Seawell Elementary

School Governance Committee

Agenda

December 2nd, 2003

6:00-8:00 PM

Media Center


6:00	Welcome
6:15	Approval of Agenda
6:20	Approval of Minutes from Previous Meeting
6:25	Principal's Report
6:30	Public Comment
6:35	Old Business Discussion of 5th Grade End of Year Educational Field Trip Possibilities Implementation of School Improvement Plan Budget Traffic Issues Should we request a cap on school enrollment - our capacity is 496 and we are at 514 There are several apartment complexes being built in the area and Seawell is about to be flooded
7:40	New Business Summary of SGC Chairs & Superintendent meeting (see below) Review District Calendar proposals Discussion of 4 commissioner proposals Draft Proposal (see below) See www.4schools.us for the 4 commissioner proposals Should we ask Steve Scroggs to come to the January SGC meeting and talk about budget? Maybe Seawell needs a facilities advocate volunteer
8:00	Set Agenda for Next Meeting
8:10	Adjourn

Susan Pegg was quoted in Schools Deal with the 'December Dilemma'

Notes from SGC chair meeting last week. These are my best attempt at notes and I am not a court reporter, so please don't quote anyone from my notes.

Neil indicated that SGCs should be focused first and foremost on student achievement. There should be routine reports on SIP progress, AYP, and NCLB.
Other schools ask parents if they want to be put on the mailing list when they fill out the personal info forms at the beginning of the year. Some of the schools have over 500 parents on the list (particularly middle and high school where flyers never make it to the parents). I suggested that Seawell could email our database of parents once or twice and let parents opt-in to a email list and everyone agreed that it would be a good way to get a list going this year. Schedule changes and flyers could be emailed to the list. The list subscribers would be kept private and only one or two people would be able to send out on the list.
We reviewed the District Priorities for 2003-4
How much latitude do SGCs have to shift resources to make up for lost 2nd grade assistants?
- Neil indicated that the state is lowering class sizes and using that to justify discontinuing TA funding. It is likley that less TAs will be funded at other grade levels in the coming years. Of course, the class sizes are reduced by TWO students in many elementary grades and that seems to me to be a bad tradeoff for a single TA. Seems to me that if you reduced the class size by 10 students, then you could remove a TA, but for 2? The state cut the TA line in the budget and mandated an additional "cut it where you want" $600K reduction.
It was concluded that the district needs a consistent policy by school level on use of cell phone, audio devices,etc. The current policy is very dated and doesn't indicate when cell phones may be used or talk about etiquette. Nor does it keep expensive mp3 players and other devices out of schools to minimize theft and administrator time dealing with theft.
Seawell needs to be put on budget email list so that we can make sure capital requests are in before January deadline. Ruby Pittman is budget chair.
- chccs was trying to be a good citizen and lower request to BOCC, but that seems to have backfired into the BOCC thinking the schools don't need anymore. (and my take - some OCS people have interpreted that as "CHCCS got what they requested and OCS did not)
- Older facilities are not being proactively maintained, so there is a very wide disparity between facility quality of new vs. old schools. FPG presented some of their concerns at the meeting. They hired a building inspector to point out safety concerns, such as faulty HVAC equipment, etc. The district only has the funds to handle safety issues at this point in time.
  - I think that Seawell should be well served to have an air quality inspection.
QUESTION: Does Seawell have anyone on the curriculum advisory committee? dbowling@... is contact.
There was much discussion on whether the September SGC day should be Saturdays or 1 to 2 weeknights and whether orientation should be combined with that meeting. I will send whatever feedback SGC members have to Neil for consideration.
Mark todo - get cir. advisory list from Susan Pegg
Mark todo - see if Superintendent's Recommended Budget is online. Print 20th day report. See if we can find capital plan for Seawell.

Position Proposal for Consideration by the Seawell SGC regarding BOCC Proposals

Submitted By Mark Peters

The Seawell Elementary SGC commends the commissioners for hearing the concerns of their constituents and for creating proposals which address these concerns. The SGC has the following input regarding the November 11^th, 2003 BOCC Proposals.

We support the idea of a task force to find the most effective ways for the two systems to cooperate. However, we are concerned that the goals and boundaries of the task force have not yet been defined sufficiently for us to agree or disagree to this approach.

We support the efforts to begin closing the funding inequity gap, particularly as Mrs. Gordon has proposed.

We believe that school district central offices should be centrally located the the respective constituencies and not housed in a central facility. Therefore, we oppose Mr. Jacobs proposal for a single central office. Likewise, pre-K facilities should be located in facilities throughout the county and not in a single location.

We oppose Mr. Carey’s recommendation that a vote on merger occur in February 2004.

We would like to request that all commissioner candidates put their position on merger on the public record or in a notarized letter prior to the May primary election.