• Ridgeline High School; School Community Council Minutes
    Tuesday, February 14, 2017 at 7:00 A.M.; Conference Room

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

    Agenda Item #1: Approve minutes from January meeting
    Discussion: Crystal Howe made a motion to approve the minutes from the January meeting. Robert Henke seconded. The vote was unanimous to approve the minutes as currently written.

    Agenda Item #2: Follow-up Items
    a. Update on highway speed limit
    Discussion: Kerri talked to Jeff Gilbert who is the liaison between UDOT and Cache County about moving the 45mph speed limit sign farther to the north, just before the bridge, on the highway near the school. Kerri doesn’t feel that a change will be made just by talking to him. We want to have some city representatives at a meeting with UDOT to discuss our concerns. Joshua Nelson will talk to someone at Nibley City and Michelle Israelsen will talk to someone at Providence City and Kerri Williams will talk to someone at Millville City to see if each city will send representatives to the meeting with UDOT to address our concerns.

    b. Update on naming road
    Discussion: Kerri reported that Julie Monson would rather not have a road named after the Monson family. She said that a plaque in the school containing some historical information would be nice, though.

    Agenda Item #3:Standards-based Grading Discussion
    Discussion: Mr. Henke reported that the teachers and administration are still discussing this idea. The math 2 classes have already implemented this system as the students take weekly quizzes that can be retaken if scores are low, to ensure that the students are learning each new concept, before a more comprehensive test is given. Some teachers are concerned about falling grades, but the grade scale would change to something like this:(85-100%=A, 70-84%=B, 55-69%=C, 40-54%=D, 0-39%=F). With the current grade scale, any student receiving 59% or less receives a failing grade. We want students to know the material and demonstrate that they can use the material. Mr. Henke will go to a PLC Conference next month and will learn more about Performance Based Grading. Dave Swensen went to a conference last week and learned about this topic. We don’t want to move too quickly. We want to make sure that the teachers want to make a change. Assessments wouldn’t necessarily just be tests, but could include oral presentations, writing, discussions, etc.

    Agenda Item #4: Digital Citizenship
    Discussion: Digital citizenship is the ability to participate safely, intelligently, productively and responsibly in the digital world. Bonnie Odd reported that the students have had two assemblies in which they learned about Fight The New Drug, and NetSmartz. She teaches classes about website safety and how to identify false news to students in business classes. The state of Utah requires that each student receives education about digital safety for at least 30 minutes/year. We are meeting and exceeding this state law. For more information: http://www.schoollandtrust.org/parents-and-councils/digital-citizenship/
    http://digcitutah.com/

    Agenda Item #5: Trust Land Plan Timeline
    Discussion: Mr. Henke reminded the council that the 2017-2018 Trust Lands Plan much be submitted and presented to the Cache County School Board by May 1, 2017, including an initial summary of the current year’s plan. The final report for the 2016-2017 plan must be submitted in the fall of 2017, when all the test scores are received by the school. Next year, our estimated allotment of Trust Lands money will be $142,452, a 30% increase over this year’s funds. Our current plan is to “Improve student performance.” This is the same basic goal that Mountain Crest used for the past 7 years. Mr. Henke has been meeting with the schoolwide PLC team to come up with a plan for the highest academic need for the next school year. We must have data to support our goal. This plan will be presented to the SCC in our regular April meeting and will require a vote from the SCC.
    Some ideas to include in the plan are:
    · Include or maintain student performance (based on testing: ACT, CTE, SAGE, AP)
    · Improve academic performance for minority groups (ESL, special needs)
    · Keep 2 ESL aids. Use some funds to send some students to USU Diversity Day
    · Keep NEST (in school suspension)
    · Keep FLEX aide/NEST coordinator
    · Add an Attendance Aide who would meet with students one-on-one to improve attendance for those who miss many days, or class periods, of school
    · Use some funds to pay teachers to meet with PLC teams in the summer to write curriculum and coordinate within departments
    · Send some teachers to PLC Conference
    · Keep 2 VISTA interns, who work full time, but we pay only 1/3 of their salary ($6700/each)
    · Keep After School Tutoring. Use some funds to pay teachers for their time
    · Use some funds to pay teachers who teach Summer School

    Agenda Item #6: Establish Policies-What Do We Really Need To Vote On?
    a. Replacing members who are not attending meetings
    Discussion: We need to establish a policy for replacing members who do not attend meetings and cannot serve on the SCC, after they have been voted as members of the council. No official motions/decisions were reached today, just some general discussion of the issue.

    b. Voting on new members
    Discussion: We should be replacing about half the parents on the SCC each year through elections, so that we have some experienced members of the SCC along with the new members. Perhaps we need to have a couple of more parents on the committee next year (elected for a 2 year term), to ensure that this will happen. With being a new school, all members who were elected this year will serve a 2 year term before they will leave the council or be re-elected for up to 3 terms.
    c. We don’t need to make a motion for the meeting to be adjourned. We can just conclude the meeting.


    Next Meeting: Tuesday, March 14, 2017at 7:00am in the Conference Room

    Minutes Prepared By: Michelle Palmer