5.16.18 Annual Meeting

President Dennis Taylor welcomed the group and opened the meeting which was held at Greenwood Winery and Bistro. The theme for this year, as well as last year, has been mental health. During the last two years, we learned about regulating emotions, the community resiliency model, ways to address anxiety in school, and more.

There were a number of new members who were welcomed. We Introduced ourselves to lots of new members.

Treasurer Sean Fahey reported that our account balance is $3,244.45 (prior to paying Annual Meeting expenses).

Past-President Ella Briand presented the following candidates for 2018-2019 Board of Directors:

President: Dennis Taylor

Vice-President: Pam Treat-Ulrich

Treasurer: Sean Fahey

Secretary: Jeff Craig

Board: Jon Miller

Siobhan O’Hora

Cynthia Cronin

Katherine Cook

Kim Mackey

Secretary Jeff Craig cast the one necessary vote for the slate because there were no contested leadership positions. The Board of Directors will convene over the summer to plan the meetings for 2018-2019. Look for information about the upcoming year later in the summer.

At the meeting, we reflected on the work addressing mental health over the last two years, using crayons and big of pieces of paper to record our reflections.

On the drawing board for next year:

Focus on SEL data/screeners in RTI/MTSS decision making process

Poverty

Teacher leadership certificate at SUNY Cortland

Mental health screener at Cortland City

Mindfulness Monday

Positivity Project at West Genesee

Outside services available at school during the school day

Systems Thinking

New PSEL Standards

Extension of suicide prevention training

Correlating course offerings to professional needs

Student-led IEP meetings

One replicable idea that worked this year:

Parent night (2x)

Kagan structure

Positive language

Authentic audience for PBL projects

Outside agencies inside school

Community outreach

PD for staff

Bullet journals

Anxiety training with staff -- self-soothe boxes

Book study

Something that doesn't seem to have worked:

Not everyone buys in

Canned programs

Not enough staff resources

Lack of resources for mental health

Not carving out enough time for mental health issues

Where you need help:

District system thinking

Teacher empathy (staff morale facing the mental health challenges)

Family participation

Teacher leadership

Connection with families

Overcoming apathy

Helping students with coping skills for anxiety to get them in class

Modern schools and new approaches

Helping students have more agency

General education teachers working with special educators

Connecting kids to outside services

Collaborative teacher efficacy

An easy relationship idea that supports mental health:

First seven seconds

Shake Up Day

Family Fun Nights

Class Builders

Making a connection on a positive note

Secret handshakes

Positivity Project

Names of students within the first week

District-wide SEL vocab

Small advisory groups/mixed grade level

Knowledge of family and outside life

Hospitality (read Edutopia the work of welcoming)

One of the pieces of paper promoted ideas for next years meetings. Here are some of the suggestions that were made:

Mindfulness & SEL

Positivity Project

Poverty

Inclusion

Prioritizing curriculum to meet the learning needs of students

Co-teaching

Professional Learning Community work

Collaboration between districts

Best practices for WIN/TEAM/Tier 2

Secondary-level RTI

Way for districts and schools focusing on collective accountability to share ideas

Making teacher team collaboration time work (one time do elementary, one time do secondary)

Teacher leadership

UDL

Inclusive practice

If we miss a meeting it would be nice to be able to access materials

Vary meeting nights