The Site Council met on Tuesday, March 21, 2006, because of a change in school schedule due to statewide mandated CAHSEE test dates.

1. Approval and review of minutes. The minutes of the February 23, 2006, meeting and the amended October 27, 2005, minutes were approved.
2. Update: School Site Plan Sarah distributed the most recent drafts for the school site plan sections on core subjects/subjects. She explained that DHS was updating its school site plan for the "3 year check" for WASC. The updated site plan will be finished and ready for review by site council by our May meeting. Sarah reminded members that the teacher proposals that we will be reviewing should align with the stated needs in the site plan drafts for the core subjects/subjects and that we should take this into account when making our decisions.
3. Review of Common Pages: Approval of Common Pages. The answers requested last month have not been supplied. This item is postponed.
4. Parent/student/staff Surveys: there were two issues on the parent survey that are problematic: -parents had a very short time to complete and return the forms -and they were directed to return them to the school office: no address or envelope was included. Students noted that not all classes or students took the surveys seriously. Directions were not clear about checking boxes or filling in squares. Students wondered whether mistakes could be corrected. Given all this, the site council wonders about the value of the surveys. We also wondered how the results are used and where they are published. The value of the letter being included and distributed to every student was questioned.
5. Draft of Pupil Personnel Promotion and Graduation Clarifying policies in these areas is a positive step. The grammar and wording on 6.15-1, page 1, especially items 1-4, is not corrected. Foreign exchange students in the same section, page 2, have not traditionally received diplomas, even honorary ones. Section 6.15-3, page 1, has CAHSEE spelled incorrectly in the final paragraph. There are issues with English learners who cannot pass the English portion. The Certificate of Achievement would be a new level in this district. The 3 levels listed: diploma, certificate of completion, certificate of achievement, are at the recommendation of the state association of school boards. The committee wanted to know whether these three terms will be standard across the state.
6. Allocation of 2006-07 SIP funding Today we will begin the process of allocation.There is close to $50,000 in requests without counting A-D (impossible to total at this point as not all requests included totals). We do not know the amount yet that we will have to distribute.

Proposals A-D: We will look at these 4 large, school wide requests at a later meeting. At this point we will look through the proposals to see if there are any that can be eliminated due to being inappropriate for SIP funding. We may be able to give partial funding to some proposals.We may be asking those who submitted grant requests to prioritize in case of partial funding.

What follows is a summary of each request and the discussion help by the council.

1. Friendship Day. They request help for 7 Friendship Days from a number of organizations. Cost for each is $325-300. Partial funding possible (last year we gave $500). Sarah will find out how many years we have supported this and in what amounts.
2. Music. English Horn. $4395
3. Music. Soprano Saxophone. $2395.
4. Music. Acontra Bass Clarinet $3399.
5. Music. Tuba. $5399. Sarah will ask if there is one of these needed more than the others, not that we know we can fund any of them. Are there used instruments available for purchase? Is partial funding of even one instrument useful?
6. Home economics. Sewing machines with quilting foot accessories. $2058.94. We will see if funding one or more of these is possible.
7. Agriculture/Ag Mech. The total for shop supplies listed is close to $35,000. It will be prioritized. Also, what items are unlikely to be donated from community businesses would be useful information. Any amount would be helpful for these programs.
8. Student supervisors. Additional funding for more positions during lunch. This is not something we can fund legally. No.
9. Math department. Three multi-media projectors at $3,600. Partial funding possible, full funding desirable. Sheila will check with the tech committee to see if there is a school-wide tech plan.
10. Library. Four computers to replace old ones. $5,000 total. These benefit all students.
11. Special Ed., inclusion. Reading materials, $1176.33 including tax.
12. Social Studies. Slide projector. $500. Sarah will check with Sharon H. Could this be donated? Could the slides be digitized?
13. Model UN/International Relations Club. This is for students to attend conferences, and we do not fund these. No.
14. Art. $2,686.96. Bulletin boards and display cases. Partial funding possible: we will ask for priorities. Different prices possible on bulletin boards. Patty Smith could assist with pricing.
15. Art. $950 for 2 video cameras and accessories. We would like to fund this if possible.
16. Foreign language. Opaque projector. $1,122.95 before tax. $1,207.96. Again, the tech committee will be consulted including Sharon Hallberg. How do these compare with LCD projectors?
17. English. Readers. $3000. We did not fund any English reader money last year. Partial funding would be helpful. New teachers especially need help. The comment was made that it would be nice to be sure funding supports at-risk students. More is needed on the grant request addressing this; Sarah will take back to English chair.
18. Foreign language, Japanese. Readers. $1000. We have supported this traditionally. We will know the number of students in Japanese classes for next year at the next meeting.

The following four proposals were not discussed, but here is a summary of each: 19. English. Films. Total not given. 20. English. Turnitin software; $1,700. 21. Special Education. $353.42. 22. Art. $10,700 for 6 computers, 6 digital SLR cameras, 2 color printers/scanners.

We will look further at these proposals next month. Patty will have the grid of requests at the next meeting.

There was no further business. The meeting was adjourned at 5:00 P.M. Minutes recorded by Jean Meyer

Calendar of 2005-06 Site Council meetings April 27; May 25 Meetings are in the Large Conference Room unless otherwise announced. Meetings are from 3:00 – 4:30, although during the allocation process meetings run until 5:00 P.M.