RHS Parent Group Minutes, February 2, 2009

Dear Parents:
The following are the minutes of the Feb. 2 meeting of the RHS Parent Group.

After a brief welcome, there was a discussion with Lindi Bedore, Student Council President. She explained how the Student Council (SC) works. The SC is open to all students who wish to belong. In that respect it acts as a club—members are all volunteers and anyone can come to the meetings. It is different and separate from the individual class officers whom are voted in by students; however, many of the  class officers also belong to SC. It has several missions, chief among them is service to the school and the Rockville community. (Whereas class governments focus on events, e.g. prom, for their own class. For example, the SC sponsored a blood drive at RHS this past fall that drew 60 donors, and another drive is planned for this spring. The SC raised $3000 organizing runners for the Thanksgiving Manchester Road Race. It will plan and run RHS’ “Band-Aid” Battle of the Bands in April or May to raise money for the=2 0Shriners Children’s Hospital. Another SC event is Homecoming. The Parent Group (PG) will make more effort to advertise fundraisers by the SC, as well as class governments via the PG email list and website.

UPDATES: Guidance Director Kimberly Marinan discussed Freshman Orientation which was held Jan. 29. This was held for the first time in the new auditorium so everyone had a seat. Students interested in the Vo-Ag program were also invited from neighboring towns. Other efforts to ease transition to RHS include visits by guidance counselors to VCMS, VCMS student visits and tours at RHS in April, Freshman orientation in the summer, mandatory freshman study hall and student mentorship with upper class “Link Crew” members.

Parents suggested that the positive aspects of Freshman Academies should be emphasized in the Orientation presentation, as much as the disciplinary aspects (e.g. Pyramid of Intervention). Administration is coming up with a set of 2^nd semester privileges awarded to well-performing freshman during the 1^st semester. Kim said Brian will have this year’s freshman academic statistics as soon as he can and will make them available to the PG.

At the Orientation, the PG handed out 200 welcome packets, but only received about 30 requests to be listed on the PG email list. The PG put request slips on the front of the packet, as opposed to collecting addresses via clipboard and personal introduction. More efforts to grow the list will include an announcement in the VCMS newsletter and collection of email addresses at Freshman Parent Night and Open House via clipboard requests.

Replying to PG questions regarding exams, Kim explained how the exam grades are figured into semester averages. She said exams count for 20% of the semester grade. The individual quarter grades count for 40% each. One-quarter electives the exam is not listed separately, it is figured into the quarter grade, i.e. it is 10% of the grade.

A parent raised the issue of creative cheating. Kim and Vice Principal Eric Baim said that it’s up to teachers to police cheating; it requires academic consequences and does not have to be reported. Eric said he would look into the statistics on IPASS of plagiarism/cheating.

DEAR PARENTS, FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE ISSUE OF CHEATING, PLEASE GO TO http://charactercounts.org/programs/reportcard/index.html    THERE'S AN INTERESTING ARTICLE: "PROGRAMS: ETHICS OF AMERICAN YOUTH SURVEY"


Kim said in informal surveys of students, students have admitted they have cheated or have helped other students. She also said that some students might not understand that by sharing an answer on a homework question that they may be cheating instead of helping.

One form of cheating that is getting easier to detect is plagiarism. These days students can download term papers or reports and turn them in as their own work. Teachers can catch that easily by “googling” only a sentence or two.

Parents can help prevent cheating by discussing the issue with their students, checking off that assignments were completed, and by reading their reports for authentic, grade-and personality- appropriate language.

Principal Brian Levesque was unable to make the meeting and VP Eric Baim attended in his stead. Eric was asked to provide some insight into what the vice principals’ jobs entail. Eric said that VP Sue Andrews and he split             some duties. Eric handles staff scheduling and security. Sue handles graduating performance requirements including District Performance Tasks. They each have responsibility for two Freshman Academies and day to day operations. “And whatever Brian Levesque throws at us,” Eric added with a chuckle.

Eric admitted that discipline issues take up “the bulk of our time. We’d love it to be the least amount of time.” One of biggest problems is tardiness to class. During the week of Feb. 2, Levesque, Baim and Andrews dedicated themselves to sweeping the halls between classes. One day, they found 55 kids arriving late to first block. “We call their parents who say that they drop off the students on time, but they leave campus. The kids don’t care; they know they can make it up. We’re researching how other schools handle it. Some use in-school suspension. We’ve been pulling privileges.”

He discussed how detentions are staffed. (Weekdays are two-hour detentions; Saturdays are three.) In the spring, Eric puts out a schedule for the next year, and teachers can volunteer to monitor them for a fee. The State Board of Ed has mandated In-School Suspensions, but pushed back the mandate until 2012, because schools cannot afford it. Manchester stated it would take an extra $145,000 to staff ISS for the school year.

As for drug use, Eric said we’ve only had two separate incidents after drug-sniffing dogs came in early fall. Another dog-round will be held in the spring. For each round, the staff executes a ”Soft lock down,” which means that students remain in their classrooms with the doors shut and with normal teaching continuing. A “Hard lock down” entails, turning off lights, pulling down shades, and students taking shelter under their desks.

FOOD SERVICES: District Food Services20Director Monica Pacheko said the new cafeteria is running more smoothly. Due to stealing, the staff has had to rearrange items such as 10 oz. juices and packaged (non-spillable) products to put them in the cashier’s line of sight. She said there are cases of students doing a “Power slug” while on line, then putting the empty bottles back.

As the whole world is feeling the economic pinch, some food commodities—things bought in bulk--cheese products, fruit, pasta—have been held up. She is now working on all commodities orders for next year. However, the availabilities differ from year to  year.

The district has achieved its “Healthy Food” certification, which mandates levels of nutrients, for instance there is a 500 mg limit on sodium.

NEXT RHS PG MEETING IS APRIL 6. JOIN US FOR A LIVELY DISCUSSION BY PARENTS AND RHS GRADS ON “LIFE AFTER RHS .”