Eugene IHS Site Council Notes
Tuesday, November 9, 2010, 4:00-5:00 p.m.
South Eugene High School, Room 538
Convener: Janell Schoellhorn (Churchill Sophomore’s parent)
Recorder: Becca Eddy
First: Voted to Approv October and September Minutes
Student Government Updates: t-shirt sales, IHS dance planning, upcoming penny wars-end of November
Parent updates: study abroad fair debrief, ideas: improve flow, rectangular tables were better than round tables, people behind tables were monopolized by one or two people, decided on agenda for rest of year for cultural events for parents, street musicians record one song, many interested parents attended
Site Council: Small staff this year, teachers should make up half of stakeholders, difficult to ask small staff to be a part of site council, this year lessen the number of staff reps on site council then next year make it 50% again
Staff: International Study Abroad Fair: October 21, 2010 about 19 or 20 organizations, in South cafeteria, night of big football game, good turn out; 150-175 kids, gave out extra credit forms, good feedback from vendors, parents were very helpful
Staff: Travel Scholarship: Third year giving a travel scholarship, November 19th, 2010 applications due, last year one student, year before was given to two students, to use to study abroad or any international trip with or without IHS, opportunity for students who otherwise couldn’t attend, lets students who want to make a difference in the world get out in the world, need to send out more flyers, applications online and at the IHS offices
Added Minutes by Rebecca Hammons: Art Sale: Sell art for any amount for charity; this year money goes to Project Our Turn, to child soldiers in Uganda, need to encourage participation/donations and attendance December 9th, 2010
4J Site Council Orientation: Interesting, chance for members to talk about process, duties, effectiveness, importance, etc. Site Council reviews bylaws yearly, has elections to select parents and students. Organized agendas, peek at school improvement plan each year, share data from time to time (yearly updates): recruit and retain students, create annual work plan. Courtney passed out Site Council materials: Building Blocks of a Successful Site Council.
TAG Information: Students with identified learning needs, observe school identity, serve a wide variety of students, currently out of compliance with state requirements, need more info gathering first, but the reality is that if TAG students are in classroom parents can request a TAG plan, by law required to create TAG plans for TAG identified students. Usually TAG plans are a formality as IHS already does many of the definitions for Modification/Differentiation.
The Whatever Committee: Whatever will we do next year?
Budget Shortfalls: Need to preserve programs in years to come, Superintendent George Russell submitted his recommendations last Wednesday to the board, final recommendations should be in within a month, board decides in January. IHS: what will we do in terms of class size etc.?
Survey for the Future: Need opinions/to consider all options, nothing is set in stone right now, “There’s a lot we don’t know.”
Survey Notes:
-½ day in IHS, ½ in host school, sensitive topics better with cohort groups
-What’s being taught, what students come away with
-Ready for IB
-Can we do what we do with 46 students in the classroom (or more)?
-Does it work for every kid?
-Are we preserving curriculum? Extra classes: fourth class, projects came in its place in 1992-1993
-.6 to head teacher Full Time Equivalent (FTE, 1 teacher=1 FTE, teach 5 classes and is responsible for projects), team leaders .2 release time (this happens no longer)
-Different way to fund that etc.
-Free up FTE by allowing students to take electives
-Possibly eliminate projects or have teacher teach .4 FTE in classroom and then take on projects or have two people take on projects, one junior coordinator and one senior coordinator.
Discussion:
Alternative Schools can’t get more money but are we getting less than host schools? We pay schools back some money-now it’s more streamlined.
We don’t want to get stuck arguing over money we don’t have.
Could shift FTE to immersion classes (Spanish) who lost classes such as history in Spanish last year.
Other students not in IHS take IB classes? Not right now, no not if not enrolled in IHS.
Right now we deliver more credit then we are required to. Student needs 24 credits, we provide 16, so more than half.
Social studies and Lit teachers at host schools would be upset about having IHS students in their classes.
Social studies teachers would need to teach Literature as well.
All students deserve rigor of our classes. IB candidates would need to take classes for full IB diploma.
Students can focus more on other classes with one less class.
Cut TOK for non full diploma students in order to save FTE and distribute it elsewhere.
Survey sent out via email.
Figure out a way to preserve Immersion programs. (Spanish especially as French has more money.)
Closed Meeting.