January 2019 Community Council Minutes

Community Council Mtg.

January 23, 2019

Attending:  Dave Gerstheimer, Kadee Frew, Heather Cragun, Nicole Westmoreland, Ashley Droscher, Cindy Pendleton

Jayna Frost, PLTW Launch Trainer and John Donley, CTE Coordinator for Weber School Dis. presented information to the council about Project Lead The Way.  

Project Lead the Way is a national program that provides opportunities for students to develop problem-solving skills and higher-level thinking while working as a team.  They encourage a growth mindset and learn by making mistakes and trying new things. Students use STEM (Science,Technology, Engineering, Math) to solve real problems. PLTW has programs for the high school  (PLTW), junior high (Gateway) and elementary levels (Launch).

To become a Launch school, teachers would be trained and then spend 10 hours each on 2 different Launch modules that correlate with that grade’s science curriculum.  These modules can be done as extension activities in May when testing is done, or other times of the year as decided by each grade level team.

Hooper wants to implement the program this year, and we are gathering information about costs, with the idea that some of our TrustLand money could go towards it.  With some funding from the Foundation (about $5,000 for next year) we can start 2019-2020 school year. We can begin training and have the whole school be introduced to the Launch program April and May of this year - 2019, by all doing 1 Kindergarten module.  

The plan is to have a big kick-off for next year to get the community excited and involved.  

Mr. G will find out exactly how much is left in our TrustLand Budget and amend the TrustLand plan if needed.  

All members voted in favor to go forth with teacher trainings this year and the school will be introduced to the Launch program by using the Kindergarten module as a whole school beginning in April.