Nov 10th, 2015 Eugene IHS Site Council Minutes
Present: Jessica Schabtach, Courtney Dearinger, Janice Ketsche, Jennifer Tavernier, Emily Gerrity (convener), Brian Kuzma, Lisa Joye, Emily Carroll, Andrea Corbin, Kai Roberts, David Inouye, Beth Richardson, Lisa Albrich
Jericho, Sue, Deon, and Christine sent regrets for their absence
--Minutes were not approved due to a lack of quorum at the start of the meeting, but no changes or corrections were submitted.
Students:
--Penny Wars will run Tues, Dec 12- Fri, Dec 16. Voting in winning class to determine recipients from list of options will take place on Wed, Jan 6th. KIVA account has $1000 that will go to those loans as well. Each campus team selects a potential recipient for the list--focus on youth loans for higher education or youth entrepreneurship..
--The Oct. 24th Ultimate Tournament was super fun!
--Sun, Nov 15th--Student Government retreat 3-6 PM for the 43 representatives to get to know each other and become more effective
--Tshirt designs were submitted, student government will vote so apparel will get out by winter break.
Parents:
--Social went well, good turnout with mostly freshman parents
--Next meeting scheduled for next Monday, Nov 16th at South Eugene
Teachers:
--The IB deadline is Friday, Nov 13th
--Travel Scholarship applications are due Nov 12th
--2 dates identified for Taking It Up equity workshop: Feb 18th/19th and March 3rd/4th. Staff will determine how we will divide up
--Looked at changes in CAS Handbook--the group project has changed from student identified group project to any project but over the course of a month
Budget meeting:
--IHS chairs--there are some “biting” chairs, so the committee proposed that $500 go to replace those dangerous chairs rather than constantly replacing student clothing or paying medical bills.
--The committee proposed to buy projectors ($2500) to have on hand to stay ahead of the curve and to replace two specific dying projectors
--The committee proposed $438 for two sub days for extra extended essay grading help
--There was a request for purchasing new IB History books, but we do not have $18,000 for 400 new books. How can we raise those funds? These would include digital copies AND paper copies because the price difference is minimal to offer both. We need to consider fundraising as well as exactly what we want and where else we can find funds (grants, etc.).
--Econ books are 8 years old, which is especially funny in given what has happened economically since 2007. The IB curriculum will be updated in 3 years, so we should start saving; we skipped the last cycle, but the books are dated now and will definitely be so in 3 years. Where can the funds be found?
Jessica (and Beth):
They attended the CFEE Training, which is a Leadership workshop about equity in education. It was an intense and transformative immersion experience.
--In order to understand questions about race and equity, one must first understand one’s own personal story.
Jessica shared about her experience about her experience as a white woman and an educator who lives within the privilege of being white. However, she believes it is her role as an educator to break the code of silence that comes within that. It is an obligation to her to have the difficult conversations in order to change the systems we have inherited and are inherent in our institutions. She feels an urgency as a vital institution during a critical time to have these difficult conversations to make the school a place of open dialogue and inclusion. There is a tendency to hold back to avoid screwing it up or out of ignorance of how things might affect other groups or people. However, this hinders conversation, and that is no longer acceptable.
--Are all stakeholders ready to start thinking about these conversations? How can we get more of this to get to the students, as this is our focus? How can we get practical skills for the classroom? Voices from the classroom?
--Students like the idea--it’s constructive to have those conversations in class. They feel comfortable talking in external or big scale contexts, but less acknowledgement of the institutional aspects and the personal role in those institutions. It’s hard to turn those concepts on oneself.
--Students often need to talk about these issues, particularly when they are in the news (e.g. Ferguson, Mizzou). How can we help students since they ARE seeing it on Twitter, etc? They need the tools for their own conversations, and we need to help them develop those tools, vocabulary, etc. So much of what students say is difficult because of their experience/inexperience. How do we let kids speak if we are afraid of what they might say? We need to know if kids are going home with profound pain already--maybe by opening it up and addressing the shocking things, we are at least acknowledging the pain even if something shocking was said?
--There are two messages: Shh, don’t offend anyone / Speak freely about my experience. This is confusing and conflicting. Where is the balance?
--How can we have those conversations in class? How can we then help institutionalize the learning from Taking It Up to inform our curriculum? We don’t have to do this alone--there are community and district leaders who know the conversation AND our population. It will be uncomfortable, but we can do this and the support is available.
--There is a student training called Breaking Down the Walls which has been done in California and sounds similar to Taking It Up. Their job is to take it back to the students, and they are trained in how to do it. Other student opportunities: South does an every other year kid-driven workshop day on MLK Day. The march last year helped bring the conversation into the student consciousness.
--The IHS staff has shown interest in and commitment to getting training and trying to embark on this hard work. Is it a priority for all stakeholder groups? How do we start the conversations and get feedback on this as a priority? How can different stakeholder groups get involved? Jessica asked for reps to take these kinds of questions to student and parent groups.