Brookwood School Community Council Minutes
February 20, 2026
Brookwood Library
Member Attendance:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ODvrvg5cT24vPHFIxVWzAO829BO29Gb-4YnRWF6F3a0/edit?gid=0#gid=0
- Welcome: Megan Olson
- Approve minutes
- Second: Caroline Butters
- Brookie’s Market Update
- Ready to open next week
- Retail Value for auction items is $14-15k
- Goal to raise $20k
- Review Landtrust/TSSP/Cell Tower/Fundraiser Budgets: Corrie Barrett
- Budgets are on track
- PTA Input: Ashley Theodore
- White Ribbon Week is coming up
- Bookworm Month is coming up
- Teachers have Lexile info ready to go for PTC
- Review School Data
- Jessica Pohlman: 1st Grade Attendance is low. How do we get parents to help?
- Reviewed data from Michelle Brunson on reasons for absence. Health reasons are down, vacations/other are up.
- What goals can we make to help?
- Does Michelle Brunson see improvement when working with students?
- Some
- Corrie Barrett: a lot of parents see Kindergarten attendance as non-compulsory and don’t show up. That attitude has carried through to 1st grade
- Katie Dunn: Do parents see attendance and academic performance as correlated?
- Abby Wilcox: Not really. And the problem compounds year over year
- Katie Dunn: Do parents see attendance and academic performance as correlated?
- Jessica Pohlman: Are citizenship grades going to change next year like secondary schools will?
- Hadley Waters: Parents probably won’t care.
- Abby Wilcox: teahers send home notes when students are struggling with attendance.
- Hadley waters: Maybe parents aren’t aware of how many tardies they have. Could we update them more regularly?
- Corrie Barrett: That is already happening for families with severe tardies, offering resources and help.
- Ann Odom: Can we as parents help change the attitude around vacationing during school periods?
- Katie Dunn: is there a way to reward the percentage of kids who are attending more regularly?
- Yes let’s look at that data
- Katie Dunn: is there a way to reward the percentage of kids who are attending more regularly?
- Abby Wilcox: 3rd grade was having trouble with computation so they started a math club on Fridays and they divided the students into groups to focus on the areas where they need support.
- Jessica Pohlman: What are individuals growth goals?
- They’re set at PTC
- Move to approve 2026-2027 TSSP: Corrie Barrett
- 2nd: Caroline Butters
- Vote is unanimous in favor.
- Move to approve 2026-27 Landtrust Plan: Megan Olson
- 2nd: Katie Dunn
- Vote Unanimous in favor
- Ashley Theodore: How do you decide what goal to make for fundraiser?
- Megan Olson: We look at what we have been spending and make the goal based on that.
- Jessica Pohlman: Did the Kindergarten registration numbers for next year go up?
- We’re at 25 students for 26-27
- Last year at this point we were at about 30 and we ended up at 48
- There is no hard number for how many we need for two teachers. We get an FTE allotment based on total enrollment for the school.
- Kassandra Hokanson: Ask your legislators to change the class size for K-2 to 20 and under and provide funding. Right now there are no caps on class size.
- Heidi Vincent: As of right now, 22% of 5th graders are considered chronically absent.
- Ashley Theodore: What were the numbers before covid?
- Jessica Pohlman: Before Covid there were laws around attendance.
- The legislators changed them and now there are no consequences.
- 1/3 of 1st grade is chronically absent.
- Kasandra Hokanson: There’s a bill right now that will require kids to stay in 3rd grade until they meet their reading benchmarks. When you have attendance issues like this, some kids will never reach that benchmark. It doesn’t address the root of the problem.
- Chronically absent is defined as more than 10% of the school year.
- Jessica Pohlman: Are people still keeping kids home when sick for long periods?
- No, that doesn’t seem to be the case.
- Heidi Vincent: reasons for absence for illness percentage has gone down from last year. Vacations and unknown have gone up significantly.
- Kasandra Hokanson: In Kindergarten we see a lot of students on vacation and then coming home sick, so they miss even more days.
- Is there a difference between half day and full day in Kindergarten?
- Kasandra Hokanson: It seems that students attending full day often have working parents so anecdotally it seems they are in school more.
- Monica Rotermund: The problem is vacations.
- Abby Wilcox: Lots of parents don’t notify about vacations in advance.
- Kasandra Hokanson: A lot of people miss days on the end of winter break and students miss out on getting back into routines and testing.
- Monica Rotermund: Teachers put together packets and they don’t get completed or they get completed incorrectly or a parent does it.
- Abby Wilcox: There’s a disconnect in making up misse learning. There is no real substitute for being in the classroom.
- Monica Rotermund: There is a big effect on the child with confidence and anxiety.
- Jordan Smith: Parents don’t see that missing school is affecting their individual children.
- Ashley Theodore: It seems to be consequence of covid. We need to somehow get this message to parents that there are big consequences for students who are missing school.
- Abby Wilcox: Could we do more to educate parents on the impact of absenteeism?
- There are class and school wide attendance rewards given monthly.
- Jessica Pohlman: Parents respond to grades.
- Caroline Butters: Teachers report attendance to reach a goal. The whole school is way behind where they were last year.
- Ashley Moehle: Is there a school community event where we share attendance statistics in addition to Parent Square consistently?
- Monica Rotermund: Parents are already being reminded if they’re chronically absent.
- Megan Olson: Let’s hang the statistics up in the halls during conferences broken down by grade outside the teachers doors.
- Kasandra Hokanson: Parents often give in to separation anxiety and need to learn about how missing school actually increases anxiety.
- Heidi Vincent: Chronic Absenteeism dramatically affects reading abilities.
- Jessica Pohlman: 1st Grade Attendance is low. How do we get parents to help?
- Next meeting is March 20th