroom connection start up in October, parent core groups, each group is led by a staff member and get the parents connected.  Have a regular check in.  

Sas:  there is nothing to talk about for Title One. 

JR: Construction in the school yard, basically finished.  Hopefully done.  Library construction is slated to start in January.  We have 10 new teachers on staff.  I had someone for a tech teacher, but took another job.  He left us high and dry.  If I had a sub who could teach computers, I’d hire them.  I just don’t want to toss someone in there. 

Bar:  The lab has to be taken apart in June, the lab is not set up for classes to be in there. 

Val:  Who is taking this on.  

JR:  Everyone else is tied up in other things.  It's a tremendous amount of work for the staff to set up the computer lab.  Hiring is a priority.  We are working on that.  

SAS:  Can a DOE vendor we can hire in the meantime?  Painted the mural and garden.  Is there anything the district recommends?

JR: The district has no one.  I sent feelers out.  Class size.  We got class sizes cut down to 20 and below.  It is really nice to see that. The city is going ahead with it for next year.  We will have to talk about that. We are hoping for kindergarten. Kindergarten would be max 20.

JAz:  Is it better k than 4th grade? 

JR: The DOE hasn’t released anything yet.

B: We didn’t cover STEM night.  Leave your kids at home and come to STEM night.

SOn:  On your agenda?  Title One updates?  This is where the Title one speaks ONLY.  

Sas: On the agenda is there 

Son:  It is best practice for the agenda to be sent ahead and the data.   The corporate world doesn't have to deal with unions.  You can spend 5 months on the same topic.  Moving forward, what is a topic for discussion?  Data available.

Jaz:  Can we review bylaws?  

Bar:  It is usually on the September agenda.  Wasn’t sure about the quorum.  We can do as new business.

Son:  A copy of the bylaws should be at every meeting.

Jeannie:  Put updated email, gmail on there.  

Val:  You normally email the minutes.  Can’t assume everyone read what was in the folder.  Parents should be privy to the minutes.  

Sonia:  Everything is uploaded on the iplan portal.  Therefore anyone can access the information.  The city is still working on the Title One information.  Let me know how successful you are?

Bar:  Before we adjourn.  Let’s set an agenda.  Review the bylaws, the third Thursday will be October 16th at 7:30 AM.  Review the minutes.  I can print them.  

Jaz:  Can we discuss sub committees for SLT?

B: We will have to come to a consensus next time we meet for the day and time.  

JR:  October 16, 2025 at 7:30.

Meeting adjourned 8:45.