SANTA MONICA HIGH SCHOOL PTSA
ASSOCIATION MEETING SEPTEMBER 9, 2003
SAMOHI CAFETERIA
Cheri continued by telling all that we had an incredible opening of the school year. Staff and parents provided a huge effort and accomplished lots of work. The Administration wants to thank all those who helped with the opening of the school year. Dr. Straus spoke next and expressed her feeling that this was an amazing experience. The parents wanted to help with registration, formed a committee and 2700 students completed registration in four days. The average time each student spent at registration was less than one hour. The Superintendent's Office received 40 unsolicited positive comments and no negative comments. The committee prepared a manual and provided a training session for the volunteers because they knew the registration process could be different. Thanks were extended to Janine Brownstone and Deb Love for organizing the lunch to welcome back the staff, the parent greeters who provided directions and helped on the first day of school and the parents who helped stuff the packets that were mailed home during the summer. Special thanks was given to Chris Thornton who placed the bar codes on the textbooks and worked with a team at Obligations and Textbooks during registration. Judi Bloom and her Campus Beautification Team worked on Saturday, Sept.6. All the parents who helped in the registration process and the beginning of the school year were asked to stand and were acknowledged and thanked once again with special recognition going to Registration Committee co-chairs Patsy Maddock and Karen Dickerson, and committeemembers Chris Thornton, Inese Verezmnieks, Janine Brownstone, Maryanne LaGuardian, and Lynn Naliboff.
Co-Presidents Cheri Orgel and Louise Jaffe introduced themselves and then introduced Nancy Gutierrez, who provides simultaneous Spanish translations at all meetings.
Superintendent, John Deasey welcomed back all parents. He too wanted to share the "buzz" about registration. All the comments were good and there were no complaints. This would have never happened without the parents who were so diligent. He and the community want to thank all that helped. He also wanted to thank the students who came to school over the summer to help with moving the teacher classrooms or whatever was asked. Mr. Deasy explained that Re-design is not a destination, but it is a process. He is deeply committed to make a different tone and atmosphere at Samohi, but also to preserve the good points and then to improve other areas. He is committed to Re-design for the next several years. He urged the parents to come frequently to meetings.
Cheri Orgel also thanked the students who helped with registration.
Gus Walsh, of ASB and Activities spoke about the ASB leadership. There are nine members of their Executive Committee. There will be student representatives from each house plus two senior representatives. Simon Hanna mentioned the auditions were being held for the two plays that will be presented this year. He also announced that the price for yearbooks would be $45 for the month of Sept. Kesha Ram, of the ASB Environmental Committee, announced that their goal is to have the students be more responsible with waste and to recycle in an effort to keep the campus cleaner. They discussed the Delians Society and the National Honor society. The California Scholarship Federation, known as Delians, is open to all students who have good grades, based on a point system. The students can be Seal Bearers at Graduation if they are members for four of their last six semesters and at least one of the semesters as a senior. They are also invited to Senior Awards Night. The application is available at the school website and the completed application with the $7 fee should be brought to Ms. Callahan, room B100. There is also a trip to Knott's Berry Farm or Magic Mountain planned for the end of the year for members of CSF/NHS. To be a member of the National Honor society, students need at least a 3.0 average to qualify. The applications are available at Ms. Wexler's room, S 207. There is also a service requirement. These students wear a gold cord at graduation. The application process will be available for the next three weeks. The first semester a student is eligible is the fall semester of the sophomore year, based on their second semester freshman grades. The English teachers have the lists of the students who are eligible.
Louise Jaffe announced that there were no reports from AAPSSSG or SOL/BAC. The College Fair will be held on Oct. 7 from 6:30-9 PM, and that Lynn Naliboff, chairperson for College Fair is requesting volunteers to provide assistance for the college representatives. Joyce Smith, PTSA Rep to the College Center explained that college representatives come on campus and that parent volunteers are asked for a one-hour commitment to help the representatives. Louise also announced that there will also be a L.A. County Arts College Fair held offsite. On Sept 20 and Sept. 21a practice SAT test will be offered by Revolution Preparation, an outside concern. The newsletter provides a list of companies that provide this service; none are endorsed by PTSA. This is recommended for 10th, 11th and 12th grade students.
Amy Van Pelt, auditor has examined the financial records prepared by Kim Eyler and found no discrepancies. Roshan Nozari moved to accept the audit as presented and Bennett Tramer seconded the motion. All present accepted the audit. The Treasurer's Report shows all the bills to be paid. The Budget for the 2003-2004 school year was presented and the PTSA Executive Board recommended it to be accepted. Alex motioned to approve the budget as recommended and Roshan Nozari seconded the motion. All present approved the budget as recommended.
Janine Avner spoke about the Site Governance Committee, whose members are staff, parents and students of Samohi. There are three parent representatives and one alternate. Tonight we have to elect one representative and one alternate. She introduced the candidates, who gave a brief statement. Candidate, Randi Hutchison has a family history with Samohi. She wants to bring the school to what it can be if we all work together. Candidate Joyce Smith, part of the redesign committee, wants to follow through the redesign process with leadership over the next two years. She is committed to making this a great school. Candidate Trish Soodik has a 10th grade student and has worked with many Samohi students off-campus. She believes redesign will work because we have great parents, teachers and students. Candidate Dave Tillipman has a 9th grade student, works at RAND and has worked with PTSA for many years, has been involved with schools for 30 years as an educator, in fund raising and in sports programs. We will tally the results of the vote during the meeting and announce the results prior to the end of the meeting.
The Information Handbook should be mailed in October. The Viking Voice newsletter, prepared by Gretchen Goetz and translated by Maria Rodriguez will also be mailed soon.
The association meeting was adjourned at 7:55PM so that parents would have time to go to House meetings. Dr. Straus gave an overview to the entire group first:
Dr. Ilene Straus presented the Principal's Report and introduced Dr. Kelly who is the 2nd in charge. They want the students of the future to have a better experience and have this become a great high school. Redesign of large high schools is a movement seen across the country. The U.S. once led the world in high school education and now we are 17th. The redesign movement of creating schools of a population of less than 600 pupils has provided significant results. Attendance and morale improve, violence decreases and there are higher grades and fewer dropouts. Samohi has been rated as number 165 out of 700 U.S. high schools in college placement. However there are 1,000 students who have under a 2.0 average. Each of the six houses is a smaller component of the whole larger school. There are 35 new teachers and a new principal, Patty Flynn. Several teachers who originally questioned the value of redesign have stated that they like the smaller houses.
Dr. Kelly prepared the Master Schedule, which was a real challenge this year. Principles of redesign were identified and we want to build community connections. Some of the 80 teachers that had to move to new rooms, used this opportunity to clean out old materials. The house plan worked mainly with 9th and 10th grade students. There are many options plus the core program of English, Math, Science and History. The goal was to have 60% of the students of each house have 100% of their core classes in their house. Some students had to be moved to a different house for some classes. Next years goal is to have English and History in their house for 11th grade students. We have to think about scheduling in a new way. Each house has an Algebra/Biology block covering three class periods to help students who are not strong in these subjects pass the courses the first time they take them. There are also literacy courses for those who need help. We need to take a look at the curriculum; there is still progress to be made because this is a process of evolution. During late start teachers will have an opportunity to meet. It will be an exciting time to work together. One of the challenges will be to know the students well; another will be how to open teaching practices to external accountability. The school did not meet the annual yearly progress that was expected from the CAT 6 tests, partially because an insufficient number of students took the tests.
Dr. Straus continued to explain that each house has a principal, two advisors, a secretary and a teacher leader. Re-admit passes will be issued in the House Office. However, if a student has to leave early or is more than one hour late, the student still has to go to the Attendance Office. Free math tutoring is available every day provided by a retired actuary. There is also tutoring provided by UCLA students twice a week. Meetings will be arranged with parents of students who have low grades. Pinnacle is an on-line service that can be used to daily check your student's progress. This should be in service in October. There is also a new tardy policy. Administrators will be looking for patterns to see if students are frequently late to the same period. The rules for the tardy policy, which goes into effect next week, will be in the Blue Bulletin and in the Viking Voice. The English teachers will be teaching the standards and the US and World History teachers will be teaching research skills. PTSA has paid for curriculum planning days for teachers to align coursework. Last year, PTSA also contributed $12,000 to improve classrooms with white boards and overheads. There are many new plans for the next few years. She wants to acknowledge two school administrators for their contribution to the move over the summer. They are Greg Runyan who facilitated the physical part of the moving to new classrooms and Catherine Baxter who had to re-program the phone system. Dr. Straus noted that the web-site is not up to date, but she is hoping this problem will be worked out soon.
The results of the Site Governance vote were announced. The PTSA representative to Site Governance is Dave Tillipman and the alternate is Joyce Smith.
Parents were asked to attend the meeting to be held in their student's house as soon as this meeting has ended.
Respectfully submitted by
Helene Phipps
Co-recording Secretary