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Date 10/20/04:

Attendees:  David Williams, Franz Hill, Jami Arnst, Antione Hoyt, Evelyn Shephard, Jill Bailer, Ada Dolphus, Patricia Conway, Kendal Bailey, Diana de la Rosa, Shannon Williams, Curtis Williams and Sheila Newel 

Old business: Reading of last month's minutes by Ms. E. Shephard.  Ms. Arnst motioned the minutes be approved, Dr. Bailer seconded the motion, there was a vote and the minutes were approved. 

New business:
SDMC training:  (Diana de la Rosa)
The state is mandating SDMC training for all SDMC members.  Training will be scheduled during next month's meeting.

Enrichment programs: (David Williams)
Mr. D. Williams suggested the enrichment programs move to after school hours.  It is conflicting with planning time. Ms. de la Rosa responded that because of senate bill 1108,  the state requires all at risk students to have a teacher advocate (a degreed adult) and all secondary students to have a personal graduation plan.  HISD requires all students to have a teacher advocate.  Therefore having enrichment at the time we have it will give the teacher advocates the opportunity complete the personal graduation plan.  Advocate training will occur in one month.

Ms. Conway suggested going back to a non-block, Ms. Newel suggested talking to other schools, Dr. Bailer advocated keeping block scheduling and that we get two math teachers per cluster.  Ms. de la Rosa will consider this option next year.  Ms. S. Williams favored two math teachers collaborating to keep the kids for 45 minutes each and trading without bells (like the enrichment teachers are doing this year).  Mr. Hoyt suggested that we may be able to free teachers time by meeting with the teachers twice a month and not every week, and conducting other communications via email.  Ms. de la Rosa suggested writing waivers next year for early release days or parent conference days and some early morning planning session option for teachers (with refreshments purchased by the school).  Ms. Bailey agreed with these options.

Courtesy committee update - (Ms. Dolphus and Ms. Conway)
The courtesy committee has collected about $450.00 so far.  Ms. de la Rosa suggested that a member drive was needed to get more teacher involvement.   

Teacher retention survey - (Mr.  Antoine Hoyt)
Mr. Hoyt contacted commercial firms to find out the cost of performing  teacher surveys.  They quoted a price of $1.75 - $2.75 per person.  He forwarded this information to the other sdmc members.  It was suggested that we take last springs survey and modify it.  Mr. Hoyt suggested that the sdmc give him perspective questions and he would compile them.  He also stated that he consulted with some friends who told him the questions needed to be asked 2-3 different ways.  They also helped him write some sample questions.  Ms. De la rosa suggested that we use the sample questions as a starting point for our survey.  Ms. Kendal bailey suggested a online survey website who would give us the results and calculations and that we need to ask those persons currently attending graduate level research classes to help with writing (refrasing) the question on the survey.  Mr. Hoyt will send an email to ask the graduate level research class attendees (teachers at jane long) to facilitate the writing of the survey questions.

Curriculum monitoring - (Mr. Antoine Hoyt)
Mr. Hoyt stated that teacher came to him and felt that the walk-throughs by one of our administrative staff members and four members of the district was being used as a teacher assessment tool.  The teachers names were on the walk through forms,  five people were visiting at one time, and after the visit the teachers received critiques on their instruction.  The teachers wanted to know if the critiques required them to make the suggested changes.  Ms. de la Rosa stated the curriculum calibration walk-throughs have not yet begun because of a computer glitch.  These walk through occurred last year and are not associated with the curriculum calibration walk throughs.  The feedback was blind copied and no one knew who the critiques were directed to, and it was just a list of positive feedback and suggestions made by the five individuals that came to the teachers room.  These suggestions were made after the five individuals debriefed.  These walk-throughs are not a part of teacher assessment.  Mr. Hoyt suggested that Ms. de la Rosa send an email to clarify this information.  Ms. de la Rosa agreed to send a broadcast email to clarify the purpose of the walk-throughs to the teachers. 

Open forum:
Ms. E. Shephard stated that there were to many classroom disruptions via the all call and p. A. Systems during instructional time.  Examples were : calling for the wrong teacher in the wrong classroom, calling for students to pick up keys from the main office and calling for attendance folders 2 times or more during the same class period (when the folder had already been picked up).  Ms. Arnst suggested that the office staff also needed training on procedures and job descriptions so they can know how to better direct the parents to the correct individuals. This would take some of the parents to the correct individual instead of going to the teachers for things teachers do not handle.  Ms. de la Rosa stated she would meet with the office staff and discuss that non emergency p.a disruptions are against district policy.

Ms. E. Shephard motioned the meeting be adjourned. Ms. Arnst seconded the motion and the meeting was adjourned.