Site Council

Sunny Hills Site Council Meeting Summary

Date: October 24, 2025

Attendees: Cami Przybylski, Lauren Triggs, Kathy Stamolis, Tommy Yau, Renee Fisher, Vaishali Suryawanshi, Karin Danner

Meeting Overview

Cami Przybylski opened the meeting and welcomed members. The Site Council Bylaws were reviewed collaboratively, ensuring shared understanding of roles and responsibilities. No questions were raised.

Student Improvement Plan (SIP) Review – 2024–25 Reflection & 2025–26 Focus

Areas of Strength

- Literacy: 91% of students met benchmark; significant growth among students with disabilities (from <25% to 60%).
- Attendance: 93% of all students, including BIPOC students, attend regularly. Family and staff partnerships, along with counselor-led incentive programs, contributed to this success.
- School Culture: Positive behavior is increasing through Mustang Way and PBIS recognition systems.
- Family Engagement: Strong participation in events such as STEM/Math Night, Cultural Night, D@SH, kindergarten connections, and parent panels.

Areas for Growth

- Math Performance: Overall achievement slightly below target (81% vs. 86%), with continued disproportionality among BIPOC students. Targeted interventions using i-Ready data and BSAP intensive math groups will be implemented in spring.
- BIPOC Literacy: Performance declined (67% vs. 86% goal); remains a priority.
- Multilingual Family Access: Barriers persist related to childcare, language, and scheduling.

Key Focus Areas for 2025–26

- Increased teacher and special services collaboration in Tiered Support meetings.
- Smaller, targeted instructional groups using Literacy Decision Tree and UDL strategies.
- Enhanced family engagement through accessible formats (e.g., childcare, Zoom).
- Training in assistive and inclusive technology for staff, students, and families.
- Continued emphasis on math equity through culturally responsive instruction and strengthened Tier 2 supports.

Student Transitions

- 5th Grade to Middle School: Counselor-led lessons, school tours, parent communications, and IEP/504 transitions.
- Incoming Kindergarten: Family connection meetings, preschool coordination, and SPED site visits.
- All Grades: Families receive transition documents outlining expectations for the next school year.

Data Highlights

High attendance, strong early literacy gains, effective IEP/504 transitions, and positive family feedback indicate strong student readiness.

Additional Parent Feedback

Vaishali Suryawanshi, Site Council representative, shared that under the previous Skyward system, K–1 parents received more detailed breakdowns of their child's i-Ready performance by category. The transition to Qmlativ has resulted in more generalized reporting. As a parent, she found the specific data helpful in supporting her child’s learning at home and expressed interest in regaining access to more detailed insights.

Cami concluded the meeting at 9:05 am

The next meeting: January 28^th, 2026

Site Council Minutes 5/21/2025

Attendees: Brandy Falk, Kathy Stamolis, Lauren Triggs, Linda Ogden, Alissa Pires, Renea Fisher, Tommy Yau and Karin Danner

Brandy shared exciting news about the expansion of the on-site daycare program, Mustang Club. The goal is to offer before- and after-school care to all interested families. She encouraged members to help spread the word.

Linda Ogden, a 5th-grade teacher, is leading a group of motivated students in cleaning and replanting the gardens near the roundabout. She hopes to expand the program to include students from other grades next year.

Brandy invited parents of students with special needs to a professional development session to share their experiences. Parents express that they feel misunderstood and isolated at times. They wanted teachers to understand that their kids often spend long hours in therapy after their school day. They shared communication strategies unique to their children’s special needs.

Brandy also noted that beginning in 2028, legislation will require all students to be mainstreamed into general education classrooms, eliminating LRC (Learning Resource Center) classrooms. Gathering parent insights will help the school prepare for this transition.

Student Support and Behavior

• One-on-One Support: One-on-one support will continue for select students next year. Our UNS (Universal Needs Specialist) will also follow her assigned student to their next grade level.
• Suspension Rate: The school’s suspension rate has decreased this year.
• Behavioral Tracking:
  • Blue Slip Office Passes will continue to be used next year.
  • SWIS (School-Wide Information System) referrals have decreased by 20%. This data is used to identify and address student behavior needs.

Academic Assessments

• SBA Testing: Students in grades 3–5 completed SBA (Smarter Balanced Assessment) testing in May. We are hopeful that the Benchmark curriculum has positively impacted student performance.
• i-Ready Data: Preliminary data from i-Ready shows an increase in student scores.
• SABERS: Teachers and students will also complete SABERS (Social, Academic, and Emotional Behavior Risk Screener) to assess students’ social-emotional well-being in grades 3 – 5.

Grant-Funded Programs

• BSAP (Before School Academic Program): Funded by the Issaquah Schools Foundation, this program provides targeted math instruction for 3rd–5th grade students who are approaching grade-level expectations. It ran from February through May on Monday and Wednesday mornings. We are hoping to see an increase in math test scores with this added targeted math instruction.

Program Overviews

• LAP (Learning Assistance Program):
  • 24 students exited the program this year.
  • No new referrals were made, which is a positive indicator of student progress.
• MLL (Multilingual Learners):
  • 33% of students exited MLL services this year.
  • The number of ML students is growing, and we plan to cluster these students in classrooms to better support their learning next year.
• LRC (Learning Resource Center):
  • LRC enrollment is decreasing.
  • Next year, the LRC1 program will have one full-time and one half-time teacher (down from two full-time teachers).
  • Higher needs are typically observed in kindergarten and 1st grade, as students develop self-regulation skills, needs tend to stabilize in 2nd and 3rd grade, with some students testing out by 4th and 5th grade.

Brandy concluded the meeting at 9:00 a.m. and thanked the team or their time spent on this committee this year.

Site Council Meeting 1.15.2025

Attendees: Brandy Falk, Anna Voigt, Kathy Stamolis, Lauren Triggs, Linda Ogden, Vaishali Suryawanshi, Alissa Pires, Renea Fisher, and Karin Danner

Guest: Kelsey Peck, LAP

Brandy brought the meeting to order at 8:00 a.m. the first order of discussion was to change the time of future site council meetings going forward. It was unanimously agreed to change the time to 8:30 – 9:00 a.m.

Brandy confirmed that the water filtration system is installed and ready to use. The funding was generously provided by the PTA. Installation proved to be trickier than anticipated, but both stations are working well.

She also shared information about a couple programs currently taking place. The second cycle of i-Ready Reading and SAEBRS. Which is a survey filled out 3 x year (Fall, Winter, Spring). Schoolwide, teachers fill it out for their kids. Additionally, 2^nd – 5^th grades fill out a mySAEBRS which students fill out themselves based on their perception. There are 3 areas: social, academic and emotional with rating scales for each question.  From that data we are able to support kids with tiered interventions.

Report cards will be available at the end of the month. The format is new this year, and the district has held several informational meetings for the community about these changes.

Initial data related to our new Benchmark curriculum in reading and writing shows an upward trend in test scores.

Kelsey Peck, our Learning Assistance Program teacher presented this year’s LAP building plan. This plan includes all of the components of the Title/LAP Intervention program at Sunny Hills. The purpose of Issaquah’s targeted assistance program at Sunny Hills is to accelerate student learning so that those students most at risk of failure are prepared to meet the State’s academic achievement standards. Kelsey went into more detail about how the LAP program works including how we determine who gets served, how/when they are served, and how their progress is monitored as well as shared with families.

A question about whether there were any similar programs for students struggling with math was addressed by Brandy. She explained that although there is not a program equivalent to LAP for math, there are many types of differentiation happening in classrooms around math interventions. Whether it is teachers working with small groups, or math rotations, we are able to identify students who need additional assistance and support them. Additionally, the Issaquah Schools Foundation has granted most schools additional funds to provide math support for kids on the cusp of proficiency in math.  These groups will begin after the second winter break for students in grades 3 – 5.

Brandy clarified the process and implication of Student Led clubs that are new this year. She cleared up some confusion about who can participate and how information on these clubs is communicated to the community. These clubs are initiated by students, with staff member support. Currently, these clubs are limited to 3 – 5th grades.

Our meeting concluded at 9:00 a.m.

Site Council Meeting 6.3.2024

Location: Sunny Hills Library

Attendees: Tim Baynes, Lauren Triggs, Megan Berry, Charlotte Byers,  Eunice Lee, Lindsay Olson, Barbara Cowgill, and Lauren Stephenson

Guest: Lyndia Collister, LAP Teacher

Note taker: Karin Danner

Call to order: 8:30 a.m.

Tim Baynes brought the meeting to order at 8:30 a.m.

Tim mentioned again that historically Site Council were developed to focus on school safety. Meetings typically revolved around 4 areas: Bylaws, SIP, LAP and review of our Discipline Policy.  As we touched on at the previous meeting, the focus of Site Council will likely change going forward as we have school and district safety committees and the district has steamed lined the discipline policy to be congruent though the district. Tim encouraged each group to think what role they would like to see Site Council in the years to come.

Tim reviewed where we were in regards to our School Improvement Plan (SIP).  Our goal is to increase scores from 82% passing to 88% meeting proficiency on the Smarter Balanced Math assessment over two years. Sunny Hills sought out to support growth in math by working with students and classrooms on cultivating mathematical mindsets. A mathematical mindset involves skills of grit, problem solving, confidence and celebrating growth and progress – not just having the right answers. Our hypothesis was that by focusing on math mindsets, we would also see growth in performance.

Current i-Ready scores demonstrating projected proficiency off of Winter and Spring i-Ready Diagnostics demonstrate that we are on track to meet our goal. We are currently waiting on more finalized SBA results from the Spring 2024 assessment window to review our final progress on this goal.

What is especially exciting when reviewing our SIP progress is the improvement of students in our BIPOC and Students with Disabilities focus groups, where the percentage of students meeting standard improved by 13% and 9% respectively.

Lyndia Collister, Learning Assistance Program (LAP) teacher, presented the Reading Intervention program. She provided the following information. Purpose: To accelerate learning for students most at risk of failure. She uses Really Great Reading, our phonics curriculum, which is aimed to help students who show characteristic similar to dyslexia. These focus on decoding along with intensive phonics instruction. She also brought an example of student kits that allow students to manipulate letter sounds. She shared that she is excited that her program Issaquah Schools Foundation provided Jump Rope Decodable readers to Sunny Hills. They are chapter style books that introduce fun characters in story form that help to engage emergent readers.

This year the program provides services to:

7 – First Graders

7 - Second Graders

5 – Third Graders

1 – Fourth Grader

The only stakeholder group to bring up input or concerns was Lindsay Olson. She mentioned that the bus buddy program had been really well received and was hoping the program might be extended all year next year. This Spring, 5th grade bus buddies helped kindergarten students to the correct buses after school. We discussed the possibility of having Safety Patrol include this in their duties next year. She also asked for clarification about overnight camp. Apparently, there is talk in the community about wanting an overnight camp experience, especially as some of our neighboring schools have had that opportunity. Tim shared that we did receive a grant to help with the cost of camp for next year.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:02 a.m.

Site Council Meeting 3.18.2024

Location: Sunny Hills Library

Attendees: Tim Baynes, Eunice Lee, Lindsay Olson, Barbara Cowgill, and Lauren Stephenson

Note taker: Karin Danner

Call to order: 8:30 a.m.

Tim introduced the stakeholder representatives:

• Tim Baynes – Principal
• Karin Danner – Note Taker
• Lindsay Olson – Primary Representative
• Eunice Lee– Secondary Representative/ Classified Staff
• Barbara Cowgill – Specialists
• Lauren Triggs – Primary Teacher Representative (absent)
• Megan Berry – Secondary Representative (absent)
• Lauren Stephenson – PTA President

We reviewed the norms of Site Council and Tim gave a short explanation of the history of the role of school Site Councils. Site Councils were formed originally as a group with a focus on school safety. The focus of this group has expanded over time, as schools have their own safety committees and Districts strive to put policies in place District-wide to keep students safe following national guidance and in partnership with local emergency responders. Site Council is not a place for problems or complaints related to individual employees, students or classrooms, personnel decisions made by the principal or matters that fail to contribute significantly to student learning and/or well-being.

Typically, we review the LAP program, review our SIP goals, and end the year reviewing the Student Handbook. Tim discussed that he would be open to delving into other topics as needed. He encouraged the team to share topics that they would like to address in the coming months.

Lindsay brought up the Supply List issues on the website. Some parents are still having issues deciphering what they should and shouldn’t purchase. Last year we changed the format hoping it would be clearer, however, there is still some confusion. Per group discussion, Karin Danner, the School Webmaster, will look into adding “0”s to the cells that are currently blank in an effort to make the process easier to understand.

It was also suggested that we send the supply list home at the same time as the PTA sponsored Toolbox pre-packaged school supply Flyer that is sent home in the Spring.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:57 a.m.

Our next meeting is Monday, April 29.

Site Council Meeting 6.5.2023

Location: Sunny Hills Library

Attendees: Tim Baynes, Lauren Triggs, Eunice Lee, Charlotte Byers, Lindsay Olson, Barbara Cowgill and Eve Yen

Note taker: Karin Danner

Call to order: 8:30 a.m.

Tim Baynes brought the meeting to order. The minutes from the previous meeting were approved. We discussed potential meaningful topics for the 2023 – 2024 Site Council meetings beyond the yearly required topics. Nobody had anything specific at this point and we decided to add topics as needed.

Tim reviewed this year’s SIP progress noting strong student growth in math this year as shown by the i-Ready Math assessments. Tim also shared about an ongoing focus on Multi-Tiered System Supports for next year and how we will continue to develop more interventions and supports (academic, social/emotional, behavioral, etc.) for students to access when needs are identified.

We looped back to our website discussion from the previous meeting. Karin Danner shared that she was able to post the supply list in a more user-friendly format. Karin also mentioned to the district that a more accessible place for the pay online site link. It is too difficult to find in the portal section. Charlotte and Eunice also mentioned it was difficult to find out about after school clubs. We talked about Peachjar and its limitations and how we can better communicate about school sponsored after school clubs to give all students a chance to participate.

Charlotte mentioned it would be nice if Mustang club could provide a designated space for kids who attend Mustang Club to work on i-Ready or to do their homework.

Our next meeting will be next November.

Meeting was dismissed at 9:00 a.m.

Site Council Meeting 4.24.2023

Location: Sunny Hills Library

Attendees: Tim Baynes, Lauren Triggs, Eunice Lee, Charlotte Byers, Lindsay Olson, Barbara Cowgill and Eve Yen

Note taker: Karin Danner

Call to order: 8:30 a.m.

Principal, Tim, brought the meeting to order. The minutes from the previous meeting were approved.

Tim shared that typically Site Council would review the Student Handbook at this meeting. However, the handbook has been streamlined by the district, making it similar from school to school. Instead, he tasked us with reviewing content on our website.

He shared the School’s Website Content Guide provided by the district in developing our website. Using these parameters, we looked at each section to identify content that needed clarification, additional information added or display changes to aid in accessing information more easily.

We didn’t have sufficient time to compete this job. Several items were brought to our attention from our parent representatives. One was the format for the testing dates. They were too difficult to read in the current format. Secondly, the supply lists didn’t populate correctly on phones. Third, the Pay Online link is difficult to find. Could it be placed on the homepage to make it more easily accessible.  Karin Danner will reach out to the district about possible adjustments.

We will revisit this subject at our next meeting.

Meeting was dismissed at 9:05 a.m.

Our next meeting will be Monday, June 5th, 2023

Site Council Meeting 2.6.2023

Location: Sunny Hills Library

Attendees: Tim Baynes, Lauren Triggs, Megan Berry, Eunice Lee, Barbara Cowgill and Eve Yen

Note taker: Karin Danner

Guest: Lyndia Collister – LAP Teacher

Call to order: 8:30 a.m.

Principal Tim Baynes brought the meeting to order. The minutes from the previous meeting were approved. We revisited the discussion from the previous meeting about lunch times. Tim shared that there may be legislation coming down about having recess before lunch as we did prior to the pandemic. Thoughts are that kids won’t rush eating lunch in order to go play. Also, kids may eat more because they are hungrier after playing. We will wait to see and then our leadership team will decipher the proposition and its impact at Sunny Hills.

Lyndia Collister, Learning Assistance Program (LAP) teacher, presented this year’s Reading Intervention program. She provided the following information.

Purpose: To accelerate learning for students most at risk of failure. To provide intensive phonics instruction.

Changes for this Year:

1. Groups are more fluid and can change after each I-Ready diagnostic if scores show a need.
2. Curriculum
3. Assessments used to qualify students.

Qualifying for Lap:

1. I-Ready reading scores- low in phonics, phonemic awareness or overall
2. Really Great Reading Diagnostic to determine eligibility
3. Teacher recommendations

Students Served by Grade, not including other students also served in Really Great Reading program:

• 1^st – 7
• 2^nd –7
• 3^rd – 7
• 4^th – 4
• 5^th –  2

Progress from Last Year – How many Repeats or Exit

• 1^st – 3 repeat and 4 new
• 2^nd – 4 repeat and 3 new
• 3^rd – 3 repeat and 4 new
• 4^th – 3 repeat and 1 new (most of this group is close to exiting!)
• 5^th – 1 repeat and 1 new

Materials Used

• Really Great Reading – Our phonics curriculum aimed to help students who show characteristics similar to dyslexia.
• Leveled Literacy Intervention – Little books with take home copies)
• Really Great Reading Components

Lesson is teacher directed computer based, and includes:

• Student Workbooks
• Student kits – manipulate letters
• Site Words

Tim gave an overview of our new School Improvement Plan (SIP). This will be our first year with the focus on math. Our goal is to increase scores from 82% passing to 88% meeting proficiency on the Smarter Balanced Math assessment over two years. Our sub-group goal for students in groups showing disproportionality with school-wide data is for 60% of students in these groups to meet their stretch growth. We are developing our action plan for supporting school-wide growth in these areas including professional development for staff, future work on mathematical mindsets and student and family engagement in math including events such as a “Math-in” and Math Night being planned for the spring. We will also be offering a Before School Assistant Program (BSAP) for students identified as needing additional support.

Meeting was dismissed at 9:05 a.m.

Our next meeting will be Monday, April 24^th, 2023.

Site Council Meeting 12.5.2022

Location: Sunny Hills Library

Attendees: Cami Przybylski, Lauren Triggs, Megan Berry, Eunice Lee, Barbara Cowgill, Eve Yen and Charlotte Byers

Note taker: Karin Danner

Call to order: 8:33 a.m.

Assistant Principal, Cami Przybylski, brought the meeting to order. We welcomed our newest members, Charlotte Byers – Primary Rep. and Eunice Lee who is both – the Classified and Secondary representative.

Cami outlined the purpose and the evolution of Site Council over the years. We reviewed our Sunny Hills meeting norms to be sur e they aligned with our school-wide expectations to be respectful, responsible and engaged. We agreed, with a unanimous vote, to follow these meeting norms our Site Council meetings.

We reviewed the Site Council Bylaws to be sure they were aligned to the district mission and reflected current building practices. No changes were made to the Bylaws. We reviewed that Site Council should foster continuous improvement of the school’s educational programs, blend the values and perspectives of the community, parents and students, foster effective communications on the key topics among all stakeholders in Sunny Hills, and provide an effective venue for creating school-wide planning and problem solving.

Charlotte shared a concern about the short duration of lunch. She was curious if 20 minutes was enough time for students to finish eating. We discussed this as a group and several stakeholders shared that there were multiple factors that warranted such limited for lunch. 1) Limited staff to monitor 2) limited ability of students to remain seated and engaged in eating 2) time for all students to funnel thought the lunch room 3) ability of the kitchen staff to prepare and serve food in a timely fashion.

Meeting was dismissed at 9:00 a.m.

Our next meeting will be Monday, February 6th.

Site Council Meeting 4.20.2022

Attendees: Tim Baynes, Kristin Downing, Barbara Cowgill, Lauren Triggs, Eve Yuen and Karin Danner

Call to order: 8:30 a.m.

Tim welcomed the group and explained that once yearly the Site Council is tasked with reviewing the Student Handbook. He mentioned that at the district was in the process of stream lining school handbooks. At this point they are moving in the direction of grouping the legalities of harassment, intimidation and bullying, nondiscrimination, weapons, and attendance into one section. Each school could decide what information would be useful to share in more of a Student/Family guide.  

We divided into teams to each review separate sections of the handbook to determine what should be added, changed or deleted. We ran out of time to complete this task, however here are few areas we may want to take a closer look at:

• School-Wide Expectations – Be more specific about what those look like. Maybe adding graphics. Maybe even a video?
  • Adding the Kelso’s Wheel
  • Be more descriptive the definition of bullying vs. being mean. Maybe examples?
• In the Sunny Hills Spirit section maybe we can add a link to the PTA Website?
• In the Drop off pick up section, add a visual and video.
• Add a section on Animals on Campus

We will revisit this discussion at our next meeting.

Our next meeting will be Wednesday, June 8^th, 2022

Site Council Meeting 2.2.2022

Location: Zoom

Attendees: Tim Baynes, Kristin Downing, Lucie Willeman, Barbara Cowgill, Suneetha Kola, Eve Yuen and Karin Danner

Guest: Lyndia Collister – LAP Teacher

Call to order: 8:30 a.m.

Tim Baynes brought the meeting to order with the Land Acknowledgement.  He welcomed Lucie Willeman who will be taking over for Ashley Nodine who is out on maternity leave.

Tim introduced Lyndia Collister, our Intervention Specialist (LAP) teacher. Lyndia has been a LAP teacher since 2004. Lyndia shared with us that the program looks different this year. She shared the specifics as listed below:

Purpose:

• To accelerate learning for students most at risk of failure.
• To provide intensive phonics instruction.

Differences from Previous Years:

• Groups are more fluid and can change after each I-Ready diagnostic depending on scores
• Curriculum
• Assessments used to qualify students.

Qualifying for LAP:

• I-Ready reading scores – low in phonics, phonemic awareness or overall.
• Really Great Reading Diagnostic or determine eligibility
• Teacher recommendations

Students Served:

• Varies each year depending on test scores
• Currently:
  • 1^st grade–   8 students
  • 2^nd grade– 12 students
  • 3^rd grade–  9 students
  • 4^th grade–  4 students
  • 5^th grade-   2 students

Materials Used:

• Really Great Reading – Our new phonics curriculum aimed to help students who show characteristics similar to dyslexia.

As needed if there is extra time:

• Leveled Literacy Intervention (by Fountas and Pinnell)
• Little books with take home copies.

Really Great Reading Components:

Lesson is computer based, and includes:

• Sights
• Student workbook
• Student kits – manipulate letters

Tim Baynes walked us through our School Improvement Plan (SIP) for the 2021 -2022 school year. He explained that the SIP plan is typically a 3 – 4 year cycle developed according to the Washington Administrative Code 180-16-220. This is a data based plan that includes information that staff certification requirements were met. The plan is presented to the school board annually. We had been in year 3 of our SIP plan last year, which was focused on increasing reading scores across all groups. Instead of developing and new 3 year plan, we developed a one year SIP plan that provides closure to the previous plan and focuses not only on reading, but re-engagement plans and recovery services.  This plan will be based on key success indicators.

This year we will use I Ready scores to measure as we don’t have SBA data for reference due to the pandemic. This one year goal is to have all students at 88% proficient in reading in the spring, up from 75.9 % this past fall. The specifics for this plan will be available on our website after board approval.

Our next meeting will be Wednesday, April 20^th.

Site Council Meeting 11.24.2021

Location: Sunny Hills Library

Attendees: Tim Baynes,  Ashley Nodine, Kaitlin Fossati, Kristin Downing, Barbara Cowgill, Eve Yen, Suneetha Kola and Karin Danner

Call to order: 8:33 a.m.

Principal Baynes brought the meeting to order. We welcomed our newest members, Suneetha Kola – Primary REP., Kristin Downing – Classified Rep., Barbara Cowgill – Specialist Rept., Eve Yen - PTA President, and Kaitlin Fossati – Primary Staff Rep. (subbing for Laruen Triggs).

Principal Baynes went over the purpose and the evolution of Site Council over the years. He also shared the Land Acknowledgement and reviewed our Sunny Hills meeting norms aligned with our school-wide expectations to be respectful, responsible and engaged. We agreed, with a unanimous vote, to follow these meeting norms at Site Council.

We reviewed the Site Council Bylaws to be sure they were aligned to the district mission and reflected current building practices. No changes were made to the Bylaws. We reviewed that Site Council should foster continuous improvement of the school’s educational programs, blend the values and perspectives of the community, parents and students, foster effective communications on the key topics among all stakeholders in Sunny Hills, and provide an effective venue for creating school-wide planning and problem solving.

Our next meeting will be Wednesday, February 2^nd.

Site Council Meeting 2.3.2021

Location: Zoom

Attendees: Cami Przybylski, Tim Baynes, Emily Loney, Michele Ensey, Kathy Wasson, April Miklautsch, Lauren Triggs, Parinaz Ejlali and Karin Danner

Call to order: 8:30 a.m.

Cami Przybylski began the meeting and turned it over to Tim Baynes who walked us through our School Improvement Plan (SIP) for the 2020 -2021 school year. He explained that the SIP plan is a 3 – 4 year cycle developed according to the Washington Administrative Code 180-16-220. This is a data based plan that includes information that staff certification requirements were met. The plan is presented to the school board annually. We had been in year 3 of our SIP plan before the pandemic, which was focused on increasing reading scores across all groups. We are placing that plan on hold and instead will focus on student engagement. This plan will be based on key success indicators.

1. What are some of the ways your school is encouraging and monitoring active, productive engagement of student learning and the school community?
2. What strategies is the school using to monitor academic progress in essential learnings and ensuring students will be prepared for future learning?
3. What have you learned from the ISD family and student in the fall of 2020? How did your school team respond to family and student feedback?

Tier 1: Universal Prevention (All)

Tier 1 supports serve as the foundation for behavior and academics. Schools provide these universal supports to all students. For most students, the core program gives them what they need to be successful and to prevent future problems.

Tier 2: Targeted Prevention (Some)

This level of support focuses on improving specific skill deficits students have. Schools often provide Tier 2 supports to groups of students with similar targeted needs. Providing support to a group of students provides more opportunities for practice and feedback while keeping the intervention maximally efficient. Tier 2 supports help students develop the skills they need to benefit core programs at the school.

Tier 3: Intensive, Individualized Prevention (Few)

Tier 3 supports are the more intensive due to the individualized approach of developing and carrying out interventions. At this level, schools typically rely on data to determine a student’s need and to develop an individualized support plan.

Tim has submitted the new SIP plan to Rich Mellish, Exec. Dir. of Teaching and Learning, and once approved, it will go to the School Board and then it will be posted to our website.

A question about what we do when everything we have in place doesn’t work.

Tim shared that there are various safety nets for kids who are not thriving academically in online learning. Using online tools we can track kids who are under performing academically and intervene with one on -one breakout rooms and study halls.

While students continue to make progress, it looks different for everyone and we look forward to serving some students in person when we have the chance.

Parinaz asked what avenues were in place for parents to receive support if they are struggling or have questions.

Tim mentioned that he has been holding monthly Community Connection meetings on the 1^st Tuesday of each month for parents. This information is shared through Enews with a link for parents to pose a question ahead of time, then Tim sends them a link to the meeting and he can address concerns. He feels like this has been helpful for parents.

Meeting adjourned at 9:05 a.m.

Our next meeting is schooled for April 21^st, 2021 @ 8:30 a.m.

Site Council Meeting 11.24.2020

Location: Zoom

Attendees: Cami Przybylski, Tim Baynes, Emily Loney, Michele Ensey, Ashley Nodine, Kathy Wasson, April Miklautsch, and Karin Danner

Guest: Lyndia Collister – LAP Teacher

Call to order: 8:30 a.m.

Cami Przybylski brought the meeting to order. She welcomed our newest member, Kathy Wasson, as our Classified Representative. She took the place of Samantha Mayer-Ledet, who left the district this year.

We reviewed the Site Council By Laws to be sure they were aligned to the district mission and reflected current building practices. We decided, as a team, to take off the verbiage that indicates a form is available on our website for our community to submit input for future site council meeting topics. It was agreed that there were numerous avenues for stakeholder groups to voice concerns that would provide a more direct and timely channel to communicate concerns.

We also decided to change out the title Dean of Students to Assistant Principal. Attached are the updated SC By Laws.

Cami introduced Lyndia Collister, our Learning Assistance Program (LAP) teacher. Lyndia has been a LAP teacher since 2004. Lyndia shared with us that she is servicing 21 kids this year.  She gave a quick overview of the program which included the following:

Purpose:

• To accelerate learning for students most at risk of failure.
• To provide a double dose of reading.
• Emphasis on early intervention which is based on research
• To accelerate learning for students most at risk of failure.

Qualifying for LAP:

• Fountas and Pinnell Reading Assessments
• Teacher recommendations
• Report card grades
• No Iowa or SBA scores (this year – due to COVID 19)
• Permission from Parents

Materials Used:

• Leveled Literacy Intervention (by Fountas and Pinnell)
• Lexia online resource is now provided to all K-5 students
• Piloting Heggerty Phonemic Awareness (Audio  not visual)
• As needed:
  • Fountas and Pinnell Phonics
  • Making Meaning Comprehension

Lyndia also shared that remote learning has had a few unexpected positive upshots. One is that students that presented shy and/or withdrawn at school, were more bold and outgoing in their home environment. She is also able to service kids in the afternoon so that they get that double dose of reading. Students get their in-person learning in the morning with their teacher and a “double-dose” of reading with LAP in the afternoon. She also mentioned she was able to engage a bit with parents, as they assist their children with accessing their online tools. In a typical in-person model, parent engagement is more difficult.

Tim Baynes updated us on the future of LAP.  We have seen LAP funding decrease the past couple of years. Next year, Sunny Hills will not offer LAP services. The ISD has chosen to reallocate the funding for LAP services to a need based model targeted to schools with the most need.

We will continue with our general reading curriculum, but will integrate Reading Foundations as a new phonics based curriculum. Additionally in grades K – 3 students will take a Lexia Reading Assessments to fulfill a state mandate that screens for Dyslexia. Research has shown that 1 in 5 kids display characteristics of Dyslexia. Together they hope to integrate this additional support in classroom learning.

Cami and Tim updated us on the Boundary Review Committee, which will hold its first meeting next Thursday. Emily Hays, parent to a first and third grader, will be our SH representative. She and Tim will attend 4 Boundary Review Committee Meetings as voting members.

Tim explained that boundary decisions are part of a public process and that any speculations are just that. We won’t know anything until the process plays out in early February. The goal is to minimize student movement.

Our next meeting will be Wednesday, February 3rd.

Site Council Meeting 10.23.2019

Location: Sunny Hills Library

Attendees:  Cami Przybylski, Tim Baynes, Emily Loney, Lauren Triggs, Michele Ensey, Ashley Nodine, Samantha Mayer Ledet, April Miklautsch,  Parinaz Ejlali, and Karin Danner

Call to order: 8:30 am

Cami Przybylski brought the meeting to order at 8:35 am. She welcomed the returning members and introduced our two new members, April Miklautsch and Parinaz Ejlali.

We reviewed the meeting dates for the rest of the year as well as topics to be discussed at each meeting.

Cami shared the district’s website with information on our new school #16. She encouraged us to direct folks to that site should questions arise.

Tim Baynes outlined the district’s decision to push the opening to 2021 -2022 which included:

• Traffic concerns with the Issaquah Pine Lake Road expansion
• Litigation concerns around bus use on the bridge – who owns?
• Possibly moving the entrance which would mean adding a new light.
• Permitting issues around adding a traffic light
• Levy concerns
• Endeavor/Discovery behind schedule

We read through the Site Council Bylaws to make sure we all were aware of the expectations and limitations of participating in Site Council. Besides a couple title changes, we left the Bylaws as written.

Cami adjourned the meeting at 8:55 am

Our next meeting is: November 21st

Site Council Meeting 6.5.2019

On June 5^th, the Site Council team reviewed candidate applications for both the intermediate and the primary positions. Names were not given, but information on candidates was shared. Site Council voted on an intermediate candidate and a primary candidate.

2019 – 2020 Site Council will include:

April Miklautsch – intermediate rep

Parinaz Ejlali – primary rep

Lauren Triggs – primary rep

Ashley Nodine- intermediate rep

Samantha  Mayer Ledet – classified rep

Michelle Ensey – specialist rep

Emily Loney – PTA rep

Site Council Meeting 4.24.2019

Location: Sunny Hills Library

Attendees:  Cami Przybylski, Emily Loney, Lauren Triggs, Michele Ensey, Samantha Mayer Ledet and Karin Danner

Call to order: 8:30 am

Cami Przybylski brought the meeting to order. We made sure all members had a chance to read the notes from the previous meeting and they were approved as submitted.

Cami filled us in on the new principal search. Initial interviews were last Friday, April 19^th and the second round happened this week. We should hear before the end of the month who has been selected.

We discussed that we need to elect another primary and secondary parent representative as Joana Figueiredo and Edel Black have fulfilled their terms. We will advertise the positions in the next eNews. If more than one person shows interest in each position, we will vote at the next site council meeting.

Cami shared that the month will be busy with SBA testing in May as all 3^rd, 4^th and 5^th graders will take the exam.

We took our annual look at the staff handbook and decided it did not need any updates this year. Next, it goes to legal to make sure nothing needs to be added from their vantage point.

Apparently there has been some discontent around the no homework policy. Our PTA is hearing from parents, especially from 5^th grade parents, that they are worried their kids will fall behind in 6^th grade due to the lack of homework.

Meeting was dismissed at 9:05.

Next meeting 6.5.19

Site Council Meeting 1.9.2019

Location: Sunny Hills Library

Attendees:  Cami Przybylski, Joana Figueiredo, Emily Loney, Edel Black, Lauren Triggs, Michele Ensey, Ashley Nodine, Samantha Mayer Ledet and Karin Danner

Call to order: 8:30 am

Cami Przybylski brought the meeting to order. We made sure all members had a chance to read the notes from the previous meeting. We decided as a team to send any revisions to Karin Danner directly and we will assume the notes have been updated and sent to the webmaster for posting. We will no longer need to officially approve the notes.

The focus of this month’s meeting was our new School Improvement Plan (SIP) for the 2019 -2021 school years.

There will be a link our school website if anyone is curious. Cami outline a couple of highlights. She explained that Leslie Lederman will be sharing this information with staff next week.

Cami explained that we are at the end of our three year cycle for writing, but will shift a close attention to reading with this new plan. Leslie and our staff have spent a lot of time digging into the data to determine steps for growth.

Data was analyzed by our Leadership team in partnership with the whole staff. The Leadership team reviewed independently, discussed it as a team and then the data was shared with the staff they represent. Next, we met as a whole staff to discuss our observations and recommendations for an area of focus. That conversation led to the development of our goals and an outline of our Action Plan. Leadership reviewed the draft, sought feedback from their teams before a draft was sent to TLS. Final edits were made based on TLS input.

Previous SIP Goal:

By April 2018, the percent of ALL students meeting standard will increase by 10% in overall points above the 2015 ISD Common Writing Assessment measured by the post ISD Common Writing Assessment. Gap Group By April 2018, the percent of ELL students meeting standard will increase by 15% in overall points above the 2015 ISD Common Writing Assessment measured by the post ISD Common Writing Assessment. Progress Toward Previous Goal: During our three-year SIP, we increased the number of students meeting standard on the ISD CA for Writing. While our overall goal of increasing all scores by 10% was not met, we did increase the total number of students meeting/exceeding standard in writing by 5%. Our students began at 65% meeting/exceeding standard, rose to 77% in year two and then dropped to 70% in our final year. This up/down pattern in our goal 9 written for all students differed from the progress we saw with our Opportunity Gap students. The goal set for our ELL students saw a slow but steady increase each year; moving from 61% meeting/exceeding standard, to 64% in year two and 70% in year three.

School Improvement Goals:

All Students By May 2021, 88% of all students will meet standard in the area of ELA as measured by the SBA ELA. Gap Group By May 2021, each cohort who have received or are currently receiving support services (Special Education, LAP and/or ELL) will increase the number of students meeting standard in the area of ELA by 15% as measured by the SBA ELA.

Action Plan Action Steps:

What research-based strategies will be implemented to achieve this goal? 2018-19 Reading/Writing · Regular communication with families regarding progress with increased reporting for Level 1 and Level 2 students · As a grade level, discuss scoring discrepancies between ISD Common Assessments (Writing, F&P, Reading Assessment), report card grades and/or SBA ELA for grades 3-5.

• Track access to independent reading time and time to write
• Use of Seesaw by early adopters
• Explicit instruction/support provided by IC to all new staff in reading and writing best practices Reading
• Balanced Literacy will be provided in all classrooms including a commitment to teach reading skills outlined in Making Meaning.
• Provide funding to build strong classroom libraries for each classroom
• Provide explicit instruction of comprehension, decoding, and fluency strategies.
• Clearly state and post learning targets in kid friendly language
• Documentation of learning for each student o BAME – common tool for whole staff o Reading Groups – data collection tool determined by teacher
  • F&P recording sheet – updated for each child and then passed onto the next year’s teacher
• Form Reading Groups (guided reading strategy groups and/or Readers Workshop) based on data
• Use Instructional Level during guided reading/conferring 10
• Identify specific teaching points for students who are Level 1 or Level 2 and commit to meeting with them 4 times a week via conferring and/or guided reading.
• Share reading level with families when supporting their efforts at home
• Explicit instruction for all students about choosing Just Right Books
• Build reading stamina beginning in September to hit grade level goal for minutes of independent reading
• Promote Eager Readers to increase reading minutes at home
• Use of ISF grant and building funds to provide reading intervention via ASAP curriculum for up to 24 fifth grade students.
• Weekly communication between support staff (LRC, LAP, ELL) and gen ed staff about shared students
• Calibration training for staff on use of Fountas and Pinnell Writing
• Administer Classroom based On Demand/cold writes
• Implement Writer’s Workshop in each classroom using the Lucy Calkins Units of Study as the curriculum
• Purposeful use of mentor texts to support instruction · Give timely specific feedback to students using the rubric as a guide

For a complete copy of the Sunny Hills School Improvement Plan, click HERE.

Meeting was dismissed at 9:05.

Next meeting 4.24.19.