ELAC Meeting Agenda

October 13, 2016 at 5:30 pm

Meeting called to order: 5:35pm Meeting adjourned: 6:42pm

ELAC Members

Member Name / Attendance
Lorena Sanchez / Present
Monica Castellanos / Present
Floridalma Gonzalez / Absent
Angel Gonzalez & Maria Lopez / Present

Agenda MINUTES

  1. Description of ELAC Committee
  1. The ELAC shall be responsible for advising the principal and staff on programs and services for English learners and the School Site Council on the development of the Single Plan for Student Achievement (SPSA).
  2. The ELAC shall assist the school in the development of:
  1. The school's needs assessment.
  2. The school's annual language census.
  3. Ways to make parents aware of the importance of regular school attendance.
  1. Elect New Members
  2. Elect new members
  1. Review the Comprehensive School Safety Plan for 2015-2016

Sections:

  1. Bullying Prevention Policies and Procedures page 72
  2. The parents discussed that students need to practice respect and the schools’ behavior modification system, “Doing What is Easy Form” helps them understand how to end unwanted behavior. One parent discussed how this system is working great for her son, and she feels like it improves his behavior.
  3. Mrs. Lara discussed how the implementation of incident reports helped us understand any behaviors that might be occuring.
  4. Disaster Response Procedures page 14
  5. The school plans to attend the Great Shake Out as a measure of Earthquake Preparedness.
  6. Two weeks ago our school practiced a drill so that the students can also know how to be prepared for these emergencies. We also want our students to understand that depending on the type of emergency, we may want to choose to Fight or Flight. We discussed how we have a connection with Green Gables down to street to help educate everyone for emergencies that can happen anywhere. Another topic that we discussed was that we assigned our staff to leadership roles to fasciliate student distribution after an emergency.
  7. The parents mentioned the importance of being observant anywhere. The parents had no further comments about how to improve these procedures.
  8. School-wide Dress Code prohibiting gang-related apparel page 45
  9. The parents mentioned that the uniform policy helps to identify students during field trips and keep them safe. They also discussed how uniforms help maintain the student’s self esteem high.
  10. Mrs. Lara discussed how the uniforms also avoid the potential for bullying. The uniforms help maintain a positive school climate and uiltimately it is a way of avoiding more severe conflicts.
  11. Procedures for Safe Ingress and Egress from school page 48
  12. Mrs. Lara discussed the implementation of the safety cones in the school parking area. The cones have improved the traffic flow and it helped maintain more structure.
  13. A parent asked if there was any monetary charge for having a police officer come and assess our structure. The response was that one parent brought up that they had a contact with an officer. One parent suggested asking parents for volunteers so that they can help keep the children safe from the traffic. The helpers would remind students to not be on their phones and to focus on exiting the parking lot in a safe manner.
  1. Understanding your child’s SBAC scores
  2. The committe reviewed a visual of a sample of SBAC scores. There was a discussion about how this assessment was used by our Teachers to note which areas to improve in. We also discussed our IAB;s which help us monitor student progress in specific content areas.
  3. One of the questions was how are students placed in sections if they perform differently in multiple content areas. The reponse was that Teachers use a criteria rubric which looks at many other assessments and data that pertain to the students’ performance in each of those areas.
  4. Sharing of all resources available to support students and families
  5. Mental Health Resources
  6. The parents did not know about any mental health services that the school offers.
  7. We discussed the options that wour school offers starting with the Tarzana Treatment Center which offers services for individual students and families. An other resource that was discussed was The Bridges Program which offers free services to our parents. In addition to this, our school also offers the services of a full-time Counselor. Another service that we offer is through our USC Interns in the Marriage and Counseling domain which also help counsel students.
  8. One parent offered that her participation in a program opened her mind to learning how to listen to her children and to understand how to help and counsel them.
  9. Academic Resources
  10. The parents discussed how the school offer an After School Program, Saturday School, and Lunch Tutoring with the Teachers.
  1. CELDT Testing Updates (New test)
  2. Why is it important to redesignate?
  3. The committe discussed that it was important for their students to be redesignated. One parent discussed that she felt that she knows that her son will end up reaching more people in his profession while also earning more money.
  4. The drawbacks to not being able to reclassify was that the students would have to spend more time to complete their A-G requirements in High School since they would have English Language Development courses until their reclassification.
  5. We discussed the areas of assessment pertaining to the CELDT Tests. (Reading, Writing, Listening, and Speaking). We also discussed the importance of Reading to make sure that we are exposing the students to rich literature.
  6. We discussed how the school is working to place the strongest staff members in Saturday School to help the students with their assignments to help our English Learners with difficult assignments.
  7. We also discussed how the new test is less reliant on calculations and more on critical thinking.

Next Meeting: Thursday, December 8, 2016 at 5:00pm

An IndependentPublicCharterSchool

20040 Parthenia, Northridge, CA91324▪ Phone: 818-882-2496 ▪ Fax: 818-882-1798 ▪