• Ridgeline High School; School Community Council Minutes
    Tuesday, December 13, 2016 at 7:00 A.M.; Conference Room

    Members Present: Kerri Williams (Chair/parent), Michelle Palmer (Secretary/parent), Robert Henke (principal), Michelle Israelsen (parent), Kay Sweeten (parent), Bonnie Odd (staff), Emma Smith (teacher), Jerry Skidmore (teacher), Tara Johnson (counselor/non-voting member), Brittany Foster (assist. principal, non-voting member)
    Members Absent: Crystal Howe (Vice Chair/parent), Joshua Nelson (parent), David Swenson (assist. principal, non-voting member),
    Visitors: Diane Theurer, Marcie Lyons
    Meeting Conducted by: Kerri Williams

    Agenda Item #1: Approve minutes from November meeting
    Discussion: Kay Sweeten made a motion to approve the minutes from the October meeting. Michelle Israelsen seconded. The vote was unanimous to approve the minutes as currently written.

    Agenda Item #2: Counseling Items, including scholarship info, how are they advertised, what students should know, timeline for juniors and seniors
    Discussion: Tara Johnson gave an update on what resources are available for students to help them find and apply for scholarships. The best place to look is the Ridgeline and Mountain Crest combined blog. (http://mountaincrestandridgelinescholarships.blogspot.com/). Local, low income, and minority scholarships are highlighted. Seniors are encouraged to check the blog weekly; juniors are encouraged to check monthly. Students get a timeline flier for scholarships when they meet with their counselor; freshman receive them at Riverhawk Academy. There will be a college and career readiness assembly in the spring for juniors. The seniors have been meeting with members of the scholarship committee. These are trained volunteers from the PTA who meet with small groups of students to teach them how to find and apply for scholarships. The counselors are providing application assistance for the Regent’s Scholarship. There are 81 students on track for this (about 20% of the senior class). One obstacle that students face in applying for scholarships is the challenge of writing a personal statement essay. Kay Sweeten said that it would be helpful for teachers to have some scholarship information available in their classrooms for department specific scholarships for students who excel in one subject area.

    Agenda Item #3: Street Name-follow up
    Discussion: Mr. Henke reported that a highway sign has been approved and designed that will be installed on the street light leading into the school property. There will be two signs, one for each direction of traffic. The “Riverhawk Drive”signs will help visitors to find the school.

    Agenda Item #4:Speed limit change on highway in front of school-follow up
    Discussion: Mr. Henke talked to our deputy to see what can be done to move the 45 mph speed limit signs more to the north on the highway so that there is more time for cars to slow down before the intersection into Ridgeline property. Kerri Williams will talk to a county/UDOT employee about this situation.


    Agenda Item #5: Monson Recognition
    Discussion: Mr. Henke reported that the school district has not returned his calls. They may not know how to handle this situation because it is a new, unique idea (to name the agriculture building or greenhouse after Mr. Monson who owned and farmed the land upon which Ridgeline is located), although the field at Mountain Crest is named Miller Field. Mr. Henke requested that this item be put on the agenda for the January meeting.

    Agenda Item #6:School Emergency Plan
    Discussion: Brittany Foster explained the main points of the school emergency plan to the council. So far this year, the students and staff have practiced a fire drill and lockdown drill. There was a technical mistake with the lockdown. Some of the doors didn’t lock that were supposed to lock. This electrical problem has been fixed. All teachers have emergency buckets with supplies. Millville Elementary is our off site evacuation location. In the case of a real emergency, Ridgeline administrators would send out an emergency alert to parents (and students, if they have put their cell numbers in Powerschool in the emergency alert section) as soon as they could safely access a computer or could call the district office to send out the alert. Kay Sweeten had a concern about keeping students entertained and calm for a long period of time if the students were confined to the school. Bonnie Odd and Brittney Foster have full confidence in our teachers that they would be able to handle a long term situation at the school.

    Agenda Item #7: OSPYS-Fall activities award night-follow up
    Discussion: Mr. Henke has had very positive feedback about this year’s award night for the school teams and their families. All fall teams met together and had students recognized for their outstanding performance and behavior. Parents were happy that they didn’t have to worry about the cost of attending team dinners. Students were able to support each other and learn about the excellence of members of all the teams. There will be another awards night in the spring.

    Agenda Item #8: Trust Land budget up-date
    Discussion: Mr. Henke reported that we have 67% of the money left in this budget. Some of the money will be used in early 2017 to send 6 teachers to a PLC (Professional Learning Community) conference in Phoenix.

    Agenda Item #9: Thoughts on academic and citizenship grades-performance-based grading
    Discussion: Mr. Henke will talk with Blake Pickett, the principal of Spring Creek Middle School, to get some information about how this type of grading is working at his school. He is also working on gathering information about what other school districts are doing. Michelle Palmer mentioned that Nebo, Granite, and Iron County school districts in Utah are giving some kind of behavior/citizenship grade as well as academic grades. If a change is made in the grading system, she would like to see it district wide. The high schools in our area are close to each other and having a district wide grading system would be more cohesive.


    Agenda Item #10: Other Items
    Discussion:
    · Kerri Williams told the committee to please contact her or Mr. Henke with items that need to be on the agenda for school community council meetings.
    · Marcie Lyons, a visitor, made a comment about the survey that parents are encouraged to take. Some of the questions are poorly worded. Brittany Foster said that the survey is from the state and that it cannot be changed. The survey is required for accreditation and must be filled out by a certain percentage of parents. An accreditation team will visit the school and talk to parents and students in March. Accreditation must be done every 5 years.
    · Michelle Palmer made a motion to adjourn the meeting. Robert Henke seconded. The vote was unanimous to adjourn the meeting.

    Next Meeting: Tuesday, January10, 2017at 7:00am in the Conference Room

    Minutes Prepared By: Michelle Palmer