In attendance

Leadership Team Minutes 8/30/04

In attendance

Jacquie, Rich, Cynthia, Til, Miguel (Recorder), Ron, Nate (Facilitator), Michele, Amy, Cece, Martin, Joyce.

Last names available on request.

Summary of Actions:

We discussed agenda items for the year for the school leadership team. The results were as follows:

Next time

Topic: School calendar; discussion focused around early start, finals before Winter Break model.

Duration: One meeting, unless a product to work toward is found.

Facilitator: Martin

Recorder: Nate

Goal: increase our awareness of calendar process, decide if we want to sponsor a schoolwide discussion on the topic

Product: Plan for schoolwide discussion, if appropriate.

Time After

Topic: (1) Examine schedule and tutorial or (2) Examine and Respond to Academic Core, as determined by discussion next meeting.

More Detailed Minutes:

Nate presented two documents, the brainstorm list from the staff devo day of last year, and a distilled brainstorm list from the end of the last school year. He asked for us to look them over and think about what our priorities are.

Discussion of Priorities for department chair meeting

Nate: We did produce a few things last year that brought two issues (Tutorial Pass and semester rebuild) to a faculty vote. Even though both failed, this is progress toward addressing the intangible feeling of not being heard. Keep this as a goal for us: producing things that we can take back to the faculty for votes. PRODUCE! No discussion without products! None!

Suggestions

Miguel: Argue that we should examine schedule and tutorial. How radical are we looking at? We could be looking at extremes as far do we keep the block.

Joyce: Make sure we can discuss, protect, promote electives

Martin: Examine and respond to the academic core. Examine the impact, how it affects electives, how students are doing (linked to alternatives for non-UC bound students).

Michele: Alternatives for non-UC bound students (Academic core, non-UC students shouldn’t feel less )

Amy: Undocumented students and their motivation; we have more of those students than we think

Cece: Facilitating parent teacher communication in Spanish

Michele: Effective use of tutorial

Nate: Funds for materials (donations, technology (Amy: everything’s breaking)

Martin: Teacher voices heard.

Michele: Standardized, school-wide system of note-taking and organizing.

Martin: Examining D grade

Martin: Examining +/- grade weighting

Martin: School calendar: when is winter break?

Nate: Rank these; what to do first? What is doable? What will make a product? What is the staff interested in?

Martin: What’s not going to happen? Jacquie: there are things that are district items and there are things that are negotiated.

Til: We owe it to the parents to reexamine what we’ve done with the schedule.

Amy: Undocumented students is not the same as impact of core

Cece: Non-UC alternatives; kids are shortchanged by not being exposed to trades

Martin: School calendar. We could get early notice. Time sensitive.

Joyce: Soluble things? Subcommittees working on more than one thing at once.

Jacquie: School calendar, weighted GPA, +/-, D grade are all district discussions. Could come up with positions on these subjects.
Martin: Effective use of tutorials.

Nate: examine schedule and tutuorial would take care of a lot; the academic core lump would take care of a lot more.

Cece: lunch meetings for the calendar; other people have to vote on it

Nate: School calendar first priority, schedule second, Academic core third

Miguel: School calendar OK, but the time on it should be capped at one meeting. Do we have any business discussing it?

Jacquie: It would be good to get Daria, Val and Allison in on this discussion. How close was the vote?

Jacquie: Board angle: Semester ends at Winter Break. I probably have a calendar.

Joyce: Ask department member; more input than response.

Nate: Goal: increase awareness of calendar process, Product:

Summing up Again: