School Community Council Meeting March 19, 2009
School: Creekview Elementary
Facilitator: Joan Atwood
Date: March 19, 2009
Time: 3:00 p.m.
Location: Faculty Room
Those in Attendance: Kari Moynier, Gina Gagon, Laura Norton, Joan Atwood, Hope Manzanares, and Terrie Cox
Agenda:
Welcome: Joan
Read and approve of minutes of last meeting: January 15, 2009 Meeting was then postponed to March awaiting the Legislature’s Budget Meetings.
Notes were then approved by Joan Atwood and Seconded by Laura Norton
New Business and Discussion:
Title 1 update from Joan. Joan defined Title 1, gave the group of the Interventions, PLC Meetings and Input from teaches, Aides, etc. all for the benefit of the students of our school.
Discussion of Trustlands Monies:
a. Expenditures to give parents in next newsletter.
b. Continuing to offer the DVD to all members of the council for viewing.
c. Discussion of compliance of “Checklist to Assure Compliance with the Law” for the School Community Council as dated June 2007.
d. Prioritize expenditures for next year were discussed. Joan reminded us of what this money has been earmarked for in the past and it was mentioned that she would like to see as much of the Salaries and Benefits that go to our Gifted and Talented Teacher (Bambi Erramouspe) and Our Music Specialist (Vila Jewkes) be kept as much as possible. The board was reminded that with Mrs. Erramouspe’s expertise that when Gifted and Talented students are pulled into her program this allowing teachers to work with smaller groups in their classrooms taking care of the various students in grades 3-6. Mrs. Jewkes’s expertise pulls full classrooms into her music room for 30 minutes per week thus allowing teachers time to work on DIBELS, one on one tutoring, or small group work that also benefits students. In the past $500.00 has been earmarked for Mrs. Jewkes to attend Conference Training that allows her ongoing professional development that keeps our students current on music skills. Supplies also come from this funding to allow for Meet the Masters. It was stated that the supplies needed to keep this program supplied can possibly come from the School’s General Fund. Kari Asked that if monies weren’t available from the General Fund could parents be contacted to provide money or supply donations. Joan reminded the group that the School Districts’ policy does not allow us to ask parents for donations. Technology is pretty much up to date with Mini Labs in Grades 4-6, use of two fully supplied Computer Labs (that is accessed by the complete school), and Grades K-2 having Leap Pads (to benefit those classrooms with individual skills practice).
e. The Reading Specialist it was noted was paid ½ by District and ½ by each school’s funding sources. It was unclear that the time of this meeting what funding would look like for this coming year. Gina raised the question of when will more be known about Title 1 Funding. We were told that more information will be known about Title 1 Funding for our school after next month and will be reported when known. Funding at this time means that funding for some programs are uncertain.
f. It was brought up during this meeting that Fourth Grade teachers expressed the need of additional help for their students, the school took on the task of enlisting 6th Grade Cross Aged Peer Tutors to be trained on a Program called “Rhymes and Times” that Karen Sanderson, a very dedicated Para Professional was spearheading to train the 6th Graders to enable them to tutor. Training has been afterschool in the computer lab and will be used soon to benefit Fourth Grade Students.
g. Laura asked about Field Trips and funding for such. We were not sure about PTA and how they could help with funding for Field Trips at this time. Joan did bring up the fact that the PTA was asking for donations from parents to put together themed baskets with books and other materials to be donated by parents. The proceeds from the basket sales have been earmarked to go to paying for Success Maker’s Program site license.
h. The question was asked at the last meeting about what could be done to improve Science Scores on Core Testing. Joan looked in to a variety of options. It was proposed that we could either go with 2 Science Site Licenses that would be used on the computer lab network or a library of CD Roms that could be shared and used within the building by teachers. Hope said that she has been able to find some wonderful sites that were free of charge for teachers to use on line. Hope was asked to talk to teachers regarding needs and subject matter that they could use that was core approved. Joan suggested a few options for license that we could look into. Joan was on line with a free trial of BrainPop and found that this would benefit our students with Science Core Objectives as well as other main core subjects. As a group we have talked about finding materials that would benefit our students and in this economic times, give us “more bang for our buck.”
i. Kari being our Group President was giving information regarding the “John Huntsman Excellence in Education Awards.” She will be asking for input of names for this award. The group mentioned the names of at least 4-5 names that come from within our school’s rank and file. More names will be forthcoming.
j. Joan asked for volunteers to help with Ballots for next year’s School Community Council vacancies.
Laura said that she would find information of parents who would like to be involved. Kari said that she would like to help with getting Ballots out to parents. Terrie and Kari and others named later will be in charge of tallying ballots. Laura is working on blurbs that will tell possible candidates of their responsibilities, concerns, questions, etc. It was decided that the information will go out at the end of the month of March so that Ballots will be out and results were tallied so that the election results can be reported at May Meeting.
k. Gina asked due to RIF letters being disbursed in Emery County on the day of our meeting, what was the impact on our school as far as our District’s Reduction in Force. Joan reported that at this time, no one was affected in our building.
Joan asked if there was any other business that needed to come before the board. No other issues were discussed. Hope moved that the meeting be closed. Gina seconded the closing of this day’s meeting. Meeting adjourned at 3:55 p.m. | 