School Action Teams Participate in Workshop

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Sylvia Bryant addresses parents<

Sylvia Bryant addresses parents at the SATP workshop.

Last month, members of Montclair's School Action Team for Partnerships (SATP) met at Montclair High School for an orientation and training workshop. Led by District Parent Coordinator Sylvia Bryant and former Chief Talent Officer Michelle Russell, the meeting was attended by SATP groups from all of the schools in the district as well as several community partner representatives, principals and teachers.

The evening began with attendees viewing a video on the SATP, an informative look at the functions of the School Action Teams. Following the video, participants heard from a number of SATP groups about best practices and successful initiatives they have implemented in their schools.

The committee members then participated in an interactive discussion where they talked with peers from their particular school communities about their best practices and began developing new goals and objectives for the next school year.

"I really liked the workshop," said Glenfield parent and SATP member Peter Wert. "It was definitely worthwhile to review the regulations and hear what other schools are working on. It would be nice to have this overview again in the fall."

"The highlight for me was the best practices presentations shared by Nishuane principal Jill McLaughlin, Renaissance principal Dr. Barbara Weller and Montclair High School assistant principal Damen Cooper, each of their two SATP co-chairs, a teacher and a parent," said Bryant.

"I have been attending SATP meetings for many years, both as a parent and as a community representative for organizations that I have been working with. I remember Naomi Kirkman asking me to attend the first SATP with the group representing Bradford School," said Myrna Marcarian. "I currently attend SATP meetings representing Succeed2gether a local non-profit providing free after-school tutoring and school-year and summer enrichment programs to low-income students from greater Montclair. SATP represents the best that Montclair has to offer and a forum for discussing ways that we can come together as a community and create a nurturing environment for our children to grow and learn."

Mary Kate Mellow, an MHS parent, agreed the workshop was informative and beneficial. "It was impressive to hear about a wide range of creative and constructive initiatives from 'Unplugged Game Night' at Renaissance to the redo of the MHS website as a means by which to better communicate with both parents and students. We then broke into small groups by school to discuss how these ideas could be useful to our own schools. Overall I found the exchange of ideas at the meeting to be energizing and inspiring. I am looking forward to the next one."

Bryant said SATP members will convene again by June for an end-of-year-review of the goals and processes and to discuss next steps. "We are really looking forward to a dynamic coming year now that we have our SATP policy and regulation in place.

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