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Author Topic: My notes from the 9-21-2011 School Board meeting  (Read 10813 times)
Victoria
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« on: October 01, 2011, 05:38:14 PM »

Notes from School Board meeting 9-21-2011

On Corbett School District Website:  We also will continue to post approved minutes on the district website.  Reports, notes, or minutes that you may see on other non-district websites are not approved minutes and they may not reflect an accurate, unbiased, or editorial-free accounting of the board meeting. – Dr. Randy Trani

That being said, these are my notes and reflect my understanding of what is being presented.  These are not the view of the board, other board members or Dr. Trani.

The meeting was a rather short meeting, once it got started.  At 7pm we had three board members ready to begin, Bob Buttke, Charlie O’Neil and Victoria Purvine.  Annette Calcagno and Mark Hyzer had excused absences through Dr. Trani and Robin Lindeen-Blakely.  It turned out that Jeff Aho had notified the Chair earlier in the week to let him know he had to work, but a mix up occurred and the information didn’t get to the Secretary.  Todd Mickalson showed up at 7:35 (he had been working at the coast and got there as soon as he could) and the meeting got started.

The chairman report was noted as noted as the Chair not being at the meeting, so no Chair report.

Correspondence to the Board: There was a letter from the Middle School Staff that I have attached.  I have also attached my response to the letter.

Dee Dee Hanes: GS Principal/ Special Education Director: 
Mrs. Hanes was not able to attend the meeting and Abby Steichen, an intermediate teacher, presented a report.  Abby discussed her class and the one on one book club she instituted with her students last year, and plans on doing again this year.  The student picks the book they want to read, and she monitors the choice to make sure it isn’t too advanced, or too easy.  She keeps pace with the reading that the student is doing and they get to do in-depth discussions, without pressure from a group who may be reading at a different pace. 

Lori Luna: MS Assistant Principal:  Things are going great.  The district added a classroom of students, so we now have six in district and three charter middle school classrooms.  The students were attending Madras as they focus on their Ancient Cultures learning, and half the students had gone to Madras for their overnight trip on Monday/Tuesday, with the other half going Wednesday/Thursday.  Mrs. Luna wanted to explain the philosophy of the middle school, which is community-wonder-choice.  The overnight trips are to promote community, the curriculum is to promote wonder, and the student has the choice to pick they way they want to learn, promoting choice.  Corbett is teaching to the individual and the teachers try to find a way to encourage learning based what the student finds wonder in.

Phil Pearson: HS Assistant Principal:  Phil presented a worksheet he started last year to work with end of year Juniors regarding the diploma they would like to earn, and the courses they still need to accomplish their goal.  He is working with each individual student to make sure they understand their graduation needs and help prepare them. 

No audience member wanted to address the board.

Financial report:  Randy Trani:  We could possibly grow the ending fund balance to around $700,000 if there are no surprises and if funding doesn’t change.  There is the $200 million shortfall for Oregon this year and the Legislation doesn’t know if school funding will be lower for a couple more months.  The funding for the number of students we have in our district is those who are attending on December 1, 2011.  The State does a two year rolling trend, so even if the legislation changes and we lose 700 students we would get funding for them for a year, and that money could be set aside until a new approach was reached.

Vacant Position on Budget committee:  Applicants:
David Gorman
Dirk Iwata-Reuyl
Brian James
Janet Ruddell
Interviews will be scheduled for the October meeting.

Springdale School Subcommittee:  The SSCA passed a motion to contribute $6,000 towards the studies being done on the Springdale school. 
McKinstry was doing studies on the school 9/21, 9/23 and 9/24.  The reports should be ready by the next board meeting.
Alpha Industries was doing the environmental study and the report should be ready by 10/7. 
The ODE has extended the QSCB loan date to 12/31, so we have some time to get the studies in and firm up a number, instead of the $875,000 to $2,500,000 number we currently have been given.
Randy is looking for some local contractors to go through the building and see what they think needs done, and also if some would be willing to donate their work.

Boosters:  Kristie and Chris missed the meeting, but Todd Mickalson stepped up and said that the season is going well.  All athletes have paid for this year and football schedules can be found at corbettfootball.com.  There is a schedule there for parents and community members who would like to work and help out.  He believes the other sports also have websites. 

Part time bus driver positions are available at this time.

Consent agenda was unable to be exercised because the changes kept coming until a couple hours before the meeting, so every item had to be switched to an action item:

Resolved to adopt the independent textbook adoption for second language Spanish Grades 9-12.
Rescind extra period for teacher Richard Ferguson @ 16.67% of salary.
Reduction of .75 FTE bus drive and increase of Eligibility Official to 1.0 FTE for Dorthy Hayden.
Hire of Jeffery Mershon as .40 FTE bus driver
Hire of Kim Diebert as .35 FTE bus driver
Change Joseph Schneider from .35 FTE to .40 FTE bus driver
Third reading and adoption of policies for District Nutrition and Food Services, and Staff Religious Dress.

Superintendent Trani’s report:  2010-2011 Assessments and AYP Reports
Corbett made AYP, and we should, because we are only being asked to teach to an acceptable level of improvement, but it was very close.  We are a k-12 school and the high school made it without a problem, but the grade school numbers are low.   We are teaching to the Individual, not to the Whole, and that is what makes Corbett different. 
ODE is requesting a waiver on the No Child Left Behind Act.  NCLB is a good idea, but one that Phil has done research on and in the next three years the only school to pass the requirements will be Riverdale.  We will continue to work with students to make NCLB, but the sub-group set ups will force all schools to fail. 

(Mrs. Luna brought up Criterion Reference testing and Norm Reference testing.  That you can manipulate criterion based scores to say whatever you want.  I have attached the information on the two items.  From what I understand, Criterion is Did you Learn what was in the Material?  And Norm is How did you Learn compared to Others in the class?)

Meeting concluded at approximately 8:45pm.

Now, I’m going to go ahead and editorialize. 
I have spent the last year hearing Dr. Trani say that we Do Not teach to the individual, but to the whole, and that sometimes a child falls behind but that is just what happens.  I have heard Dr. Trani state the we Do Not plan on chasing the tail of State testing and will not change our curriculum to improve our AYP scores.  I have also heard Dr. Trani state at a meeting that we are not going to try and meet the No Child Left Behind Act, but will wait for the State to apply for a waiver. 
I applaud wholeheartedly the turn around I’m hearing at the more recent meetings and hope that we are going to focus more on the individual.  While I understand that teaching 100% of the students at the State required level is a task that does not appear to be attainable, I would like to see Corbett in the 90% range before we end up in the “not met” category. 

We had a facilities meeting on 9/14 and I will get the notes typed up from that meeting and get them out.  Dr. Trani stated that he’d like to have between 1,100 to 1,400 students in the district and that will involve adding buildings or classrooms to accomplish that goal.  This is a subject that has been the focus regarding the Springdale school because to meet the loan cost Dr. Trani figures it will involve bringing in another 226 +/- students from out of the district.  If the Legislation changes the rules regarding Charters, or caps the percentage of students you may bring in from out of district, the cost will fall to the General fund to make the loan payment.  It’s a multi-faceted issue and studies are being done to give as much information as possible to the board members before voting to take out the loan.

Victoria Purvine




* Teacher doc.doc (21.5 KB - downloaded 829 times.)
* middleschoolteachers.doc (24 KB - downloaded 799 times.)
* Criterion.doc (32 KB - downloaded 778 times.)
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CharterSchoolParent
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« Reply #1 on: October 30, 2011, 09:59:47 AM »

Hi Victoria,

Did you have notes to the October meeting?

Thanks!
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Victoria
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« Reply #2 on: October 31, 2011, 07:33:22 AM »

Hi CharterSchoolParent,
Thanks for the nudge, I had it on my plans, just hadn't gotten it done yet Smiley
Let me know if you have any questions.
Victoria
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