Senate Meeting
Notes
Tuesday, October
19, 2010 Attending:
Renouard, Sylver, Emma Ratcliffe, Meredith Berlin (9th
grade parent rep), Deborah Harper (c/o 2013 parent rep), Tarleton, Neilson,
Northfield, Linett, Pingry, Smith, Hudson, Greene, Scott, Miyata, Overlie,
Padilla, Sylver, Jones, Feigal Stickles, Lynch, Albertson (alternate parent
rep) I.
Minutes a. Amendment/Correction—Attendance
does not reflect all members in attendance last time. Chair Renouard will email list to Torvik,
who will correct and email corrected minutes. b. Otherwise,
minutes approved by voice vote II. Committee
Reports a. Attendance
i.
Started Attendance Court Process (Breland, Jones and
Powell)
ii.
Students are notified and required to meet with the
court.
iii.
First students have been notified. Meetings occur on Tuesdays between 9 to 11
AM.
iv.
If families unable to attend, court date/time
rescheduled.
v.
Questions 1. Could
this occur during Reflective Scholarship?
Right now, this does not disrupt class, but if it does, could be moved
to RS? 2. Are
students aware of this? Hudson’s
response—not yet, but we are working through legal channels. If students have 2 or more unexcused
absences, families need to be notified.
We need to work on communicating this process with families. 3. Teachers
seeking guidance from Attendance Committee.
How do we know if an absence is excused or unexcused? Miyata—the rule is if they are not in
class, they should be marked absent, even if the absence is authorized. In most cases, this will be cleared or
corrected by attendance office. 4. Miyata
notes that the biggest challenge we face is when teachers do not mark
students absent—this can even get us into trouble with outside Truancy
Courts, etc. 5. Nielson—if
a student is marked absent inadvertantly, should we send them to the
attendance office for printed copies then sign off that a mistake was
made? Yes. 6. Scott—our
system may not be perfect, but better than some other districts. b. Mentorship
Committee
i.
Renouard emailed to seek out new Mentorship Committee
chair—did not receive any replies other than an email wondering if a
committee is still necessary.
ii.
Hudson—there are still some big questions remaining
about mentorship. Are we going to
continue the Upper and Lower house mentorship loops? Should we try other systems (9-12 loop? Or 9th graders stay with 9th
grade teachers?)
iii.
Renouard—did this decisions originate in Senate to
begin with? Ames stated yes—occurred
during time we had the Small Learning Communities Grant.
iv.
Tarleton—we did establish mission statement, but did
not get into some of the nuts and bolts of mentorship.
v.
Hudson—will host mentorship committee meetings. This this is a valuable committee so that
we continue to improve our mentorship program.
vi.
Miyata—10th grade continues to be a
challenge for the Lower House loop—only 4 out of 9 IS teachers have Lower
House mentorships.
vii.
Renouard—will send out another email to recruit
committee members. Will also email
Ms. Powell.
viii.
Lynch—can be challenging to have teachers who are not
familiar with the Lower House structure and curriculum to serve as 9th/10th
grade mentors.
ix.
Feigal-Stickles—thinks that its much better to have
our core subject students in our mentorship group—this is an improvement for
this year.
x.
Tarleton—do you want parents on the committee? ASB students?
xi.
Pingry—has never had the experience of having one of
his regular teachers as his mentorship teachers.
xii.
Hudson—planning a Mentorship Committee Meeting for
Monday 11/8 in Large Conference Room at 3:15 PM. c. Administration
Report
i.
Student count—scheduled to have 1117, now we have
1130. Not sure if there will be an
adjustment to our budget yet.
ii.
Construction update— 1. Gym
issues are impacting PE classes and sports programs. 2. Reminder—this
is a modernization, not a remodel.
Typically, this means new paint, carpet and furniture, but we are
getting more. Its frustrating for
teachers and staff, but we are getting much more for our modernization since
we stayed on site. 3. With
any new facility, there are glitches.
iii.
Hiring Update 1. Only
one more position—Med Fragile IA.
Interviews on Friday.
iv.
Other exciting news 1. CSIP
at a Glance—supposed to make updates to this document. a. Change
out WASL for HSPE b. End
of course exams in Math this year (Science next year) 2. No
field trips in June! We are moving
toward Math and Science end-of-course exams.
Don’t know the schedule yet.
We might have to adjust our schedule since exams take place over 3
consecutive days for 50 minutes each day (this does not exist in our current
schedule.) a. Does
not apply to Level IV programs (do not take end of course exams) 3. Submit
any changes via email to Hudson 4. Assembly
schedule—Powell is proposing that Wed 11/10 be a 1-3-5 day with the assembly
during Mentorship, with Friday 11/12 being a 2-4-6 day. a. Feigal-Stickles—would
prefer 1-6 schedule due to Environmental Science Field Trip b. Davis—assembly
is being scheduled around project to fix the bleachers on Thurs 11/11 and
through the weekend. c. Pro’s
of a 2-4-6 schedule on Friday—preserve mentorship and Reflective Scholarship
for that week, keeps our Wednesday schedule the same. d. Pro’s
of a 1-6 schedule on both day—keeps Friday the same, allows us to see our
students more often e. Chair
called the question—show of hands to go with the block schedule (Wed and Fri)
that week III. Old
Business a. Freshman
Mentoring Program—President Pingry
i.
Mission, Benefits, Logistics, Calendar and
Sustainability Plan described in the
Senate agenda
ii.
FMP committee proposes to co-opt one mentorship day
per month for meetings
iii.
Sen Ames has agreed to be a staff advisor
iv.
Questions 1. Davis—do
you need us to give names of possible mentors before the training on
10/26? President Pingry—we need to
have a student union meeting—plan to talk about the FMP there. Also will use word of mouth to recruit
senior mentors. 2. Davis—do
you want to send us talking points so we can help bring in 12th
graders? 3. Tarleton—are
we ensuring that we are getting students of color/a heterogeneous group to
volunteer to be mentors? Are there
groups we should target to recruit from?
Pingry—since this is voluntary, we are encouraging ALL students to do
it. 4. Service
Hours? Can’t earn them during school
hours. 5. Lynch—consider
getting staff recommendations 6. Pingry—training
session—possibly in the open space near Ms. McDonald’s classroom. 7. Davis—who
is doing the training? Run by FMP
committee. 8. Ames—strongly
encourages Pingry to send out talking points so staff can help recruit. 9. Sen
Ratcliffe—thinks the 9th grade program sounds like a good
idea. Will help 9th
graders feel more comfortable around 12th graders. 10. Pingry—thinks
the system will be able to grow itself. 11. Renouard—would
like to see the 12th graders model reading period for the 9th
grade mentorships. 12. Feigal-Stickles—need
to think about the impact on mentorship time—even though its just 1x per
month, this does cut away at our mentorship time. Also, 11/23 may not be a late start day. 13. Pingry—likely
will be easier to recruit seniors to participate if the mentoring occurs
during school time. 14. Miyata—is
it required for 9th graders to participate in the social
events? Will there be record keeping
to ensure that students participate.
Pingry—no, but having a mentor is mandatory. 15. Renouard—important
to recognize that some of these details will need to be worked out as we go
along. 16. Berlin—might
want to talk to volunteers about attendance/participation issues. 17. Ames—called
question (seconded by several). Friendly
amendment to keep reading time accepted.
Passed by voice vote. Meeting Adjourned at 4:14 PM Next Senate Meeting—Tuesday, 11/2 at 3:15 PM |