Santa Rita High School

Site Council Meeting

20 January 2004

Hungry Eagle Fine Dining Room

 

Minutes

 

Present: Dr. Abel Morado, Sansa Morse, George Bubany, Chuck Gallagher, Bruce Gillaspie, Cheryl Lawson, Don Blackman, Linda Varela, Helen Anderson, Paulina Wilber, Roxy Campbell, Nicole Manual, Ava Bivens.

 

Absent: Diane Thomas, Craig Zimmerman

 

Meeting called to order at 6:39 A.M.

 

Minutes of previous meeting approved.

 

Agenda approved.

 

Principal’s Report:

Update on Policy 5200.  A proposal is being drafted and will be submitted by the high school principals to the governing board.  The Governing Board will make the ultimate decision in reference to the proposal.  The proposal is defined in reference to the graduation requirement increasing from 20 to 21 credits.  The math and science requirement would increase from 2 to 3 credits.  PE would be reduced from 2 to 1.  Driver’s Ed would be changed to an elective.  If everything goes accordingly, the current eighth graders will be subject to the 21 credits.

 

 The second part of the proposal involves school safety.    The minimum number of campus security personnel (to be identified as security agents) would be increased from 4 to 6.  There would be more monitors if the budget could fund additional personnel or if there is some external funding.  A security agent liaison would be designated (in effect the lead monitor) and become involved in investigations and manage security agents. Proposal for school safety if approved by governing board would take place next year.

 

Status of class failure rate among freshmen and sophomores.  Students were classified based on how many students failed one class and how many failed two.  Reveals what happens to students when failures occur at the freshmen level.  The idea of mentoring students with staff was introduced.

 

Arena registration.  Morse has been working to finalize the master schedule.  Tentative dates for arena registration are April 13-14. 

 

AP Enrollment Data.  Number of students enrolled in classes. More students took the AP History exam than other test.  Counselors finding out how many students go into military and community colleges outside of the Tucson area. 

 

Honors curriculum for freshmen and sophomores.  Honors algebra, honors world history, Sophomore honors geometry and possibly an honors chemistry are tentative new introductions.  According to Dr. Morado the honors English program is successful.  We are trying to bring that to other areas of the curriculum.  

 

Dr. Morado will begin communicating with parents regarding seniors taking six classes next year.  (Policy 5200) 

 

School safety officer will be based here and work at different schools.  Mr. Gillaspie proposes the idea of modifying the school safety officer system to make the school safety officer directly responsible to the school principal and be part of the Santa Rita community and not just a body on campus subordinate/reporting to a non Santa Rita administrative authority.  Santa Rita encourages school safety officers to become involved with the school community. 

 

Mr. Gallagher asked what the average number of monitors at a school currently is.  There are a number of factors connected to the number of monitors needed at a school.  Six is the number that generally works.  There are 4.5 monitors currently at Santa Rita.  There is no set formula to compute the number of school monitors.

 

Mr. Gallagher asks about the requirements for a student to get into an AP class.  Mr. Bubany recruits his own students by visiting sophomore Honors classes. Taking the AP exam is not a requirement of any AP class.  Mr. Bubany states that students who choose not to take the AP exam still get a valuable experience that helps them in college.  Roxy Campbell said that her AP Biology teacher did not promote the test at all.  Morse informs the council that a number of the AP programs are still under development. 

 

Ms. Varela mentions that feeder schools may not be doing their part to prepare students for high school.  Mr. Bubany states that parent involvement and encouragement are necessary.

 

Ms. Lawson states that some teachers have too many aides that do not do anything.  Mr. Gallagher believes that there should be a set policy regarding student aides.  Some teachers have 3 or 4 aides a period.

 

By the next meeting there will be a new summer school director.  Dr. Morado wants input from the Site Council on how summer school is run.  Do we want just students who have failed or get students moving ahead so they can have another elective during the school year?  Offer enrichment courses to students who may not need academics but still want to be involved in some way.

 

Agenda Items for Next Meeting-

Policy 5200 update,

Proposal for one lunch.

Numbers for dress code violations

Student of the quarter

Student Aides policy

More info on school security

Student failure rate.

 

Meeting adjourned at 8:00 A.M.

 

BACK TO MAIN PAGE

WELCOME