Farallone View

School Site Council (SSC) Meeting                         Wed., January 19, 2000 

In Attendance:
Mike Bachicha, Joan Silberman, Beverly Garrity, Letha Petre, Shannon Taylor Cahill, Peggy Rothenberg, Jill McClennan, Bill Strom, Peter Zell, Barbara Masik
Guests: Mimi Correa (PTA Secretary)

Call to Order (Establish Quorum):
Meeting called to order at around 6:15 by Joan Silberman.

Approve Agenda:
Agenda modified to add PE proposal and Site Council Calendar items.  Time limits set for each item on agenda.

Approve Minutes:
11/17 Minutes - approved

12/15 Minutes - approved

SDAC Report
Meeting dates:  February 3, March 23, April 27, May 25, September 28, November 30.  If we send different members to SDAC Meetings, we need to give them all clearance to vote for our Site Council.

Approval of District Master Plan for second language learners (vote required for next meeting).  Bill Strom, Bev Garrity, and Barb Masik will rotate meeting attendance and they all have approval to represent the SSC.

Principal's Report
Sent out request to hire 4/5 Teacher Aides.  Most of funds coming from one donor.  This will continue for 3 years if the funds are used appropriately.   A solicitation for matching funds has gone out.  Survey of teachers shows they all want "good" aides.  The teachers will participate in the selection.  The group discussed Aide qualifications, how the positions will be advertised, pay, etc.

No update on budget or carryover funds.  The carryover is late this year. 

Homework center is up and running.   Vicky Levin is doing first block.  Kelley Farnsworth has the second session.  No high school students have come forward for $7/hour positions.   It is on the job board.  They will put it into the morning announcements.

Working to recruit a special ed. teacher.  It is a full-time position for the remainder of the school year.  The max. caseload limit is very close to being exceeded.

No word on the tech. training grant yet. 

Compliments to staff (21 teachers) on long day last Wednesday working web development for literacy. 

Meeting with John Bayless tomorrow.   Topic will likely be on Governer's education proposal. 

Second and fourth place in Water District poster contest went to two FV students. 

Spelling program will be approved at Feb. 10th board meeting.  Spelling is the District's #1 challenge.  The proposed District-wide program is The Wright Source. 

The Board reported that they are happy with progress at FV this year. 

Ed. Fund Report:
Ed Fund is supplementing the big 4/5 aide donation to complete funding for the year.  There will be future efforts to get "matching" donations.

E-scrip is still slow to get going.   It appears to be more than before but scrip other than Safeway is not moving.  Albertson's cards are also available.

Schoolpop.com is available.  You register yourself at FV Elementary and portions of your purchases go to the school.

Auction - All grade levels will participate in talent portion of the auction.  Efforts are being made to make it more smooth and efficient.

Tech.- No problem with Y2K.  Old computers are following new server.  Old software appears to continue to work OK.  Teachers need to look at software to replace.  The County has a software library to use to evaluate software before buying it.

PE Proposal:
Mike went ahead and implemented the maximum amount of time that the PE person can allocate to the K-3 teachers (2 hours a week).  The $1860 allocation will reimburse part of the expense and the rest will come out of other funds available to Mike.

Site Council Calendar
By the end of May we need to review and revise our Site Plan.  We need to set up a plan on how we will do this.

Next two sessions - Language Arts
One session after that - Math
Sessions after that - rewrite plan
Recruit for new Site Council Candidates - March
Posting of Candidate Statements - May 12th
Election - May 24th
Begin next year's budget planning - May
Complete budget for next year - End of June

•  Proposal to add an item an agenda item for Long Range Agenda Items to discuss SC calendar info. 
Approved by vote.

(make sure technology plan is reviewed as we go) 

Review Language Arts Site Plan/Teacher Input
Mike provided an overview of the results of the teacher survey.

• There was a lot of common responses at all levels.

• The lower level teachers addressed 6 traits training needs.  This training is planned.

• A problem with cursive handwriting was brought up.  A need for a District-wide handwriting program was identified.

• Writer's Workshop training was requested.  This was a funding problem last year.  There is a good instructor for this training that needs to happen early in the school year. 

The Site Council will review these results and make revisions to the Site Plan as required. 

Next Agenda
Focus on making changes to the Site Plan for Language Arts based on teacher inputs.  Look at Budget implications of changes.

Develop Math questions.

Finalize PE discussion.

Look into $200 for Gate chess clocks. 

Open:
Consider changing time for SC meeting to earlier in the afternoon.  Future item.

PTA considering a family forum on standards.  February 1st has been selected as a date.

FV Newsletter article input due by Friday - Focus on staff training on writing to help students - site plan update 

Adjourn
Meeting Adjourned 8:15.