Brookwood School Community Council Minutes
Sept. 18, 2026
Brookwood Library
- Welcome: Megan Olson
- Introduction of council members: Megan Olson
- Elect SCC Chair, Vice chair, secretary: Emily Willson
- Review responsibilities of leadership positions: Emily Willson
- Jordan Smith: Nominates Megan Olson for chair
- 2nd: Abby Wilcox
- Vote is Unanimous in favor
- Fundraiser is a big responsibility, but is not a requirement of the SCC chair position: Jessica Pohlman
- It would be good to have someone train to be head of the fundraiser is Megan wants to step down from that position: Ann Odom
- Sara Rogers: Nominate Jessica Pohlman as vice chair.
- 2nd: Megan Olson
- Vote is unanimous in favor
- Abby Wilcox: Nominate Ann Odom as secretary
- 2nd: Jessica Pohman
- Vote is Unanimous in favor
- By Laws, Rules of order review: Megan Olson
- Remember that SCC members represent their communities
- Everyone should feel safe to voice their opinion
- Camille Merkley is a staff representative, not a parent one
- If an SCC member does not attend consistently, a new member can be appointed to take their place.
- SCC meets monthly, but some meetings can be cancelled by vote
- All SCC meetings are open to the public and minutes and agendas are posted to the website
- All rules are on the website
- Guests may add to the agenda by contacting the chair at least a week prior
- Topics need to be appropriate for SCC consideration
- Guests will have 2 minutes to address the council, which is how the school board manages their meetings
- Guests can also give input during the time allotted at the end of the meeting during “input from the community”
- Ashley Theodore: What do you do if you have to miss a meeting?
- Megan Olson: Let the chair know in advance and you’ll be excused. An excused absense is better that an unexcused absense.
- Approve May Minutes: Megan Olson
- 2nd: Abby Wilcox
- Vote is unanimous in favor
- Financial update: Emily Willson
- Cell Tower
- Sitting at $19,000
- Some costs are increasing and will be different this year
- Fundraiser
- Landtrust
- Most of these funds are going to interventionists for reading
- Kimball High: We are allowed to have a higher amount of PBIS incentives: DO we want to do so?
- Heidi Vincent: We have a higher allotment of PBIS incentives from Cell Tower.
- Megan Olson: The allowed ratio is $2 /student, so we could use more PBIS funds from here.
- Emily Willson: We can review those expenses
- TSSP review
- Projected balance is $4000 this year
- Math Aides and attendance helpers come from this budget.
- Cell Tower
- Spring Acadience and RISE Data
- Reading Acadience
- 60% of 1st grade last year was chronically absent, tardy, or both which impacted their learning.
- 2nd grade also struggled with absenteeism. They made great growth but still didn’t meet proficiency.
- Action: Moving Phonics instruction to 2nd hour to ensure that more students receive that instruction
- Doing big push for attendance this month
- Creating IRP’s (Induvidual Reading Plan) for students below benchmark and discussing them with paents at PTC.
- Parents also have a goal to meet in an IRP
- Liz Palmer: What is the difference between what Acadience and RISE measure?
- Heidi Vincent: RISE and Acadience don’t measure the same thing. Acadience is a screener for risk, RISE is an assesment for what they know.
- Liz Palmer: Which test do you look at to see if their ready?
- Monica Rotermund: We look at acadience to see exactly what students need help on so they can be supported. We look at RISE to see what we can do better.
- Abby Wilcox: RISE is only at the end of the year. It helps teachers see what they need to improve for the next year. The data is broken down by standards so they can see where there are gaps in teaching.
- Monica Rotermund: Acadience is repeated multiple times during the year.
- Dominic Hunter: RISE is only one time through the yearand can be affected by certain factors. When a typically high achieving student performs poorly, we know it can be due to other factors
- Rise is the test that people were opting out of last year
- Abby Wilcox: We’ve been dealing with some apathy from students the last few years. This kind of talk spreads to other students and can cause students not to try as hard. Teachers have been trying to change the narrative about why testing is important.
- Kimball High: We didn’t reach last years goal. Did we set an appropriate goal for this year?
- We will cover that at a later date
- Jessica Pohlman: We will review this data mid year and see if the changes we made for 1st and 2nd grade are working.
- Heidi Vincent: Yes, We’ll review it again.
- Megan Olson: We’ll review beginning of the year acadience next month and thenmid year data in January.
- Reading Acadience
- Math Acadience
- Heidi Vincent: We’re trying to move away from setting goals based on math Acadience because it is not aligned with grade level standards.
- Liz Palmer: What is the district doing to fix that?
- Heidi Vincent: The state used to require the math acadience test but they recently changed that. The testing is a screener for risk.
- Liz: What will take the place of the acadience test?
- Heidi: They are hoping to use assesments from the math curriculum. Our goals should not be based on acadience math data.
- Emily Willson: Attendance affected these scores as well.
- 25.15% of students were off track for attendance last year.
- Actions:
- School wide attendance push
- PD for teachers with new math curiculum
- Interventionists are pushing into classrooms to support teachers instead a pulling out.
- Liz Palmer: I think it would be powerful to show the data on how kids who have attendance challenges are performing on the tests.
- Abby Wilcox: We did do that last year with graphs outside doors at PTC and in the news letter.
- Liz Palmer: I think it would be helpful to see it specifically showing our data at Brookwood
- Heidi Vincent: I can pull those reports and we can include it in the data slideshow next meeting
- Kimball High: We lowered the allocation of funds that we spent on attendance incentives previously because it didn’t seem to affect outcomes.
- Showing the data to specific parents at PTC may be helpful
- Would like to see the difference between absenteeism and Tardiness.
- Abby Wilcox: They do give a printout to parents with at risk students at conferences.
- Students who are chronically tardy or absent show deficiencies in social and emotional learning.
- Michelle Brunson is working induvidually with families and does a great job.
- Megan Olson: Many of those families are apathetic and don’t care.
- Ashley Theodore: Is this a post covid phenomenon?
- Emily Willson: It’s very induvidual to schools. At Brookwood this year we are 94%, which is a huge improvement.
- Megan Olson: Thestate now eliminated truancy laws
- This year there will be some more enforcement.
- RISE Data
- Brookwood scores are consistantly higher than the state and district.
- RISE rallies are very effective in increasing motivation
- Parent support is crucial to students doing their best on assessments.
- Actions: Increased education for parents and students on why assessments are important.
- Annual School Plans: Emily Willson
- SCC Members should be looking for safety concerns and safe walking routes to discuss next meeting.
- Positive Behavior Plan: Emily Willson
- Proactive and preventative approach
- Thrive time BOY and EOY test can be administered to see if instruction is effective.
- Test asks students questions about thrive time topics
- Input from PTA: Kim Allen
- Fundraiser is ongoing. This week’s focus is the “no fuss” fundraiser, next week’s focus is 50th apparel.
- GRAND Day is coming up. Make sure to spread the word that people need to sign up as a volunteer before they come.
- Camille Merkley: Why do people have to sign up as a volunteer for GRAND Day?
- Because they’re interacting with studentsThat’s the law and we can’t circumvent it.
- Everyone has to show ID when they enter the school. Even at performances
- Camille Merkley: Why do people have to sign up as a volunteer for GRAND Day?
- FUN RUN is the next big event
- Megan Olson: One more day of district training on Oct. 7. You’re encourages to go if your new.
- New meeting is Oct 23rd.
- Motion to adjourn: Megan Olson
- 2nd Liz Palmer
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