Administration

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, Curt Newcom, Sue Krampe and student representative Jimmy Gilles. Also present to speak before the council, Kelly Skeens and Catherine Shelton.

A motion was made by Curt Newcom to open the October 19 th meeting of the school based council. Melissa Morris seconded the motion and there was consensus.

A motion was made by Curt Newcom to approve the agenda for today’s meeting with the below added items:

Other- Budget

Freshman Academy Report

Lunchroom

Melissa Morris seconded the motion and there was consensus.

Approval of September Minutes – James Morgan made a motion that we accept the minutes of the September meeting with the following corrections:

Change Melissa Curt Newcom to Curt Newcom.

Correct copier budget to read: Our copier expenses for this year so far are: paper $8500, salary $10,000, rental $8500 and usage (per copy charges) $16,000.

Add: IB funding was also discussed. The search for corporate sponsors is continuing.

Melissa Morris seconded the motion and there was consensus.

Personnel Update - No update at this time.

Second Chance Program – Second Reading – The Second Chance Program Policy was given a second reading with one change, change the word each to first.

Apollo High School

Second Chance SBDM Policy

(Revised October 19, 2004)

The Second Chance Program is a program which is operated with Extended School Services funds. The policy is as follows:

Teachers will refer a student to the Second Chance program at the end of first semester when the student meets all of the following criteria:

GPA of 60-64 for the semester (before the final exam)
Does not have more than three unexcused absences per nine weeks
Has no major tests or quizzes that have not been made up (it will be left up to the classroom teacher to determine which tests are major tests)

If a student is willing and meets the criteria – a teacher MUST provide the service or refer the student to the ESS coordinator for service. Teachers may require a student to re-take the final exam to fulfill the academic requirements for Second Chance.

Melissa Morris mad a motion to accept the second reading as read of the Second Chance Program policy. James Morgan seconded the motion and there was consensus.

CATS Report – Catherine Shelton - Mrs. Shelton reported the following CATS scores:

Apollo has been designated a “Progressing – Novice Reduction” school for Accountability Cycle 2004. Adequate Yearly Progress – MET!!! 13 out of 13 target goals (100%) Reading/Mathematics and Participation rate:

All students
White
African-Am (n/a)
Hispanic (n/a)
Asian (n/a)
Limited English Proficiency (n/a)
Free/reduced
With Disability

2003 Results 2004 Results

Accountability Index 76.8 Accountability Index 83.7 (KY Path to Proficiency Goal was 83.4
needed to score a 90, Goal for 2006 must be
at or above 86.6)

Academic Index and Trends

Subject Area 2003 2004 Change
Reading 80.6522 83.5005 +2.8483
Math 75.4555 84.8818 +9.4263
Science 70.8339 80.0160 +9.1821
Social St 71.8766 85.4171 +13.5405
Arts/Hum 73.1330 86.2658 +13.1328
PL/VS 85.0253 92.4286 +7.4033
Writing 63.3129 67.5148 +4.2019
Total 73.5 81.8 +8.3

Novice Reduction

2003 2004 Combined/Change Goal
% Novice 16.83 10.08 13.46 / -6.75 13.37 (not met)

National Norm Referenced Test (CTBS)

2003 2004 Change
CTBS/5 Survey 91.6992 90.8895 -0.8097

High Schools That Work Assessment

2002 2004 Change Goal
Reading 67% 75% +8 85%
Math 68% 71% +3 85%
Science 57% 71% +14 85%

Non -Academic Indicators

2003 2004 Change
Attendance Rate 95.77 95.78 +0.01
Dropout Rate 0.60 0.45 -0.15
Retention Rate 0.23 1.14 +0.91
Transition 98.33 96.67 -1.66
Index 98.2913 97.6816 Lag one year

Progressing toward Proficiency

Continued progress through:
Drop-in observations
Dept. meetings
Data desegregation to report findings
Portfolio mentors continued
Concentration on open response/prewriting
Keep positive with school community
Keep up the good work

Catherine continued with the report stating that while there are some gaps to close, Apollo should keep sight on improving the score to an 86.6. Some successes for last year were monitoring the tests, junior testing teachers being able to choose their testing groups and using the entire two weeks to test. Curt Newcom congratulated the school for their effort and success.

Curriculum Report – Kelly Skeens presented to the council the rational from the curriculum committee for having a school required semester integrated social studies course for all freshmen. This course would be a non-level course that emphasizes reading and writing skills while covering government, world civilization and geography topics. This should improve Social Studies content CATS scores as well as increase overall CATS scores. Students will then also be better prepared for world civilization as sophomores by having taken this freshman year. This elective would be tied to the career options class. Life skills would be taught in health classes and would no longer be a freshman elective class. James Morgan expressed concern that freshman maybe should not have so many required classes so that they could explore more electives and better determine what academy they would like to enter into their sophomore year.

At this time, 5:30 p.m., Curt Newcom made a motion to extend the council meeting past 5:30 p.m. Melissa Morris seconded the motion and there was consensus.

Curt Newcom then made a motion to accept the second reading of the recommendations of the curriculum committee regarding House Bill 113 which allows for counting ROTC as a freshman P.E. credit and introducing a school required freshman integrated Social Studies one semester class. Tim Taylor seconded the motion and there was consensus.

Other –

Budget – Mr. Purcell reported that there is $12,161 remaining in the PD budget. Some $1,209 has gone towards certified substitutes. We have used SLC funds and Carl Perkins funds when appropriate.

Freshman Academy Report - Tim Taylor reported that last year eighty freshman students failed one hundred classes during the first grading period. This year, sixty freshman students failed eighty classes during the first grading period.

Reminder to teachers that the freshman class will be taking a field trip next week while the freshman academy teachers take Ruby Payne training.

Lunchroom – Jim Gilles brought up an issue that several students have with the pre-packaged salads in the lunchroom. Many students who purchase salads are allergic to some of the items, like cheese, or don’t care for those items and have to pick them off. Students would prefer the “salad bar” where you prepare your own salad selecting the items you can eat and would like. Mr. Purcell said that he would discuss this with the lunchroom.

Final Exams – James Morgan asked Mr. Purcell if there has been a final exam committee formed to discuss final exams for this year. Items that need to be resolved are the number of finals given in a day, the number of days for finals and the percentage that the finals would count towards a students grade

Our next meeting will be Tuesday, November 16, 2004 at 4:00 p.m. in the conference room.

There being no further business a motion was made by Melissa Morris to adjourn at 6:00 p.m. Curt Newcom seconded the motion and there was consensus.

Respectfully submitted,

Becki Burton

Future Meeting Dates for the 2004 -2005 year (updated Oct. 2004):

December 14, 2004 April 19, 2005
January 18, 2005 May 17, 2005
February 15, 2005 June 21, 2005
March 15, 2005