Auerbach Central Agency for Jewish Education

Organizational Development

Excerpts from the School Committee Manual

Sample Minutes

Temple Tov School
Committee Meeting

July 15, 2004

MINUTES

Present:
[include names of those who attended here]

D’var Torah:
Andrew gave a wonderful D’var Torah on a passage in Pirkei Avot regarding the importance of leadership and collaboration as a way to start off the year thinking about the Jewish values and philosophies that guide our work as a Committee.

Educational Director’s Report:
Sally reported on the following areas:

Professional Development: 3 training sessions have been arranged for the teaching staff.
High Holiday Curriculum: Several meetings with Rabbi Cohen took place over the summer to develop the High Holiday Curriculum so that it is more sequential. A meeting to explain the changes to the teachers is scheduled.
Plans for involving parents in classrooms as volunteer teachers’ aides will be finalized and brought to the next meeting.
There are many new programs and exciting things on the table as we begin this New Year, including: (a) a Family Education series to involve parents and siblings in Bar/Bat Mitzvah education; (b) a service learning program for the Hebrew High School students; and (c) a Mitzvah project for the Bar/Bat Mitzvah students.

Subcommittee Update and Review:

Curriculum:

Members of the subcommittee have met with the Educational Director to learn about the Hebrew and Bible curriculum. Two meetings have been set up this week to continue that work.

Members of the subcommittee have identified the resources needed for further curriculum evaluation (each grade’s curriculum, a meeting with the Rabbi, the movement’s guidelines for Hebrew and Bible curricula).

The subcommittee will meet to review feedback from parents about areas for improvement (from the questionnaire which they sent out).

Next Steps:

Subcommittee will meet with Ed. Dir. to decide how to begin evaluation.

Members of the subcommittee will recruit 2 additional parents and 1 teacher for curriculum evaluation.

Parental Involvement:

Progress has been slow. The subcommittee decided that they need to identify 2-3 initiatives with a plan for implementation by the next meeting.

Next Steps:

Subcommittee needs to meet with Ed. Dir. to identify 2-3 initiatives with a plan for implementation before the next meeting. A meeting was scheduled.

Professional Development:

The group met with representative teachers and the Ed. Dir. to discuss what resources/training the teachers need. A list will be compiled by the next meeting with the priority of each item tallied.

Subcommittee has obtained information from ACAJE about teacher training and staff development.

Subcommittee is calling other congregations to see what they have done.

Next Steps:

Subcommittee will review information from ACAJE.

Members of the subcommittee will talk to Ed. Dir. to find out what teacher training is necessary.

Discussion about Time Line:

Each subcommittee will prepare 2 time lines, 1 for the next 3 months and 1 for the next year. This will be discussed during the next meeting.

At the next meeting, we will review these time lines so that we are all on the same page in terms of next steps.

Other Concerns to Address as a Committee:

There will be several new Executive Board members. We need to arrange to give a presentation about our work/progress at the next Board meeting.

The issue was raised about the connection between parental involvement and adult education. We will put this on our agenda for the next meeting. The subcommittee on parental involvement should discuss this at their next meeting.