Unofficial Synopsis of May 7th, 2013 Meeting

**This is an unofficial account of the School Council meeting from Tuesday, May 7th.  The official minutes will not be approved until the first meeting of the 2013-2013 school year in August 2013. **

The meeting was called to order at 5:04 p.m.

Inspiration was provided by Kristi Cross.

Minutes from the April meeting were unanimously approved (available now under the 'approved meeting minutes' tab above).

REPORTS

PTA:

Jennifer Hatfield provided the PTA President's report.  Highlights included:

1) PTA finances are in good shape for the end of the year with a slight excess.
2) The budget ways and means committee has been gathering community input regarding what to do with the budget excess.  The use for the money will be voted on by the general PTA membership at the May meeting.
3) The slate of PTA officers for the 2013-2014 school year will be voted on at the May PTA meeting.
4) The student Talent Show will occur following the May PTA meeting on Thursday, May 16th.
5) A buy-one-get-one book fair will be held next week.
6) The 5K was held last week with approximately 90 runners and it generated some positive revenue.

Evansdale Education Foundation:

Gretchen Neigh read a report provided via email by the Evansdale Education Foundation.  The report is copied here:

*New board members Genny Tuggey, Chris Foley, Jen McGaughey, Anne Craddock, Scott Vanags and Jen Allen were welcomed at the meeting on April 21^st.  New board members that were unable to attend this meeting were Lauren Shankman and Myriam Quispe-Agnoli.  Official transition to the new board will occur at the next board meeting scheduled for May 19^th and take effect on June 1^st, 2013.  

*Red Hot & Blue - grossed $26,054.  Thanks to the Evansdale community for the support as well as organizer/lead Susan Ponder and our host Greater Good BBQ for a spectacular event.  

*Family Picture Day Fundraiser with Patterson Photography on Sunday May 11th.  Lee will waive sitting fee and instead requests a $40 donation for the Foundation.  Announcements were also distributed in PTA e-blast and in couriers on April 19th.  

*The Evansdale Foundation investment history has been updated on the Evansdale Foundation website (http://evansdalefoundation.org/)

*The Foundation is considering appointing a regular liaison to School Council for next year.

Administrator Reports:

Dan McGuire and Pamela McCloud provided the reports (Ms. McCloud will be included in School Council meetings under the Administrator Reports for all meetings going forward).

Staffing and Allotments:

1) Allotments for the 2013-2014 school year will be available to Dr. McGuire by the end of next week.  Any changes in current allotments will be communicated to the community once official word is available.

2) Roselle Hicks, school secretary, is retiring.  Lindsey Hicks, school counselor, is moving on to a new employment opportunity.  Terry Johnson, Kindergarten teacher, is moving on to a new employment opportunity.

3) Replacements for both the K teacher and the school counselor are being interviewed now.

4) The county has not yet approved the hiring of a 10-month secretary to replace Roselle Hicks.

5) There are also plans to to hire a 5th grade math/science teacher due to anticipated expansion of the 5th grade next year, but this position is dependent on the allotments from the county.

6) Enrollment will be updated soon but is approximately 654 students.

7) College and Career Ready Performance Index (CCRPI) scores for 2012 were released.  Evansdale scored a 87.6 which is comparable to other schools such as Livsey and Briarlake.  The major area for improvement for Evansdale is "Achievement Gap".  Our Hispanic population did not meet any local, state, or federal benchmarks and we need to improve our services for this portion of the Evansdale community.  It is important to remember that this is the 2012 score and uses CRCT scores from spring 2012 and may not be a 100% accurate reflection of our current scores.  The CCRPI scores replace AYP.  A future blog post will discuss CCRPI and explain our score and the mechanism in more detail.  Information is publicly available from the State BOE and has been posted on the AJC (http://www.myajc.com/news/ccrpi-2012-scores/).  

8) Fifth grade writing scores are in and 89% of Evansdale 5th graders either met or exceeded the standards. This is the second year in a row of improved scores and reflects the hard work of the teachers and the assistance of Ms. McCloud.  

UNFINISHED BUSINESS

Parental Involvement - Parental involvement and engagement has been picked up by the PTA as a focused effort for the 2013-2014 school year.  A strategic planning meeting was held by leadership this past week and efforts are being made to increase the impact of volunteerism at the school and to streamline the requests made for volunteers.  This topic will not be revisited at School Council unless a problem arises that requires School Council input.

STEM Update - STEM Day was celebrated last week.  The day was celebrated with a focus on STEM careers.  There was a STEM career poster competition open to the entire school.  A total of 37 posters were entered and students that entered received an Evansdale STEM magnet and a coupon to use at the Olympic Day concession stand.  There will also be a top girl and boy poster selected and each will receive a $25 gift card.  These prizes were sponsored by PTA.  Evansdale's STEM Day celebration was combined with Career Day.  The combined events were featured in the DCSD newsletter last week.  STEM professional development for the summer is being scheduled and things are on track to implement STEM curricula next year.  The use of STEM curricula will be voluntary next year but will be available to all teachers to incorporate.

ELL Adult Programs  - Approximately 30 parents attended the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education (MALDEF) program that was held at the school on April 30th.  A representative from MALDEF spoke with the parents about the obstacles faced by their children and the need for them as parents to become engaged in their child's education.  The program was well received and attempts are being made to schedule the full 12-week session that MALDEF offers for the fall of 2013.

French Immersion Program - Parent information for incoming kindergarten parents were held in both Spanish and English.  Two K classes for the immersion program will be offered next year and each class will have 22 students.  Selection for the program is lottery based and open to any rising K student at Evansdale.  Parents may register for the lottery either online or using a paper application available in the Evansdale office.  Registration for the lottery will occur from May 13 - June 7.  On May 16th special assistance for registration for the lottery will be available at Evansdale.  The lottery will occur on June 12th at the central office of DCSD.

School Council Elections - Nominations for three new parent representatives are being accepted now through Thursday, May 9th. All biographies will be translated to Spanish and available at the school and online.  Voting will occur Monday through Thursday next week and will conclude following the PTA meeting.  School Council members will staff a table to prominently display the voting location multiple times next week.  The new members will officially take office in August at the first School Council meeting but will be included in any School Council communication during the summer along with all current members of the School Council.

Magnet Lottery Update - Names were pulled for at-large kindergarten during the School Choice Lottery. All names are on the waiting list and no at-large K spots will be available next year until after enrollment is assessed after the start of the 2013-2014 school year.  The same is true for any other grade level for which at-large names were pulled.

Transition to 2013-2014 School Council - A document outlining all the various duties of the School Council Chair was distributed which included information about the major communication outlets added this year (blog, Facebook, gmail account).  The Chair has maintained all of this media outlets this year in addition to the standard duties of agenda setting and meeting administration.  Which of these media outlets are maintained next year will be up to the new Council because the Chair, Gretchen Neigh, will no longer be a Council member.  It is the recommendation that the outlets all be maintained, but this is not a requirement and is at the discretion of the School Council members.  School Council members whose terms are ending are: Gretchen Neigh McCandless (Chair), Denise Robinson (Vice Chair), Rudyard Alcocer, and Cheryl Anderson (teacher representative).

NEW BUSINESS - none

DEVELOP AGENDA FOR NEXT MEETING

A specific agenda was not adopted because of summer break.  It was recommended by the current Chair that some type of document regarding attendance and excused versus unexcused absences be developed over the summer to improve understanding of the process for parents.  Additional attention will also need to be given to engagement of Hispanic families and improvement of the achievement gap.

ADJOURN - meeting adjournedat 5:52.  

The next meeting will occur after the start of the 2013-2014 school year in August.