Site Council Minutes

Monday, November 13, 2006

Present:  Valerie Atkinson (co-chair, non-teaching staff), Jennifer Purtell (parent), Tim Hausker (non-teaching staff), John Hines (co-chair, parent), Andy Mosca (parent), Steve Aeilts (assistant principal), Kandy Hedlund (partent), Sam Buffington (community), Bonnie Bellows (staff), Lauren Rekonen (staff), Dave Mergens (staff), Mike Sodomka (principal), Preston McMillan (staff-union), Saul Castillo (student), Derby Campo (non-teaching staff), Pat Mergens (guest).

All members present.

I.                    Approval of Agenda

a.       Motion made by J. Hines, seconded by B. Bellows.  Unanimously approved.

II.                 Approval of October 9, 2006 minutes

a.       Motion made by V. Atkinson. Unanimously approved.

III.               Open Forum

a.       Dave Mergens:  Field bids are going out and the bid will be awarded on Jan. 9^th.  Things are looking good and are on schedule.  All requested money is coming through.  Humboldt must raise $30,000 in order to paint on the lines and the logo.  Some leads are working, but more avenues for funds are needed.  Dave would like help finding good sources for these extra funds needed.  We have until March to come up with the funds.

b.      Sam Buffington:

                                                               i.      Five Humboldt students participated in WSCO’s non-partisan voter outreach.

                                                             ii.      Next Monday, November 20, is the annual meeting at WSCO to elect new officials.  Door-knocking to encourage community participation will occur the Saturday.

                                                            iii.      Last Thursday a few Humboldt students participated in a learning conference. 

c.       Mike Sodomka:  Thank you for the support on passing the referendum.  There will be a band concert this Thursday (November 16).

d.      Joe Laconic:  Monroe Elementary has a large, nationally certified automotive program that they are considering moving to Humboldt.  Joe believes that this would be a good move for the program and for Humboldt. 

IV.              District Wellness Report: Pat Mergens, SPPS Nutrition Services (guest), on Nutrition Services and what new things they are doing here at Humboldt High School.  Goals: To provide foods which are quick, nutritious, and will be eaten.  NS is spending time asking students what food they would like to eat.  Personal chefs have been hired to help create new menu items.  71% of SPPS students qualify for free and reduced-price lunches.  NS has minimum food requirements that they must serve the students that are based on government regulations.  There is a new initiative in place to offer baked French fries along with the deep-fried fries to students along with nutrition information about both items.  About 40% of Humboldt students are choosing the baked fries.  Other changes have been made such as making breads and pastries with whole wheat flours and pre-wedging the fruit (which gets eaten more than whole fruit does).  There are 400 employees in 70 schools and their goal is to serve food in schools that the students enjoy.  More communication to the High Schools about what the food choices are is needed.  The wellness policy was not created by Nutrition Services, but by the District.  Nutrition services took 25 items off of their menu to comply with the policy.

V.                 Site Council Co-chair Conversations with the Superintendent:  J. Hines, V. Atkinson.  Nov. 1, all Site Council Co-chairs met with Superintendent Carstarphen.

a.       Ready to Learn, Ready for life:  St. Paul students need to enter elementary school prepared for school and exit high school prepared for higher education.

b.      NCLB: 2014 is the deadline.  If we continue our course and keep doing what we are doing we will NOT meet our NCLB deadline.  The district needs to create a “dashboard” for the students to help them see what type of pace they need to work at.

c.       3 challenges within our district: 1.) unfunded mandates 2.) energy costs 3.) health care costs

d.      Family Involvement:  We need to get more families involved in SPPS.

e.       Compliment:  The schools are good and the teachers are good.

f.        School Parody: each school should offer equal programs, which would lead to a decreased need for bussing.

g.       Referendum funds:  The Site Council is very concerned that the funds given to Humboldt are not in equitable proportion to the other St. Paul High Schools.  The Site Council suggests that the co-chairs draft a letter to Lois Rockney, Directior of Financial Affairs in the district.

                                                              i.      Motion made to draft a letter from the Site Council to Lois Rockney and Meria Carstarphen about the allocation of referendum funds for Humboldt Senior High.  Seconded by B. Bellows.  Unanimously approved. 

VI.              Scheduling: Steve Aeilts

a.       Humboldt went from a 5-period day to a 6-period day.  Transition has been mostly smooth aside from a small computer scheduling glitch that has now been smoothed out.

b.      180 new students, 86 drops since the beginning of the school year.  Our intake system is being revamped for students who are not Level I or II ELL or Special Education. They are immediately placed into Title I math and English and then given a diagnostic test.  If their test results are high then they will be taken out of Title I. 

c.       The AVID program will start Trimester 2 with 61 students in grades 9,10 and 11.  90% of the students who did not make it into AVID did not turn in complete application packets.  The other 12 students who did not get in have been placed on a waiting list.  The 61 AVID students must get their schedules changed. 

d.      There is a May 15, 2007 deadline on all teacher’s and student’s schedules for the 2007-2008 school year. 

e.       Electives are getting harder and harder for students to fit into their schedules due to year-long core courses and Title I support classes.

VII.            Principal’s Report:  Mike Sodomka

a.       CI soccer team finished 6^th in the state.

b.      The national magazine Education Week will have representatives in the school tomorrow to follow a few students.

c.       Site Council representation needed at the Tuesday, Dec. 19 school board meeting to put Humboldt back on their radar as far as proposals for spending the capital improvement bonds and to remind them of their promise to support Humboldt. 

d.      Site Council representation needed at the Clear Spec committee (capital improvement committee) meeting in early 2007 to get funding for Phase II.

e.       Enrollment:  891 students as of Friday, Nov. 9.  2 additional periods of science teachers will be hired.

f.        NHS students are tutoring at Cherokee Heights Elementary school. 

g.       Last week’s staff development days: Teachers will be doing peer observations.  POL training was on Friday.

h.       School Quality Review will be the week of Dec. 18-23.  District representatives will be here evaluating our school.

VIII.         New Business

a.      Motion made by B. Bellows for the Site Council to draft a letter in support of moving the Monroe Automotive Program to Humboldt Senior high.  Seconded by J. Laconic.  Unanimously approved.

IX.              Adjourn

a.       Motion to adjourn made by V. Atkinson.  Seconded by B. Bellows.

b.      Unanimously approved.