Principals Cabinet Meeting

Date: February 8, 2016

Purpose and Intent: The purpose of Principals cabinet is for members of the FMS
faculty to work together to celebrate accomplishments and to explore solutions for areas
for improvement in order to make Forestbrook Middle School the premier middle school
in South Carolina.

Eighth Grade:
Praises:
1. Pep Rally - thanks to the pep rally committee, the kids enjoyed it!
2. National History Day - 20 8th grade student projects from FMS will be showcased
at the Horry County competition at CCU on March 10th. The final list of students
showing will be announced soon. English 1 teachers, Social Studies Honors
teachers, & their students have worked so hard on these projects, if you havent
seen any stop by Mrs. Livingstons office - there are a few on display in there.
The are phenomenal.
3. Career Day - thanks to all those who took on this huge task - it was a great
success as usual!
4. Thanks to Mary Massey for keeping FMSs facebook so up-to-date with pictures
& news. Its a great way to share all of the awesome things that we do here! If
you dont already follow the page, please start today!
5. The Polar Plunge item raffle was a great way to raise more money this year.
Kudos to the brave souls who jumped into the frigid water - all in the name of
Special Olympics - youre awesome!
6. Were proud of the boys & girls basketball teams, cheerleaders, and step team its wonderful to see how far these kids have come throughout the season.
7. Congratulations to the Math Counts & Archery teams - its awesome to have
FMS represented in the community in such a positive way.
Concerns:
1. How come the awards ceremonies are so long after the quarter ends?
Response:
We always give time to double check and we always try to hold them on Thursdays.
We had a scheduling conflict due to the Boeing field trip, and not all teachers responded
in a timely manner to verify the student names.

2. Some parents are parking in teacher parking lot at the end of the day and having
their kids walk through the busses to get picked up -- essentially to cut out
waiting in the pickup line -- not sure if this is a daily occurrence -- needs to be
watched.
Response:
We will evaluate this issue, but it takes all of us. If you see it, address it.
Seventh Grade:
Praises:
1. Career Day and the Pep Rally was a success
2. We appreciate your support on Parent Conference night since it seems like our
parents are here the latest on those nights
3. It was a smooth transition into the second quarter
Concerns:
1. Why are the fire drills only in 6th block? We are concerned because that affects
Algebra 1 each time.
Response:
We will plan the fire drill during 8th grade exploratory this month
Sixth Grade:
Praises:
1. Pep Rally - Thanks, Coach Hawks!
2. Career Day - Thank you, Ms. Gerald, Ms. Mitchell, Ms. Rhodes, and Ms. Ayers!
3. Guidance - Schedule Changes - thanks!
4. Polar Plunge Fundraising and Plunging - awesome!
Concerns:
1. Several 6th grade teachers are not taking their classes to the restroom during
their scheduled restroom break. Team members are becoming frustrated with
each other. Please honor the restroom break schedule to be fair to your
teammates.
Response:
Share the names of those team members with Olga. It goes back to being a
professional which means doing the right thing even when no one is looking.
2. Ms. Sadie has shared multiple concerns regarding wet paper towels being balled
up and thrown all over the males restroom in the middle of the 6th grade hall.

Please ensure that your bathroom monitors check the restroom before and after
the scheduled restroom break.
Response:
This goes along with the previous concern and this should be less of an issue if people
monitor the bathrooms correctly
3. When 6th grade lunch is coming back down the hall from 2nd lunch, the 7th
grade students would shift to the lecture hall side, they almost run us over every
day.
4. Concerns with sixth grade teachers on duty during lunch at detention/microphone
not being present and other teachers have to take over and organize students or
constantly readdress behavior.
Exploratory:
Praises:
Career Day and the Pep Rally were awesome!
Concerns:
1. For the next Pep Rally can we build more time to walk back the 6th graders prior
to the pep rally?
2. For the morning duty if a staff member is not on duty on time can it be handled in
a more professional manner than being called by name over the loud speaker?
Response:
Staff members should make every effort to report on time. We will call the room first
and then call the missing staff member to the office in the future.
3. The first 8th grade lunch is very loud during the transition
Response:
Ms. Livingston will address this issue
Office:
Praises:
Good job to Ms. Trimby for all of her efforts with the ipads this year!
Concerns:
None at this time
Library:
Praises:

Career Day was an amazing success! Great job to the guidance department for their
hard work!
Concerns:
None at this time
Technology: (Trimby)

Praises:
Thank you to all the teachers that are following procedures, especially people like Jamie
Carson who is doing a really great job monitoring student devices
Concerns:
1. Students are not using the docking stations when ipads are not being used. Last
week an ipad was placed on the stove in the heatlh room and it was turned on!
Academic teachers should have 2 docking stations- 1 for charging and one for
docking. Exploratory should have one. I have emailed numerous times about
the extra dish racks and egg crates that I have available if you need them for
your classroom
2. Many teachers are not checking device screens at the end of each day.
Students claiming screen was fine that afternoon but then cracked in the
morning. This is highly unlikely and it is not fair to the 4th block teacher to have
to sign the scratch and dent form when the breakage did not occur in their
classroom. When the student cracks their device the teacher in that classroom
should fill out and sign the form
3. The app store was showing up on devices this week because of all of the internet
issues.
4. It is taking about 2 weeks for new students to get an ipad due to the student
account creation delays at the district.
5. I still have several teachers that have not turned in their charger inventory. Ms.
Scott will pay a visit to those individuals if necessary. Also, I am trying to compile
an updated list of all students without a device and I have only heard back from 3
teams. Please get this information to me as soon as possible-email sent last
week with spreadsheet attached.

Guidance:
Praises:
Thanks to everyone for their help and support with career day
Concerns:
1. All second quarter schedule changes are complete
2. We are in the IGP season and they must all be completed by March 1st
3. Feb 12th the High School counselors will be meeting with 8th grade teachers about 8th
grade transition
4. Feb 17th Socastee High School will hold a parent night for rising 9th graders
5. Feb 22nd SHS will do a presentation in the gym for 8th graders
6. Erins Law has been put into effect and it relates to childhood molestation and a new
sensitive curriculum designed for students in all three grades. The guidance department
will be creating gator time lessons and will work with teachers to complete the lessons
this year. Next year this curriculum will be covered by PE teachers during health class.
Curriculum:
Concerns:
1. There are two items that teachers need to follow up with in the Google Classroom. One
is concerning the classroom libraries and that is due by Friday.
2. MAP tests begin in a few weeks and we plan to use the same schedule that we have
used in the past
3. Thank you for all of your hard work and follow up!
Administration:
Livingston:
Thank you to Ms Trimby, I really appreciate your efforts with the ipads this year!
The 8th grade students have been challenging this year and I appreciate your patience with all
of my meetings times that I am away dealing with discipline issues and hearings
We are having an issue with the 8th grade boys using the restroom on the floor, but in order to
solve the problem we need to catch those students
Pertell:
Thank you to everyone! We are rolling along and working really hard
We are glad to have Ms. Judy back!
Thank you to Ms. trimby! It is such a blessing to have one point of contact for the ipad issues
and she is doing a great job!
Thank you to Officer Hoffer for her support and hard work
Thank you to the Curriculum coaches for their work with Parent night and always stepping in to
assist us when we are absent or in meetings. They dont miss a beat
Toggas:

Thank you to Lisa Trimby- the ipad situation is so much better this year
We are in the middle of our SLO conferences and everyone is doing a great job! It is wonderful
that our teachers are not afraid of data
The contact with parents is going really well in 6th grade
We are struggling with bathroom concerns and I dont want teams to have tension over these
issues
*We discovered that log entries are not visible to everyone unless you put them in as
Teacher Contact instead of Parent Contact
Scott:
Thanks for your support and prayers going forward!
I am very excited about the diversity assemblies that the APs have scheduled this month. We
also have a professional wrestler who will be visiting our school for a lesson on bulllying.
Heather Ammons Crawford will be coming to award the National Blue Ribbon, I will let you know
more details when I know them. Congrats to Steve Panamarczuk on being top ten in the
district!
Between now and spring break, this is the time to dig deep and focus for end of the year testing.
After MAP testing we are planning rewards for Fridays so that we do not interfere with library
visits. I am proud of all of your hard work!
Next Meeting: March 7, 2016