Around 45 Steller community members attended the meeting last night (Apr 26) and spent two hours planning our future in the areas of Advisory Groups, Orientation, and Staff Training and Support. It was a gorgeous sunny evening and the mood was relaxed and positive. Groups worked collaboratively and came up with some great ideas and exciting directions forward.
After hearing an introduction and background powerpoint talk by Karin, we broke up into three groups in three rooms, each with staff, parent and student leaders. The groups identified the ideal outcomes we want in these subject areas, then talked about strategies to get there. Butcher paper notes will be typed by the group leaders and posted here on the site. More importantly, they will used with ongoing work to reimagine and reform our practices at Steller in these critical areas.
Next steps will continue on two levels.
First, the groups and forums where work is already happening will take our input from last night. David Breen is leading a group of students working on orientation. Staff and students are working on reinvigorating and redirecting our use of Advisory Groups; that will continue, and work will begin on creating a binder containing norms and support materials for staff members running the groups. Karin is leading the staff training track.
Second, we will continue this process. Parents have discussed the idea of having four all-community meetings next year, continuing this discussion in small groups each evening. Rather than breaking up into committees, we would keep working on a basis in which everyone is welcome and can plug in at any step. The purpose will be to keep the Strategic Plan and RenewSteller energy going in tandem to develop and support our school.
Check back for the typed up meeting notes as soon as the group leaders get that done.
Finally, thanks to all who attended and led the groups, and especially to Karin Parker for her leadership and flexibility.
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2 comments:
I just stumbled onto this site while avoiding work, and am curious about a number of things. Perhaps some of the questions I have are just points that need clarification -- and, since I hardly spend any time in Anchorage these days, perhaps I'm just so far out the loop...
(Oh, as for my bio, I'm a 2002 graduate of Steller, a 2006 graduate of a liberal arts college, and am currently enrolled in a midwestern megaversity's political science PhD program. In other words, I have always been taught "not what to think, but how to think" and it's funny that none of my educational institutions agreed on any one method of thinking)
Question 1: I'm curious as to the specific instances of "straying from the roots" to which much of the material on this website refers. I think I'd have a better understanding of the "problem" with particular examples of how Steller is different than it was in 1970 if concrete examples could be provided.
Question 2: What would an "average week" look like for a student if we were to RenewSteller? Would this week be flexible, and would it be different depending on the student's age?
Question 3: My midwestern megaversity is brainwashing me, and now I'm obsessed with empirics and data. The "survey" I looked at appeared to mostly be completed by parents, and I was wondering if real efforts had been undertaken to gather survey results from a larger proportion of the entire Steller community. Have there been?
Question 4: This is less of a question and more of an observation, but I saw something about establishing stricter admission standards and identifying "feeder schools," which triggers a sense of unease within me. Although I came from an optional program, and Steller was great for me, I would hate to keep some of the children not blessed to come from these "feeder schools" out of Steller.
Question 5: Grades? What is supposed to happen to them? I couldn't figure this out.
Sarah:
Thanks for your comments. I'd love to get you more involved. Here's my quick answer to your questions:
Question 1: I'm curious as to the specific instances of "straying from the roots" to which much of the material on this website refers. I think I'd have a better understanding of the "problem" with particular examples of how Steller is different than it was in 1970 if concrete examples could be provided.
ANSWER: The RenewSteller group tried to avoid criticizing the school as it is because of the emotions that could arouse. Now that we're making progress as a school, finding fault seems like it would be counterproductive. The point is, we were trying to express what the school COULD/SHOULD be, which implies a difference from IS.
Question 2: What would an "average week" look like for a student if we were to RenewSteller? Would this week be flexible, and would it be different depending on the student's age?
ANSWSER: The position paper will not be implimented as a school plan. If it were up to me, and the other authors, the day and week would be very flexible. We're starting at a different level, however, based on the concensus of the school community.
Question 3: My midwestern megaversity is brainwashing me, and now I'm obsessed with empirics and data. The "survey" I looked at appeared to mostly be completed by parents, and I was wondering if real efforts had been undertaken to gather survey results from a larger proportion of the entire Steller community. Have there been?
ANSWER: We've done our best. Student involvement has come mostly during the day during student-run forums, but some committed students have come to evening meetings. The survey and dot-voting were completed by evening meeting participants.
Question 4: This is less of a question and more of an observation, but I saw something about establishing stricter admission standards and identifying "feeder schools," which triggers a sense of unease within me. Although I came from an optional program, and Steller was great for me, I would hate to keep some of the children not blessed to come from these "feeder schools" out of Steller.
ANSWER: This idea appears to be dead. It was intended to address the dual problems of: 1. students who were education in open optional not being able to get into Steller and so not being able to continue what they were already good at; and, 2. students who had no interest in Steller's philosophy or purpose taking spaces in entering classes. It was just one more idea to try to build a community with common interests and goals.
Question 5: Grades? What is supposed to happen to them? I couldn't figure this out.
ANSWER: We were talking about doing away with them, but the initiative has gone in another direction.
-Charles
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