SSC Meeting January 13, 2007
Members Present: Micki Webb, Terri Haywood, Hina Yousufzai, Stacey Hayes, Lisa Starr, Sheri Weitz, Richard DaSylveira, and Jan Holt.
Guests Present: Ron Mito, Tom Cox, Terri Mims.
Meeting was called to order at 3:40 without the ability to vote. The minutes of December’s meeting were submitted prior to all members and reviewed. It was moved the minutes be accepted with inclusion of the list of members present.
Ms. Buckly came to the meeting briefly to announce that the teacher’s union was staging a boycott. Due to this boycott no committee meetings were held.
District Meeting of Learning Centers
Hina Yousufzai gave a brief presentation regarding the District’s implementation of Learning Centers. Hina, Susan Hale and Michelle Johnson attended a district meeting regarding learning centers. The district has begun a program for schools to implement a tier two program of support for students that will be separate from the Resource Specialist Program. Hina announced that after attending the meeting it was clear that Cowan was ahead of the rest of the schools with the implementation of the Learning Lab. A rubric outlining the different stages of development of the Learning Centers was handed out to all the attendees. According to this rubric Cowan’s Learning Lab was at the final stages of development for each category listed. This presented a unique opportunity for Cowan to stand out as well as to assist other schools in the district in getting started.
Old Business
Mr. DaSylveira announced that the 3rd grade classes were willing to try distributing lunch cards from the classrooms to see if this would work. Fourth and Fifth grades will not be able to do this since they go to recess first. It is not an issue for Kindergarten since their lunch times are different than the rest of the grades. First and Second grade did not wish to distribute the lunch cards.
Magnet Proposal draft: a two page rational of the proposed magnet plan was distributed among the members. Discussion began regarding the proposed magnet plan. There was a question regarding the emphasis on multicultural enrichment? The French and Mexican Consulate offered various support in the form of financial assistance and resources. The overall theme for the Magnet School was Highly Gifted Magnet. A magnet school would be separate in terms of funding and staffing; it would be located on site but would have its own administration office. What would be the impact on booster? The number of students will stay the same. Some funding for the magnet school would come from the district. Teachers need 32 hours of gifted education development to teach a gifted classroom. Several questions were raised regarding the dichotomy of GATE versus Magnet class. How would attrition be minimized? Has the school thought about Charter status? The charter school option would pose for a greater challenge because it would require a whole new curriculum to be created, there is not as much support and it will be a more lengthy process. Charter encompasses the whole school. The overall challenge of this proposal is whole school buy in. The process takes about a year; the school would like feedback from the SSC members. Mr. DaSylveira spoke with the Office of Integration Services and they conveyed a sense of support. Mr. DaSylveira requested that the members take time to review the magnet school proposal by February 9th
Committee Minutes
The only committee that had an update was the Cowan Nature Center committee. Sheri required some clarification regarding the goal of the SAS committee and curriculum. Sheri told the SSC members that Leslie Meadows had plenty of information to put together a curriculum. Sheri informed SSC that Albert Leung of Bruce Kendall’s office felt that the design plans for the ramp needed to be changed and that something more natural looking needed to be designed. He felt that the railing should be removed and natural groundcover be used in the place of asphalt. Sheri relayed this information and also included that Mr. Leung received a certain amount of funds from CNC for this redesign. At this point both Mr. DaSylveira and Mr. Mito confirmed that they did not sign any booster checks to the district for this amount. Mr. Mito said that a check had been issued to JMC2 but was not sure whether this check was the one that Sheri was referring to. At this point certain committee members felt that this information needed to be confirmed by Jim Dreyfuss. Sheri also thought that Jim should be called because she became unsure of the information she was providing. Sheri dialed Jim’s number and Mr. DaSylveira left two questions on his voicemail. Mr. DaSylveira asked if there was a redesign of the ramp for the Cowan Nature Center is this obligatory and was a check issued to the district from the Booster club. Sheri said she would call Marlene Canter and Bruce Kendall regarding Albert Leung. Mr. DaSylveira suggested that Sheri confirm Albert Leung’s comments before she contacted Marlene Canter and Bruce Kendall. It was requested by the members that any further correspondence be forwarded to SSC committee. Sheri said that the committee should ask Jim Dreyfuss for that information to be forwarded. Stacey Hayes announced that Turner Construction would be willing to donate “specialized labor” to the CNC project.
Update for Direct Donation Drive
Over 35,000 dollars had been raised so far with 102 families participating. A letter with the updated information is going out to the families with a letter from Mr. D on the back.
Meeting Adjourned at 5:21 p.m. and next meeting is scheduled for February 13th.