Brentwood Elementary School

SCHOOL ADVISORY COUNCIL

September 14, 2006

Minutes from Meeting

Meeting called to order at 7:30 a.m.

In attendance were Michelle Henderson (principal), Keith Thompson and Harriet Cowan (teacher representatives), Staci Blackwell, Julie Lopez, and Britt Galipault (parent representatives), Chris Moler (Business Partner) and Rita Lopez and Nathaniel Galipault (student representatives).

Agenda:

1.  Elect Chair and Secretary

By unanimous consent Keith Thompson was elected as chair and Britt Galipault was elected as secretary.

2.  A+ Money

SAC and the Shared Decision Making Team are jointly responsible for the disbursement of A+ money.  The SDMT will meet on Monday and come to a consensus on the school’s priorities for spending this money.  This recommendation will then be brought to SAC at the next regular meeting and the SAC will decide whether to approve the recommendation for disbursement or send it back to the SDMT.

Last year, the A+ money was allocated as follows:

• $5 per student was set aside for vouchers to spend at the book fair

• $150 was set aside per classroom to cover supplies and materials purchased by individual teachers

• The balance was divided among everyone who was on staff the previous year, prorated by time worked at Brentwood and hours worked.  For example, a lunchroom aide who is a 0.6 time employee would receive 60% of the full allocation.  The same aide who worked at Brentwood only half the year would receive 60% of the full allocation, multiplied by 0.5 (for half a year).

It was suggested that in light of the layoff of aides and the consequent difficulties faced by teachers, the SDMT might want to think creatively about how this money could be spent.  PTO has been approached about funding aides, especially an aide for the computer labs, and does not presently have money budgeted for this purpose.  PTO needs feedback from teachers (especially the team leaders) on where volunteers could be used in the labs or classrooms and has not had the expected response to a survey sent out for this purpose.

3.  School Improvement Funds

SAC has money to spend each year on school improvement.  This year’s allocation is $8,000.00.  Last year, School Improvement Funds were allocated as follows:

• 1/3 was spent on consumables, mainly for FCAT prep

• 1/3 was spent on substitutes to allow teachers to participate in professional development opportunities

• 1/3 was spent on conference registrations

This formula was approved by SAC for the 2006 – 2007 school year.

4.  Policy Against Discrimination

Brentwood’s Policy Against Discrimination was distributed to the parents and the procedure for complaints was briefly discussed.

5.  Focus for the Year

Mrs. Henderson asked all the SAC committee members to think about how we, as a school, might meet a need in our community by opening our doors and doing something that we might not be doing now.  One thing we are already doing is holding four Literacy Nights, targeted especially toward our ESOL population.  The committee also discussed opening the computer labs to parents during evening hours.  The school has $3,000.00 in Title I money which can be used for food for “dinnertime” events such as this.  The committee was asked to bring ideas to the next meeting to be discussed at this time.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:15 a.m.