Leadership Team/Department Head Meeting Minutes – February 28, 2013
GALILEO ACADEMY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Leadership Team/Department Heads Meeting
2/28/13
Leadership Team Agenda
Marcus called the meeting to order at 10:40am.
I. Master Schedule Update
–Nancy reminded everyone that course placements are due to her by the end of the school day tomorrow.
–The Counseling Office will be closed every day next week during periods 3 and 4 so the counselors can work on student schedules. Teachers should not be coming to the Counseling Office during those periods.
–Nancy asked for comments and questions.
–David is having some difficulty finishing this project as Ms. Gamm is out this week. Nancy said she would visit her classes.
–Joseph asked if she is looking for class placements or class offerings. She needs both.
–Joseph asked what would happen if there were not enough students to fill up photography. Nancy said the 9th graders have not signed up yet.
II. Early Warning Indicators
–Nancy distributed information from the 10th graders and the 9th graders in this category. She discussed the numbers. She discussed attendance, credits and GPA.
–This is according to the SFUSD, not UC A-G.
–Nancy said there are some students who have no data.
–Donald Harper is working with these students.
–Stan asked if we were going to do more hall sweeps. Marcus said we would try to increase the ones we do. Attendance with these students is an issue.
–The district sends out the truancy letters every 2 weeks. Doug asked if there was action beyond the letters.
–Lauren said the students who want to stay at Galileo improve their attendance.
–Nancy said they have been denying truant students the privilege of getting their driver’s license. They also do assign community service to some.
Katie said 1 in 4 SARBs are helpful.
–Stan says we need to address school climate to get these students back to school. He mentioned how often he hears “bitch,” and the “f-word” constantly in the halls.
–Doug asked if school climate is addressed on the student surveys.
–David said often this language involves terms of endearment.
–Doug said that this is common in all high schools.
–Marcus said he would like to hear from the students. He wants to talk to the students who are not showing up.
III. Budget 2013/2014
–Katie distributed information and said we are looking at a $400,000 loss for next year. We will lose $300,000 out of WSF and $100,000 out of categorical.
–We are losing students. Katie will work with Myong on the categorical funding.
–We are on par with most of the west side schools as far as funding.
–Katie explained the formulas for the categorical funding.
–We are budgeted at 1992 students. In the past we have been budgeted for more students than we have. We will have 132 fewer students next year.
–Michelle asked what the next steps are. The information Katie passed out will go to the SSC as to what we have now.
–Katie said we have not spent anything on tech this year and we will need to do some over all maintenance as well as new equipment.
–Kathleen asked if anyone wanted equipment that goes along with the white boards.
–Katie said that the sequestration will hit school districts in June. This will cut federal funds, including Special Ed. Those services are mandated, so the district will have to take funds from regular ed to cover this.
–Michelle said the school board voted for layoff notices. The budget is due the first week in April.
–Katie has not looked tat AP funding, but Jonathan is working on that.
IV. Traffic Signs on Bay Street
–Katie forwarded an email to everyone concerning this.
–Ray said the speed limit should be posted as 15mph during school hours.
–Doug will do a speed study with his students on Bay Street.
Department Head Agenda
I. English Language Learners
–Marcus wants to look at what will help our ELL students.
–David feels there is little support to do these things properly. The district is asking for lots of things.
–Marcus felt we should choose specifics from the district guidelines.
II. Balanced Store Card
–Marcus distributed this to the group. He also distributed the IOC feedback from last year.
–Marcus went through each item on the BCC. David felt that we need more support in creating content specific language objectives. This should be done at the department level.
–Language objectives are what we need to work on.
–We are not doing GLOS—replaced by Language Objectives. Marcus said we are doing pretty well with 1st and 2nd year teachers with the language objectives.
–Kathleen suggested Department and Cluster CPT for Language Objectives and Brick and Mortar words.
–Cornell Notes are used by many teachers. Kathleen suggested consistency across classes.
Many use templates for the Cornell notes. Marcus asked those with templates to bring them to the next meeting. We will discuss them and put them on a faculty meeting agenda soon.
–David said there are many structures in Cornell notes.
–Marcus said it is important when we decide on school wide activities everyone should follow the plan.
–Sentence Frame—discussion on who uses them. We want to continue working on these.
–Structured Language Practice—Marcus said this was one of the most criticized areas. David said that we are working on it.
–Marcus suggested time next year for individual departments to work on this throughout the year.
Discussion followed concerning department meeting times and cluster meeting times.
–Lisa asked how we can merge the department/cluster times and other topics for the good of the school.
–David mentioned the benefits of having both Wednesdays and Thursdays for certain tasks.
III. Lau Plan
–The Lau Plan is basically a check-off list. He distributed the Lau Plan from last year.
Meeting adjourned at 11:45am.
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