Leadership Team/Department Heads Meeting Minutes – April 29, 2014
GALILEO ACADEMY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Leadership Team/Department Heads Meeting
4/29/14
Marcus called the meeting to order at 11:25am.
Leadership Team Agenda
I. Bell Schedule Vote
–Marcus asked Michelle if her department has another proposal for a bell schedule.
–Michelle asked on the longer block days could there be longer passing periods and longer lunch times?
–Doug said having different passing periods on different days would be a nightmare.
–Michelle said on block days there is not enough time for teachers to use the restroom.
English says Proposal A, but would like to keep the schedule that we have now.
Math says Proposal A.
Wellness said A with more time for lunch.
PE didn’t have a preference. No TVs with PE so 300 kids would not see G-House. They would have access to G-House TV with homeroom.
Sped. Ed. Old Schedule feeling A was overwhelming.
Soc. Studies favored A, but liked the STAR schedule. Blocks more often.
World Languages—no one wanted to vote. They wanted to know what the process is. Some members felt that more should be involved in the decision, like parents, SSC, etc. 6 of her teachers really liked to block schedule. Some liked blocks 4 days a week. 4th period prep is 20 minutes longer—an equity issue.
–Someone in the department said it didn’t work last time we eliminated homeroom.
Reluctantly chose A.
Science—could not talk to dept. No vote.
ELL-reluctantly A, but they want to keep the same schedule as now. They wanted an all faculty vote.
–Marcus said we would not change bell schedules for 3 years. It will be Schedule A and the administration would talk about passing periods.
II. Master Schedule
–Nancy said we are working on it and thanked everyone for being available.
III. New 8th Grade Students
–Marcus said he received an email from Jen Fong. She said they are maxed out for 8th grade newcomers at the middle schools. They will come to Galileo and spend the month of May here and then be 9th graders in the fall. Most of these students are behind in Math. Doug said that we do not have any math content that they will match up with. He feels that there will be disruption in classes with these students coming in. He felt we do not have the curriculum to keep them engaged.
–David said this is like babysitting. Nancy said most of the students who have come so far are Latin. These students have not had consistent schooling anywhere. Some of them are fleeing from countries with political problems.
Legally we have enroll the students. She mentioned that many of them are 17.
–We have enrolled 4 so far.
–We have space and there is only a few weeks left in the school year. This would save the transition from middle school to high school.
–Michelle asked if they would under enroll the middle schools next year.
–Marcus said we have 72 newcomers now and we will max out at 100. Hopefully then the district will have to open another newcomer pathway at another school.
–Alicia said that we need to make them feel comfortable, safe and welcome.
–Doug talked about educating these students—our classes are beyond their level and this will affect our students.
–Marcus suggested creating a power list for Math and have these students translate this list. David said this might put a bad taste in their mouths for what school really is.
–Alicia said we need someone to translate what school is, the purpose of them being here for the last 4 weeks of the year, etc.
–Nancy asked about variable credit for newcomers who came for the last 9 weeks and last 6 weeks of the semester. 3 credits for 9 weeks and 2 credits for 6 weeks.
This applies to new high school students.
–Ray said the problem with variable credits is this doesn’t work into our system. He said that the students have to take the whole class over again. Ray suggested elective credit and Nancy said we cannot do that.
–David said he sees this as giving them something other than an F. Students will still have to take the class over. Jo said they have to be enrolled and take certain classes. She felt that no credit was not fair as they come to school.
–Nancy said she could give a No Mark.
–Nancy enters the credits in. She can give the NM after the teachers submit the grades.
–Lisa said for those who have been here for a period of time, some credit and a grade is important and feels better than NM and 0 credit. This is acknowledgement for the students.
–Marcus asked Nancy to put this in writing and get it back to the group.
–Marcus said we have to make sure we have all the languages to help these newcomers.
IV. Miscellaneous
Meeting adjourned at 11:55am.
