First SACS#1 Meeting: 9/21/05
Dear SACS One Committee:
Thank you again for your willingness to offer your time and energy by serving on Mission and Beliefs committee. As we discussed this is the first task to be accompished before many of the other SACS committees can accomplish their work. We must complete all of our committee work by Feb. 1 but we need to settle on a draft of Vision, Mission and Belief statements for the next Faculty meeting on Oct. 17. The visit by evaluators from SACS will take place over 2 days around April 28.
As a group we decided that we should start with the Vision statement followed by the Mission and Belief statements. We agreed that by next Wed. we will all bring Vision statements and Mission statements for review by the committee. If this is not possible members can review samples provided in packets that I have sent to you and highlight phrases and/or words that seem compelling and worthy of consideration. We will focus on Vision first and if there's time, the Mission statement. Our next meeting will take place on Wed. Sept. 28 from 3:30-4:30. If we want to meet on a Monday in the future we can always change it. (I don't recall if we thought Mondays were completely out or not.)
We discussed a few examples of statements along with definitions and guidelines for what constitutes a vision statement and a mission statements. Some of the samples are confusing so that it's hard to tell them apart.
These are some notes from the meeting. If you recall something that I should have included, let me know.
Our two terrific students on the committee will get smaller packets just including the sample Mission/Vision statement material. I don't want to add to their burden of work because they work so hard as students and need plenty of time for fun and rest. If you two really want all of the items, just let me know.
Please feel free to bring a beverage and snack to have during the meeting.
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Items being sent to students:
Samples of Mission and Vision statements (13 pages)
Items being sent to rest of committee:
Samples
SMS School Improvement Plan
"Creating a Vision"
Breakthrough School Improvement Chapter One on Vision
"How People Learn" Key findings
"APA Learner-Centered Psychological Principles"
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Committee: Janet McCullough, Karen Byars, Patti King, Cori Raines,
Danna Williams, Pamela Tarwater, Kelsey Bailey and Anthony Zamora
Second SACS#1 Meeting: 9/28/05
Dear Committee Members:
Wow! We had a fine, productive meeting, indeed. After review several
examples of Vision statements and the draft statements and ideas that our
members brought we settled on a good one. See attached.
We will meet on Monday (Oct. 3 at 3:30), Please bring ideas for our
Mission statement and Beliefs in case we have time. --Janet
Third SACS#1 Meeting: 10/3/05
Dear committee members:
Cori, Karen, Pamela, Danna and I worked together until 4:50 pm yesterday
thrashing out a new Mission Statement. (I apologize for not keeping track
of time but it seemed like we were on a roll and wanted put this baby to
bed.) Attached is our draft Mission Statement.
Compare the draft with the current one on the SMS webpage:
SMS strives to educate and guide young people to become active, responsible
citizens and lifelong learners.
Also from the most recent SMS School Improvement Plan:
Sevierville Middle School envisions the future opportunities and challenges
that all students will encounter in a rapidly changing and increasingly
complex society. The faculty and staff accept the challenge and responsibility
to provide an educational atmosphere that will enable student to maximize
his/her full academic, social, physical, and emotional potential.
We also need to make sure the mission and vision statements are related.
Since we cannot meet on Wed., we scheduled our next meeting for Monday, Oct. 10, and probably another one for Wednesday, Oct. 12. We have to have the Mission,Vision and Belief statements ready for the faculty meeting on the following Monday.
Thanks again for all of your time and energy. SMS really appreciates
your enthusiasm and interest in SMS.
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Fourth SACS#1 Meeting: 10/10/05
With copy to: Anthony Zamora
We just completed our 4th meeting and gave our brain cells a workout
once again.
This is what we accomplished:
--revised the Vision statement to define our "community of learners."
--examined belief statements provided by committee members and other
sources
--combined belief statements into one list of statements
--discussed how belief statements relate to both mission and vision
statements
--discussed how we will present our product to the faculty (to be continued
on Wed.)
--ended our meeting on time (at 4:30)
--agreed to meet next on this coming Wednesday, Oct. 12
Thanks again for your help, everybody!
Fifth SACS#1 Meeting: 10/12/05
We met a second time this week to polish up the mission, vision and
belief statements in preparation for the faculty meeting on the 17th.
Our plan was to present our work to the faculty for discussion and approval.
We also prepared a survey for faculty and other stakeholders to complete
by the end of next week.
Sixth SACS#1 Meeting: 11/9/05
We met and discussed how we can provide all of the evidence for standards
1.1 thought 1.6. We were concerned about duplicating the work of
other standards committees and questioned how to operationalize standards
1.2 and 1.3.
1.1 We engaged stakeholders by involving teachers, parents and studnets
in the committee work and surveyed all faculty, administration and staff.
We will send the survey to business sponsors obtained through the PTO.
1.2 Not sure - Janet will check with other chairs and get notes of
their meetings
1.3 Not sure - Janet gave copy of mission/vision/beliefs to all chairs
1.4 Include research we referred to in developing/revising the mission/vision/belief
statements
1.5 Look into school improvement documentation for each year
1.6 We made a list of ways to build understanding -
Handbook for 7th and 8th gr. And planner for 6th gr. - Danna will look
into this
Yearbook-ask about having mission, vision and beliefs inserted this
year - Cori
Mission poster out front - Cori
Include discussion and activities in PRIDE - extra pts in Soc.St. for
students who memorize? - Karen
Have mission statement revised and include vision/beliefs on webpage
- Janet
Suggest to SACS #8 to send out packets on mission/vision/beliefs to
business sponsors and others
Standard 2 Committee members met on October 17, 2005 at 3:15 for the second time. The meeting was over at approximately 4:30. The following members were present:
Teachers in Attendance
Sarah Rippetoe
Steve Book
James Cox
Julia Reynolds
In this meeting we discussed each folder, objective, that we had been
working on. We talked about possible items to add, etc. After
sorting through the evidence collected we began writing our summary.
We all shared ideas and created an outline. We then turned it into
paragraphs. The parents on our committee were a great help in constructing
our summary. The chair took the summary to be typed and submitted.
January 16, 2006
On January 16, the Component Beliefs and Mission Development Committee
for the School Improvement Plan was formed and met at 10:00 am. Each
team member reported from most current Standards Committees and recommended
parent and students to be contacted for participation in this new committee.
Shane and Steve obtained the Standard I file from its central location for review and copies of the Vision, Mission and Beliefs from the SMS Web site for all members. Darlene and Cathy created a copy of the mission statements to be enlarged, laminated and distributed to all classrooms.
After review we agreed to adopt the Mission, Vision, and Beliefs Statements presented by the Standard I Committee during a faculty meeting on November 11, 2006. We agreed that the Mission, Vision, and Belief Statements are to be shared and supported in the flowing ways:
On January 17th with all students through PRIDE
The Mission Statement displayed in the front lobby to welcome students,
teachers, staff, parents and other visitors
Presented on the SMS Web Site
Added to the SMS Handbook for 2006-07 school year
Proposed to be added to the annual Year Book
Displayed in each classroom
With morning talks from the Principal after morning announcements
and the Pledge of Allegiance
The mission is included on all newsletters
Plans are being made to post in all classrooms
Kendra, our Chair agreed to contact students and parents recommended
by committee members to our next meeting, which will be held in the Art
Room at 7:20 on January 25th, 2006.
January 25, 2006
On January 25, 2006 Component II committee met. Parents and Students were welcomed to the committee. The minutes were reviewed and our role was reviewed and explained to the new members of our committee.
The students reported that they did participate in reviewing the mission, vision and beliefs in PRIDE the previous week. Darlene reported that they were included on the Newsletter that went our with recent report cards.
Catherine Haynes reported that 16 posters are ready the goal is to make 50. David commented that he feels SMS does a good job in communicating but there is a percentage of parents who do not care and a larger percentage of people that are just too busy and not paying attention. He suggested advertising more. Steve suggested a larger sign for the gym and offered to contact Jim Moore in the community as he has made signs for the gym previously. He agreed to make that contact. David felt this would be successful as many of our parents and members of our community come to our gym for sports and other events.
Kendra led a discussion on the review of the areas we need to cover
for our committee report:
2.1 Collaborative Process
2.2 Clarity of Beliefs
2.3 Comprehensive Belief Statement
2.4 Mission Statement and Focus on Student Success
2.5 Vision and Focus on Student Success
Karen shared the materials we have to support each of these areas.
Members agreed that we had what we needed and we did not need to meet again.