FORUM MINUTES

Tuesday March 9, 2004

PRESENT: Cara Beames, Deb Beck, Tom Dittus, Carol Heller, Dave Eagle, Linda Kissane, Sue Mellon, MaryAnn Gipson, Nick Round, Cathy Stanilka, Nicole Tearno. Absent: Margaret Jones, Patricia Dow

Middle State Update

Dave Eagle gave a brief outline and update on our accreditation by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools. Our next partial review will begin next week and complete review will be in 2008. It is a worthwhile project of self-reflection, which is looked at by an outside group of teachers and administrators who come and evaluate the whole building – facility, teachers, staff, students, curriculum, etc. The process was discussed at a recent heads of department meeting and it was the consensus of the department chairs that it was a worthwhile project. Forum members present agreed.

AIS Lab Presentation

Rosemarie Earl, Director of Counseling and Guidance, was present to give an overview of AIS labs. These are small required classes of "special help" for students in math and English, and sometimes in social studies and foreign language. A list of students who need to be assigned to an AIS lab is composed from the outcome of the 8th grade State ELA test and by recommendations of teachers. AIS labs are mainly for 9th and 10th graders, with special junior high labs set up where they are needed (for instance in foreign language when a student fails his/her 7th grade foreign language class and needs to pass his/her 8th grade State Proficiency). Once a student succeeds in raising their marks, they may be allowed to no longer take the AIS lab. The biggest problem with AIS labs is fitting them into a student’s schedule. Therefore, some students may have to do their lab during an elective class period or during 10th period. Next year’s new 7th grade schedule may help in scheduling junior high students.

Nikki Tearno reported that Student Council is in the process of amending their Constitution. They have a proposal for a point system for attendance, which will make students be more accountable. In addition to attending a large percent of meetings, students will get points for community service, participating on student council committees – a member would need 60 points per semester to remain a member in good standing. Students will be dropped from membership if they do not fulfill their duties as listed in the new amendment. The proposal will be discussed for a month before being voted on and adopted.

From Constituents:

§ Why did we change to a Student of the Quarter recognition? Various reasons: Due to lack of time between months – as some months are rather short due to vacations and holidays, (i.e. September, November, December, February, April); many teachers had a hard time picking a new student each month; others felt there were too many duplications of students getting more than one recognition per month; most schools in the area recognize by quarter rather than monthly and we thought we would try that. If any department wants to have their own "Student of the Month" recognition, they may certainly due that by publicizing on their hallway bulletin boards.

§ A constituent suggestion was made regarding after school monitoring duty: If each faculty member would volunteer to monitor in the cafeteria two or three days out of the year there would be little or no problems 10th period. (A calendar could be set up the first day of school or perhaps monthly).

§ Reminder to keep using the "RAK ‘Em Up!" cards to honor Random Acts of Kindness by students. MaryAnn Gipson has extra cards, if needed.

§ Concern about the number of students being let off the bus before teachers need to be here. The first bus lets students off at 7:25, with two more by 7:30. Faculty does not need to be here until 7:55.