Site Council Meeting Notes

6/5/08

Discussion of the School Bond – Tracy inquired about feedback in regards to the bond.  The bond committee is looking for areas to improve on for the next attempt, which will happen in November.   Thanks to the members of the bond committee for all their hard work.

What Every Student Needs To Know – As a follow up to the last meeting, Administrative Intern Todd Clawson distributed sheets that will be distributed next fall to the students.  The sheets are broken down by grade level and include useful information in regards to navigating the world of high school and beyond.  Information and helpful tips for parents and students are included on each sheet.  Site Council was invited to review the documents and send Carrie their feedback by Friday, June 20, so they can be finalized and printed over the summer break.

Discussion About Librarian vs. Campus Supervisor – Jennifer shared the data she received from the teacher survey regarding the importance of a certified librarian or a Campus Supervisor and SRO.  Of the 22 teachers who returned surveys, 3 gave priority to the librarian, 12 gave the priority to the campus supervisor and 7 said they were of equal importance.  We discussed the value of having a librarian, but many teachers are worried about the return of increasing problems (theft, vandalism, and other behaviors) without the additional supervision a Campus Supervisor gives.  The campus supervisor position has been a valuable member of the high school staff for many years.  The high school is now the only school that does not have staff to supervise the lunchroom and outside grounds during lunchtime.  The high school is receiving an increasing number of calls from neighbors who report that PTHS kids hang out on their lawns and leave lunch garbage, or smoke in secluded areas of their yards. 

Fran Harris will be the new classified educational assistant to run the library next year.  Fran has been working with Mrs. Deen in the special education resource program at the high school for several years.  Fran loves literature and has an understanding of the technology system in the library.  Jeanette will do some training with Fran next week.  We discussed bringing in Jody Glaubman from the public library do so some additional training with Fran in regards to book selection.  Currently, books are purchased based on teacher requests and through recommended collections from library associations.  We also discussed ways to keep the library open during lunch.  Erik expressed concern about having the librarian out during a time that classes are in there because it is not the teacher’s job to supervise students, other than their own class, in the absence of the librarian.  Because Fran works an hour per week more than the former librarian, we will keep the library open two days per week until 3:00 p.m.

Ideas were shared in regards of how to make the library a place to encourage students to visit, including a free exchange book shelf, and highlighting a book of the week or month. 

Freshman Failure Rates- We briefly discussed the freshman failure rates.  Failure rates are the highest in science and math classes at the 9th grade level.

School Based Health Clinic-  Carrie gave a brief report on the health clinic coming to PTHS and Chimacum High School.  The clinic should open sometime next fall.  The project is being led by Yuko Umeda at the Health Department and Paula Dowdle at Jefferson Hospital.  The clinic will offer comprehensive medical and mental health care between two and three days per week.  We will be using the former staff room in the Stuart Building.  The location offers a semi-private entrance and three interconnecting rooms.  The Health Department received a start up grant to get the spaces ready to go with cosmetic improvements and medical/office equipment.  The hospital and health department are donating the personnel services.  A needs assessment survey will be mailed to all parents in the next few weeks. 

Concerns were shared in regards to providing information to the parents about the clinic and how it will operate; how consent will be used to bill insurance; and what type of referral system will be used and possible costs incurred with that.

We discussed the role the health clinic could play in providing athlete and coaches education in regards to health, wellness and hygiene.  Tracy shared concern that upon distributing soccer uniforms, some were still in the same bag the student had returned them in the prior year, and were obviously unwashed when returned.  Carrie will talk to Scott about protocol in assuring that uniforms are cleaned and stored properly in between seasons.

Other Health Concerns – We discussed that several times this past year there were athletic incidents regarding injuries on the court/field and there was a lack of proper first aide supplies available and ‘spill kits’ for cleaning up blood.  An idea was suggested that each coach should be issued a bag at the beginning of the season that is expected to be carried to all practice, home and away events for the team.  It would include a reasonable amount of first aide supplies, including insta-hot and insta-cold packs, gloves, and specially marked bags for disposing of bio-hazard materials, such as bloody gauze.  Carrie will talk to Joey Johnson, the sports medicine teacher and see about putting something together for next year.  The bags would be returned at the end of the season and restocked for another use.  We would need several bags because depending on how well a team does, the next sport season could begin before the previous season fully ends.

Parent E-mail Lists- Tracy suggested we again try to build e-mail contact lists for parents.  Carrie will ask Jan to design a form as part of the information that is filled out at the beginning of the year for parent e-mails.  We could again put up a table at parent conferences.

Thanks to everyone for another year of support and problem solving on the PTHS Site Council.  Have a great summer.