Austin High School
Campus Advisory Council (CAC)
Monday, March 7, 20165:30 P.M. in the Library
Present:
Amy Taylor, John Dagar, Barbara Knaggs, Greta Gonzales, Aimee Finney, Kerri Ault, Anita Nunez, Ryan Cole Weldon-Carroll, Fred Campillo, Lori MacNeill, Diane Harrison, Jeanette Smiecinski, LaShawn Thompson-Tanksley,Esther Joucken, Lynn Remadna, Amy Allen, Craig Bennett
Call to Order:
Ms. Finney made a motion to approvethe minutes from02/01/2016. Ms. Thompson-Tanksleyseconded the motion. All approved.
Public Comments
None
Student Council Report:
Mr. Weldon-Carroll, the Junior Executive President of the Student Council updated the committee on the following items. The Driver’s Ed committee is working with Mr. Lizzaraga to set up a driving safety project. Keep Austin Beautiful is revamping the school store with new products and a new look. The Teacher Appreciation Committee is working on getting out letters to teachers. The executive team is working on streamlining the application process for Student Council and is consideringmoving elections to the end of this school year instead of nextyear in order to start work sooner in the new year.
Standing Items:
Principal’s Report
Ms. Taylor played a short award-winning video honoring Austin High School (AHS) teacher Laura Luddy.
Traffic and Safety
Ms. Taylor reported on the continuing work with the Austin High Alliance group. They are hosting a luncheon with the City of Austin Parks Department, Transportation Departments and other stakeholders to present future AHS improvements to the building and grounds.
She also reported that we have received very positive feedback from students on the new safety procedures and checkpoints. Students report feeling safer.
21st Century Learning
Ten teachers are attending the year’s SXSW EDU conference. Furniture has been ordered for the common areas.
New AHS Website
Ms. Gonzales noted that the revamped AHS Website did not seem completely updated and was concerned about potential parents and students trying to find information. Ms. MacNeill is conducting a full audit of the Website and also had questions about that and items being moved around or changing. Ms. Taylor will review this with Ms. Whipple and address these issues.
New Business:
BTO
Ms. Taylor reported that the school budget is based on the number of projected students, with a weighting for students on free/reduced price lunch. AHS is also absorbing an 18 percent reduction because of a reduction in funds from the High School Allotment.
Ms. Taylor’s proposal for the following school year is to distribute the current administrative load and not replace Mr. Machicek, who is retiring this year. In addition, the school gained a counselor to handle the extra work stemming from HB5. Ms. Taylor is proposing that the new counselor position be traded for half an FTE in the college career center, plusa full time testing coordinator. Also, AHS would add a 504 coordinator to help relieve the counselors.
Ms. Taylor discussed each departmental budget and line items. Department allocations were reduced proportionally by 18 percent because of the loss of funding from the High School Allotment. All of the new proposals fall in line with the allotted budget for AHS. Ms. Taylor noted that since AISD doesn’t track the budget by line item that she has the flexibility to move money around as needed as well as solicit funds from other sources. A suggestion was made that we find ways to reduce the number of copies in order to reduce copier expenses. Other general discussion followed.
Unfinished Business:
Ranking vs Non-Ranking and Class RankSurvey
Ms. Knaggs reported that we have received 177 surveys. Out of those 146 voted to eliminate ranking. Of those 75% wanted to convert the whole school at one time and 17% wanted to start with just freshman. The respondents include 156 parents, 9 teachers and 6 in Spanish. There were some comments about getting information on the website on how top 10% is calculated and how GPA is calculated.
A school messenger was sent out today reminding people that the survey is open until 3/10/16.
Cyberbullying
There continues to be training with teachers.
Set Agenda Items for April 4, 2016 Meeting:
BTO Review
Review class rank survey
The meeting was adjourned at6:40 p.m.