School Based Council Meeting

The regular meeting of the school based council was called to order by Tom Purcell, principal. Members present: Tom Purcell, Tim Taylor, James Morgan, Melissa Morris, and Buzz Backstrom.

A motion was made by Melissa Morris to open today’s meeting. Buzz Backstrom seconded the motion and there was consensus.

A motion was made by Buzz Backstrom to approve the agenda for today’s meeting. The following items were added to the agenda:

End of Six Weeks – Possible Failures
Teacher Social Security Numbers in STI
AP Classes

James Morgan seconded the motion to accept the agenda with the additional items and there was consensus.

A motion was made by James Morgan to approve minutes of the previous meeting. Mr. Taylor remarked that the date for today’s meeting was incorrect in the August minutes. Tim Taylor seconded the motion with the correction and there was consensus.

Mr. Purcell introduced to the council our student representative to the council, Jim Gilles. Jim is a sophomore here at Apollo.

Personnel Update - The following staff positions remain open:
Monitor for Beacon Central students during bus transfer at Apollo, a.m. & p.m.
Assistant Softball Coach

Budget – S.E.E.K. budget for 2003-2004 is running about the same as last year. Mr. Purcell gave updated figures for the S.E.E.K. budget for the year ending 6/30/03. We were under the impression that all items to be paid from S.E.E.K. had been processed by June 25, 2003, when in fact they had not. The overage for ’02-‘03 travel was also deducted from the 02/03 S.E.E.K. budget, however, as stated last month, we will be reimbursed for that amount. We actually show a negative ending balance of ($3,854.17). This compares to the ending balance for 2001-2002, which was ($8,000.00).
Just as a note, our travel expenditures for the months of July and August are ahead of last year. Mr. Purcell told the council that he would provide them with a breakdown of travel charges from last year. The major expense has been the policy change that no longer lets teachers drive busses.

Capsize Issues - Mr. Taylor discussed with the council, as a matter of record, the capsize issue that Apollo is experiencing with a few freshmen Life Skills classes. Because Apollo scheduled the students who are participating in the eLearning pilot program into certain core classes as a group, this has caused two sections of Life Skills/Career Options to have only 25 eLearning students in each of the classes. The opposing result is that two other sections of Life Skills are over the cap limit of 31. Those two sections have 33 students in them. Exceptions to the cap size limit of 31 students are courses such as chorus, band and study hall.

2nd Reading of Updated SBDM By-Laws - The council was presented the updated bylaws for a second reading. Buzz Backstrom made a motion to approve the by-laws as read. Tim Taylor seconded the motion and there was consensus. The bylaws will be posted on the Apollo website and will be in the SBDM notebook in the front office.

Areas of Governance for 2003-2004 - Mr. Tim Taylor made a motion for the Area of Governance for the 2003-2004 year to be Curriculum, Mr. Morgan seconded the motion and there was consensus.

Other -

End of the Six Weeks – Possible Failure Notice – Council members discussed the recent figures from E.S.S. showing 142 make up exams were given in eleven days. Concern was given over students who are going to fail this 1st six weeks and how it will affect them, especially the seniors who will be graduating under the policy that if they do not have enough credits or credits in all required classes that they will not be able to participate in graduation ceremonies. The council discussed several concerns over student failures:
Do students understand the affect of school absence to their academics?
Do students understand the affect of getting a zero for work not turned in?
Do students use their agendas to record homework and due dates, up coming tests?

What can be done to emphasize the importance of understanding the consequences of zeroes? What can be done to emphasize to the student and the parents of the consequences of failing a six weeks? What could be done that would have more impact than the progress report? Could we get an accumulated grade for the first six weeks and from that notify the parent of possible semester failure? Should Apollo switch from written notification to phone calls?

Buzz Backstrom made a motion to have Mr. Purcell form an ad hoc committee of teachers, parents and students to discuss, identify and recommend notification of failing procedures that will be more current and follow district policy. James Morgan seconded the motion and there was consensus.

AP Classes – The council discussed the recent AP Exam report sent out by Kathleen Kreke. 58 students took 100 AP exams last year. 51% of our students earned a “3 or above’ qualifying scores which could earn them college credit. What is the correlation between AP exam scores and the classroom.

Teacher Social Security Numbers – Mr. Purcell discussed with the council his concern over having teacher social security numbers as I.D. numbers in the S.T.I. program. He will look into using another number as the I.D. number.

Our next meeting will be Tuesday, October 21, 2003 at 4:00 p.m. in the conference room.

There being no further business a motion was made by Tim Taylor to adjourn at 4:50 p.m. Buzz Backstrom seconded the motion and there was consensus.

Respectfully submitted,

Becki Burton

Future Meeting Dates:

February 17, 2004
November 18, 2003 March 16, 2004
December 16, 2003 April 20, 2004
January 20, 2004 May 11, 2004