Venice High School

School Advisory Council

March 13, 2003

The regular monthly meeting of the Venice High School SAC was called to order by Principal, Candy Millington serving as temporary Chair in the absence of Cheryl Bolton.

The following were in attendance: Candy Millington, Bob Hirter, Greg Miller, Arnall Cox, Steve Joselson, Ann McClellan, Kim Kindell , Kathleen Castellano, Gary Mitchell, Det. Richard Starowesky, Lisa Callaghan and Claudine Anderson

The meeting was held in the administrative conference room at 6:30 p.m. on March 10, 2003.

The first item of business was a discussion of the newly initiated VHS safety campaign. It is a multi-faceted plan which ranges from student safety issues to national security concerns. The committee viewed a video on the Florida “Buckle-Up” campaign which starred Principal Millington, SRO’s Hitt and Starowesky and teacher Charles Powell among others. It was both informative and amusing. Future videos are planned for drunk driving and defensive driving education.

Officer Starowesky, Sheriff Department SRO, discussed a plan that he is developing to anticipate and head off potential problems as a result of our Nation’s heightened alert status. The plan includes targeted training and more effective utilization of our security staff. There is a grant being written to install visual surveillance equipment due to the considerable size of our campus (66 acres.)

His presentation was followed by an in-depth discussion by the committee which included several insightful suggestions by SAC members. Mrs. Anderson suggested that our next newsletter should include a synopsis of the security plan with a mention that all visitors to be VHS campus must check in at the administrative office to avoid confusion and misunderstanding.

The next topic of interest was a brief update on the FCAT test. Mrs. McClellan reported that better than 95% of our students were tested. Student attendance, cooperation and concern has been noticeably better this year over previous years. Hopefully, this trend will be successful in realizing better test results.

Mrs. Millington gave a brief update on past topics including waivers for block scheduling and later school starting times. The County administration is exploring an additional one year reprieve through the Department of Education and/or the State legislature.

There was a brief summer school update by Mrs. Millington and Mr. Mitchell. It was announced that accelerated courses in personal fitness and life management would be available at VHS. Also, certain remedial courses in Algebra IA and B and English 1, 2 would be offered. Details on time, dates and sign up schedule will be available at the April SAC meeting.

Mrs. Tanaka gave a short report on the Venice College Night event of March 3^rd. Approximately 500 attendees were present to gather available information from the more than forty representatives from a wide variety of post –secondary schools.

The final item of business was the distribution of local and national school climate surveys. These are to be read and digested for eventual discussion at the April SAC meeting.

The meeting was adjourned at approximately 7:45 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Gary E. Mitchell