Minutes of Meeting
March 23, 2006

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

Members Absent: Lindsay Visser

Board Liaison Present: Lisa Stuckey

Others Present: Quinn Silcox (recorder), Allison Worthy

A meeting of the School Governance Committee of Chapel Hill High School was held on Wednesday, March 23, 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 February 22nd meeting minutes. The motion was seconded and consensus was achieved.

II. Public Presentations
There were no public presentations.

III. Updates
1. Student Update
The students are not going to be able to have Culture Fest/Spring Fling due to security problems.
2. Parent Update
The AP open house was very helpful. Parents were able to see teachers and find out more about classes and what class loads would be like. Lisa wanted to congratulate CHHS for doing this open house. The board has wanted schools to provide a way to get useful information to parents about classes.
3. Faculty Update
There have been a few emails from faculty members about concerns about the 7-period day. They are eager to hear more information about stipends and how study halls will fall into place. They would like more information about structure. A schedule was distributed.

There are concerns about seniors not passing their senior math class and under the new requirements it is very difficult. It has been an emotional experience as graduation draws near.

The counselors did registration at the middle schools. After spring break counselors will go to all English classes and distribute materials. When counselors meet with parents and students they tell students if there is a disconnect between what a teacher recommends and what a parent wants they are encouraged to call their counselor.

Mary Gray-Leonard and Kristin Hemstra are leaving the faculty.
4. Board Update
Geographically things are falling into place quite nicely for the new high school. The consensus of the board is in favor of the delayed opening. The board is trying to decide whether to increase the delayed opening from 1 ½ hours to 2 hours. Teachers really supported the 2 hour option. Parents have also been very supportive of the delayed opening.

The board approved a lot of capital improvements to older schools. FPG and Phillips received most of the money for improvements.

The board is going to request an increase of 4-5,000,000 from the county commissioners. If the state follows Gov. Easley teacher increases of 5 % each year for 3 years it will cost the district 2,000,000 each year. The 5% pay raise will come from state positions, but local positions and stipends need to be paid for from the district.

The board followed their attorney’s advice to balance performance based on test scores instead of race.

There is pressure to move forward with Elementary #10 because building cannot commence if the schools are too far over capacity.

Why is the school going to switch to 7 period for just a year and then go to the hybrid schedule? The hybrid schedule is based on a 7 period day. The board decided it was too long to have students wait for the benefits and more flexible schedule that come from a 7 period day. The board and Dr. Pedersen thought it would be too big of a burden to implement the EOC requirements and adapt to a completely different teaching schedule all in one year.

4. Principal update:
Academy of Information Technology and Finance also had an open house that was very well attended and successful.

Ms. Eanes had a blood clot in her lung. She sounded 100% better today than she did Monday. It has been very painful, but she is doing better. She might be able to come home from the hospital on Friday. She asked that Mr. Cook (the 21st century person and Sherlock to come to reviews for students that have U’s and L’s on their progress reports. They are doing another round of reviews and requesting that these students attend reviews. Senior academy is going well. It has helped a lot of seniors. Unfortunately Mr. Cook will leave the end of April due to being called up to serve in the military. The new Assistant Principal Ms. Cherry will be here the Monday after spring break. Ms. Young is also a new Assistant Principal.

IV. SIP Update from the Science departments
There have been so many outside mandates for improving EOC test scores. The department has been meeting to make sure that all curriculums align. The different subject areas plan together and give common assessments. One thing that they have found is that it is difficult to analyze the data from the common assessments. They have also been focusing a lot on portfolios and which items they will use to determine if a student has shown competency in the subject. Teachers are wondering how many students will need portfolios. The department is also focusing on the EOC. They are tentatively planning how reviews are going to be done.

Each discipline will pick their own specifics as to what will be in the portfolio. For example, Chemistry chose 11 different assignments/assessments that they are filing for each student.

When the department gets together they are mostly discussing testing and haven’t spent as much time as they would like on best practices. The department is doing what they have been asked to do like focusing on testing and portfolios.

Gloria: The hope of the instructional committee was that all students could benefit from discussing and implementing best practices.

One hour once a month is set aside for discussing best practices. The department meets more regularly, but it is not to discuss best practices.

It is very frustrating and it is hard not to let testing get in the way of education.

Gloria: Review is a very critical piece for all students. What is being done?

In years past the department has felt that more review in the classroom has been helpful. More review squeezes out some labs and extra things, but in order to improve test scores the department is reviewing more.

Gloria: At the beginning of the year it would be helpful for the department to get together and identify what would be most helpful in how to best spend collaborative time.

V. Exam Policy:
Dr. Pedersen decided that 2 exams per day was a better option. It is going to be very difficult to get the tests back and let students know who needs to come to review sessions on Thursday. EOC teachers will take care of their own EOC students. Teachers will most likely teach one or two EOC review sessions, but not 3. Administrators will have to schedule each student’s reviews. The administration will try to work out all the kinks before testing. Students that would be coming to the review sessions are students that passed the class, but failed the EOC. The EOC counts for 25% of their grade. There is no way to get data back as to what areas a student struggled on. Hopefully the small numbers and teachers knowing their students will guide teachers as to what they should review.

Teachers could use Thursday and Friday to review with Non-EOC test takers so they might be able to pass their classes
.
VI. Calendars for next school year
The board is asking for input on the 3 different calendar schedules. The main difference is the placement of spring break.

Rebecca didn’t like option B because of the way it broke up spring break. She prefers the quarter to end before spring break. She also prefers a longer second semester so students have a bit longer to get in their work for the semester. The impression of the SGC faculty members was that most faculty members supported calendar A.

Lisa asked if teachers would rather have school Jan 2nd and have a day off in April. The teachers liked that idea.

The SGC strongly recommends schedule A. There was a motion to recommend calendar A to the school board. The motion was seconded and consensus was achieved. There was also a suggestion to move the January 2nd holiday to a day in April.

VII. Implementation of the 7-period day
There is a plan for the 7 period day and the district is continuing to revise the plan. What is currently available is a very general implantation plan that does not include many specifics. The plan is a work in progress and teachers are starting to feel anxious. Faculty members are hoping to get firm information from the district and school administrators. There are global issues like stipends. East offers peer tutoring where CHHS does not offer that. The administration needs more data like how many students want to take study hall. As students sign up for their courses for the next year it will guide what courses need to be provided for the coming year. It has been frustrating for administrators not to be able to OK different elective courses because students have yet to sign up for classes. Once the administration gets this data they can address more global issues. The school has been given money for 4 new teachers for next year, but one teaching position could be 2 teacher aides or as teacher stipends.

Dr. Pedersen said “4 teachers” but if teacher positions are being traded for a certain amount of money, the school would like the money of an experienced teacher rather than an inexperienced teacher that does not get paid nearly as much.

Mary would love a copy of the registration material to see what students are seeing. A copy of the course offerings is available in the counseling center.

Students do not get credit for study hall. There is a study for success class that teaches different study skills that would be for credit, but an opportunity for students to take a study hall will not be taken for credit.

Middle schools are trying to identify students who would really benefit from a study hall. Counselors are approaching those students.

Morgan: A lot of what has been discussed depends on what students would like. By the next meeting the school should have a better idea about numbers. It would be beneficial to address this topic at the next meeting.

VIII. Concerns about the grading policy—Susan Lindholm’s letter
Susan Lindholm’s wanted to know how to change the grading system to include plusses and minuses. The district cannot change the 7 point scale, but the school can have plusses or minuses or use the actual percentage. Schools can request to try a new grading schedule.

If the school wanted more information they could invite Sherri to present information to the SGC. East has gone to the using letter grades on progress reports and parents have felt that it is much more helpful. Firoza would like to pursue the issue of using letter grades on progress reports.

Firoza expressed that she would like to continue the discussion of the grading policy. Gloria thought is would be very beneficial to have percentages as well. She believes it would relieve a lot of stress for students because it would show that a student got a high B with a 92. There are a high proportion of cutters—students that cut themselves as a form of anxiety release. Students are very stressed about grades, and some believe that adding the percentage would help alleviate stress.

Morgan believes that starting in the 9th grade there is a lot of unnecessary pressure to take AP classes.

The SGC would like to have Sherri come and address the faculty and then address the SGC. CHHS could submit a change and East would not need to do it as well.

Changing Progress Reports would be a school decision and not a district one.

IX. Concerns about the discipline policy—Heidi Perry’s letter
After rereading Ms. Perry’s letter, Mary believed that as an SGC the committee missed the point. Her point was that if a student committed a non-academic offense should the student be punished by taking them out of class. In Mary’s opinion, ISS is not a very effective learning environment. On the 12 step system the same crime could merit completely different punishments depending on where a student is on the discipline scale. The school needs to look at different ways to punish students

Many issues need to be looked at. Why ISS is so unstructured. Why are there not silent study carols so it is more conducive to learning.

This year ISS is a zoo. How the room is set up needs to be changed. The former person who ran ISS was excellent, but he wasn’t paid enough. ISS needs to be an issue for the SGC.

X. PTA Positions
The PTA council has adopted some positions. The PTSA has already approved the positions, but Alison wanted to invite the SGC to make a stand of support as well. These positions are:

Reduce class size in the early grades.
Support full funding for a teacher assistant in each class for grades k-3 and a half-time assistant in grades 4-5.
Oppose any diversion of education funding.
Any lottery revenue should be considered as excess.
Support increased state funding to improve school’s operating budget.
Support not taxing schools for new school construction
Support full funding for budget requests by the school board.

The PTA voted on each item and approved them. Allison invited the SGC to add their support. SGC members wanted more time to review the positions and a vote will be taken next meeting.