Month: March 2012

GALILEO ACADEMY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Leadership Team/Department Heads Meeting

3/22/12

Marcus called the meeting to order at 10:05am.

I.          Budget

–Katie distributed the most current budget sheet.  This consists of input from this group and the SSC.

–The district is adding to the librarian position and the nurse.  We are cutting .5 para position and .2 clerical.  We are moving .4 from the TSA to ELD.  We are cutting .6 from AVID and moving it to English.  English we are cutting .8, offset by .6 AVID and .2 Journalism. College Career/Health—cut .4, move .2 to Social Studies and only 9^th graders.  PE is cut 1.4., offset by .4 TSA. We are cutting IT prep.  We are cutting .4 from ELD. Math—no change.  Peer Resource no change. Science—additional sections, no ASB prep, $2K stipend, additional students.  Social Studies add .2 from CC/Health.  VAPA—cut.4 fewer students (A-G). World Language–no change.  Yearbook/Journalism combined class.

–We will be keeping drama.

–3.6 % cut in Certificated classroom positions.

–Katie discussed operating costs.  We have a total operating budget of $142,293.00 for the coming year.  Last year we had $263,105 from the WSF.

–We are getting a 6.9% cut, but only a 3.6 certificated classroom cut.  We have an 8.8% cut in classified positions.

–Ethan asked about PE credit for sports.  Next year students will not get credit.  He also asked about the 138 students that have to take PE because they did not pass the content standards.  Marcus mentioned the administration has discussed having an after school program for these students.

–Ben mentioned that some of these students were involved in academies and other programs and relied on sports credit for PE to complete their requirements.

–Marcus said we are out of compliance with this and we are not supposed to do this.

–Ethan has to test these students and if they do not pass, then they have to take PE.

–Those certificated cuts—teachers are entitled to a 1.0 position in the district.

–Ethan asked about ROTC.  There will be 1 position, and we pay .5.  If outside funding happens, then we may have 2 positions.  Leo is working on his PE credential.  We are planning for 150 students in ROTC.

–Ethan asked about enrollment numbers for ROTC in all grades.  He asked if students are arbitrarily placed in ROTC and then they can opt out.

–Katie said a lot of these numbers will change in the fall.

–Ethan talked about the fact that periods 5 and 6 are heavy in PE and the morning classes are lighter.  We need to balance the classes.  1^st period and 6th period classes have the most students.

–Patrick questioned cutting .2 from social studies and cutting 1 .4 from PE.

–Marcus said the PE classes are small.  Ethan said the class size should be 37.  Marcus said 37 is an average number for class sizes.

–Katie said there were cuts all over the place.

–Stan said the members of the SSC refused last night to sign off on the budget.  It was submitted and will have a letter stating objections to being cut this year.  Out of 17 high schools in SF, our funding is 15^th.

–Patrick said the letter is currently being drafted and this group will get a copy of it.

–Marcus said this is not an easy process and he thanked everyone for their input and participation.  He thanked Katie for her hard work.  Jonathan Ring and Mele did an excellent job as well.

II.         Vending Machines

–Katie has been approached by a company to put in vending machines at Galileo stocked with healthy foods.  Wallenberg, Mission and Gateway have them.

–We would get money for them—50-50.

–We can decide where the vending machines are placed.

–Last time we had them they were located in ROTC and kids were cutting classes and hanging out there.

–Joseph mentioned the history of having a Coke machine in the Band Room and all the problems that came with it.

–Ray mentioned that vending machines are quicker than leaving campus.

–Marcus felt that if we do it, we should do it ourselves and keep all the money.

–Ben felt the students should initiate the project.

III.       Student Activity Dates

–Katie emailed this to everyone and she got some appreciation.

–Nancy said April 13^th is Frisco Day for Seniors re: college.

–ASB assembly will be Thursday 4/12.

–Joseph suggested having a regular 1-6 schedule and having a double 4^th or double 6^th.

–Michelle suggested the assembly on Monday prior to STAR testing.  STAR testing always starts on a Tuesday.

–Katie asked if we could do the voting during the periods in the afternoon after the morning STAR tests.  Everyone agreed.

–Assembly is Monday April 16^th for ASB elections.

IV.        Open House

–Counseling Office has sent information out to prospective students saying it is April 25^th.  Incoming 9^th graders have been given this date.

–Joseph wanted to have it the same evening as the Spring Concert.

–Registration for incoming 9^th graders was arbitrarily moved up a week.  Nancy said the notice from the district was late.

–Joseph would like to coordinate these two events in the future.

V.         Staff Appreciation

–Thursday, May 3^rd is the date Gayline is proposing.  It will be the Faculty Meeting time—switched from Wednesday to Thursday.  Wednesday will be for department meetings.

VI.        Master Schedule Update

–Nancy told the group that the counselors are now inputting the information that the teachers have sent.  We should be able to figure out how many sections for each course the week after Spring Break.  They are trying to do some comparison data.

–She mentioned that there will be some blanks in student schedules in the beginning—mostly to show the district we need a lot of help.

–Marcus said we will not double up on science classes to see what we are working with and to show the district the bare bones schedules.

–Nancy said some of the schedules for juniors and seniors would only have 4 classes.  Joseph asked how they could graduate if they could not have a full schedule.

–This is a long process and we will see what the bare bones looks like.  Hopefully the district will release more funds and we can expand.

–9^th graders for the fall are registering now until April 13^th.  The district has put in 532 9^th graders.  That means more money for us as originally we were projected at 450 students.  The counseling office will call those who have not come to register.  They will also do some outreach.  That would mean $4,279.00 per student.  That would mean over $400,000 more money.

–Patrick asked about the demographics.  Tony said 49% Chinese, 25% Latino and all other ethnicities were not higher than 10%.

–The real $$ amount comes after the 10 day count.

–Nancy said there are also upper class students who do not return in the fall.

–Michelle asked about the singleton/doubleton meeting—April 12^th is the target date.

–Lauren will take over Nancy’s position in the Counseling Office while Nancy is on maternity leave and Tony will be helping with the Master Schedule.

VII.      Copy Machines in 307

–Denise talked of an experience she had several weeks ago and she talked about a project where someone copied a book—23 originals, 55 copies.

–Please remind your department members to use the Riso for large volumes.

–The Xerox machine in 307 is broken.

–We are trying to keep students out of copy machines.

–Marcus asked about codes for each person.  Joseph mentioned that teachers would give their codes to their students.

–Large printing jobs can be sent to the district office now, but that won’t happen next year.

–Marti mentioned in the past each department head talked to the teachers in their department who make lots of copies.

–Ben suggested that unattended big jobs be seized and brought to the main office for pick-up.

VIII.     School Safety Concerns

–Denise mentioned that we have no School Crossing Signs by our school.  There

Should be on every corner.  We will put in a work order.

IX.        Star Testing Procedures

–Marti wanted to make sure that everybody knows what they are to do as far as picking up, dropping off, etc.  All ducks should be in a row.  Vicki did it for the last 15 years.  She would like to see everything spelled out way ahead of time.

–Tony did the STAR testing for 2 years at Aptos.  The first faculty meeting after Spring Break we will go over the procedures.

–Tony will try to replicate as much as possible what has been done in the past.

–Our usual substitutes will be on hand to help.

–We will use Room 253 for the headquarters.

–The group asked for the bell schedule for STAR test.

–Denise brought up the fact that teachers who are assigned as support should be ready to relive the regular teachers.

–Marti asked to be somewhat free so she can handle the problems with Math department encounters during the testing.

–Kathleen said it is important for teachers to read the directions, as they are different every year.

–Marti suggested an information session just prior to the STAR testing so everyone has all the information.

–Denise said it is important to follow the script that comes with the test.

–Karin talked about the Chinese Immersion schedule.

–Mat suggested the relief schedule be kept within the department.

–Katie suggested that teachers be assigned as a team to give the test and do a 50-50 job.

IX.        Common Formative Assessments

–Marcus said he hoped everyone was almost done with this. April 23^rd is the target date.  This will be department time.

–Tony said the most recent CLA’s are now in Data Director.

–Ray talked about the problem when the pre-slugged answer sheets are not ready for the students.

Meeting adjourned at 11:30am.

GALILEO ACADEMY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Leadership Team/Department Heads Meeting

3/13/12

A note from Principal Blacksher:

The minutes below reflect our leadership team’s grappling with extraordinary budgetary challenges. All of us – administrators and education staff – are acting with transparency and collaboration. At times, conversations can become difficult. Difficult conversations are sometimes necessary and sometimes useful. However, reported only through meeting minutes, misinterpretations and misrepresentations can occur. I urge you to read carefully, react with patience and understanding, and ask for clarification of anything reported in our minutes. We are all in this together. 

Marcus called the meeting to order at 11:20am.

Nancy reminded the group to turn in spreadsheets by Thursday on where the students chose to go to classes.

–David said he has a separate spreadsheet for each teacher.  Can he put each teacher on a separate sheet?  Nancy said take more time and put them all on one sheet.

Leadership Team

I.          Budget

–Marcus distributed a new budget sheet.  They took supplies away and put in another FTE.  The actual costs are not on the sheet.  The average teacher salary went down and it reflected on this sheet.  We can add back a librarian, no change, the paras, TSA,  and they took out the counselor.

–Avid is cut from 8-5 sections, ELD cut of 1, English cut  2 with one going back in, so a cut of 1, PE, cut of 2, VAPA,

World Language cut .6.  ROTC stays at a .5.

–Patrick asked how the Army will do with 1 ROTC instructor.  Marcus said unless the SSC thinks otherwise, we will do this and probably go back on probation with only 1 instructor.

–Patrick asked if this a proposal or talking points.  Marcus said these are talking points.  The budget is due March 23^rd.

A.         English

–Michele mentioned the 24% of seniors ready for college.  She mentioned the API scores—37% comes from English.  She asked why we would cut this important department.

–Marcus said one of our focuses is on literacy and restoring the librarian meets this.

–Michelle mentioned the larger class sizes will have an impact on learning and the scores.

–Patrick said we have many more electives than other high schools.  He discussed the scores.  He mentioned the size of the Math department and the fact that the lower level class sizes are kept small.

–Katie said Science has an average class size that is higher than both English and Math.

–Many of the elective Math classes bring us money with the AP classes.

–Michelle said Science has larger class sizes as students are allowed to double up and this affects the statistics.

Marti said pre-calculus is being offered throughout the district.  Doubling up is not allowed in Math classes for next year. This affects about 40 students. Marti said there are students that need a 4^th year Math class.

–David said many of our kids are college bound and it is more challenging today to get into college.  Many students come here for what we have to offer to make a difference in special courses we offer.

–Patrick asked if we could handle the number of students who need Health?  We offer it in 9^th now, but some 10^th and 11^th, next year 11^th and 12^th will need to take it.  The 12^th graders will have to take it on cyber high.

–Patrick asked about clerical staffing.  He asked this of Katie.  She said that given Lauren’s remarks at the last meeting this was not considered.  Cutting an hour per clerical position would be a larger reduction than 6.5%.

–Patrick asked if we could continue to look at this in a dollar amount and then decide how much to reduce clerical and IT support personnel.

–Patrick asked about discretionary funds and Marcus said they are still discretionary.  Patrick said at other schools these booster funds from parents are  put into supplies.

–Michelle said she is not comfortable with the Librarian being part of English. Marcus said literacy is one of our priorities.  Literacy should be taught through all the content areas.  The Librarian will work with all departments.

–Kathleen asked if all the teachers from Newcomer have been placed. Marcus was not sure.

–Joseph felt that classroom teachers put in more hours than the counselors.  He said that teachers work on the weekends.  Counselors justified Bounmy for helping them with all the various tasks.  Perhaps the counselors should stay after school to do this work and come in on the weekends.

–Lauren said counselors do not take a prep, they work on the weekends.  Lauren said she stays until 4, 4:30 or 5 and she takes work home for letters of recommendations.

–Stan said the district’s idea about this budget is divisive for the school.  Why can’t we tell the district we won’t accept this and ask them to use their reserve? He said we would tell the district it is unreasonable to take a 7.5% cut when the district has a big pool of money.

–Marcus said he must turn in a budget by March 23rd.

–Patrick said that we need to have our strength of community.  He feels the rainy day fund will be released.  We should cut to the bone on supplies—0 like GWHS has done for the last several years.  The budget will come back to us.

–Patrick said he supports what Bounmy does but we are fat on secretarial staff.  Lincoln has the same amount of clerical as we do.  Washington has the same amount of clerical as Galileo and they have more students.  Patrick would like to see the cuts across the board.

Ethan said PE has 137 students who did not pass the Physical Fitness Exam and they must take PE all 4 years.  We are the only school in the district that gives PE credit for athletics—this is to make sure class sizes are lower.  Now the PE department will not sign off on this. He mentioned ROTC and now it is an elective class while PE is Core curriculum.  Only PE credits can be given for ROTC if the instructor has a PE credential.  He sees class sizes of 55 with only 4 PE teachers.

He also mentioned 9^th and 10^th grade curriculum for PE.  Will the 9^th and 10^th grade classes be combined?

–Marcus said if his figures were right, we might have to add 2 more PE teachers to make sure all students are covered.

–Patrick said we should leave it like it is and then we are OK in the fall.  Ethan is worried that teachers we want would be consolidated and would go elsewhere and not want to come back if more money comes our way.

–Michelle wanted to know about electives in English.  She also asked if they could forgo the electives to reduce class sizes.

–Kathleen is worried about losing competent teachers and picking up teachers who do not speak English well.

Ethan said the administration has done an outstanding job of hiring new teachers that are a good fit for the culture and climate of the school.  He mentioned the test scores, and he also mentioned the Superintendent’s Zone.  We have raised our API scores.  Why are we not being protected?  He felt we should be projected and this should be put to the Central Office.

Karin asked what would happen if we submit a budget that is not balanced.  We have never done it.  Marcus said we have to turning a balanced budget and we cannot protect anyone. We can have a priority list if we get more funds.

–Denise talked about a similar situation that happened last year, although not with as many cuts. We want to teach and to teach well.  Marcus said the administrators do advocate as well.

–Lauren said with AVID they take from the academic middle—2.5-3.3 students.  AVID ups the AP funds with their students.  AA, AI and Pacific Islander are higher percentage in AVID then the general population.

Joseph wanted to know about the cuts—are these based on seniority?  He said VPA has a 1-year requirement.  PE has a 2-year requirement.  How can we meet the requirements with the same number of sections?

–Michelle said if we cut AVID, we should be looking for professional development for English teachers to include those methodologies in their English classes.

Next steps:  UBC meeting after school today, SSC meeting tomorrow.  Marcus is not sure what to do with the PE situation.

–Patrick asked for another version of the “Talking Points” with a change in PE by the end of the day.  The administration said,” Yes.”

–Jessica suggested taking names off comments from the minutes.

–Patrick suggested a header from Marcus at the top of the minutes saying these are challenging times.

Meeting adjourned at 12:15pm.

GALILEO ACADEMY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Leadership Team/Department Heads Meeting

3/9/12

Marcus called the meeting to order at 11:20am.

Leadership Team

I.            Budget

–Marcus said we would give everyone 4 minutes to provide their feedback.  Everyone will be on a timer.  Then we will send Bettie’s notes to the SSC so they can read this.

–Ethan asked for the process.  The Leadership Team’s feedback will be given to the SSC.  Ethan asked if the Leadership Tem would make a presentation to the SSC.  Marcus said the SSC will get the information from these notes.

–Patrick asked if we were taking a vote on our information.  Marcus and Katie indicated they have the budget sheets and the feedback from this Leadership Team meeting.

–Patrick asked if the administration was endorsing this proposal.  The answer is no.  Marcus said they listed all the scenarios on the budget sheets.

–Patrick asked if the Yearbook and Journalism classes would go to after school activities.

–Tony said they cut everything except what students need to graduate—A-G requirements.

–Ben asked if there are some items we could all agree on prior to each department’s thoughts.

–Time reduced to 3 minutes per department.

A.  Math

–Re: counselors—since parents were not aware of this—we have managed without them, so let’s continue this way.  Re:  Journalism and Yearbook—let’s do after school.  Re:  ROTC—if we discontinued this program, could we put them into PE.  Marti said she doesn’t know enough about the politics.

B.  Lauren

–Para—to take away a para would be detrimental to the Counseling Office.; His duties include:  textbook collection/data; testing prep for AP, STAR, EAP, CELDT, CAHSEE (5XS), and all make-up tests.  He does all the cum folders, speaks 3 languages (Cantonese, Lao, Thai), answers the phone, fixes the copy machines does photocopying, helps with registration for incoming families and reclassifications for ELD.  Testing cannot continue in the counseling office if he is cut.  He is willing to take on more duties.

–Counseling cannot make a decision on cutting a para for a college counselor.

–AVID—why is this  program being cut when it is the only program to support students meet the A-G requirements.

–95% of AVID seniors graduate A-G and go to a 4-year college.  50% of senior class goes to a 4-year college .

–AVID 9 does not cost the school additional funds, as they would be taking Health Ed and College and Career. Now they do it on cyber high.  She can cut AVID 10 to one section.

–Lauren’s Case loads would be redesigned if AVID is cut.

C.  World Languages

–Denise said they would like to have a teacher for teaching in the classroom rather than an extra counselor.  They are concerned about testing native speakers.  They are concerned about students testing out.  They do not want to lose teachers.

D.  VPA

–Wants the para position kept on rather than another counselor.

–He wants to support Ethan and PE and have the military stop dominating the situation.  He feels it is a wash whether we keep an ROTC teacher or a PE teacher.  He feels a fully credentialed PE teacher will be better than a special credential for the ROTC teacher.

–In the budget scenarios he does not like all the notes that say “No Change.”  He feels it should be all across the board.  Marcus said that Janet Schulze said that there will be no cuts in administrators.  Joseph felt that everyone should be cut equally.

E.  PE

–Ethan has always supported to ROTC program.  But, with 2 FTE cuts in PE it does not seem right. PE is a core curriculum course and 2 years are required for graduation.  ROTC is now an elective and PE credits are given in an Independent Study Program.  Sports team players also get Independent Study in PE for playing sports.

–His department said that class size would be increased if the Independent Study program was dropped.

–In 2014 a PE credential will be required for ROTC instructors.  We would be saving a temporary position for just 1 year if we keep ROTC.

–Students who do not pass 5 out of 6 content standards must take another year of PE.  This could affect 100-300 students.

F.  Library/UBC

–Patrick asked if the Asst. Superintendent has signed off on any cuts in administrative positions in our school as well as other schools.

–Given across the board 6.5% board cuts—where are they reflected ion non-classified and non –certificated at Galileo in secretaries and tech support?

–Can we look at the allocations and ratios for non-classroom staffing at other schools?

–Katie said we were strongly encouraged to cut clerical.  We are fat compared to other schools.

–Are there any other monies in the school that can be applied to non=personnel?

–Does the administrative team consider credentialing, i.e. people’s jobs when making cuts?

–The superintendent said the cuts would be even across the board—he would like to see this.

–Patrick asked if there were paras doing work outside their content area.  The answer was Bounmy.  Most paras have classroom duties.  This could be a possible problem situation.

–Patrick asked if the administration looked at credentials of all staff to see what switches could be made.  The answer was no.

–If the Library position goes to .4, the library would be open one period a day with one warehouse prep; probably not open at lunch.

G.            Karin

–Cuts should be all across the board.  This is not the right time to add a counselor.

–Karin said her position was being cut .6 and right now she does a full job.  She also does language support and will not be able to do that from the classroom.  We have over 1000Chinese speaking parents.

–She is for reducing the non-classroom expenses.  She thinks we can replenish supply money in the fall if we get more funds.  She does not want to loose good people.

H.  Social Sciences

— Mat said it is asking too much for reducing department budgets for a 1.0 FTE, not knowing where that position would be.  Not a good idea to deplete the department budget to 0 and preserve 1 FTE.

I.            ELD

–Kathleen discussed the Newcomer Pathway and that we have been working on a very good program. The stakes have changed.  We have had changes of personnel.  Students only get credit for 1 year in English for an ELD class at level 5 or above.  Students are coming in at a lower level now.  60% of those ELL who made the A-G came through our program.

–Cutting Drama is a big blow to the department.  It is difficult.  Our teachers are trained now to work on writing and speaking and it is different than other schools.

–About 500 fewer language students who are tested out will not need World Language.

–Dropping the Arts classes is also a big blow.

J.            English

–Michelle said with cuts, any additions do not make sense.  Adding a counselor is not good.

–Cuts should be equitable and there should be a cut across the board including administrators.

–Eliminating electives is a topic.  Her department does not have the luxury of offering electives.   24% of students are not college ready in English according to the EAP.  We need to have more support classes in English for our school.  The proposal cuts 5sections from English.  Other departments do not have cuts.  Yesterday she pointed out that English is the only subject that requires 4 years.

–She would propose eliminating AVID and have those teachers teach English.

–Cuts in the library would also be cuts in computer lab time.

K.            Ben

–With computer science bumped up to 4 classes, you must consider that a teacher can only have 3preps.  We might build a program that we can’t support with teachers.

–There is a period that is set-aside for Information Technology—we do need to have this support to keep our wireless system up and running.

L.  Science

–David said Science supports not adding a counselor.  Not appropriate. The classroom is already receiving a big hit.

–Yearbook and Journalism should be after school programs.

–Priority should be to maintain our teaching staff.  If we lose current staff, we lose all our training and that is a huge hit.  We do not want to have the giant turn over like other schools have.

–ROTC—he has a hard time supporting this program.  Lots of students love it.  Money is a wash.  Our PE teachers do a lot for the school besides teaching classes—like sponsoring clubs, etc.

–Supplies—we do need a minimum amount. We should run on bare bones next year.  Maybe parents and teachers can add in a little more.  Saving a position should be a big priority.

–Patrick asked if there were any discretionary funds.  Marcus will think about this.

Consensus Items

–We should not add an additional counselor.  Marcus asked if this was true for everyone and it is.

–Move Yearbook and Journalism to an after school program—Marcus said it will be difficult to recruit students.  Michelle said students will want to do this if they want to have a yearbook.

–With Futurama, if 8 students want to do an activity they will fund it.  Joseph said there is a core of students who want to do the program.

–The principal supports keeping ROTC.  The rest of the group did not.

–Patrick said that the cuts should be equitable across the board—6.5%, except for what the district does.

–Marcus said we do need to keep program need in mind.

–Patrick said we should address paras, IT tech and secretaries, and if we make cuts there how much of FTE can we fund?

–Kathleen talked about the lower salaries of the paras and all the slack they pick up at a lower cost.

Marcus asked if everyone felt we should cut Classified 6.5 across the board.  The group said No.

–Ben asked if we should cut a secretary.  David said there should be some way to make the cuts equitable.

–If we approve for Bounmy to stay where he is? Patrick said the contract might be an issue.  Patrick will see if there will be a grievance filed.  He also mentioned grievances in the future such as Health Ed credit for cyber high, and PE credit through Independent Study.

–Marti said absolutely teachers are #1 and running a school involves the cost of doing business.  She said if there is a secretary eliminated, we must think about who is leaving and what skills they have.  Without these supports in place there are problems.

Is it a district wide policy there will be no administrative cuts?

Can monies in the school that are in slush funds or discretionary funds in the school to be used for such things as science equipment?

–If we leave operating costs at the 2%, we can have 1.0 FTE saved.  Everyone agreed.  Journalism and Yearbook are a .4.  Katie will confirm with Futurama about funding those two activities.

–Ethan suggested the administration revise their proposal and bring it back to the group.

We will meet again on Tuesday, March 13^th at 4^th period.

Meeting adjourned at 12:20pm.