• Ridgeline High School
    School Community Council Minutes
    Tuesday, November 14, 2017 at 7:00 a.m.
    Ridgeline Conference Room

    Members Present: Robert Henke (principal), Michelle Israelsen (parent), Emma Smith (teacher), Kay Sweeten (parent), Brittany Foster (Assist . principal, non-voting member), Maria Hunsaker (parent), Jim Crosbie (Assist. Principal, non-voting member), Sandra Hugie (parent), Wendy Finley (parent), Bonnie Odd (teacher), Craig Bracken (counselor), Joshua Nelson (parent).

    Members Absent: Jerry Skidmore (teacher), Jeff Neilson (parent)

    Visitors: Diane Theurer, Marcie Lyons

    Conducting: Sandra Hugie

    Agenda Item #1: Approve minutes from Oct. 10, 2017 meeting
    Discussion: Wendy Finley made a motion to approve the minutes. Michelle Israelson seconded the motion. The vote was unanimous to approve the minutes.

    Agenda Item #2: Recap of Press the Button Campaign
    Discussion: Most of the students were receptive to pushing the button and some already knew to press the button. There was some educating of the kids about pushing the button. The council discussed doing the campaign again in the spring.

    Agenda Item #3: Filling of vacant position on council
    Discussion: Crystal Howe is stepping down as the Chairperson. Sandra Hugie was nominated to be the new chairperson. Maria Hunsaker was nominated as vice chair. Wendy Finley made a motion to close the nominations. Kay Sweeten seconded. The motion passed and the new members were voted into office.

     

    Agenda Item #4: Trust land budget update
    Discussion: Bob Henke reported we have spent 26% of budget (74% left).
    Jim Crosbie took some teachers down to Salt Lake for a conference. Brittany Foster is also taking a group to Toronto for training in December. We need to spend our budget down to 10%. Sandra asked what it will be spent on. Bob said it is already earmarked for National conferences, paying salaries for more teachers because we created additional sections of courses to reduce class sizes. It has been used for the success coordinator position, but it was eliminated because wasn’t working. The budget also pays for teachers in the summer. It pays for team meetings for department heads. They are paid $30 to come to those meetings.

    Bob went over the three different tiers of intervention for students: Tier 1 – current instruction, Tier 2 – students currently struggling, Tier3 – students who are more than a year behind. We recently tested 9th grade flex students. 24 students are more than a year behind in reading. We are currently training two teachers to work with students to help them get back up to grade level during flex. Bob is concerned about resource students. We make accommodations, but they aren’t accelerating in grade level, just passing the class. He wants to accelerate special education program to put them in a regular classroom and help them accelerate instead of just staying in a resource classroom.

    Josh Nelson asked about internet safety and what we are spending money on? It is a district wide issue. We do have a monitoring system in place by the district. Can we add a layer on top of that? Not sure if it’s possible. Josh Nelson had looked into an assembly presentation on internet safety. He found a presentation that charges $10,000 to corporations. The presenter, Chad Heimus, wouldn’t charge the schools that much. Bob said he has never paid for an assembly. Net Smart is an assembly that the state provides and it is free. Net smart isn’t geared toward stopping VPN. It is more about helping kids making good decisions. Middle schools also get the assembly by Netsmart and the high school does it once a year. Josh is concerned about not using the money in the budget for internet safety. Bonnie Odd asked if there are concerns about internet safety? Is it something that needs to be addressed? Maria Hunsaker suggested finding a way to deal with offenders and parents and use funding more individually based instead of school wide. Currently if student is caught using the school computer for inappropriate things, they lose the privilege of computer use and parents are talked with regarding situation. What we are currently doing doesn’t cost us any extra money.
    Jim Crosbie mentioned a new app – Sahara, it attaches to all social media and allows people to anonymously comment on social media.
    Maria Hunsaker suggested targeting parents to inform them. Council needs to promote to parents. Bob suggested posting a link on our school website main page for Netsmart.
    Craig reported on a presentation the counseling office did for 9th graders about cyber bullying, etc.
    Brittany said Netsmart can come do a presentation for parents around parent teacher conferences. The Family Place wanted a place to show their film “Screenager,” a documentary about screen time and teens. We could allow them to show it at the school. Brittany will schedule both around parent teacher conferences.

    Agenda Item #: Grading for Learning
    Discussion: The idea is to not focus on points or percentage to get an A but what do they need to learn. Emma Smith has been working with it. Mr. Henke gave an example of a student who is a 4.0 student, but had a C+ in her class. The parent would ask, “How many points does my kid need to get an A.” It’s about learning the material and not about the points. What do you need to learn? When you learn it then you have earned an “A.” The grading scale is on a 1 – 4. A 4 is you understand the material well enough you can apply it in a new situation. We want kids to know the material.
    A question was asked by a visiting parent – how do you assess this?
    Mr. Henke stated, the way we test and the questions we ask are different. There are projects instead of tests. Maria asked how teachers are being instructed on the new program? Mr. Henke says he meets with department heads each month and encourages them to share with other teachers. They do evaluations and meet with teachers. Mr. Henke said he wants to know if we as parents see our students struggling with teachers who aren’t teaching. The idea is to help teachers improve.
    Emma Smith reported on how it has helped her students. The students are asking for understanding rather than the points.

    Agenda Item #6: The Regents scholarship has changed.
    Discussion: Craig Bracken explained the award amount depends on other scholarship awards students may be getting. It still has similar requirements, but it is not based on family income. We will discuss it more next month.
    Motion to adjourn Josh
    2nd motion Maria

    A motion was made by Josh Nelson to adjourn the meeting. Kay Sweeten seconded the motion. The meeting was adjourned.

    Next meeting: Tuesday, December 12, 2017 at 7:00 a.m.
    Minutes prepared by: Wendy Finley