Minutes of Meeting
November 27, 2006

Members Present: Jack Haggerty, Karla Eanes, Sara Grey, Allison Worthy, Kathleen Weeks, Kathryn Eriksen, Ray Thomas, Mary Passannante, Susan Lindholm, Alice Joyce, Phyllis Daniels, Armeen Mistry.

Members Absent: Lisa Stuckey, Susan Oliver, Tara Lassiter

I. Approval of October 25 Minutes- motion to approve by Kathleen Weeks.

II. Public presentations – none.

III. Review SGC Elections for 2007-08 Academic Year
Allison – due by February. Mary Zimmerman requests the co-chairs be elected at the end of the current year, to be ready for the next year, i.e., parent and faculty co-chairs. The elections of student reps remain vague. Jack will write an email to SGA clarifying the student rep issue.

IV. Vacancy for Family Specialist/ Minority Advocate Position.
Karla: The question has arisen as to how we got to this point of urgency? A lot of it ties into the fact that what happens here, impacts Carrboro High School. Another piece is because the family specialist position went to a minority advocate position via the SGC, so we need this meeting tonight before the CHHS faculty meets on Wednesday of this week.
The allotment for a family specialist goes from one to two once the school is over the enrollment number of 1501. The allotment for 4 administrators is once enrollment is over 1751. My concern is the influx of new students that we will receive next year.
When you look at the numbers, we get 2 family specialists and 3 APs. When I look at the reality, and I look at the whole safety/supervision piece; my concern is with this influx of students and the whole mindset of things, particularly at the beginning of the year – students that are new to our school – I’m really concerned about the instability of our school.
Kathleen – do we really have this position to play with? Steve Scroggs says we’ll only have around 1300 kids…....general discussion.
Kathleen – it seems to be that last year and this year, there has been a roller coaster, everyone new…….next year, transition with teachers and students….we need some continuity. I would toss out that the administrative continuity would be a large factor.
Karla: For the remainder of this year and next, if the decision is to have a 4th AP, then everybody stays put. In ’08-09, one of those 4 will move to CHS, then that position will become a family specialist position. If the decision is made to have a Family Specialist position, then in Feb. one of our APs will leave to go to CHS, and we would have 3 APs in 07-08. The only other piece is what we do right now with the vacant position. The counseling department is lobbying for someone to be in the position.
Sara: There will be a transition period for the students coming from East.
Jack: I do think your point is good, but we all want the person hired to do a good job.
Karla: I think there is one thing we could comfortably make a decision on --- what will happen for the rest of this year. Is that person a minority advocate or a family specialist?
Mary: the job title? I would assume a family specialist could be a minority advocate, what is the reason for a difference in job title?
Karla: can’t answer that – the minority advocate was hired to make connections with parents and families – so that parents feel more comfortable interacting with the school. I really don’t see this as a difference. – the waiver was for the minority position.
Allison: if we vote for the 4th AP, and the “new” family specialist leaves at the end of the year, then we don’t really hire a family specialist until 08-09.
Jack: so what we’re voting for is that we recommend hiring a 2nd “family minority specialist”, or we vote to maintain the 4th AP as well in 07-08. Are we ready to vote?
Jack…ok, the vote is either:
1. for 2007 – 3 APs, 2 family specialists (7 SGC members vote yes.)
2. Or, for 2007 – 4 APs, 1 Family Specialist (4 SGC members vote yes.)

Kathleen: I make a motion that you hire a Family Specialist. Seconded.
Karla: let me play devils advocate, do you want to remove a position entitled Minority Advocate?
Allison: we are clear that the family specialist would fill the role of the minority advocate.
Jack: there is a motion on the floor to return this position to Family Specialist. Passed.

V. Default Diploma.
Sara: there is nothing really that the SGC can do about this.
Karla: it has been recommended that the SGC write a letter to the state board about the value of this proposal.
Mary: I think they’re trying to align with other states, i.e. New York. This is predictable to fail.
Jack: Sara and I will write this letter to the state school board.

VI. Student Update.
Armeen: The blood drive went very well, except for the fire alarm…..burned popcorn.

VII. Parent Update.
Kathleen: I had a parent ask about the locker situation in the D Bldg, does everyone have a locker?
Sara: No. Over 200 students don’t have a locker. A lot of seniors don’t want a locker, and a lot of students share a locker.
Kathleen: Who would he go to for a locker? Mrs. Whitehead.
Kathleen: The exam schedule? Serena Fenton sent that out today in email newsletter. Is Wednesday a half day? At this point, the buses will not run until the end of the day, but Karla will ask Dr. Pedersen for a bus run. What about kids with study hall, do they need to come to the exam time? Can we get Wilson Diaz to put the exam schedule on the website?
Allison: we still have the concern about the EOC grading; do we have anything from the curriculum committee?
Karla: the impact was 50/50 yes and no……I will pull that data and send it to you. Allison: We’re also not clear on who are the lead EOC teachers, they did not agree. Also, apparently, Susan Oliver was going to talk to us about that. (She is at the HS Reform meeting tonight.) How did they determine that this score impacted their grade? Jack: we’re looking at info from Lincoln Center (Sherri Martin) and waiting for info from Susan Oliver.
Karla, there was a meeting where all the lead teachers talked about this and they were to share concerns, and then a few months later, everyone voted to do this different type scoring. So now the confusion stems from teachers asking why. I’m thinking that the bigger issue is that parents did not know and students did not know.
Allison: the parents concern is that the grade is involved.
Kathleen: you’re asking the test to do something that it wasn’t designed to do.

VIII. PTSA Update.
Allison: we haven’t had a meeting since October, its holiday plant sale time.

IX. Faculty Update.
The next faculty meeting is this coming Wednesday, November 29.

X. School Board Update. None

XI. Principal Update
Karla: we are interviewing for a new counselor. The other thing that we are going to be talking about is that we will undergo Southern Association Accreditation this year, April 19 and 20th.
Soon it will be time for us to talk about budget. I met with Ruby Pittman today; we’ll sit down and talk about prioritizing the needs, particular the capitol piece of the budget.
Jack: is block scheduling beginning to sort out?
Karla: We’re looking at getting our data manager some training on how to sort this out; the message we had is that we need to block something, usually CTE courses.
Allison: so we’re not looking at a lot of classes being blocked.
Karla: no, not at this point. We’ve done the seven period day. We met with the consultant of High Five – he operates a seven period day w/ a lot of flexibility built into the day. This gives us time to see what happens this year.
Mary: in the newspaper, there were a couple of sports stories, transfers to East for basketball and then back to CHHS for cross country, and another student, same thing. What’s with that?
Jack: School Improvement Plan meeting that we attended - kudos to Karla for defending the SIP that she wasn’t even here to write. It seemed more pro forma to me.

Next meeting: January 24, 2007

Adjourned: 7:43 PM

Barbara Smith