The regular meeting of the school based council was called to order by Tom Purcell, Principal, at 4:00 p.m. Members present: Tom Purcell, Scott Kuegel, Buzz Backstrom, James Morgan, Melissa Morris, Tim Taylor, Sue Krampe and Jim Gilles.

Approval of November Agenda – A motion was made by Mr. Morgan to approve the November agenda with the following additions:

Other – IHC, Tech College regarding special needs students
“A Framework for Understanding Poverty’ by Ruby Payne

Mr. Kuegel seconded the motion and there was consensus.

Approval of October Minutes –Jim Gilles made a motion to accept the reading of the October minutes with the following correction:

Listing of visitors present – delete Laura Lewis, she was not present at the October meeting.

Mr. Backstrom seconded the motion and there was consensus.

Personnel Update - Mr. Purcell notified the council that the following positions were open:

Monitor for Beacon students (a.m.)
Assistant Softball Coach
Head Boys Soccer Coach

Budget Update - Mr. Purcell reported that we have used 61.9% of S.E.E.K. funds and that we will be getting an adjustment for our second month attendance.

Travel Allocation – Per council request, Mr. Purcell presented a comparison between travel allocation for the school year ‘01/’02 and ‘02/’03. Members expressed concern that coaches and staff members were prohibited from driving beginning with ‘02/’03. The difference in cost was due to the pay for drivers.

No Child Left Behind – Mr. Purcell informed the council of the No Child Left Behind data as it relates to AHS. He stated that we are currently under review. There are some coding inconsistencies with African American students as to what was bubbled in on the tests and what we have in STI. Our official tool we use for data is STI. According to the information presented on the NCLB document, AHS failed to make “adequate yearly progress” as a school. All sub groups were examined and it was determined that the African American sub group had on 4.17% of its members score proficient in the area of math. All subgroups needed meet the annual measurable objective of 19.76% in math and 19.26% in reading to be making adequate yearly progress. Mr. Purcell reiterated the coding inconsistencies and that it will be January before the state finishes its review.

Mr. Kuegel suggested that Apollo place information about NCLB on the Apollo website. Discussion was given about motivating our “gap” students and any other students to give a real “Good Faith Effort” on the CATS assessment, consider motivation through accountability. The math department is infusing geometry skills in daily lessons in order to help students review or recall information that they will need to use on the CATS test. Science and Social Studies departments are working on open response questions in their assignments to help students through out the year improve their open response skills.

Other –

Special Needs Students in In House Crisis (IHC) and Technical School –

Technical School has a board paid individual to assist students with IEP’s (learning modifications) at tech school.

In House Crisis requests that the sending school provide special services to students who need one on one attention. However, if all parties are notified and a plan of action for IHC is made at the manifestation meeting, students with IEP modifications could be served at IHC. Several council members stated that it would be better for all students if Apollo had an IHC unit here on school grounds where all teachers could help students who are in IHC.

“A Framework for Understanding Poverty”, Ruby Payne – Sue Krampe presented to the council this book and the accompanying training program Ruby Payne has written called “A Framework for Understanding Poverty”. This is an excellent program that would help our staff to remove socio-economic barriers when communicating with students in our school. Tom Purcell has previously been certified as a trainer. He volunteered to get re-certified and Sue Krampe also volunteered to get certified to be a trainer. Some portions of the training could be worked into small meetings such as faculty meetings.

Training our faculty and staff with this program would fit some of the criteria of the Smaller Learning Community Grant.

The date for the next SBDC meeting is Tuesday, December 16, 2003 at 4:00 p.m. in the conference room.

Their being no further business a motion was made by Mr. Backstrom to adjourn at 5:15 p.m. Mr. Kuegel seconded the motion and there was consensus.

Respectfully submitted,

Becki Burton