Leadership Team Meeting Minutes 10/23/08
October 23, 2008
Galileo Academy of Science & Technology
LEADERSHIP TEAM MEETING
Thursday, October 23, 2008
I. Principal’s Remarks
Vicki called the meeting to order at 10:35am.
–Vicki congratulated Lauren Choi-Dea on her recent marriage. Everyone is glad she is back.
II. School Tours
–Karin told the group that the tours will begin next Friday and they usually last an hour. The information she presents is during the first hour and the second hour is the tour. If you have something you would like to showcase let her know. Fridays during 3° she will be visiting classrooms.
–Vicki mentioned that we will not be able to show the library as it is being reconfigured. After the ADA inspection we will be able to use the library. This will be sometime after Thanksgiving. She told about the new lab, the books, and the new furniture.
–Joseph mentioned that if anyone interested in music, the 3rd period is the joint band and orchestra period.
–Lauren said that rooms with the white boards in use would be good to visit.
–Zoe suggested they visit Wellness.
–Vicki mentioned the High School Fair is on Nov. 8th at the Concourse. Vicki is collecting exhibits for this event. She mentioned to George that we will need brochures produced. We can use tri-fold poster boards. Vicki has some that are out dated and some the teachers have taken back. Time will be 9am - 2:30. ASB Officers will be there helping. There are no seats for parents to sit and listen. Vicki invited all teaches to contribute to the exhibits. The parents do love handouts. We will need 300 brochures for the High School Fair and 200 for the school tours.
–Discussion followed about how to use some sort of projector to display info. We can set up the night before.
–Karin asked for stats from each department that she can mention in her presentations on the school tours.
–Vicki asked for a copy of this as well to use at the High School Fair.
–Ben said there is a location on our website for prospective students and he would like to post this sort of information there.
–Send Karin any impressive information about your department. Get this to her by next Wednesday 10/29/08.
III. Meal Program/Applications
–Karin said the district wants every family to fill out this application. We have 55% of our students eligible, but 45% not eligible. We need to encourage our students to send in the applications.
–Lauren said that her cousin goes to GWHS and students do not get their schedules until the lunch application is turned in.
–Lunch forms are delivered to the school near the end of August.
–Zoe suggested holding the report cards.
–Marilyn said some students are sneaky to get lunch without filling out the form.
–The first 6 weeks lunch was free for everyone.
–Some schools have taken application forms that are simply signed, “Not interested,”
–Denise suggested contacting the homeroom teachers. Karin said that had been done.
–Marilyn suggested posting signs.
–Zoe suggested attaching the lunch form to the citizenship form.
–Marilyn said 75% of the kids were eating lunch before the forms and now it is down to 50% or less.
IV. GATE Program Budget
–Karin asked for orders from the 5 departments that can receive her funds.
V. ELD Training
–He mentioned that the training is going well and they will be posting a resource and reference zone in the ELD office.
VI. Essential Skills & Knowledge
–From the training they realize that in many areas the students do not have the vocabulary and so the rest of the material goes over their heads.
–Be sure that the essential vocabulary is imbedded in your work.
VII. Design Academy & Other Visits
–We have lots of groups that want to visit Galileo. Peter mentioned his day in Sacramento yesterday and he heard much about Galileo and lots of folks from the state are looking at Galileo as how to reform high schools across the state. We need to continue to build on these programs. Peter will look at getting more resources.
–Peter gave Vicki some brochures and has some other material.
VIII. Cruncher Access
–Peter mentioned the Cruncher is available outside his office, is color-coded and a printer is available.
–George mentioned that the printer is expensive and do not print brochures on this printer.
–Marti said she likes to give all math students a print out of their standardized tests and would like to print them.
–Kathleen does that with all of her students and they discuss the scores.
–Michael said some of the math teachers were helping him with the PC tablets.
IX. Community Meeting
–This meeting will be in Chinatown tonight. It will be at Jean Parker Elementary School, 840 Broadway. Everyone is welcome to attend.
–We made over 200 phone calls in Chinese to invite parents to attend. A mailer was also sent this time. There was not a big turn out at the last meeting in the Mission.
–We can look at the low attendance as the school not having many problems. We do want to encourage families to show up to have a conversation with us.
–Michael asked about some of our teachers who have low gpa’s for failing so many students. Vicki said Nancy is evaluating two of those teachers. Zoe said this is being followed up.
–Michael says something is wrong if a student shows up to class every day and still gets an F.
–Zoe pointed out that we did not call anyone for the meeting in the Mission. We cannot assume silence means there are no problems. We need to continue reaching out to our community equitably.
–Vicki said Olivia Barrera, Nate Holmes and Patrick O’Brien attended and they did have a good discussion with the administration.
–Zoe said families came last year and there were phone calls.
–Ray asked if we have fewer Latino students this year. Zoe said we have planned a number of meetings in the Sunset and the Richmond to accommodate our Asian families.
–We no longer have a Parent Liaison. Last year she called many in the Spanish language.
–Susan said the phone calls affected the amount of parents present at the attendance assemblies. Susan stressed that the calling is important, both the students and the teachers.
X. Technology Staff Development Nov. 4
–This faculty meeting will be devoted to Technology. He distributed information for the members to take to their department meetings next week.
–There will be 2 separate sessions, which will include regular faculty business. Then the teachers will go to 2 separate workshops.
–Ben asked everyone to treat this professional development as a conference. Teachers need directed encouragement to get the most out of the sessions. Please follow up in later department meetings to have teachers share what they learned. Prepare your teachers to learn something they are interested in.
–Ben will be emailing everyone to see what individuals want.
–Peter suggested having sign-up sheets to find out what the interest is in specific areas.
–Ben will collect feedback on the workshops.
XI. Report from CUE Conference
–Marti reported on the CUE Conference. She went to the Innovative Learning Conference and reported that they did not put technology in it. The focus now is on content. They discussed teachers who do not use technology. The solution was to give them a digital camera to use. Some conferences do not offer information on using the technology in the classroom.
–She said the focus was do activities on content the teacher is good in and then add the technology.
XII. Technology Budget
–Marti distributed new copies of the Technology Budget.
–Kathleen asked what the difference is between an Interactive White Board and a Mimeo. Marti explained the difference.
–Marti said there is still time for change. The material she distributed is a draft.
–Joni is keeping tract of what has been spent by each department.
–Marti explained each page of her documents.
–Michael asked if we are still OK or do we need to cut from the budget.
–Ethan asked about requests. Marti said to let her know what you need.
–Ethan needs a sound system for the fitness lab.
–If any department sees something they can eliminate, then let Marti know.
–Marti had one suggestion of cutting a bit from each department for supplies.
–Nancy brought up a point about batteries for the laptop Dells. She felt we needed to increase the amount for the replacement batteries. Many have reported that the batteries are going out. The batteries are about $200 each.
–Marti suggested that we might be able to use Doug Pfifer’s money in emergencies in the spring.
–Peter asked if there is a target date for purchases. He said that there is a good possibility that we might have a mid-year freeze on our funds. We should do our purchases by November 14th. George will handle the orders.
XIII. Syllabus for Students
–Susan is concerned that the At Risk students have a hard time getting the assignments. She is requesting that the students be given a syllabus for due dates of assignments, test dates, etc. She is concerned that if this information is only written on the board, the students might not write the information down.
–If this is in writing, it is easy to show the parents when they come for conferences, complaints, etc.
–This could be called an Assignment Log.
–The At Risk students miss class, come to class late, do not write the assignments down, etc.
–Denise asked for a list of students Susan works with in the At Risk category.
–Kathleen talked about the Assignment Log she uses and how it works.
–Peter said he is encouraging all teachers to post their syllabus on the Internet.
–Ray said that most of the Department Heads are giving out the information and at some point the students do have to do the work.
–Susan is asking for the assignments and the due dates for these students, which she thinks will benefit all students.
–Discussion followed on the importance of posting the information on the web and then Susan can print out the information for her students.
–Michael said that we need to work with the kids to get them to the stage where they can use their planners, etc. Do they still have their planners?
–Peter said we need to figure out a plan to success for those students who have been gone and come back to school.
–Heather said that the syllabus changes as our daily schedules change, but the Assignment Log can be direct to the dates.
XIV. Miscellaneous
–Vicki welcomed Ben Borrelli back. He will be teaching 2 classes and helping in some classes.
–Nancy reported there were 95 students with 3 or more U’s for Citizenship. We think that some teachers forgot to give the U. Please remind your teachers to pay attention to the policy. Those who got no U’s will be rewarded.
–Nancy said the CELT is finally over and we tested 99%.
–The PSAT went well and the students took it seriously. She has a list of students who took the test. We were able to accommodate everyone who wanted to take it.
–Daphne requested the Citizenship Policy be posted on the website.
–Marilyn wants to know if anything is not done in the rooms. The contractors are checking on these. Cameras are being checked. We are buying bulletin boards and they will be mounted soon. Then students will only be allowed to put posters on the bulletin boards.
–Denise asked about missing light switches, etc. Email Marilyn Hubbard.
–Denise said it was confusing having the Youth Vote done during G-House TV.
Meeting adjourned at 12:10pm.
