SDMC Meeting Notes
March 19, 2013
Minutes taken by Kathleen Garson

Present:
Bill Buck- Principal
Sandra Adair- Teacher Specialist
Sherry Walker- School Nurse
Bob Chenoweth- Mission Houston
Angelica Almarez- HeadStart
Ruben Gomez- Classroom Teacher
Eric Whitten- Classroom Teacher
Edgar Jimenez- Classroom Teacher
Kathleen Garson- Classroom Teacher
Missing: Rachel Spring

Safety and Dismissal
Ms. Walker addressed the importance of everyone bringing their students on time to the cafeteria. She also said that teachers are confused about when they are supposed to be in the cafeteria. Mr. Buck said that all students should be in the cafeteria at 3:00PM everyday. The issue that is coming up during car pick up in the cafeteria is that after school is too loud. Mr. Buck suggested that we move after school to another room. Mr. Jimenez suggested that students stay with one teacher from each grade level. Mrs. Adair said that the teachers that are monitoring in the cafeteria could split up between the car line and after school so that the students are monitored in all places. Mr. Buck brought up the fact that we are wasting time on how snacks are being distributed because students are just waiting in the cafeteria to go through the snack line. It is important that each child picks up their own snack. He said that we could have Mrs. Spring bring the snack around to the classes so that the instructional time can start. Mr. Jimenez brought up that after school students can stay with one teacher and watch something on Discovery. It was brought up that the teacher for each grade level that is done first on the Stella Link or Park side could come into the cafeteria and pick up the after school students. It was decided that the snack would be delivered to the classrooms and that students would be picked up in the cafeteria by the after school teachers right after dismissal.

Activity Funds
Ms. Walker said that the Pre-K and Kindergarten horse picture money has been entered into each grade level fund. Mr. Buck brought up that 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade will be ordering STAAR shirts. The students will not have to pay and the grade level money will be used to purchase the shirts.

Construction
Mr. Buck said that summer school will be at Red Elementary. Everything from the classrooms must be moved outside. Everything must go. Some things will be put in the t buildings, so take home what is important to you. Mr. Buck said that if you have something personal in your room, you should take it home.

Budget
Mr. Buck explained that if Title I schools do not spend all of their funds, which HISD doesn’t, the school will have its budget reduced. The actual budget will be approved in June. Mr. Buck said that it is possible that we will only have two ancillary classes next year. He addressed that we need to keep our enrollment up. Our school will be budgeted for 558 students. Something to consider include hiring Mr. Vasquez full time. Mr. Buck said that we spend over $20,000 on software purchases and that a lot of the money goes into computers and substitutes. Most staff is full time. Some other big purchases include ink for computers, which usually adds up to $25,000, paper adds up to about $10,000, and copy machines add up to about $25,000. Mr. Buck also said that it is possible that we will need to replace some SMART Boards and bulbs because they are getting older. Ms. Walker brought up taking out the carpet and purchasing something different. She said that in the younger grades, mainly Pre-K and Kindergarten, students are urinating on the carpets. They use a cleaning solution to get it up, but it still soaks through the carpet. Mr. Buck wondered if the carpets needed to be shampooed. Ms. Wilson, the Plant Operator, walked into the meeting to contribute to the conversation about the carpets and said that they could try to shampoo the carpets more often.

Attendance
Mr. Buck said that the attendance percentage is 97.3%. If students are in Pre-K or Kindergarten and they have too many absences, tardies, or they are leaving early Mr. Buck will withdraw them.

Grants
Mr. Buck announced that Shearn received the First Books Grant. This means that students will each receive 5 free books. However, we will have to go to the warehouse and sort the books into grade level and bring them to the school. Mr. Buck brought up the possibility of having one teacher per grade level go to the warehouse to help sort books. The books will be coming from Disney.

Student Council
Mr. Buck said that there has been very positive feedback from the student council. The students decided and voiced that they want to keep the Blue Ribbon Awards. They also said that they want to have the awards at 8:00AM. The student council said that they are happy with their teachers. In the meeting they discussed different ancillary options. Adair said that she told the students on the Student Council to see what they want changed. Ms. Walker said that many students wanted the food in the cafeteria changed and they wondered why the strawberry milk was taken away. Mr. Buck said that the food was a district-wide set decision. They also discussed having target meetings about specific things that the school wants to improve on.

Staffing
Mr. Buck said that we are looking for two bilingual teachers for 2013-2014 school year.

Staff Development
Mr. Buck discussed staff development and professional development that we will have at the beginning of the year. He announced that we will have Seven Habits training a week early. Teachers can use the days they are doing the Seven Habits as trade off days during the professional development weeks right before school. Therefore, teachers can take one of the days off from the other 9 days of professional development before school starts. Mr. Buck asked what else teachers might want for professional development. Mr. Whitten said that he would like to have a training on tracking student data. Mr. Buck also said that if teachers do the GT training over the summer they can also use that as a trade off day during professional development. Mr. Buck said that he knows there will be a really big push for Renzulli. The committee also brought up having different grade levels meet to make sure that everyone is on the same page in terms of vertical alignment so that teachers go into the year knowing what they need to do to be ready for the next year.

Academics
Mr. Buck said that there needs to be a strong focus on the objectives and that there should be lots of English in the lower grades.

Social Studies
Mr. Gomez said that they introduced the Teacher Board, which is easy access to student information. The site is similar to Chancery. It has previous test scores and data tracking. Mrs. Alamarez brought up another tool called Razor’s Edge that is less expensive.

Math
Mr. Jimenez said that he is going to the math meeting on Thursday. He said that there will be new math TEKS and Mr. Jimenez is helping create the new planning guide for 4th and 5th grade.

Mission Southwest
Mr. Chenoweth announced that Mission Houston is now specifically Mission Southwest. They are trying to recruit volunteers. He looked at Volunteer Houston website, but there are too many things to go through and it is not going to work. Mr. Chenoweth is designing a brochure to send to churches in the area. He is wondering what he should put in the brochures to attract people. Mission Southwest is ordering two tables. Mr. Chenoweth asked if there is anything else that they could donate. The committee suggested carpets and uniforms. Mrs. Almarez suggested recruiting volunteers from HBU and St. Thomas because a lot of the students at the universities need volunteer hours.

Head Start
Mrs. Alamarez said that on March 26 ABC Dental would be at Shearn doing a 10 minute presentation from the dentist. There is a Head Start parent meeting on April 10th. Head Start will also be at Shearn for the Pre-K enrollment on April 29th, April 30th, and May 1st. On April 27th there will be a Head Start booth at the Health Fair at Shearn. On May 4th there is a Women’s Health event at the Neighborhood Center Baker Ripley campus.

Parents
Ms. Walker said that the parents want to have a water theme for the spring carnival and that the PTO has to work at it if they want to have it.

Field Day
Ms. Walker said that field day is on May 16th and that students can pre-order food for Friday.