VENICE HIGH SCHOOL

School Advisory Council

April 14, 2008

The monthly meeting for Venice High School was held in the Media Center with the following present: Jim Hanks, Greg Miller, Candace Millington, Leslie Bachtel, Andy Britton, Lisa Callahan, Crystal Miller, Noni Lavelle, Terri Ramey, and Ken Gehrls.

Guest: Tom Marshall

The meeting started with Candace Millington introducing Tom Marshall as the Sarasota County Teacher of the Year. A video of Mr. Marshall receiving his award was shown. Mr. Marshall spoke about the path he will be taking towards the Teacher of the Year award. SAC members congratulated him and wished him the best of luck.

Boy’s Basketball Recognition: The boy’s basketball team won the Florida Academic Achievement award for the second year in a row also in conjunction with the most wins in a season. This is a prestigious award and SAC congratulates the team.

Rotary Scholarship News: Rotary Futures is available to high school students, college students and adults. The program would not exist if it weren’t for the support of the community and Advisory Board. Rotary Futures hosted a college night, which was very successful. A grant was awarded to the Futures Program, which allowed mailers to go out to students and their families. Rotary Futures triples scholarship dollars.

Advanced Placement News: The AP Program is now 53 years old and Florida ranks 4^th in the nations with students passing three or more classes. VHS was invited by Newsweek Magazine to be considered in the top 100 High Schools in America. VHS should hear by the end of the school year if they made the list. We are currently in the top 95% in the nation. This is a further indicator we are moving in the right direction academically.

Noni Lavelle is working on the new Gifted Honors Program. This is a four-year program to start at the freshman level. The program will have over 20 AP courses offered starting in the fall of 2008. Students have to send a Letter of Interest. There is no application involved. To be considered for the Gifted Honors Program a student must have a 130 or higher, I.Q. All faculty teaching in this program will be College Board trained teachers. All but two teachers at VHS are certified with those two teachers currently going for their certification.

New brochures are now available for the Gifted Honors Program and the Small Learning Communities. A suggestion to place these brochures at the Chamber of Commerce was made. None will be visiting local feeder schools and presenting both programs.

Community of Caring: Unity Day is April 29^th. New College has chosen VHS to present a new Peer Diplomacy program. College students will train VHS students in diplomacy. VHS was selected because of our outstanding website. This will occur sometime during the next school year.

Budget Information: The budget at VHS will be 9.9 million for the 08/09 school year. This is lower than the budget in the year 2004. Enrollment is projected to continue to decrease. The overall impact will mean aligning our classes to the district priorities. Class sizes will be an average of 25 to 1 in academics. VHS will be reducing from 158 units to 145 units. The district will be required to reduce the budget by another 32 million on top of the current reduction. The cuts will impact our district gravely with guidance counselors at a 400 to one ratio. Driver’s Education driving part is being eliminated.

A suggestion to ask for volunteers in our community was made to help offset the deep impact VHS will feel.

Announcements: Candace announced Senior Awards would be on May 22, 2008.

Meeting adjourned at 8:10

Next Meeting: May 12, 2008