New PTSO Members

Susan Liucci was introduced and welcomed as the one of the new parent members. Marybeth Tenne is the other new parent member, but was unable to attend.

The benefits and reasons for schools to file for Middle States Accreditation were discussed. Schools assess their own facility, curriculum, staffing, along with other areas. With this assessment, schools become more aware of their own curriculum, facility, assets, community, transportation and/or positive climate (includes all areas of our school). At the same time this self-awareness helps individuals/departments to plan for the future, suggesting updates, checking values, supporting changes. We need people to start thinking about volunteering for committees. We still need a chairperson for the steering committee along with two or three others to act on the steering committee. Each staff member will act on two committees – the first – their own department committee plus another of his/her own choosing (when possible). The steering committee will begin in the fall of 2007 going over the last report to highlight areas of consideration. The full process must be completed by the fall of 2008. We also need to select a site for our banquet for fall 2008.

GOAL: Student Achievement:

Add to Objective: Select Chairperson and steering committee Spring 2007

Add to Strategies

Dave Eagle will present information to faculty at November faculty meeting.

Have teacher(s) and chairperson do a visitation 2006-2007 school year.

Begin getting materials to staff about what to expect, with a timeline & information on process. Spring 2007

Seek parent involvement Spring 2007

Put information in newsletter December 2006

 

Dave reported that a speaker from Tech Valley will present to 11^th and 12^th grade students on December 11 in a panel discussion with local employers and Dr. Stoothoff as moderator. We will need to get 11^th and 12^th grade English and Social Studies teachers involved to help prepare students for questions.

Dave reported on pending legislation on mentorship. The law says anyone who volunteers to mentor must be finger-printed and a background check must be run on the person before the mentorship may be started. This would include business people who have CEIP students and/or science research students. Presently all new employees and substitutes are finger-printed and a background check must be run. We wonder how this will affect our programs. Will the community be willing to go through the "red-tape" and personal inquiry to volunteer to mentor?

A discussion of how our AIS labs are doing followed. In the future the State will probably be checking to see how we pick our AIS teachers and students. They will also be interested in outcomes – are students doing better in classes which have AIS labs to assist the students? It was suggested that on the next Staff Development Day we spend part of the day in group discussions: gathering and sharing information with each other; having discussion groups about new materials and software available, etc. We need feedback from constituents about what they would like to cover and/or types of materials they’d like to see. Each member was asked to give this information to Dave as soon as possible so that arrangements may be made.

Another suggestion for Staff Development Day was to have Carmen Ross and/or Nancy Dunn present information on senior portfolios to the whole faculty. We need to know more about what kinds of materials should be kept for a student’s portfolio and it would be helpful for teachers to have this information "ahead" of time so that students may set higher goals to create better-quality portfolios over the four-year period. Question – Where and who would be responsible to keep all these portfolios for underclassmen? It was suggested that guide room mentors might keep their own students’ portfolios. Perhaps time could be taken at the next Staff Development Day for those teachers interested in discussing portfolios (this time could be shared with/or instead of the AIS- group meeting.)

Our next meeting will be held Tuesday, November 14^th. Members were asked to have constituents review and prioritize:

AIS Lab Discussions

Senior Portfolio – research, checking things out & into guideroom support

November Staff Development Day – morning will have a speaker on 21^st Century Skills; how do you want to spend rest of day? Do you want to work in your own department? Or, choice of discussion group on AIS (for AIS support teachers and core teachers) and Senior Portfolio (for all others).

Discuss our goals and choose top three.

Feedback ideas on handouts.