November 23, 2020 – Minutes

School Community Council
Monday, November 23, 2020

Members in Attendance (via Zoom):
Brian McGill   
Cache Merrill                         
Brittany Stephenson              
Joe Schino  
Kelli Miller                              
Jim Jensen
Shannon Kershaw                  
Katie Christensen                   
Garry True
Rochelle Stone                       
Page Checketts                       
Callie Bjerregaard
Melissa Gibbs   
Chet Linton

Others in Attendance:
Carolyn Cannon (Secretary)

Not in Attendance:   
Ron Strohm                            
Tricia Leininger                      
April Richardson                    
Chad Heyborne

Welcome, Review & Approve minutes from September 28th and October 19th meeting (Jim Jensen)

• Garry True – Motion to approve minutes
• Brittany Stephenson – 2nd Motion
• Motion passed

1. Student Government/Events Update (Packer and SBOs) (not present – Kelli Miller gave update)
   Our SBOs are working on preparing to kick off our annual fundraiser. They will do a video via canvas hopefully tomorrow.  This will also be sent out to parents.
2. PTSA Update (Rochelle Stone)
   -We just finished up the school portions of our Reflections art program. We had 9 entries (we usually have 30).  At least half were forwarded on to the next level for judging.
   -We are going to do a Gifts of Gratitude coming up, where we will email out to our parents to accumulate gift cards for teachers.
   -PTSA did a Pie treat for teachers last week. It was the perfect size and everyone enjoyed it.  Thank you so much!

3. Counseling Corner (Callie Bjerregaard)

• We were in the middle of doing 9th grade Plan CCRs when we went online. We will need to finish doing those at some point later this year.
• Juniors Plan CCRs will begin on December 1st, with individual appointments done either in-person or over zoom, whatever our parents and students are most comfortable with. We have emailed links out to sign up in Calendly.
• We wrapped up College Application week. In the past we have had about 96% fill out application.  This year it was a lower percentage, but still good.
• We have sent messages out to teachers, parents, and students to let them know counselors are still in the building and available to help them whenever needed.

4. Enrollment Report Update (Brian McGill)

• Enrollment/Retention rates – Every year on October 1, there is an enrollment count which projects our FTE for next year. We were projected for 2262 for this Fall, but we actually came in at 2325, so this gives us an additional 2 FTE for next year which is exciting!  We are retaining our students as well.  Right now we have 2324 total students, 608  for 9th grade, 578 for 10th grade, 576 for 11th grade, and  572 for 12th.

5. LandTrust and TSSA Budgets (Brian McGill)

• Both of these budgets have been attached. We are currently on-budget.

6. Attendance, Engagement, and Late-Work Policy (Brian McGill)

• BLT (Building Leadership Team) has formed a sub-committee to evaluate similar policies at other local high schools and have been tasked with some actionables to create some common policies and standards related to late and/or make-up work.
• Current common policies are upheld within each department, due to the unique nature of some elective (i.e., CTE, etc.) and performance based (PE, Dance, etc.) classes vs. traditional content based (i.e., Math, ELA, etc.) style courses.
• The committee took a look at achievement data from 1st quarter and tried to focus on some big-rocks.
• Action Item: Continue to hold live, synchronous learning at the beginning of each period and take attendance in Skyward.
• Students and teachers are required to be logged in for the first 30 minutes of each class period with some kind of activity. Teachers are capturing attendance during this time, and if a student is marked absent, parents will get a phone call.  A lot of teachers are capturing not only through the live login, but also through google docs, questions on activities on Canvas, etc., capturing whether students are engaged – this allows flexibility.
• Action Item: After Thanksgiving Break, no matter our schedule, review the expectations for your class with students.
• We are only 5 days into our online learning for this particular time period – it’s a struggle with all of the changes of modalities
• Brian has a meeting tomorrow at 8:00 am to determine what the schedule will look like beginning on November 30th.
• Academic performance goes down as schedules continue to change – students become more apathetic and not as engaged
• Priority is to create as much consistency and cohesion as possible for both students and teachers.
• Proposed Action Item: Keep all assignments and course content accessible and open for students to complete at least until the end of each unit.
• Departments will put together a document and it will be posted for parents to see so there is consistency amongst departments
• Friday teacher prep days – we have established a schedule by department for students to log in and receive help – a lot of our teachers are still meeting with kids at all times on Fridays – primarily set aside for teacher prep – students are supposed to be logging in to all 8 periods and should have a small and short check-for-understanding assignment in Canvas for each period (approximately 20 minutes to complete)
• We are going to refine these action points, especially is we stay online for any extended period of time.

7. Other Items

• Extracurricular Activities – Tutoring supports in place (Math doing zoom sessions after school, etc), NHS is also offering Peer Tutoring sessions in all subjects, Winter Sports resume tomorrow (B&G Bball tryouts, Wrestling and Swim can also resume practices tomorrow) – Life Center has given some times for swimming practice – Blood Drive with HOSA will be on Dec 2nd, 8:00 am – 2:00 pm – Canvas, assessing students who are not logging in, reaching out to parents and doing home visits, etc. – looking at grades from 1st term
• UHSAA – 2nd top school in 5A (we are on the bubble of 5A and 6A) – can lobby on December 9th on where we want to be – Brian will lobby for 5A (we are competing but not blowing it out of the water) – we are maintaining enrollment, but we are land-locked so hopefully they will take that into consideration as well – also ask for like-geographic schools to bring back rivalries.
• Construction is 7-8 months ahead of time. We may be moving in over Winter Break (as opposed to Fall 2021).
• About 2/3 complete with our construction

Motion to Adjourn – Chet Linton
Second – Page Checketts
Meeting adjourned

Next SCC Meeting:  Monday, January 25, 2021 @ 3:00 pm, Hawk House Gallery & Online