Venice High School

School Advisory Council

August 15, 2005

 

The monthly SAC meeting for Venice High School was held in the Administrative Conference Room with the following members present:  Candace Millington, Pam Groff, Cheryl Bolton, Terri Ramey, Greg Miller, Wayne Robertson, Ryan Callaghan, Lisa Callaghan, Nicholas Gissal, Steve Joselson & Leslie Bachtel.

 

Candy Millington welcomed all in attendance and opened the meeting announcing the need for a chairperson to replace Cheryl Bolton.  Lisa Callaghan was nominated and approved by SAC. 

 

Mrs. Millington informed the committee that the drug-sniffing dogs were on campus at the start of the school year.  No infractions were reported.  The dogs will come to the campus at various times during the year in an effort to keep VHS drug-free.

 

SACS Review

 

Leslie Bachtel is the internal SACS CASI facilitator for Venice High School.  Her job is to assist, inform, and guide VHS through the accreditation process.  She presented an overview of her training for SASC CASI.  The acronyms stand for Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, Council on Accrediation and School Improvement.  The VHS SAC Committee has been assigned Standard II to work on. 

 

A Quality Assurance Review Team from SASC CASI will test the school on January 10, 2006.  VHS will need to present evidence and validate completion of a self-study in compliance with the standards. 

 

SAC reviewed the Vision Statement.  It has been narrowed down to three choices.  The goal is to be able to recite the statement with ease, keeping it short but powerful. 

 

Mrs. Bachtel will be involving the SAC committee continuously until the accreditation takes place.

 

 

 

 

School Grade and Numbers

 

Wayne Robertson reviewed the school’s rating that dropped to a “C”.  VHS is looking for a stronger focus in the future.  Candy Millington challenged the faculty in a recent meeting, to raise the reading levels of those students who scored in the lower 25% on the reading portion of the FCAT.  Of this lower 25%, 50 % of these students must show a reading gain in order for our school rating to improve.  If we do not achieve the 50% gain the consequences would mean losing another letter grade, no matter what we earn.

 

Facilities

 

Bill Mowry reviewed the facility updates.  Painting was done over the summer to the portables and general maintenance was performed overall.  A few challenges occurred during the first week of school with the power outages, which caused widespread complications.  The air conditioning was out in many buildings on the north side of campus.  The outage was directly linked to the age of the lines in the ground.    The contractors building the new music building, hit a gas line and once again the north side had to be evacuated until it was capped. 

 

As the campus continues to grow, VHS continues to have a shortage of adequate science lab rooms.  There are currently five science teachers teaching in rooms with no labs.  The Science FCAT requirements are a serious concern.

 

Mr. Mowry ended his report by stating problems will continue to challenge the campus due to the overall age of the campus.  VHS will do their best to keep up with the maintenance problems facing them.

 

Mrs. Millington said that the District has hired a consulting firm to assess and evaluate all district schools for prioritizing needs.  Our custodians are doing a great job and have received many compliments.

 

Our next meeting will be held on September 12th at 6:30 p.m.