SLV School District Perspectives |
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School Board Meeting Synopsis October 20, 2004 Link To SLVUSD Web site Agendas and Minutes Page (Note: These are PDF files - read this if you have trouble opening them). Minutes are posted after they are approved, usually at the next regular meeting. Note from Laura About These Synopses (Basically, I report on what I think will be most interesting to community residents. Consult the minutes for a more complete listing of what happened in the meeting.) Closed Session Closed session was listed on the agenda as follows: Labor Negotiations Compensation for Represented and Unrepresented Employees (Government Code 54957.6) Public Employees Discipline/Dismissal/Release Report out of closed
session by President Susan Weber included the release of one provisional
employee and one walk-on coach. Community Input There was no general community input at this meeting. Superintendent's Report There has been a request from "Quest" stating they would like to lease a room at Quail Hollow for a preschool program. In order for this to be considered, the Surplus Property Advisory Committee must meet again, as the Quail Hollow building was not previously declared surplus. The Education Foundation has received $32,000 for class size reduction in the elementary schools. Discussions on the best use of this money is being discussed with the elementary school teachers and parents. Ms. Haff will be forming a task force to gather information on possible District reorganization (middle school option, etc.). The District's API scores have improved 57 points overall. NCBI training will take place this week at the high school, led by 13 students who were trained a few months ago. Reports High School Update The last time the high school received accreditation, it was for the maximum of six years. Next year we will be midway through that process, and there will be a "mid-term" WASC visit to make sure the action plan is being carried out. Work is being done to prepare for this. The present priority goals include improving communication processes, raising achievement, and improving career planning and placement. Graduation requirements will probably be increasing. Staff development will be targeted for improvement as well. California Distinguished Schools - The only high schools in the county that qualify to apply this year are Pacific Collegiate and SLV high schools. Part of this is because we have met all target subgroup APIs. For Middle and Jr. High Schools, ours is one of three middle schools in the county qualified to apply. Issue: ESL Students It came up in the discussion that we have a very small number of English as a Second Language students, and the ones we have cover a "couple of dozen" various languages. This means that at this point we don't have enough ESL students for it to be a "subgroup" which much be reported specifically under the No Child Left Behind guidelines. Laurel Wilson of Mountain Community Resources points out that the number of monolingual families in the valley is rapidly expanding, and some families will be hitting the schools soon. Currently, all the information sent home is in English, and there are already a small number of families who can't understand it. A discussion about translating some information into Spanish ensued. Comments from Laura: I left early to go to the SLV Candidate's Forum. It doesn't look like anything very exciting happened in my absence, however. |