Site Council Minutes: September 15, 2004

Recorder: Karla Nelson

Option Levy
Virginia Farkas (485.0859) explained the option levy that will be up for vote again this fall. It is a renewal of the 5-year option levy that was passed in 1999. The amount taxpayers will pay will not change. If the levy does not pass, the school board will have to cut $60 million from next year's budget, which will mainly be staffing as staffing is 85% of the operating budget. There will be times and dates where school district employees will be conducting phone banks, etc. so give Virginia a call if you are interested.
Site Council Business
- Site Council processes and procedures were reviewed. - Reviewed meeting dates and list of recorder/snacks people The possibility of moving the meeting time up an hour to start at 3:15pm was discussed and it will be voted on at the next meeting on October 6th, after MaryLu and Carla can be contacted.

EEF Grants
- Reviewed EEF Grant process.
- Deadline for this year's grant proposals is October 8th (mailed and emailed) to the EEF office. There are two for $2,000 and two for $500 available to apply for. Those interested in applying need to get their applications to Dennis by Tuesday, October 5th. Site Council will review the proposals and pick the ones to submit for the lottery of funding at the October 6th meeting.
School Improvement Plan
- SIP ideas from the staff retreat in August and the September 15th staff meeting were discussed.
- Scheduling and Literacy were major topics of discussion.
- Literacy, testing and measurement of results were discussed, as was the connection between them and Read Right coming online this year
- Maybe we should be looking at what we are already doing -- things we have started and have either set aside and left undone, or we are in the process of but have not completed?
- It was voted on and approved that we continue to process and work on developing instructional strategies and our school's mission/vision statement during this school year, and that that be included in this year's SIP.
Open
- Beginning of school went well.
- Students talked about effective teaching "If the teachers are teaching effectively, the kids will attend" -- teaching drives attendance