Leadership Team Meeting Minutes 10/9/08
October 15, 2008
Galileo Academy of Science & Technology
LEADERSHIP TEAM MEETING
Thursday, October 9, 2008
I. Principal’s Remarks
Vicki called the meeting to order at 10:35am.
–Vicki reminded everyone to turn off their cell phones, stay on focus with the meeting, do not interrupt someone when they are talking and no grading papers.
–We welcome back Zoe from her schoolwork at Stanford.
II. Professional Development
–Zoe thanked Ray and Jessica for the trainings over the past several months.
–Ben will do the Technology training in November. The training will be in 2 one- hour segments and Vicki will conduct the general meeting.
` –We will discuss why technology is a part of our work.
–Zoe said she would like to continue to have a sense of what is going on in the departments and what support each department needs. As we continue working on Strategic Planning for the school, it is important to know where we are and what support is needed.
III. Coaching/Leadership Training
–Jennifer Abrams is going to do a training for us in December and this will be open to the whole Leadership Team. She has a broad range of topics. This training will be on December 4th in the Presidio. The plan is to leave Galileo at the beginning of 4th period, have lunch there and then work during 6th period.
–We will figure out coverage for the 6th period classes.
–If you have areas of training you would like addressed, please let Zoe know.
IV. Strategic Plan Update
–We are getting the full template from the district next week.
V. Focus on Learning Groups
–These groups are for WASC and are composed of faculty, students, staff–the stakeholders in the school. 6-year accreditation.
–We will give everyone a chance to sign up for the groups they want to work on. Zoe will do an on-line spreadsheet for the sign-ups. She explained how it will be done as a google-doc.
–Heather suggested the department heads help their teachers through this process. that the January faculty meeting would be followed by WASC groups.
VI. Focal Students
–Lauren spoke for Nancy. All counselors chose 3 students who need an extra push to get them into honors. Usually they come from under-represented groups in the honors students.
–These students are monitored closely and the counselor works with the students and the teachers.
–Nancy passed out the lists of the students. As we move these students forward we are looking at how the students are valued and how they can feel valued. We want to bring their certain traits out and bring them up to where they should be.
–Zoe asked if they know they are focal students and Nancy said they did not know.
–Nancy gave out a goal sheet and if the students make their goals, then they will be rewarded by their counselor and perhaps recognition at an assembly.
–Zoe said she favors telling the students they are focal students and what that means.
–Nancy said eventually the teachers will know.
VII. Truancy
–Nancy is at a Truancy Module Training.
–Lauren said that this shows all the truant students at Galileo and the computer generates letters to the parents. Eventually the goal is that this system will work well.
–Vicki said we are not the worst school, but there are teachers who take roll and mark a student present when they are not. This is a big problem for the district. This system will identify teachers who are not taking roll properly. We have 2 teachers at Galileo who are offenders. The district loses money in these cases.
–Lauren said that when counselors make a change, the change does not occur until new attendance strips are generated. She explained the situation when this occurs and parents come in and complain, etc.
–All changes to make attendance strips correct have to be done in one day during on hour and this is physically impossible.
–Peter explained that 3 unexcused absences identifies a student as a “truant.” He felt many teachers do not know this.
–Lauren said 60 letters were sent to parents letting them know that their students are truant. Last night and tonight are meetings with these parents and the district attorney, Kamala Harris, was in attendance.
–Vicki felt the Truancy Program and the Discipline Policy are working. She was walking the halls yesterday with Paul Robertson and they found no one walking the halls.
–Nancy said last year we sent out 600 letters to parents of students who had 30 absences/cuts from class. This year we have 148 of those and some of the students have gone to other schools. The current total is 135. Good news considering we have 2000 students. She compared us to the other schools and we are doing very well.
–Please talk to your teachers and have them welcome students when they come back to class and not say some negative comments. Please encourage the students and meet them where they are and welcome them back. Do not let them think they are completely doomed.
–Vicki said in some cases we can offer variable credit.
–Michael asked for a list of the students and which parent came.
–Marti asked about Cyber High. F students can go to night school. Those with D’s cannot, so Cyber High is an option.
–Cyber High is very independent and may not work for those with F’s. We now have 60 students enrolled in Cyber High.
–Michael asked about reviewing citizenship grades with the new policies and Nancy said we can compare with last year.
–Ray suggested sending out the policy again on google docs.
–Discussion followed of U and W for the policy of banning students from the activities for poor citizenship.
VIII. CES
–Peter is the point person to coordinate what they offer to the school. We want to make sure there are no negative impacts on the classroom. Please let him know your successes and your frustrations.
IX. Community Meetings
–Peter has been working with Karin on the upcoming meetings. The first one is in the Mission District next Wednesday. Please give Peter input.
–Zoe reminded the group that all teachers were asked to attend one of the community meetings.
X. CAHSEE-
–Peter has passed out a list of 11th and 12th grade students who are within 10 points of passing.
XI. Cruncher
–Peter has Cruncher outside his office and he will offer training. There is a Cruncher station outside his office and he will help. He was asked if he had a color printer and he is planning on getting one.
–The categories are in color and this helps view the data.
XII. Course Syllabus
–There has been a lot of activity in this area. He went to training with Ben and is anxious to get this up on the web.
–Ray said everyone was turning in a hard copy to him.
–Peter is getting some in print form. We will have future training. Some teachers said they had it on the old web site. Ben felt that it is a good idea to look at your syllabus every few years. Moving it from the old web site to the new web site is a good review.
–Ben will help with the training. He thought doing trainings by department would be good. Peter will come for support to each of these trainings.
XIII. Field Trips Procedure
–Peter said they would be reviewing the field trip form procedure. This will shortly be done on a google calendar that displays each event.
–We have over 200 field trips a year at this school.
Peter mentioned the ELD trainings and one of the goals is to get the tools necessary to help our 500+ ELD students.
XIV. Move Update
–Cor-O-Van will do the moves from the bungalows over the weekend.
–The movers can come on Tuesday if we need them. Let Marilyn know if you need the movers for anything.
–Bettie discussed the parking restrictions from October 14-Nov. 3. We will not be able to park there during the moving of the bungalows.
XV. Technology
–Marti distributed information on school-wide requests for software. She asked everyone to look and see if they received what they requested.
–Vicki said we needed to cut $20,000 from this list.
–Marti asked Vicki if we will be adding another computer lab. Vicki said we will know after Nov. 6th.
–We still have some money from Doug Pipfer we can use.
–George said we probably will not need any PCs. That comes to $7,800.
–Marti said they found 1 printer, so they will need one less.
–Peter reminded those ordering printers to order a cartridge as well as the cartridges that come with the computers are about a third of a cartridge.
–Ben said some people from IT are coming next week to give us pricing on a new switch.
–Marti will give everyone their totals next Tuesday.
–The grand total should be $100,000.
–Marti said that all orders for technology should go through the individual department heads first.
XVI. Lab Scheduling
–George asked everyone to see him, Doug Page or Ben Chun to learn the process for signing up for the lab. Vicki mentioned a slight change in the system.
–Vicki said some times during the year we have to shut the computer labs down due to testing.
–George can do the scheduling but not teaching the teachers how to schedule online.
–Ben said the process for signing up for the computer lab is documented on the helpdesk. Ben and Doug can show teachers how to do it and Peter will also help with this.
–George made out a new order sheet that has some new requirements. He will email it to everyone. He will make a sheet for those who have long lists of orders. The school name is on each page. Also included is page # of how many pages.
–This will be in the form that all can forward to Joni.
–George asked if everyone got their lists of laptops. Please make corrections and give it back to George. This is an inventory.
XVII. Emergency Lesson Plans
–Michael wanted to know a clear plan for the Emergency Lesson Plans. Where will they be stored? Michael discussed the history of where they have been kept.
–He asked for the lessons plans that are already turned in.
–Peter said these plans are for a true emergency and wants 2 weeks worth of plans.
–There are two questions–what are the lesson plans for and where do they go?
–If lesson plans are not available, it falls on the department heads to come up with them.
–Teachers should make sure the old lesson plans are useable.
XVIII. Gate Program Budget & Stats.
–Budget for the gate program is $3,500.
–Five departments will share in this.
–in 2002 we hade 56 GATE students and now we have 620.
–We also have 179 GATE identified in the 9th grade.
–Ray asked about what GATE stands for.
–Karin said we have GATE Spec. Ed students and ELL students.
–Karin passed out for information on how to identify GATE students.
–Vicki will ask the district GATE office for more funds.
–Karin discussed the breakdown in ethnicity of the students.
–Karin will share the list of GATE students with all the teachers.
–Karin will take a group of students to Berkeley and will see a dance performance.
XVIV. PSAT
–Next Wednesday from 8:00am - 12:20pm.
–For those students not taking the PSAT, they do not have to show up until the afternoon. Teachers know if they are giving the exam.
–Homerooms will meet in the football field bleachers.
–For those students taking the test, do not let them leave when they are done with the test. They should bring an SSR book with them for when they finish.
–Hopefully this will help students not be so nervous about taking these tests.
–Taking this test will generate scholarship letters and letters from schools who match their abilities.
-There will be a meeting on 10/14 for the test givers.
–It is mandatory now to test all 10th graders.
XX. Miscellaneous
–Vicki talked about the walk-throughs so we do not miss teachers. There will be spreadsheets so we can monitor the group and not miss any of the teachers. Zoe said we will use a google spreadsheet and please include the dates.
–Vicki was not sure if we should announce that the team is coming or not. –Vicki said there are many teachers who say that we should have a policy about the amount of field trips. Some teachers have only 50% in class when there are field trips. Should we have a policy limiting the number of field trips a student can go on? Think about this.
–Michael asked about a list of which students are working the polls on election day. Daphne says she gets a list sometimes. Vicki said this also affects the attendance. George suggested the list be posted on google-docs.
Meeting adjourned at 12:00 noon.
