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Notes from RHS faculty meeting – 2-14-05

Jeff Carlson and Vicky Rispoli were invited to the Faculty Meeting to address the Faculty regarding the Parents Group.

Scott Nicol – Asst. Principal at VCMS reported on a Teacher Recruitment Fair to be held at VCMS on Saturday, April 9, 2005 from 8 AM to noon.
The idea is to attract Middle and High School teachers to build a database of teachers that will be made available to 13 area districts. see - http://www.vernonschools.com/jobfair/index.html

Vicky Rispoli and Jeff Carlson – Discussion of RHS Parent Group. We talked a lot about communication. We also outlined our accomplishments –

• Re-write of the Profile that goes to colleges
  
• Working on transitioning 9th graders to the High School
  
• E-Mail list to quickly update parents on information
  
• Web Site to have a place for Parents to get information (we are not trying to replace the official RHS site)
  
• Re-design of the Parent Meetings (we detailed our Dec. 2 meeting – see note on Web Site)
  
• Welcome Packet for September 9th graders, handed out to parents at recent orientation night
  
• Started off-site support meetings for parents (see meeting notes)
  
• Review of the new college resource book for 11th graders (it looks great – NICE JOB by the Guidance Dept!)
  
• Representatives attended various meetings and workshops and reported back to the Administration
  
• Future plans include:
  
• Continued improvement of communication with staff and parents
  
• Possible changes to suspensions (does it make sense to make a student stay home as punishment for missing school or being late?)
  
• Expanded support groups for parents

The only question we were asked was if the parent e-mail addresses were posted on the web site. I said they were not but I said that we would suggest that parents e-mail their kids teachers with the student’s name in the subject line to get our e-mails to the teachers. It went well.

Parents should note this – e-mail your student’s teachers a quick note so the teacher has YOUR e-mail address and can communicate with you! Put the student’s name in the subject line.

Eric Jackson reported on Grade 9 Small Learning Committee / Team Pilot – He said that preliminary data show that about 50% of the 9th graders failed at least 1 course in the first semester. He was asked if the data were refined at all – which groups of kids are failing? He repeated what Vicky and I had said – that we are waiting for data to try to answer this question – once we know what groups are failing we can then try to address the problem. He also said that they are looking at area districts and he said this seems to be the norm.

Eric Jackson also talked about "Looking for the Good" in students. He said that he often is the "heavy" in discipline, so he asked for some examples of "Looking for the Good" in students and told of some examples where he pulls kids aside and compliments them on something. Two other teachers gave examples of students doing something good.

Sue Andrews talked about attendance. She let the teachers know that they may be asked to verify the attendance records because they are in the process of mailing out letters to parents of kids who are being denied credit for too many lates or cuts. She said the policy is laid out in the student handbook. Because of budget cuts, they cut staff in attendance from 2 employees to 1, so they do not call home when a kid doesn’t show up or when a kid is in danger of losing credit. (PARENTS SHOULD NOTE THIS!)

They ended with a doorprize of a nice Valentine’s flower arrangement from the Vo-Ag classes.

- Jeff Carlson