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[quote=Anonymous]Dr. Moran did not attend the PTSA meeting.  Mrs. Heckert was there in his place.

Some positives:

1) Mrs. Heckert's approach to discouraging the use of illegal substances on campus - She is encouraging staff to recognize the signs of a student under the influence and for students to report other students who are using on campus.  Students caught with Juuls, drugs, or alcohol will be held to the consequences as outlined in the Student Code of Conduct.  This is a step in the right direction after years of a school policy of do nothing even when students were caught with drugs.

2) Making sure instruction is the same across subject area classes - Mrs. Heckert has the Staff Development Teacher tasked with attending planning meetings to ensure instruction is aligned among area classes.  Students will all be taught the same instruction prior to taking formative and summative assessments.  She has also stepped up classroom observations (at least 2 per year per teacher / some announced and some unannounced).  Students will complete quarterly feedback forms for teachers.  Parents will have an opportunity to submit semester feedback forms to Mrs. Heckert.

Positive mixed with Negative:

1) Student Parking lot issue - Mrs. Heckert blames having to place buses in the student parking lot and student car loop on school overcrowding.  The added enrollment this year at Churchill has caused a greater number of buses.  It seems like the student numbers and need for additional buses should have been planned before the school year.  At first Mrs. Heckert seemed rigid to consider how students and parents who have been impacted by the move including a picture of how the buses at times blocked the flow of traffic on Victory Lane.  She also seemed perplexed at why students exit the building in a certain direction which puts them flowing into the area where the buses are - a pattern of behavior that could have be observed before the parking lot change.  However, she did concede to announcing that parents can use the faculty parking lot for picking up students.  She will also consider switching the faculty spaces with the student spaces as a possible solution for students who are trying to exit the student lot at dismissal.  Repainting the lines in the faculty lot and moving the administrative parking spots away from the sidewalk would create a new car loop with the safety of a curb.  Mrs. Heckert and MCPS should revisit this issue to see what else can be done if they truly want to make changes for student safety and not just for convenience.  Obviously, the lots are all outdated and they all are badly situated for the population that now exists at the school.  However, other schools have had lots revamped and changed when there was the need.

2) Age of the building - Many rooms (i.e.. media center and BAND ROOM) are still incredibly hot despite Mrs. Heckert's efforts to have HVAC repairs done.  Of issue is that Churchill is an old building with many add ons and redesigns (created classrooms where there used to not be a classroom) such that the HVAC systems (I believe the building has 2) doesn't work well.  Some rooms are really hot and others are freezing.  Please probably get portable units for the really hot rooms (maybe ask PTSA if MCPS cannot fund) The band room is the most disgusting room in the building.  Mr. Sanz and Mr. Allal should be given hazard pay bonuses for those work conditions.

Negative:

1) No word from Mrs. Heckert on her vision for improving student equity at Churchill.  This should include equal and respectful treatment of all students as well as equal access to school programs.  For areas in which there have been problems in the past, it would be great to hear her plans on moving forward with improvements including a plan on how to address the lack of female representation in the Athletic Department.

2) No word from Mrs. Heckert regarding school safety improvements within the building.

3) Given that it is Mental Health Month and the new initiatives announced recently by the Board of Education and Dr. Smith ( https://youtu.be/Z39hndUlZSA ), there was no announcement on how Churchill is implementing the new mental health initiatives.[/quote]

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