SSC Meeting Minutes – November 8, 2005 at 3:30p.m.
Members Present: Richard DaSylveira, Cynthia Calhoun, Lori Vogelesgang, Cecelia Accero, Lisa Starr, Kent Haywood, Terri Haywood, Hina Yousufzai.
Welcome and Review of Minutes: The meeting was called to order by Lori Vogelesgang, Chairperson of SSC. The minutes were read from the last SSC meeting. Introductions were made by each of the members of the committee. A motion was made to accept the minutes. The motion was seconded by Kent Haywood and the motion was passed to accept the minutes from the June 14, 2005 meeting.
New Business: Mr. DaSylveira began new business with an introduction of the issue concerning the moving the rm. 24 kindergarten classroom. Mr. DaSylveira passed out handouts from the California Dept. of Education and a handout detailing the concerns brought forth by the parents of kindergarten room 24.
Debra Kellogg introduced herself and Courtney Pogson as parents of rm. 24. Ms. Kellogg proceeded to present the concerns as stated in the handout as well as added the concern of high voltage polls near the classroom.
Ms. Kellogg felt that the gate on 77th street near the bungalows was left open many times. This made it accessible for anyone to come in unnoticed causing a threat to the children’s safety. It was also mentioned that Westchester has many registered sex offenders and this was a major concern for the parents. She added that Mr. DaSylveira has changed the lock and ensured that only four keys have been distributed. STAR and Raul Aguilar the plant manager have both been notified of the concern.
Ms. Kellogg proceeded by telling the committee that the size of rm. 24 which was stated by her to be approximately 600+sq. feet was far below the standard size. Parents feel that this is unsafe for the children because it is crowded and too small for the children to participate in the Kindergarten curriculum which requires movement activities. Children also trip on the chairs as they make their way to the rug area for circle time and other activities.
The final concern that was stated was the distance from rm. 24 the restroom was too great. It did not meet guideline as stated in the handout detailing concerns. The concerns were that they were unsupervised and having to walk too far.
The question brought forth was could the room be changed. Possible solutions are moving to room 9, 10, 11, and 19. Room 9 and 10 were eliminated from the possible solutions because they belonged to the special education rooms and it was not in the best interest of those children to uproot them from their classroom environment.
Deborah Kellogg stated that she has been having conversations with the design director for the district. She referred everyone to the California Department of Education handout. She spoke to the director today who stated that these are guidelines. If a school were being built today these things would be mandated. If a school is already in place they are needed to use the best facility and the best space for schools that are already here. The districtis willing to fund $8000.00 towards getting room 3 ready for classroom use.
Lori asked the question; what are the issues remaining, such as timeline or anything pertinent for SSC.
Parents voiced that they would like to see this happen before next semester and Christmas Holiday would be the best time for it. She will have conversation with complex plant manager.
Deborah Kellogg asked the question; does it need to be approved by SSC? The answer was no.
Richard DaSylveira asked the question; is the district aware of the need to convert room 24 to the learning center. The answer was: “I don’t think it will take all of the $8000.00 to convert room 3. We can use some of this towards learning lab.
Dr. Mito asked the question; is the district willing to budget $8000.00 regardless of what needs to be done. The answer was yes.
At this time special needs parents and teachers who were present made statements relating to the need for Special Needs children to stay as stable as possible.
Richard DaSylveira said that it is important to have a plan B and room 19 should be considered as a viable option.
Parent asked the question: is there any reason the work could not start tomorrow?
The district would start work possibly in 4 to 6 weeks.
Parent asked the question what we could do as parents. In response: it will be necessary to do a walk through with the district personnel to assess what the job will entail.
Dr. Mito stated that it was important for the parent coordinator should be one particular point person.
Ms. Yousufzai asked how the LearningCenter would be affected by this move since it was just announced to the staff that it was ready to go and the teachers should start sending their referrals. How long will the learning center be down while room 24 is set up?
There was further discussion regarding this matter and it was established that a timeline and schedule will be necessary.
Lisa Starr, parent member, asked if further discussion was needed because the resolution was not going to come at this time.
It was decided that further meetings will be held with district representative.
Other Business
Gates on 77th
There was discussion regarding the procedures in place to ensure that both gates on 77th street side are being locked during school hours.
SSC officer election results
The decision was made that the by-laws will not be amended and another Parliamentarian should be elected since the person that was elected is an alternate member. Everyone decided to elect a new Parliamentarian there and then. Two members were nominated, Richard DaSylveira and Cecelia Acero. Members decided to elect Richard DaSylveira as Parliamentarian by a show of hands.
High Voltage Poles
A motion was passed to bring the issue of high voltage poles being to close to the school to the attention of the Safety and Discipline Committee.
Reading of Committee Meeting Minutes
Tech Meeting Minutes
There was a discrepancy in the ad that was posted for the Computer Lab teacher regarding salary.
Outdoor Classroom Minutes
Project update and Overview and May Chao announced that Ms. Lieber was the designated teacher liaison.
Safety and Discipline Minutes
There will be a lockdown drill in November instead of an earthquake drill.
After the reading of the minutes Patti Hecht started a discussion of the Special Education budget in which she was asking if Booster could allot $300-$500 to get critical items to go forward with the Autism curriculum. Ms. Montgomery has yet to receive funds from the district for her program.
Dr. Mito passed out the Booster Budget and began reviewing 7/1/04 to 6/30/05 and pointed out that costs are greater than reserves. He began reviewing this year’s budget and the reserve was down from last year. This year’s budget is $180,000. Programs this year are geared to enhance education learning such as learning lab and science fair. There was an introduction of the executive board of the Booster Club. There was discussion for allotting monies to Ms. Montgomery’s classroom.
SSC members motioned that Booster send a $500.00 donation to Special Education. It was seconded and passed.
Setting priorities for Booster Budget should be in agenda for next month’s meeting.
Will also revisit Booster Budget for next month.
Mr. DaSylveira and Ms. Calhoun passed out the school budget but decided to go over it in more detail at December’s meeting. They previewed the school budget S536 Bilingual and S671 is School improvement. Money in both of these budgets are not allocated in budget until SSC designates priorities.
There was a request that a list of items of what money can be spent on by email before December meeting.
Dr. Mito needs SSC members to be familiar with Booster Budget
Future Agenda Items: Discussion of staggered terms.
The meeting was officially adjourned at 5:30 p.m.