Site Council Meeting: April 06, 2005

• Open Agenda: 10
• Year End Report Update: 05
• Human Rights Day Follow-Up:10
• OSSI Grant Update: 15
• Instructional Practices: 20

Open Agenda:

Small set of people to work on year-end report/ evaluation…People who signed up for this... Dennis, Mary-Lou, Helen, Lilly and Karla. This meeting is scheduled to meet in Dennis’s office on Tuesday 12th at 3:15.

Human Rights Day:

We revisited Carla’s point of view about Human Rights Day. At the last meeting we had a good discussion about the purpose of HRD and thought about creating a follow-up survey for students, staff and parent. At this meeting Alicia stated that she did not attend Human Rights Day, simply because her teachers failed to advertise it. She also said that many students she talked with disliked Human Rights Day. Other feedback was that some of the second sessions focussing on discussion felt too long or redundant if discussion also took place in the first session. We were all aware that the Bang Bang You’re Dead session ran over. The Equal Rights Group had a discussion in the first session so the second session felt repetitive. One thing that was pointed out by many was the fact that because it’s not mandatory for students to participate in Human Rights Day, many just skip the day. Grant and Delia led the Rage is Not a One Day Thing session. Anna-Lee was also apart of that group. Both Grant and Delia felt that the sessions which they were apart of went well and the feedback was positive. One point Delia brought to the attention of the group was that it is harder for kids to open up when they are amongst people they aren’t familiar with. Wes pointed out that his session was positive, great discussion and the second session was not as organized. Dennis suggested that kids should write a reflection paper on the day…. Anna dislikes that idea! ? Another idea for better attendance at Human Rights Day is that we should have morning and afternoon classes and sandwich the sessions in the middle. We all agreed that a survey of all stakeholders (parents, staff, students) about how the overall day was for them would be helpful before the end of the year.

Oregon Small Schools Initiative:

On March 28th and 29th, we had a site visit from the OSSI directors. As we are all aware, on April 19th they will be making the decision as to which schools receive the grants. One thing Dennis stated is that we need to decide if this is the best route for Churchill. The grant process has forced us to rush for time and we only have two weeks to decide. Mary-Lou pointed out that the more parents are educated about what’s taking place at our school, the more supportive they are and the more they trust the staff in making these decisions that affect their kids. Information about this grant was available to parents in last issue of the G’Lancer... As Delia stated, there has to be some sort of ‘medium ground’, because all the staff has been hearing is positive things…And we just need to be aware of both sides. Kathy was curious to know the difference between Small Schools and SLC’s. Dennis stated that in the grant, each small school would have their own philosophy, schedule and of course they would be autonomous. Another aspect of this is that we need to let the staff know that we are not going to let the programs they’ve developed be diminished. In last minute comments sending flyers, post-cards and phone dial-up to educate parents more about this process were suggested. At 4:45 we ended and Helen stated that we will pick up on Instructional Practices at the next meeting.