School Advisory Council – School Management Team

Meeting Minutes

 

Wednesday, August 25, 2004

3:00 p.m. in the Science Lab (Building 4, Room 7)

 

 

Welcome – Ginny White opened the meeting with a welcome and introduction of the parent, community/business, and staff SAC representatives.  New members of the group include Cindy Books and Kale Dailey who will serve as parent representatives.  They are both parents of Multi-age students at our school.  The group decided to have Ginny White serve as the facilitator/chairperson of the group, and Vicki Brewer will serve as meeting secretary.

 

GCCFV Grant – Robin Gersen spoke to the group about our school’s successful application for a professional development grant from the Gulf Coast Community Foundation of Venice (GCCFV).  This five-year grant will provide up to $30,000 per year for the next five years.  The grant’s focus is on professional development for Englewood Elementary Staff with all activities aimed at the improvement of student performance.  The title of the grant is “Closing the Gap,” referring to countywide efforts to close the achievement gap.  First year professional development activities (2004-05) are focusing on follow up training to strengthen programs that are already being implemented within our school curriculum, including a day for instructional staff with Larry Bell, a national expert in strategies for closing the gap, and follow up training in CRISS strategies, Write Reflections, and Guided Reading.  While outside experts will provide some of the training, we will also have on site training provided by our own staff experts Michaelene Brame and Joan LaBadie (guided reading), Kim Douglas and Mandy Tannehill (using a computer grade book program), and Donna Catanzarite (almost everything to help us.)  Friday morning sessions from 7: 15 – 8:15 will now include a stipend for staff participation.  As we go through this first year of the grant, we will continually evaluate our approach and use student performance data to guide our plan for our year two application.  Congratulations and thanks to Robin Gersen for serving as our grant writer.

 

SAC Folders – Ginny went through the SAC folders provided for each SAC representative.   Included is a roster, a list of meeting dates, the current SAC-SMT Organizational Plan, and current Strategic Plan for Excellence (SPE).  A calendar for school improvement activities is not yet available.  The folder can also serve as a spot to collect and organize agendas, minutes, and other important SAC materials.

 

Refreshments – Everyone is encouraged to sign up in groups of 3 or 4 to provide refreshments for our SAC meetings.  Refreshments for this meeting were provided by Ginny White and Vicki Brewer.  If you have not had a chance to sign up for a slot yet, the sign up sheet will be at our next meeting in September.

 

SAC Training Opportunity -  There is usually a countywide SAC member training session offered through the PALs organization during the first quarter of each school year.  Vicki Brewer has e-mailed Sandy Chapnick (PALs) to get this year’s details, but she has not yet gotten a reply.  Training information will be provided as soon as it is available.

 

Media and Media Programs Update:  Donna Catanzarite brought the group up to date on Media affairs.  The Media now has the additional responsibility of school text books, including their inventory, identification, bar-coding, check-out and check-in.  Texts in Math, Reading, and Language Arts have all been bar-coded as well as teacher editions and support materials.  This has been a tremendous undertaking as each item must be bar-coded, labeled, and entered into the computer data base.  The new system does provide the school with much better textbook security and will help us to avoid large fees for loss of text book materials.  In addition, we will have a more accurate count of available textbooks for additional students.  Media staff has also been working to enable the Media to open for class check-out after a Media orientation.  The computer labs will run on a two lab schedule, and computers are being distributed to cover our additional classrooms.  Star testing will enable all students to set their AR reading goals for first quarter, and our first Family Reading Night will coincide with our August 26th Open House evening.

 

Florida State Recognition Funds – Englewood Elementary has been awarded $54,044 through the Florida School Recognition Program.  That is $100 per full-time equivalent (FTE) student for the 2003-04 school year.  Our next SAC-SMT meeting (9/22/04) will be a joint meeting with school staff to collaborate on our plan for distribution of those reward funds.  SAC representatives should be sure to discuss the reward funds in their team meetings and come with your suggestions.  Funds may be used for these three purposes:  nonrecurring bonuses to the faculty and staff, nonrecurring expenditures for educational equipment or materials, or for temporary personnel to assist the school in maintaining or improving student performance.  Be prepared for a longer meeting than usual.  I have attached a general information sheet from the Florida Department of Education regarding the funds for your information.

 

September SAC Meeting -  Our next SAC meeting will be on Wednesday, September 22, 2004 at 3:00 p.m.  Refreshments will be provided by Donna Matherly, Donna Catanzarite, and Ginny White.  The agenda for the meeting will be our plan to distribute the Florida School Recognition Program funds.