Present: Sarah O'Keefe, Jane McLaughlin, Gail Heckemeyer, Gail Cooluris, Amanda E., Rachel P., Heidi Loper, Patrick McGrew, Tom McHale, Michael Cawley, Matt Best, Sue Chan

Guest: Steve Smyte

Meeting called to order at 3:05 p.m.

1. Welcome; Introductions
   
   
2. District-wide site council meetings take place monthly from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the District offices. Coordinator Sarah O'Keefe attends every month, and everyone else is welcome to attend. This year, the dates of these meetings are October 8, November 12, December 10, January 14, February 11, March 10, April 14, and May 12.
   
   
3. Election of Officers, appointment of PTA liaison. Jane McLaughlin was elected chair and Rachel Perez vice chair, both unanimously. Jane will also serve as PTA liaison and Jean Meyer (absent due to family illness) will serve as recorder.
   
   
4. Approval of Minutes. The minutes of the May 22, 2003 meeting were approved with the following correction: The sentence in the last full paragraph which starts "Parent Mary Herbert..." as corrected should read "Parent Mary Herbert is graduating as well, but Jane McLaughlin will be back for her second year and Gail Cooluris and Gail Heckemeyer will seek re-election."

   The minutes of April 30, 2003 were unavailable. They will be reviewed and approved at the October site council meeting.
   
   

5. Copies of the following documents were distributed to, and reviewed by, the members of the site council: School Site Plan for 2002-03; a working copy of the school site plan template which will be used to draft school site plans in the future; Site Council End-of-the-Year Report (2002-03); Action Plan Target #1 (draft). All members also received a copy of the current by-laws for the DHS Site Council, a chart of the SIP 2003-04 spending proposals and a copy of the Standards for Student Behavior for 2003-04. New members also received copies of district handbooks.
   
   
6. Sarah O'Keefe reported that WASC has approved DHS for six years accreditation with a review after 3 years.
   
   
7. Principal Mike Cawley reported that the new "Standards of Student Behavior" adopted by the school district is district wide and covers elementary schools as well as the junior highs and high school. It sets forth all levels of infractions and consequences up to expulsion. There are new sections covering hate crimes and racial slurs. Examples of district and federal complaint forms are included. The vice principals have been visiting all classrooms to go over the standards with the students.

   Mike also reported increased enforcement of the school dress code and attendance rules.
   
   

8. School Site Council Meetings will take place on the 4th Thursday of every month (with the two exceptions noted below) in the large conference room from 3:00 to 4:30 p.m. They are set for the following dates:

   October 23, November 20 (this month site council will join the Curriculum and Instruction Committee for a joint meeting at 2:45 p.m. in the Staff Lounge.), December (no meeting unless needed), January 29, February 26, March 25, April 29, and May 27.
   
   

9. Budget Information.
   Sarah O'Keefe reported that Ann Costello will tell site council the amount of its budget by next month's meeting. There will be a 30% reduction in the amount of available funding from last year. Site Council still has approximately $32,000 in carryover funds to distribute.
   
   
10. Guest Speaker: Steve Smyte, Chair, Special Education Department.
    Steve Smyte reviewed with the site council the purpose and goals of the Special Education Department. It is designed to serve any student with a disability whether emotional, learning, physical, ADD/ADHD or autism. The department works with 504, ELL, at risk students and any others identified as special education students. Its goals include integrating all these students into every aspect of school life including mainstream classrooms.

    Measures of the success rate of the department include:
    
    

    • A 2003 graduation rate of 23 out of 24 students, with the 24th student needing only one more class to graduate (State average is less than 50%).
      
      
    • The WASC committee asked the department to design a survey last year to measure special ed student satisfaction and the results were overwhelmingly positive.
      
      
    • Of the current seniors in the program, only 3 are not currently on track to graduate with their peers, and 9 have more than enough credit to graduate.
      
      
    • Attainment rate of IEP goals is 88%.
      
      
    • 100% of the current special ed students are involved in "workability" exercises and 50 are currently placed in work situations.
      
      
    • All students in the department who have taken the CAHSEE have passed it.

    The department is serving 117 students at DHS and another 10 from King.

    The department's budget is $20 per student. Because of the high need for computer ink cartridges, almost 75% of the budget was spent on this last year. A grant from site council two years ago enabled the department to buy sorely need books on tape for its students. They did not ask for funding last year, but intend to ask for a grant to purchase more books on tape this year. The department will seek funding for ink cartridges (a consumable resource) from the PTA.
    
    

11. Next Month's Meeting on October 23.
    Items on next month's agenda include: Report by Vice Principal Pam Mari on DHS action plan; report by Vice Principal Patrick Donlan on attendance issues; specific information on this year's site council budget.

    There was no public comment.

Minutes submitted by

Gail Heckemeyer
Recorder pro tem