Muirlands Middle School

Muirlands Middle School Site Governance Team/School Site Council

November 29, 2004

Approved Minutes

 

Attendees:  Michael Mertz, Victor Totoris, Jami Wright, Lynn Reineman, Jack Lawrence, Anita Graham, Pam Allor, Amy Hunt, Julie Latta, Peter Scott, Terry Schwartz, Chris Hargrave, Lisa Dowdy, Linda Dowley

 

The meeting was called to order by Ms. Latta at 2:35 PM.

 

Approval of Minutes:

The October 25, 2004 SGT meeting minutes were reviewed and approved unanimously.

 

Old Business:

School Safety/ Visitor Identification Procedures:  It was agreed that all visitors to campus should sign in at the office and wear a visitorÕs sticker as identification.  Frequent visitors will have the option to wear the aforementioned sticker in a plastic sleeve pin when those are purchased and made available in a box next to the stickers.  The office staff should post these procedures on front desk for visitors. 

 

 

Committee Reports:

GATE:  Lisa Dowdy reported a successful district-level parent meeting.  Teachers discussed strategies about supporting GATE students in the classroom. Leslie Pedersen wanted her to mention that sheÕs continuing her participation in the cluster task force at the district level.  Mr. Bersin was at last meeting and described how various programs and finances supported GATE.  He highlighted that building instructional capacity was essential in carrying out these objectives.  Funding increased despite enrollment decline.  Parent question:  Why did district achievement scores take a significant drop (particularly in grades 5, 7, 11) or did they?   Due to a conflict with the meetingÕs advertised date/time, a question was raised whether Muirlands had the capacity to use our automated phone system to notify parents on a large scale.

 

PTA:  Lynn Reineman represented a concerned voice about vandalism and backpacks during lunch on lunch court.  Ms. Reineman will take back message that students need to take responsibility for these.  What can parents do to help with the communication between teachers and parents regarding studentsÕ grades?  Mr. Lawrence mentioned that he uses a free website design online which enables him to operate his classroom-specific website.  If we had a school-wide website for this purpose, it would take one person a lot of time to coordinate this in a uniform way.  Mr. Lawrence recommended that the staff keep the management of communication re grades individually/classroom based.  He agreed to facilitate a workshop to show teachers how to set up their own class website.  Is the homework hotline still in use?  HW hotline is not uniformly used because teachers have non-uniform HW policies.  It was mentioned that it is the responsibility of the student to develop the skills to manage their workload (e.g. via the planner), with the appropriate staff support.  What about when kids are absent?  Many teachers mentioned using a classroom buddy system to elicit real time, up to date information when absent.  The counseling secretary also takes calls and coordinates HW pickup.   Parents may also e-mail teachers.  TeachersÕ HW policies were discussed at open house and should be clearly explained on syllabus. 

 

Holiday breakfast planned. 

 

ASB:  Elections were held on November 24 and ten new members joined the class.  Both school and grade-level representatives were elected into various offices.  Overall, the process went smoothly.  It was mentioned that the ASB president (or her designee) needs to attend SGT meeting. 

 

New Business:

 

East Coast Excursion:

Mr. Lawrence reported that, in the past, all eligible students were able to go.  Last year we had a larger class size, and because we werenÕt prepared for that, we added an extra bus [so that approximately 180 students attended]. As a result of the large numbers, the entire trip was very much affected:  getting through security was slow, they had to cancel some events, and many events only could accommodate a superficial experience with that large a group.  In response to the diminishing of quality from last year, the ECE director raised the citizenship grade criterion to 3.3, which he, when looking at data from last year, thought it would decrease the numbers to 120-130 students.  He thought it was a reasonable compromise.  This year, however, we had 186 eligible even with the citizenship criterion change.  Therefore, the tour was forced to take the unprecedented step of wait listing eligible candidates.  Many waitlisted students have been added thus far.  If history serves as any predictor (and it is not a guarantee that it will in this case either), many of the remaining waitlisted students will most likely become eligible at semester due to attrition from semester grades.  We may to end up with 10-15 eligible students that will not go on trip.  To avoid this scenario next year, we will take the first 140 eligible kids as determined from lottery.  We have to set aside certain number of scholarship applicants.  We placed 20 out of 28 grade-eligible candidates on scholarship.  Mr. Lawrence mentioned he is not willing to add 4^th bus.  He and others believe it diminishes the quality of the trip.  He reiterated that, in the 20 years Muirlands students have been attending the trip, this scenario has never occurred.  Ms. Reineman asked about raising the trip citizenship criterion to 3.5.  Ms. Hargrave responded that this would be difficult because citizenship is more subjective, often linked to academics, and subject to lobbying for a grade boost.  Ms. Hargrave also reiterated that the trip has never been nor should not now be considered a reward, but rather an extension of learning opportunity. 

 

API discussion:  Muirlands moved from 826 to 847 in the API.  The goal for every California school is to perform at 800.  Ms. Hargrave discussed norm vs. criterion referenced tests and briefly about the utility of the California Standards Test.  The SGT discussed several salient results and received a sample packet of testing related data.

 

 

 

SGT vis-ˆ-vis SSC:

Ms. Hargrave mentioned the necessity of differentiating between the School Governance Team (SGT) and the School Site Council (SSC).  The major distinction is that the SSC votes on categorical funding.  The composition requirements for both bodies are similar.  4 teachers (Anita Graham, Michael Mertz, Terry Schwartz, Julie Latta; Pam Allor (alternate)) and 4 parents (TBD from SGT representatives) will make up the SSC and operate immediately after the SGT is adjourned.  A student representative will also be required for this group.

 

Roundtable:  PE department representative Pam Allor provided the team with details on the Reindeer Run and new clubs starting after school:  specifically, girls and boys basketball sponsored and partially funded by the district.  Our teams will compete with other schools in the district.  School bulletin announcements are just beginning regarding tryouts, dates, times, etc.  Amy Hunt and Karen Maynard will be coaching the Muirlands basketball teams.

 

Ms. Latta mentioned her hosting and co-sponsoring of the Sally Ride Science Club for girls.  It is a national club.  A physics professor from UCSD is also a co-sponsor.

 

 

 

The meeting was adjourned at 4:05 PM.

 

The next SGT meeting will be held on January 31, 2005 at 2:30 PM in the library.