MINUTES

The meeting was held at Awada's Restaurant on Plato at 6:00pm.

Attendance:  Becki Hamilton (Parent, Co-Chair), Dave Mergens (Staff, Co-Chair), Bonnie Bellows (Staff- Treasurer), Kari Denissen (Community Member, Secretary), John Bianchi (Principal), Kita Her (Staff), Valerie Atkinson (Staff), Carol Hugley (Parent), Lisa Gonsalez (Community Member), Chai Lee (Student), Karen Woodward (YLI Mentor), Ann Gangels (Parent, Guest), John Hinz (Parent, Guest), Gilbert De La O (Community Member, Guest).

Item #1:  Approval of Agenda
    Changes:  Item #8 (Principal's Report) will be moved to Item #2b.
    2004-2005 Site Council Goal Setting will be on September agenda.
   Motion to approve agenda as amended so moved  by Lisa G., seconded by Bonnie B.       
  Unanimous.

Item #2:  Approval of May 10, 2004 minutes
    Amendments:
1. Attendance:  Change Lisa Gonsalez from (Staff) to (Community Member), change "Lazano" to "Lozano", add Roger Bar (SOS)
2. Item #3, point 4:  Change "Behlke" to "Beholke" and "stole" to "stolen"
3. Item #4, point 3:   Change, "Also an idea to work with a parent to write" to "It is requested that a parent write"
4. Item #5, point 3:  Change "Humboldt's" to "Humboldt"
5. Item #7, point 7:  Change "right" to "write"
6. Item #7, point 9:  Change "thought" to "though"
Motion to approve minutes as amended so moved by Lisa G., seconded by Bonnie B.  Unanimous.

Item #2b:  Principal's Report
1. Computers:  All staff will receive new desktops in September.
2. Enrollment/Budget:  Currently about 880 students enrolled, goal is 906.  Will wait until final enrollment comes in to address final budget.  Largest concern is to retain current students, we do not want to backfill by accepting students who do not want to be in school.  It is important that an environment is created where kids will want to come and learn.

3. APs:  Start out with 3 APs this year, 2 are new.  Deb Ship will spend ¾ time at the senior high and ¼ time at the junior high; Deb will focus on curriculum for Special Education departments.  Patty Murphy joins us from Arlington; Patty will focus on curriculum assessments and will give teachers tools to work with reluctant learners.  Mike S. is also back this year.  Each AP will be assigned to one of the academies; John B. will be assigned to the Freshman Academy.

4. Building Updates:  The building has been cleaned and painted, completed field house, fitness center and refinished gym floor make for a top notch facility.  Exterior doors have been numbered to aide in identifying them in an emergency.  Loading dock is part of a pilot program where those delivering goods buzz in to walky-talkies to get in; this way students will not sneak in and out of the dock.  4 cameras placed in the parking lots, footage can be viewed over any school computer.  If the school district gets a grant, cameras will be placed on each floor.  (Suggested by Val A that staff and students register their cars and get a pass, not necessarily pay to park.) 

5. Staffing:  Still looking to hire a Read 180 Coordinator and a Math instructor.  Levi L. left for a position in Rochester; Aaron Pareen was hired to replace him.  Jason S. will act as counselor for the 9th grade academy; Mary Zaher and Andrea Dickenson are our 2 newly hired counselors.  All counselors will be located within their academies and will work closely with their advisories.  An attendance clerk will also be hired, it is important to better wrap parents into the attendance piece.  Social workers and a chemical health person will all be located in one office.

6. Schedules:  They are not as clean as they could be but we are working to correct any that are incorrect.
7. Workshop Week:  Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday are reserved for district workshops, Thursday and Friday will be Humboldt specific.  A workshop on the new advisory curriculum will be offered.  Workshops will help us all come together in a "can do" mentality.

8. Community Connections and Recruitment:  Principal attended a community meeting to recognize the service of retiring police officer, Art Gerraro.  Principal has a goal to bring people back to Humboldt and is thinking of doing something for Homecoming to rev up enthusiasm.  Also building a good relationship with Mary Williams at the Junior High to move students from the junior high to the senior high.

Item #3:  Nominate and Introduce new members:
1. Membership Review:  Allow 8 staff including a union rep and the principal, 8 parents, 2
community members and 2 students (currently through YLI).
2. John Hines and Ann Gangle were nominated for parent positions.  Ann has a daughter who will be a sophomore, Ann is active with the PTO.  John has a daughter who will be a sophomore, John is a strong proponent of sending his children to the schools in his neighborhood and working to make them strong.  There are now 4 open parent positions.  John and Ann each know an interested parent they will bring to a future meeting.
Motion made to approve the above nomination so moved by Becki H., seconded by Carol H.  Unanimous (vote by parent members only).
3. Gilbert De La O and Kari Denissen nominated for 1 open community member position. 
Secret ballot held. Kari Denissen receives community member position, motion made by Lisa G., seconded by Bonnie B.  Unanimous.
Gilbert De La O receives alternate position so moved by Kari D., seconded by Bonnie B.  Unanimous.   

Item #4:  Open Forum
1. Karen W.:  Recognize Dave and Becki for strong leadership through the principal selection
process.  Recognize a great job done by HSHS at Rutgers for their perspectives on community involvement, sports, and scheduling.  Look for upcoming Site Council leadership conference at Maddens.

2. Bonnie B.:  Is looking forward to the upcoming school year.  Request to see the budget and
how it has changed as soon as possible as well as how much money remains in the Comp Ed budget. 

3. Kari D.:  Recognize the great work of Humboldt students who were involved in the West
Side Youth Apprenticeship Project (Carnecia Finley, James Gardner, Richard Adams and Chao Moua), site council invited to the End of the Summer Celebration on August 19th from 5-8pm at Cherokee Park.

4. Lisa G.:  Would like to know when we will hear about our capitol bonding requests. 
Answer - will hear in October or November.

5. Carol H.:  Would like to voice support for the principal's decision not to back fill school
with students who have behavior problems or who do not want to be at the school, is glad for the principal's passion.  Agrees that scheduling has not gone smoothly, has had problems in this area with her daughter.

6. Gilbert D.:  Would like to create an atmosphere of school spirit throughout the
neighborhood.  Would like to create excitement by getting past Humboldt sports Alumni involved.

7. Dave M.:  Invitation for all to visit the new athletic area, improvements make it one of the
best in the district.  Offers a great opportunity to get the Boosters and others more involved.  Fall sports practice begins on Monday at 8:00 am.

8. John H.:  Would like to advocate for scheduling changes so that students can take band all
year round.  Hard to build school spirit without strong enrichment opportunities, the band director can't build a band when students are not consistent throughout trimesters.  Would like to report that it has been extremely difficult to get responses from teachers when checking on daughter's grades last year and that  teachers are not keeping records on the Parent Portal updated.  Schedule is difficult to get fixed.

9. Ann G.:  Great to hear that building is getting fixed up, when people first come they use the
first floor bathrooms by the auditorium.  The women's bathroom only has scalding hot water and some of the toilets are broken- can this/is this fixed?  Went to New York City to see examples of Small Learning Communities implemented.  In one advisory there was a question of the day that students were given 5 minutes to journal on.  Will this be implemented in our advisories here?

10. Becki H.:  Scheduling is a large problem, this is the second year in a row where schedules
have been incorrect and difficult to get fixed.  It is a bad way to connect and build relationships with parents to send letters with a "better get this fixed or else" attitude and then not have the avenues in place to allow for parents to help their students fix schedules that are incorrect.  It is not acceptable that students' schedules are getting sent out when it has not been checked over to ensure they are getting the necessary required classes.  The voicemail system does not work so you can not connect with the guidance office to fix the schedule.  Hope that changes with the guidance department will help to fix up these concerns.

11. Chai L.:  The staff and Gear-Up helped prepare me for a conference in Washington DC to learn about politics.  Just returned from this conference where 250 youth came from all over the country.  It was a great experience and I learned a lot about the topic and about myself. 

12. Kita H.:  Have been teaching summer school and would like to report that a great group of 9th graders will be starting at Humboldt in September.

13. Valerie A.:  Parents should be able to see their child's six-year plan on the parent portal.  This has not been implemented yet but Val and 2 others will be attending a conference to learn how to implement this.  Wants to acknowledge that scheduling/parent portal is an issue and that the staff is still learning some of the intricate components, it is hard when others are effected by your "learning time".  Typed up a new course catalog for Humboldt and agrees that the school needs some work in the enrichment category.

14.  General Requests for Next Meeting:  Requested that counselors attend next site council meeting to introduce themselves, address their role in advisory, six year plan and parent portal.  Requested that Mike S. also attend to share what work is being done to help clean up the scheduling problems for the future.

Item #5:  Elect new officers
1.  Co-Chairs:  Becki H. nominates Dave M., seconded by Carol H.
  Lisa G. nominates Val A., seconded by Chai L.
  Carol H. nominates Becki H., seconded by Lisa G.
  Dave M. withdraws his nomination, leaving Val A. and Becki H.
2. Secretary:  Bonnie B. nominates Kari D., seconded by Kita H.
3. Treasurer:  Becki H. nominates Bonnie B., seconded by Lisa G.
Call to approve the slate:  Val A. and Becki H as co-chairs, Kari D. as secretary, and Bonnie B. as treasurer.  Unanimous.

Item #6:  Old Business
1. Proposal to add Community Members to Site Council:  No formal proposal has been
submitted but general feel on the council that lots of work was put in to original design and would be difficult to make changes.  General feel that the council does not want to end in a larger number of overall members and the discussion on which area (parent, staff, community, student) to take from would be difficult to negotiate.

2. Compensatory Education Request from Staff:  Bonnie B created a draft Compensatory
Education Funds Application form staff would use to request Comp Ed monies, as well as a rubric for site council to rank applications.  The site council will approve both the application and the rubric at the September meeting.

3. On September Agenda, please include an update from the 5-period day evaluation
committee.

4. Dave M. handed out copies of by-law changes approved during 03-04 school year.

5. New AP's and Counselors should be invited to September meeting so can be introduced to site council and share their top objectives/projects for the year.

6. September Agenda should include time to review the by-laws; all site council members should review the by-laws before the September meeting.

7. Should we add a section to the agenda for "New Business"?

Item #7:  Treasurer's Report
1. Have a $0 balance, John B. will be asked if office will continue to cover postage for mailing
agendas.  Agreed that having food at the meetings is important.
2. Val A. and Bonnie B. will meet with John B. to discuss a possible budget for site council
meeting.

Item #8:  Principal's Report
 Moved to 2b.

Item #9:  Next Meeting Site
1. Meetings will continue to be held the second Monday of each month at Humboldt High School.
2. Next meeting with be held on September 13th at Humboldt Senior High School.
3. Bonnie B. and Kita H. will bring snacks and, if necessary, a snack rotation schedule can be created at September meeting.
  
Item #10:  Adjourn
      Motion to adjourn made by Becki H., seconded by Bonnie B.  Unanimous.