Lori Windels called the meeting to order.
Lynn Blewett, Site Council Secretary took attendance.
Present: Lori Windels, Lynn Blewett-Franken, Sherri Knuth, Michael Wulf, Tom Degree, Cleva Jobe, John Mayock, Ann Oyen, Mary Reis, Jon Zats, John Porter. Absent: Roxanne Hart, Jean Schwabacher, Louis Mariucci.
Voting Privileges: Both Lynn Blewett (alt1) and Mary Reis (alt2) will serve as voting members for this meeting. Jon Zats made a motion to approve the minutes with minor edits, John Mayock seconded the motion and the minutes were approved with minor edits.
Agenda: Lori Windels suggested that we add to the agenda an item: Mr. Sean Huckleby from the St. Paul School District to discuss Site Council process. John Mayock moved to approve the agenda with addition. Jon Zats seconded the motion.
Sean Huckleby Presentation: Sean described his role as working for the district as a consultant but he is not a district employee. He has had many experiences with Site Councils including training for Site Council members and serving on several school Site Councils. The focus of Patricia Harvey is on student achievement.
Site Council Overview: The Principal is accountable for decisions made for the school. The Site Council is advisory to the principal around SCIP, budget decisions, curriculum, and the accountability of student achievement. Some principals use the Site Council for other things, e.g. discipline policy, teacher recruitment, etc…the site council also provides lead on the recruitment of a new Principal in terms of recruitment and interviewing. Again, the primary charge under Harvey is student achievement and accountability and vehicle is to use the SCIP and budget plan to achieve these goals.
Process of Site Council Meetings: This varies by school. Sean recommendations Site Councils should not to get into the minutia of decisions but to use the subcommittees to do this. Think about the Site Council in terms of thirds and operate on a 12-month period.
(Period 1) This should take place in the fall. Focus on whether the school met the goals of outlined by SCHIP from last year and determine this year priorities. What are educational priorities, fundamental foundations of our school that we need to maintain (in the SCIP process) that then allows budget-cutting decisions to be made based on priorities. Or do a business plan….what are the 3-4 items for the upcoming year.
(Period 2) Development of SCIP and the school budget for the next school year.
(Period 3) Work on educating the new members, and working toward new activities in the fall.
District can provide Site Council retreats, training, problem solving etc….The information should be available on the website.
Questions and Answers With Shawn Huckleby:
Q: Mary Reis brought up the issue that the CH Site Council lacked diversity. Is election the only way that Site Council membership can come?
A: This is an issue facing all St. Paul public schools. One school brings in the parent liaison groups representing diverse groups to automatically be part of the Site Council. Other bylaws have been established to appoint members outside of the election process. You can adjust the bylaws to address the unique situation at CH.
Q: Had the Office of Leadership Development to get school Site Councils get together to discuss common issues?
A: Yes. There is a conference every year that brings together Site Councils and the Site Council chairs should be made aware of these opportunities. One day training with break out groups.
Q: What can we talk about and not talk about? e.g. input to the personnel process is this something that can be talked about?
A: Yes you can but need to talk with the Principal and find ways to support decision-making at the school. One of the schools has a Site Council hiring committee that participates in hiring process but the principal has the final decision. Suggests that these conversations happen informally with the Principal as first step.
Q: What happens if you have done the informal coffee approach with the principal and it doesn’t work? What about if there are certain behaviors of faculty that are unacceptable and may affects student achievement? What are options?
A: Make sure that you achieve the end result that you desire without wrecking the relationships with the Principal in the process. Certain labor contracts will govern some of the decisions and processes. The next step would be a low-level approach with the superintendent. . Need to be careful because this is a public meeting. Parent should bring the issue to one of the Site Council chair. Encourage parent to go see the Principal. Site Council member could go with this person to the Principal if needed/wanted. Don’t need to have formal discussions of individual staff members in the public Site Council meeting.
Q: What if these problems grow and the Site Council co-chairs start to hear every problem under the sun. What about overload for the Site Council chairs?
A: There is a lot of work for Site Council co-chairs. It takes time to develop trust with Principal, with co-chairs and it takes time to develop cohesiveness. Training helps and setting goals up front helps.
PRINCIPAL’S REPORT
The Principal was out with a bruised collarbone. Sherri Knuth met with the Principal and maybe we can do some upfront work on the budget before the budget comes out. Louis has not received any budget information from the District. Maybe this could be as part of conference time or elections. For example, could a survey be done that assessed parents input on “if the CH has a cut what are your priorities?” The SCIP committee will work on this. It could also be put in the newsletter as a survey. It would also be good to look at the priorities we set last year.
PARENT COMMENTS
Brenda Bell Brown long time CH parent presented her concern about African American student achievement. CH is not alone in this area…reflected in our schools and our society. 12% of the population of MN, but African American young men are over-represented in failing students and incarcerated youths. Concern about retention and achievement of African American students at Capitol Hill.
Ms. Brown then read a letter that she submitted to the Site Council and to Mr. Mariucci and requested an audit of discipline and achievement of African American students and that budget be put aside to achieve this end. Three primary areas: (1) disciplinary actions, (2) academic and (3) extracurricular performance. Hopefully to improve academic achievement at CH. Has offered her time to help with this process.
Tom Degree said that District already does this. Ms. Brown stated that she is concerned that we have not addressed this issue in the SCIP or in the School.
Mary Reis clarified that there are a high number of African Americans sent to the office. Has also heard that their students are not doing as well and are more severely disciplined.
Michael Wulf commented that these issues are years old and is not a new issue. He applauds Brenda that this needs to be documented and CH needs to be committed to look at the data and address these issues.
Mary Reis commented that CH has a bad reputation in the African American community because of these issues. The point is the budget should be structured to support the achievement of African American students at CH.
SCHIP Report:
No report.
Outreach and Communications
Regrettably the staff member had to resign due to other commitments. Concern about having staff representation. Could the teachers discuss and can someone volunteer to participate. Arcelle Taylor, CH’s Cultural Specialist, volunteered to participate. The School Fair went great and had two booths, one for junior high and one for elementary. Grace Raymond came to last meeting. She stated that SEM specialists at other schools were interested in getting priority for their SEM students at CH.
Louis stated that he would arrange a future staff meeting (possibly April) at MLK. The Committee will also work on list of opportunities for collaborations between CH and MLK.
Membership Committee
Have about 10 candidates that have signed up for Site Council election. The flyers worked and Michael was on the phone to recruit people. Possibly another three people will still sign up.
Tom Degree suggested that we fix the bylaws ahead of time to make sure we get diversity in representation on the Site Council. There was discussion about how to diversity on the Site Council. This includes a discussion of whether we could do this for a regional discussion and increase diversity. Michael responded that he had worked hard to increase the number of candidates running for office. Personally this cannot be done between now and three weeks from now. Feels that they have good representation in general from the phone call recruitment.
Ann raised the issue that the Site Council chairs could recruit and appoint members by Diversity. John Mayock responded that the membership committees worked hard to get people in. We are all here to make CH a better place. John Middleton commented that maybe we need to educate voters and increase diversity and membership.
John Mayock commended the Membership Committee and all the work that they do and that there is just not enough time to get everything done. Lynn Blewett suggested that Diversity be priority and that we recruit one-on-one and uses the appointment process to increase diversity.
Looking for volunteers for the 17/18th and on the 19th during the day.
Lori made the motion to create an ad-hoc committee to draft language to change the bylaws for the purposed of increasing diversity on the site council. Ann seconded the motion. Diversity includes race/ethnicity, gender, geographic area. Passed unanimously.
Reform Committee:
No committee report. But Ann was recruiting for judges for history day.
PTO Report:
Last meeting was canceled due to the snowstorm. Concern about spending $100 spending and only one child showed up. Maybe this was too much money. Maybe we should merge the Jan/Feb PTO be the Town Hall meeting. Could discuss for next year’s meeting.
ANNOUNCMENTS
Thursday, District Budget Presentation at Rondo. It is key to get input in early at this point.
GSAC LIAISON
Meeting is next week.
OLD BUSINESS
- Student Drop Off: Sherri will discuss with Louis on next steps. Was better for a while but compliance has dropped off. Mr. Ford had raised school patrol issues with Mary Reis and teachers will follow up to coordinate his concerns.
NEW BUSINESS
John Porter made a motion to adjourn, John Mayock seconded the motion. The meeting was adjourned.
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