Site Council Meeting Minutes

April 20, 2006

In attendance:   Julie Printz, Ann Hobbie, Lisa Keitel, Katie Parke-Reimer, Jessica Pihlstrom, Valerie OKeefe, Tasha Klepp, Kathy Bigelow, Lori Seastrand, Emmett Donnelly, Kris Hageman, Anneke Krall, Lisa Randall, Gene Yates, Cleve Jobe, Jeff Sambs

The meeting commenced at 5:24 p.m. The agenda and the minutes were approved.

Opening remarks:  The Groveland Elementary website is the featured webpage on the St. Paul Public Schools website this month and as a result our website is experiencing more hits.

Celebrate Groveland Event:  Kris Hageman gave a quick update.

• The committee has received donations for the silent auction from Northern Clay.
• Tickets will be on sale outside after school during this week and next.  Tickets are also available in the copy room for staff members.  ½ the tickets sold thus far are for people who didn’t attend the event last year perhaps due to some “good buzz” about it.
• Silent auctions forms are also available yet if people still want to contribute.
• Dana Bergman, the volunteer coordinator says that people are still needed for 2-hr. set-up shifts and for tear down at the end of the night.
• The event will include performances by a parent band, the Sirens (acapella group from Macalester College) and the Heads and Tails game.  There will also be a live auction piece (weekend give-away, boat ride with Dr. Jobe, St. Paul Hotel) and the very popular grade level baskets.

Principal’s Report: 

Budget Report

–        The allocation for 06-07 is $2,143,570, an increase over the 2005-2006 school year.  The extra money will go towards the current staff.  There is a $74,000 rollover that will also apply to next school year. 

–        Our projected enrollment for next school year is 431, a number that Dr. Jobe has confidence in.  Up until very recently Groveland has continued to take additional students but Dr. Jobe has told the Placement Office that we are now closed for the remainder of this school year. 

–        Connie Feil the District technoloIgy person from the district has informed us that the 2009 MCA’s (standardized tests) will be required to be completed online in a fixed-lab setting.  This puts many schools like Groveland at a disadvantage because they don’t have the budget to buy the necessary hardware.  30 computers have been shipped to Groveland for this purpose. In order to support this new lab, Groveland will hire 1 FTE technology teacher for next year who will also be available in a tech support capacity.

–        The district cost for a full-time teacher, grade 1-6 is $79,000 and is calculated as an average including benefits.  A full-time kindergarten teacher costs Groveland $77,000.  This is a PROPOSED budget and is subject to change:

PROPOSED  PROPOSED  PROPOSED  PROPOSED  PROPOSED PROPOSED

o       2.5 Kindergarten teachers:            $186,135

o       15 Elementary teachers:            $1,177,695

o       3 Specialty Teachers:                        $235,539   (Music, Physical Ed, Science)

Total Teachers                        $1,599,369

–        Other costs include:

o       1 Principal                                    $129,757

o       1 Clerk                                                $46,444

o       2 TA’s                                                $46,582

o       1 SEM                                                $78,513

o       .5 Social Worker                        $42,92            5

o       .1 Nurse                                    $7,614

o       1 Tech teacher                        $78,513

o       .5 Title 1 Teacher                        $39,256

o       1.5 Title 1 TA                                    $34,937

o       Textbook/patrol Stipend            $3,036

o       Staff Development                        $13,320

o       Supplies/Reserve                        $23,304

Total Other                                    $544,201

Total Budget:                                                   $2,143,554

–        ELL will pay for 4.5 teachers, 1.5 EA.  Special Ed. Pays for a DCD teacher, .5 social worker, .6 speech teacher, .5 Occupational Therapist, and a .2 School Psychologist.  The Title I money will pay for a .5 teacher and 1.5 TAs.  The district provides the band teacher, custodians and Nutrition Services personnel. 

–        Groveland will not have a librarian next year, however if enrollment projections increase we could potentially hire a part time librarian.

–        The grade 1-2 combination class has been eliminated due to the configuration of  students in those two grades.  Mrs. Eggert will teach 2^nd grade, keeping her current first grade students. 

–        The staff will be studying and discussing the idea of looping (where one teacher stays with the same students for two years) next year with possible implementation in the 07-08 school year.

–        The technology teacher will help students learn to use the computers for testing purposes and will work to integrate technology into the classroom.  Dr. Jobe will work on writing the job description for this position.

Edit/Approval of SCIP (School-wide Continuous Improvement Plan):

Ashley Cannaday reviewed the changes that were proposed for the 06-07 SCIP as follows:

In the School Description Section -

–        Added information about the Language Academy throughout

–        Mentioned Dodge Nature center outings

–        Chess club is redefined as Game Club

–        Mention of Title I status

–        Mention of Celebrate Groveland event

–        Placed the running club separately to highlight it more to better address concerns for student health and wellness – also mentioned participation in Melpomene Run

–        Enrichment Clusters renamed as “Explore Time” classes

Suggestions were made to add a reference to having strong parent volunteerism, mention of a fixed computer lab and a wireless computer lab.

In the Goals Section:

–        Removed Goal #4 (Gifted and Talented Task Force), and moved the topic to the Initiatives section.  All other goals remained the same.  Ashley stressed the idea that goals indicate deficits and the SCIP committee didn’t want to suggest that our G/T program was an area of weakness.

In the Initiative Section:

–        Initiative #1, Title I Targeted Assistance information was added.  Groveland will be targeting reading in grades 1, 2 and 3 with a mix of pull-out and collaboration.

–        Initiative #2 which focuses on ELL learners stayed the same.  One suggestion was made to add a reference to the parent involvement night (required for Title I).

–        Initiative #3 is about making improvements to math achievement.  A change was made to say that Kindergarten uses the Everyday Math curriculum instead of the Investigations curriculum.

–        Initiative #4 was added this year to address the Gifted and Talented program.  This past year there was a Gifted and Talented task force set up to review and suggest changes to the current program.  However, this task force has been modified in favor of greater involvement by staff and parents, with the idea that staff and parents could come to a consensus and present it to Site Council.  A question was raised about whether there should be a forum for parental involvement.  Perhaps parents who were part of the task force would join the teachers in this effort and invite additional parents to be involved.  It was suggested that it should be added that parents are invited to participate in the enrichment committee at any time.

It was decided to table the vote for approval because attendance at this meeting was low.  Ann Hobbie will email voting Site Council members for comments/feedback about the SCIP.

Other announcements:  Ann Hobbie reminded Site Council that we had agreed to put off the discussion of “paying for all day Kindergarten” for the 08-09 school year until this spring.  It was decided to table this discussion until next fall.

The meeting was adjourned at 6:45 p.m.  The next meeting is planned for May 16^th at 5:15 p.m.