MINUTES

The meeting was held at Humboldt Senior High School at 6:00pm.

Attendance:  John Bianchi (Principal).  Valerie Atkinson (Staff, Co-Chair), Bonnie Bellows (Staff- Treasurer), Kari Denissen (Community Member, Secretary), Preston McMillan (Staff, Union Steward), Kita Her (Staff), Dave Mergens (Staff), Jim Swick (Staff), Marilyn Mauritz (Staff),  John Hines (Parent), Carol Hugley (Parent), Gilbert De La O (Community Member), Gary Partney (Staff, Alternate), Julia Seper (Gear Up, Guest), Karen Woodward (Support Our Schools, Guest),

Members not in attendance: Becki Hamilton (Parent, Co-Chair), Anne Gangl (Parent),

Item #1:  Approval of Agenda
   Motion to approve agenda as amended so moved by D. Mergens., seconded by Valerie A.       
  Unanimous.

Item #2:  Approval of April 11, 2005 minutes
   Changes submitted to the secretary.
Motion to approve minutes as amended so moved by D. Mergens., seconded by Valerie A.  Unanimous.

Item #3:  School Choice Survey (added onto the agenda)
1. The school district provided a brief 5min video on the transportation issue as it pertains to
school choice.  The video presented three options:  1) provide transportation throughout the district to all schools (cost more money), 2)  create regions for elementary schools and only provide transportation within those regions (save money) and 3) Reduce walking distance to ½ mile and hope that more people chose a school closer to home (depends on choices of families).  The committee watched the video and then took a computer-based survey about their values as they pertain to school choice and transportation issues.
2. Many council members feel that the 5 min video did not give enough information and
context about these issues, therefore people did not feel secure and strong in their ability to take the survey.

Item #4:  Open Forum
1. Julia of Gear Up:  Gear Up has taken students on overnight college visits and will be
available to attend college orientations with students and their parents.  98% of graduating seniors (the class Gear Up works with) have applied to post-secondary options, a 58% increase over last years graduating class.  Now the hope is that the students will take the steps needed to carry out these options.  Gear Up is currently fighting to maintain their federal funding and hope that Senator Coleman's support will help them do this.  They have applied for a grant to work with $1,000 7th graders district wide and to do some work at Humboldt Junior and Senior High.  Also, a Humboldt student received a prestigious $10,000 national scholarship and was recently in Washington DC to receive it.   

Item #5:  Principal's Report
1. Gear Up:  The school is ecstatic with the work that Gear Up does; they make a big impact and are very supportive of the students.  There were some challenges working with the district's grant office to submit a grant to fund Gear Up, but we did get it done!
2. Super Mileage Challenge:  Students are going to Brainerd on May 10th to compete in the Super Mileage Challenge.  The students were charged with building a Go-kart that can not exceed 30mi/hour and must have the best gas/mileage usage.  Their kart is not necessarily attractive, but it goes fast!  A little to fast and the group is working to slow it down a bit.  Eco Lab helped fund this project by contributing $3,000.
3. Graduation:  Graduation will take place on June 8th and the senior picnic is on June 3rd.  The senior party is still bumping along but there is faith it will go off just fine!  Wednesday is senior honors night, senior recognition at the district is on May 24th and the school board will recognize four students at their May 31st meeting.
 

Item #6:  Budget Approval (John Bianchi)
1. Budget Situation:  Humboldt High School will receive less funding next year than it did this year because Humboldt is slated for 88 fewer students than this year.  Humboldt has 50 FTEs (Full Time Employees), not taking into consideration the ELL and Special Education staff because they are funded through the district.  The school funded an additional ELL person on top of what the district provided and the district will be cutting .5 from their contribution so we will be down 1.5 in ELL next year.  We will also cut 1 office clerk, 1 educational assistant, and will not rehire one person who is retiring from on-the-job training.  OJT was led by 2 staff people and now will be led by 1.  The school is worried about losing interpreters in the ELL program because it is an important link between the school staff and the students' families.  Of 2 ELL translators, we need to cut .5 so we can cut 1 by .5 or cut each by .25.
2. Reading the Budget:  The budget areas include General Ed, Compensatory Education (free and reduced lunch), Referendum Fund (focus on technology), Integration Fund (desegregation), and Title I Funding (funds 3 staff and .2 coordinator).
· General Education:  After taking out employee salaries and benefits, we have $24,000 left for reading, writing, and literacy materials.
· Compensatory Education:  Funds some paper supplies, $15,000 for the library and $5,000 for an amity-aid in the language department.  Also, each department gets $1600-$1800 for paper and supplies (about $300/teacher/year). 
· $10,000 goes towards homework help (we had $20,000 this year).
3. SCIP/Budget Matrix:
· Initiative One:  This pertains to reading, writing and math achievement (MCA) and is very tied to how we are spending our budget.  We also hope to secure grant money for professional development that allows teachers to learn by doing.
· Initiative Two:  Ties to the BST exam and we are hoping that grants we have by the end of the school year will bolster our efforts on this initiative.
· Initiative Three:  There is great work happening here and it is our initiative most attached to grant support.  Also, because of staffing, accelerated reader may not be able to happen.
4. Approving the Budget:  The site council planned to meet on May 2nd to approve the
budget before  it was due to the district but John was missing budget information from a department so it was not complete at that time.  John has turned the budget into the district because there was a deadline, but the site council did not approve it.  Dave M. made a motion to approve the budget, Preston M. seconded the motion.
Discussion:  Some felt that the process is a problem and that they can not approve the budget because they were not a part of the process and would be a rubber stamp.  Others felt that the site council has to trust and support the principal because he has the most intimate knowledge of the issues to make the best decision.  Most agreed that, if the district truly believes in site based management, the district should not create arbitrary deadlines that do not allow a successful process at the Site Council level.
9 approved, 2 opposed, 1 abstained and the motion to approve the budget passed.

Item #7:  Parent Engagement Initiative (John H.)
1. John attended a meeting hosted by the Family and Community Involvement Office that
explained the districts school-community-family partnership program and model.  The district uses the J.L. Epstein model with six types of involvement; the schools that join the program create goals and plans in each of the six areas.  If we wanted to join, one step would be to make our SCIP include this component in it, currently our SCIP does not place a lot of formal weight on this topic.
2.  At the meeting parents talked about barriers to their involvement.  Key issues that arose include schools cutting the extracurricular activities that engage parents due to funding shortages, parents do not have the tools to help their children with school-work (sometime different approaches to math, etc are taught today),  and communication could be improved between parents and teachers so neither are defensive with the other.  

Item #8:  New Business
1. Action Step:  John will get Valerie an electronic copy of the budget and Valerie will email it
to the council members.
2. Action Step:  A letter will be sent to the district letting them know that we were not happy
with the budget timeline.  Preston will look for our letter from last year.

Item #9:  Next Meeting Site
1. We usually have our June meeting at Awada's with a dinner, we may not have funds for that
this year.  A potluck may be a better option.  Valerie will work with John and let us know the location and format for the meeting.

Item #10:  Adjourn
      Motion to adjourn made by Gilbert D., seconded by Marilyn