Minutes of Meeting
April 26, 2006

Members Present: Mary Zimmerman, Jack Haggerty, Steve Darden, Sara Grey, Rebecca Height, Paul Marshall, Gloria Faley, Alice Joyce, Firoza Mistry, Phyllis Daniels, Lindsay Visser

Members Absent: Andrew Simpson, Morgan Womble, Karla Eanes

Board Liaison Present: Lisa Stuckey

Others Present: Allison Worthy, Jeff Thomas, Pat Harris, Susan Oliver, Barbara Butler

A meeting of the School Governance Committee of Chapel Hill High School was held on Wednesday, April 26, 2006 at the Media Center of Chapel Hill High School, Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Steve Darden acted as Chair, and called the meeting to order at 6:05.

I. Approval of Minutes of the Previous Meeting (Action)
There was a motion to approve March 22nd meeting minutes. The motion was seconded and consensus was achieved.

II. Public Presentations
Susan Oliver from the English Department and Barbara Butler from the Math Department came to report what their departments are doing to support the SIP.

1. English Department
Susan planned most of her comments to relate to testing. Accountability tests are not welcomed, but the department decided that they need to prepare students for the test (EOC). They are proud of their historically high scores. Last year they had a 95% pass rate. They had the highest scores in the state for writing. The teachers are working incredibly hard. 9th grade teachers have been preparing students all year and will spend the last three weeks of the year on nothing but test prep. The Department has strong goals for students taking the EOC. Goals on the EOC are good goals and the kids need to be prepared.

Comments about the SIP – The SIP includes a description that the Humanities Resource Center (HRC) should be used exclusively as a writing lab. This is not something that the English dept wanted, but was requested by Dr. Hardebeck. This request makes things difficult because many departments use the HRC and it was requested in the SIP for a certified teacher to run it, but there has not been a teacher hired to take Tom Grolle’s place. A teacher in the HRC would be a great addition because the students and computers need more supervision. The HRC serves an important purpose in the school and we would hate to lose this for students. The HRC is used by English, social studies, and even science classes. Seldom is there a time when it is not being used during the school day. The English dept is using the delayed openings to discuss common assessments. Tenth grade teachers are focusing on common writing prompts and the approach of teaching writing. Grades 11 and 12 have worked on the essay for the SAT. All 11th and 12th graders did a practice SAT essay and teachers spent time grading those papers. There were two readers per paper. 12th grade is also collaborating on more definite common assessments in English IV.

2. Math Department
The math department is also focusing on EOCs and has been for many years. They are attempting to close the achievement gap. The department’s scores have always been high and there are many programs to address needs of fragile learners (Algebra I block, Geometry block, math lab). This is the second year for Algebra I Block. They were disappointed in the results of last year’s scores but are more hopeful for this year’s scores. Many students in this class traditionally have a difficult time with standardized tests, so they are working on these skills with the students. Students are taking this test far more seriously now with the EOC requirement that students must pass the test to pass the class. The department is hopeful that this will work to their advantage. Geometry and Algebra II did better than expected last year. There are three new staff members in the dept this year and they are working very well with their students. Teachers are providing tutoring during lunch, before and after school. Mr. Cooper’s students have designed a lunch program to help Geometry and Algebra II students improve their skills. The department works very well together and has always tried to improve their teaching through collaboration. The PLC initiative is nothing new to them. The department also has a calculator loan program. Every child in the school can lease a calculator to use for the entire year. Next year the dept will have enough scientific calculators for each minority student in Geometry to have their own calculator. They are doing common assessments. It was difficult initially with the Pearson testing program. It was a very frustrating process since the program did not work as it was supposed to. The teachers were very patient with this process and are hopeful that the district will work with a different firm to interpret test data. There are four groups that meet during the delayed openings: Algebra I, Algebra I Block, Geometry, and Algebra II. The department also sent every parent whose child is in an EOC math course a letter stating the importance of the next three weeks in preparation for the EOCs along with an exam schedule and a description of the testing policy and the portfolio process. The letter was accompanied by an additional report if the student had a D or F in the class. The department has a math lab that works well and it supports students who have a difficulty in attaining advanced math needed for graduation. The lab is not intended for Algebra I or Geometry students. Initiatives in the 21st century grant program have helped some students who had an F for 3rd quarter to work over a course of 11 sessions to try to bring their grade up from an F to a D.

Phyllis Daniels commented about the amount of time and work that the math program spends with the AVID program.

Jeff Thomas applauded the math department on how closely they function to the model of the Professional Learning Communities (PLCs).

Steve Darden posed the question about the length of the delayed opening for next year. It will be two hours long.

III. Updates
1. Student Update
Spring Fling was cancelled due to Student Government not being able to get this organized to have a successful event. AP exams are coming up quickly. Students are confused about the exam schedule. The men’s JV and Varsity Lacrosse teams are #1 in the state.

Pat Harris added that the exam schedule is on the school’s website. She also added that the Odyssey of the Mind team is going to the World competition.

2. Parent Update
Allison Worthy reported that we received a $1,000 donation from Smith Breeden to give minority students the opportunity to attend summer programs.

Firoza Mistry expressed concerns about the discussion of the grade reporting system – using grades versus S, L, and U on the progress reports as well as reporting the number grade on report cards and transcripts versus just a letter. This concern will be brought up at the next faculty meeting for the teachers to discuss. Then, the SGC can discuss further at the next meeting. Mary offered to put this out in an email for discussion by the faculty to obtain feedback. These concerns will be presented as two different issues, with the progress report grade reporting being the first priority.

3. Faculty Update
Paul Marshall’s students are setting up the mini-golf course on May 25. The students designed and built the course. The money that is raised will be donated to the Ronald Mc Donald house.

The faculty has raised concerns about department heads. Due to the new schedule, they will no longer have an extra planning period. It is difficult to see the reason why someone would volunteer for extra work with no compensation. Pat added that the administration will attempt to give department chairs an extra period, but cannot promise this because they do not know how the schedule will work next year. Mary added that in CTE some teachers (herself included) did not utilize the extra period and instead taught 5 classes. The SIP states that there should be an election every three years. The department can re-elect the same person each cycle. This is a good policy because it gives more teachers the opportunity to take on a leadership role. It is a wonderful opportunity for all teachers to experience.

Paul expressed an additional concern about the new EOC policy and the decrease of time during the last two days for teachers to complete end-of-year cleanup/checklist tasks. Pat responded that teachers have never had two days. They have only had one day. The school is also working hard to ask elective teachers and teachers who do not have EOCs to administer the EOCs. This spreads out the responsibility and does not put all the extra work from the new EOC policy just on the EOC teachers.

Paul also shared a concern that Lead Teachers and Credit Recovery teachers get paid less than hired tutors. Lisa Stuckey brought up the 7 period day additional duty compensation. Teacher tutors who teach for one period will receive $4000. A teacher who teaches an extra class (6 instead of 5) will receive an extra $5000. The board wants this to be an exception. The stipends are not finalized and it is still under discussion.

Rebecca Hite reported that the faculty discussed the 12 step discipline plan and would like to reduce it to 8 steps. They feel that students will take this new policy more seriously. There is a large faculty push to ban iPods completely from the school. They would like students to leave them at home at all times of the day and have faculty reserve the right to take them if seen. Pat commented that teachers also have a responsibility to control this issue in their classroom. She added that this type of policy would have to be across the board and also ban CD players, cell phones, Mp3 players, etc. Lindsey Visser commented that students would not react well to changing the policy about iPods – she added that we would have to take the approach of theft being a big problem as the reason. Mary added that in her class that she does not allow iPods because it is dangerous if they cannot hear her, but can see that in some other classes it may be ok (some cultural arts courses). Steve Darden added that we need to follow the faculty’s direction on this, especially the Assistant Principals because they will have to deal with the discipline.

Another concern for the school is that CEU credits have not been reported for the last two years. This is a big problem because these credits are required to keep teacher licenses updated. Pat can verify that CEU credits earned in house from CHHS have been reported to Lincoln Center.

Mary Zimmerman shared concerns from Loren Hintz. He suggested if students in ISS do not receive work from a teacher that they should have exam review packets available to give students meaningful work. They should not be allowed to listen to music, etc. There are major concerns that ISS is not being run effectively. The second concern he had is with parents helping with landscaping. A number of these opportunities are useful for science teachers. There are a few flower beds placed on campus that are being weeded and mowed that the teachers are trying to use for teaching. Allison Worthy shared that she will communicate with the PTSA Landscape chair about this.

4. Board Update
There needs to be a balance in transferring students between the high schools to keep high school numbers equal and avoiding overcrowding. The School Board is going through the budget and calendar requests. Meal prices will go up $0.15. The Board is also looking into prohibition against retaliation; a measure to protect teachers who report incidents.

Lisa Stuckey will send information on the proposed district budget and teacher stipends. There has been confusion with communication with county commissioners. Lisa will also send a link to Dr. Pedersen’s budget message.

There will be two public hearings at County Commissioner meetings:
5/25 at 7:30 pm Battle Courtroom, Hillsborough
5/30 at 7:30 pm Southern Human Services Building

A proposal was made that the SGC support full funding of the district budget. The PTSA council can speak for us. Steve or Mary is willing to attend the county commissioners meetings and speak for the SGC. Everyone agreed.

Dr. Pedersen wants to empower SGCs and improve performance of these committees. Please be sure to complete the SGC survey and be honest.

5. Principal update:
Jeff Thomas
There was a lot of discussion at the faculty meeting about the 12 step referral policy. This policy was railroaded by Dr. Hardebeck. Jeff finds it a very effective from of discipline from an administrative perspective. He finds that there is a gross inconsistency about teachers enforcing policies and they do not support each other very well. Jeff reviewed the 12 step referral process. It was developed to bring consistency among the administrators. Board policies supersede the 12 step process in regards to fighting and foul language used toward a teacher. Paul suggested using the 12 steps over the course of the students’ career (like the new substance abuse policy). There was a suggestion made to create focus groups to discuss the issue with faculty since our faculty meetings are so large.

At the faculty meeting there was also a presentation about achievement and absenteeism at this point of the year. 21% of our students have multiple Ds and Fs. (124 African American students/55% of African American pop.; 121 White students/14% of white population; 10 Asian students/8% of Asian population; 48 Hispanic students/44% of Hispanic population; 15 Multi-racial students/56% of Multi-racial population; 2 Native American students/100% of Native American population.) One third of the students who are not being successful are not completing homework in their classes (This number came from Robin Bulleri using her Biology classes as the sample). Students need a tangible reward to participate in the 21st Century Grant program. Something that is very concrete. It seems that parents also need to be held accountable. Lisa Stuckey referred back to the school-wide strategy of the Pyramid of Interventions in the PLC model. Pat Harris added that the interventions under PLC occur during the regular school day.

Steve Darden proposed the SGC share how we can positively affect the issues brought before us. Mary suggested that we develop a list of recommendations and a document to present to the faculty or a faculty focus group. Pat suggested Mary speak at faculty meetings to share what the SGC is doing and that we support the faculty.

Paul Marshall asked if the SGC could actually have some issues resolved so that everyone sees that we accomplish goals.

Mary added that there is not good communication between faculty reps and faculty members. The faculty does not understand how the SGC works. People think of us when they have a problem and do not read the minutes regularly.

Firoza suggested that SGC have time at each faculty meeting. There was a consensus among SGC members that the committee is drifting and doesn’t know what exactly the SGC is supposed to do. Who makes the decisions? Where does it go? We need to move on issues that are presented, address them, and then have a follow up on what happened. Mary referred to the Site Based Management Handbook. We are following through on the SIP responsibility and there are many duties that we do not handle for example, approve the school budget and provide a summary to the faculty annually. A suggestion was made to create a “to-do” list at the end of each meeting with who needs to take responsibility to resolve issues at the end of each meeting.