Site Council Minutes 11/13/2012
Convener: Jessica Schabtach
Recorder: Rebecca Hammons
In attendance: Wade Powell, Janell Schoellhorn, Jessica Schabtach, Kyle Yamada, Peggy Farris, Rebecca Hammons, Wade Powell, Lisa Albrich, Julie Butler, Aimee Beckley, Mary Haidar, Lloyd Madden, Marilyn Curtis, Joanne Moorefield, Steve Smith, Londa Rochholz, Deon Saraceno , Stephanie Cannon and Lucy McWhorter.
We began with introductions of Site Council members and review of minutes from Nov. 13, which were approved.
Student Government: Wade reported that students are organizing the penny wars and have decided to donate the money to Project Our Time, which works to send former child soldiers to school.
March 8, 2013 is the date for the IHS dance, venue as yet undecided.
IHS T-shirts are ready and will be brought to the staff meeting on 11/15.
Parents: First parent meeting will be Nov. 27, and Steve is looking forward to working with the group to plan activities and the community service fair in the spring. Janell has a conflict for this date, and because she is a strong member of the parent committee, she and Steve will talk about the practicalities of rescheduling the meeting.
Planning and Professional Development: Steve announced that one of the major focuses for this will be planning for the new schedule, and if we have a new one in place, our PD day in January will be devoted to this work.
Spanish Immersion: This year, there isn’t a contact area class for 10th or 11th, which is especially a concern at Sheldon. Because of our staffing, funding, and the size of the groups, we’re weren’t able to create full SI sections. SI parents ran a camp last year similar to the FI camp for raising money to help with this. We may be able to add a content class at the junior level if funding and a qualified teacher emerge. Lloyd added that the parent motivation for this is high and that he thinks one of the parents has found a strong candidate as a potential teacher. Next SI meeting is Dec. 4, when strategizing will continue.
Schedule Consideration: Jessica briefly gave us the background for this discussion and turned the conversation over to Steve.
Steve told us that the overlap we currently have at CHS is not a sustainable model. He and Marilyn have met with Shelley Berman and Laurie Moses to discuss the parameters for our upcoming schedule and have been informed that IHS needs to fit within the new schedule for all campuses.
A number of IHS teachers have been trying to come up with a model that preserves core values of our school. At the last Site Council meeting, we broke into groups and discussed those values.
Steve delineated five models that have been looked at so far and listed them on the sheet titled “Possible Models.” He reviewed this briefly.
Marilyn addressed the Three Day Rotation option in detail, saying that the purpose is to fit students within a 3 X 5 schedule while preserving core values. (Refer to the handout titled “IHS Restructure.”)
Comments from the Site Council:
Steve said that the issue of mid day teacher travel might not emerge as an issue and that access to students could be early in the morning or during Wed. late start.
Lloyd asked if there’s a precedent for this model and inquired about the time gap between classes. Steve hasn’t researched schools that have done this model. Wade says the larger window to do homework could be a plus and that continuity could be adversely affected.
Londa posed a question about credit conflicts, especially with students transferring in or out of IHS. Steve said this conflict would be smoothed out over the course of the entire year.
Kyle said that he was looking forward to hearing student perspectives, but no students are present today. L His big concern is about students who have a hard time tracking responsibilities from minute to minute, let alone over three days. He would like to get student response to that well in advance of the next Site Council meeting, and Wade will run this question through Student Government.
Deon addressed concerns about continuity of curriculum and said lack of fluidity could be addressed simply because we have an integrated curriculum, which could help forgetful students.
Julie spoke regarding student attention for 140 minutes in one subject area, especially for freshmen. Steve assured her that it wouldn’t be a 140 minute lecture, but would have 3 or 4 or more different activities or time to do homework. Deon, who teaches the same group of ninth graders for both geography and health, said that this does indeed work and have a lot of freedom and that groups bond very quickly with this time structure.
Rebecca spoke up vigorously against this three-day rotation model, but she was also taking notes, so her comments were hard to record.
Wade responded to these comments with other opinions, partially agreeing and partially disagreeing. Steve clarified that we could contact students in the morning before school starts and mid day when we don’t have other meetings.
Kyle said that across the district we have certain IB/AP assessments that must be done regardless and that Rebecca’s comments were valid in that respect. The district has decided that IHS will now be a 2/5 part of the student’s day rather than ½, and this is a problem especially at the jr/sr level, but there’s no reserved space in the student’s day to do that work.
Kyle said there’s a lot he likes about this system, but that the Achilles heel is how struggling students can stay afloat in a system like this. He would like us to consider two possible options – this schedule or one that is decentralized from IHS and ends with IHS devolved into the host schools. In that way, we wouldn’t face travel and excessive student numbers. He added that that type of possibility would make him extremely sad, but might indeed be better for students. He said he doesn’t know the answer to this question but that we have heaped so much on to students and teachers alike that we must at least weigh the other alternative.
Steve asked parents to comment. Julie, who has her 3rd IHS student, said that the gap between classes can be so long that she wonders if students can really remember what they’ve been working on with 5-6 day gaps between having a particular subject. She also said that she has always wished that her kids had more access to their IHS teachers and that she thinks this schedule makes this 3x as hard.
Lloyd spoke up with concerns similar to Julie. He added that he appreciates Kyle’s comments because it assures him that all option are on the table. He asked if there are ways to focus on what the real priorities are. Since his daughter is in SI, he said that he doesn’t know if he represents entire IHS but perhaps just SI. He said that the parent group would be willing to help the staff figure out how to establish methods for keeping in touch with students via electronic resources.
Stephanie asked about the meeting with Laurie and Shelley, and Steve addressed again the idea that we’re required to fit again with the 3 x 5 and not have open periods.
Jessica added that any one of these questions has multiple concerns and each issue that may be small still affects other areas, especially regarding IB and our IB license. She asked that we all keep in mind all of the implications that each of these decisions has.
Process forward: Steve said that we have some timing issues, but he doesn’t want to rush through this. We’ll address this at both our next staff and Site Council meetings, and there may yet be other ideas out there. Any idea has to be sustainable and one in which we can create a schedule.
Lloyd asked how the decision is made, and Steve said that it’d be a staff recommendation to Site Council. Jessica added that we work on a consensus model in the IHS staff, and we would then present that to Site Council and have to get buy in from all representative groups.
Janell said that, as a parent, she appreciates how we’re trying to work this out and that she can speak for all the parents saying that they will do all possible to help us.
Wade asked if we can agree to extend our next Site Council meeting 20 minutes if the time is needed to address this issue. Deon wanted to know why cyber school, with no student contact, has been pushed (clarifying that she’s not for cyber school); perhaps we could learn something from them. Steve laid out the time frame, hoping to have a decision by January in service and February 8th grade nights, but understanding that might not be possible.