Department Chair Meeting (4/12/04)

New ideas:

1.Nate Johnson suggested that we create a forum for new concerns to be addressed.  A lengthy discussion followed, some of the ideas that came out of the discussion were the following:

¾    The need to have a manner in which to express new concerns (informal complaints) that does not take away from regular meeting time.

¾    The need for teachers to be heard and the expectations of teachers and students clearly understood.

¾    Possible Sequence

1. Dept. Chair E-mail
2. Dept. Chair Meeting (filter)
3. Faculty Meeting
4. Put in writing in a designated box in the office.

¾    Various Destinations for concerns once filtered:

1. Committee
2. Administrators
3. Faculty meeting
4. Back to originator

Miguel Appleman made a motion to ratify this procedure and move on. The motion was seconded.

2.Miguel Appleman suggested that we look for ways to advocate for/ implement easy improvements to the campus/ work environment without addressing specific concerns.

Miguel made a motion to make the agenda for next meeting to approve tutorial.  Motion was voted on and approved.

Next time:

¾    Faculty Concerns

¾    Improve tutorial

¾    Improving performance of all students-break it down to be user friendly.

¾    Reprioritize list of old concerns.

Old List of Concerns

1. Establish goals for the school
2. Draft a presentation for the 3/27/4 Board study session on the 9/10 Academic Core Proposal
3. Work totally off the list generated by the staff on s.d. day, supplemented by our concerns
4. Help all students meet standards
5. Better ways of bringing all students up to grade level.
6. We should target Latino and Pacific Islanders not meeting the UC requirement, especially.
7. Alternatives for non-UC bound students (Academic core, non-UC students shouldn’t feel less )
8. Usage of tutorial time (maybe subject-specific)
9. Examine Student Study Team process
10. Examine block-scheduling and the support provided
11. Standardized, school-wide system of note-taking and organizing.
12. Make sure we can discuss, protect, promote electives
13. Find ways to facilitate teacher-parent communication with Spanish speakers
14. Examine what is good enough
15. Examine weighting of grades(should a C+ mean the same thing as a C-)
16. Little teacher issues and greasing the wheels such as copy machine