Eugene IHS Site Council Minutes

September 13, 2011

Present: Joanne Moorefield, Deon Saraceno, Kayla Smith, Chrisi Morrison, Wade Powell, Rebecca Hammons, Christine Pettingill, Lisa Albrich, Craig Wiebe, Bob Bolden, Stephanie Cannon, Susan Ventura, Janell Schoellhorn, Kaycee Schoellhorn, Jesse Formick, Londa Rochholz, Kwasi Diehl

  1. Courtney welcomed the site council members and we introduced ourselves.
  2. Eugene IHS Site Council Governance: Site Council guides Eugene IHS and works in tandum with the Eugene IHS staff. Membership represents all our stakeholder groups. We need a Sheldon parent on our site council and will work toward that at our next parent meeting.
    The Eugene IHS staff has been significantly reduced over the years and our staff would like to reduce our teacher representation to four different grade level teachers, two at-large teachers, and our head teacher.
    Site Council approved changing the governance document to include a statement saying we can reduce the number of teachers on site council depending on the size of the staff. The Eugene IHS Site Council will consist of the following for 2011/12 school year:
    Six Eugene IHS teachers

The head teacher

One classified employee
Three administrators
Three parents
Three students
Courtney proposed that we change the number of members necessary for a vote to 12 because the total number of site council members is smaller.

  1. Reports
    Students: We will have the IHS dance again, possibly on March 10 and may limit it to 4J students. They are looking into a new venue. The penny wars may be changed to a competition between grade levels instead of campuses. There will not be a film festival this year, but student government will hold several “movie nights.” If someone wants to make a student film, it may be possible to show the film before the movie.
    Parents: Last year the members worked to redefine the parent group. Only six to ten people show up on any night. Courtney proposes limiting the number of parent meetings and becoming more focused. The parent meetings for this year will be Sept. 27, Nov. 22, Jan. 24, March 20, and May 22.
    Staff: The year began with a retreat at the Blue River Mountain Resort. We proposed to the staff last year that we pay our own way for the retreat, since district money could not be used. We held our retreat August 30 (non-contract day) and August 31. We worked on the selection process for a new head teacher and a proposal to hold only one assembly with all our students together. The principals are supportive. We would like to use $1700 of the Goldman Sachs fund to pay for a speaker, Lou Radja, for the assembly. We approved the proposal for one assembly and use of Goldman Sachs money.
    IB Report: The IB Summit was held at Sheldon High School this year. We met with host school IB teachers and North IB teachers. The new superintendent joined us for this summit.
    Marilyn passed out the IB results from the May 2011 tests and the results were impressive. Special thanks went to language and literature teachers. IB changes in these subjects are extensive and the teachers have been working very hard to implement these changes. A big thank-you went to Marilyn for all her hard work.
  2. Head Teacher Selection Process: We have only had five head teachers in the history of Eugene IHS. With a teacher run school, this is a very important decision. The head teacher term is four years with an option to extend. Governance allows for a special committee for some decisions and this is one of those times. At the retreat, the IHS staff put together the attributes they want in a head teacher, so the head teacher selection committee will have an awareness of what is wanted. Next week the committee will probably meet and reveal the potential candidates. The candidates will express their willingness and the committee will possibly consider a different model. Jessica Schabtach, as her “labor of love,” will be chair of the selection committee. We would like to have a person named by November, but it could take longer. Once the new head teacher is selected, (s)he will work with the current head teacher to learn more about the job. The site council is supportive of this process.
  3. EEF Grants: There is a proposal to apply for an EEF grant for $2200 to rent the Wheeler Pavilion and put on the Eurasian Conference. We usually have more than one grant proposal and it is the job of the site council to rank the proposals. This year we only have one proposal so it will be ranked #1.
    Next Meeting
    Tuesday, October 11, 2011
    Topics: Eugene IHS School Goals, Approval process for junior and senior projects, and the Eugene IHS leadership model