Month: May 2011

SAN FRANCISCO UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT

Galileo Academy of Science and Technology

1150 Francisco Street, San Francisco, CA  94109

Room 210 at 3:30 P.M.

Location and Time of Meeting

School Site Council Meeting-April 6, 2011

X  Agenda Attached

X  Attendance/sign-in attached

Present:  Doug Page, Jonathan Ring, David Zeeman, Mele Lau-Smith, Claire Siegel, Diane Lee, Frank Wu, Michelle Zhang, Karin Lau, Katie Pringle

Absent (Excused):  Vicki Pesek, Woodraw Smith, Patrick Delaney, Nicole Torres

X  Minutes of the previous meeting approved

Decision Made/Issues Reviewed

I.  Call to Order

– M. Lau-Smith, chair, called the meeting to order at 3:41 pm.  There were eight elected members present; a quorum was established.

II.  Approval of 3/9/2011 Meeting Minutes

– D. Zeeman moved to approve the 3/9/2011 meeting minutes as presented.  F. Wu seconded and the motion was carried unanimously.

III.  Old Business

1.  WASC Visit Update

– At the wrap up session, the WASC visiting committee had nothing but positive comments about their visit.  Galileo will know the accreditation result in June.

2.  Spring Prelim Budget Update

– The letter to the Board of Education was sent on Thursday, March 24, 2011.  So far, the school or the site council has not received any response. M. Lau-Smith will give the District another week or two and she will send them a reminder.

– The prelim budget was submitted on Thursday, March 24, 2011.  It was in the news that there wouldn’t be a June election; therefore, schools will have to go with their scenario B budget plan.

– The City has set aside some rainy day fund and the District has been a recipient of it for two years in a row.  We don’t know if the District will receive any money from it this year.   If we do, we won’t know the amount until later.

IV.  New Business

1.  Site Selection Committee Questions

– Nominations to be on the site selection committee had gone out and names had been submitted.  On Tuesday, March 29 (over spring break), the nominees held a telephone conference call and the final selections were determined with the results as follows:  K. Pringle, D. Page, J. Ring, B. Grinnell, K. Golata, P. Delaney, A. Wagner, N. Torres, C. Siegel, M. Lau-Smith, F. Wu, M. Zhang.

– The principal interviews will take place on Saturday, April 16, 2011 at 8:30 am at Roosevelt Middle School.

– The interview questions will have input from two sources; the District will have their own specific questions and the site does, too.  A. Wagner had gone to the administrative selection committee training the day before this meeting.  She told the council that on the day of the interviews, each candidate would have a set amount of time (between 30 to 45 minutes) to answer all the questions.  The District would like the site to come up with five site- specific questions.

– M. Lau-Smith passed out the guidelines on how the site’s interview questions should be formulated.  At the end, the site-specific questions should encompass the following concepts:  vision, achievement gap, teaching experiences, professional development, school culture, student interaction, parent involvement, budget issues.  M. Lau-Smith will incorporate all the ideas and suggestions discussed at the meeting and will finalize composing the questions.  She will email the draft questions to the committee members for review and give feedbacks.

2.  Telescope Project

– There are no updates at this juncture.  D. Zeeman admitted that he couldn’t manage the project without any assistance.  K. Pringle hasn’t had the time to pursue it.

3.  Funding Requests to SSC

– Often times, clubs or classes come to the site council meetings to solicit donations.  Unfortunately, the School Site Council doesn’t have its own discretionary fund to grant requests.

The site council would like to formally thank Gayline Tom, the PTSA president, for providing refreshments whenever she comes to these meetings.

C. Siegel moved to adjourn the meeting.  D. Page seconded and the meeting was adjourned at 4:36 pm.

Minutes taken and prepared by Karin Lau