Site Council Minutes   10/8/07    2:30-4:15 p.m.

Planning for 2007-08:

Parent Forums – Parent forums were fairly successful last year and so we have decided to continue them for this year.  One idea is to hook onto the theme of promoting a drug free/alcohol free student body and bring in a series of forums to promote education around issues involving teens and drug/alcohol use and abuse.  Kelly Matlock, prevention intervention specialist from Jefferson Health Department is bringing in a student assembly on the physical effects of alcohol on Thursday, November 1st for freshmen and sophomores.  It will be held 1:30-2:25 in the auditorium.  Tracy suggests that we do one forum for each grade level focus.  Tracy would like a representative from each grade to participate in identifying an issue of interest to have a forum about.  There is an interest in starting an e-mail list for parents who want to get involved.  Jennifer James Wilson and Julie Marston will work with Tracy on that.

Parent Volunteer- This was very time consuming last year, but it was a great benefit to the teachers who needed help.  Faculty is asked to contact Tracy with their needs via e-mail, with a cc: to Carrie so that she is aware of what is going on.  High school is not set up in a methodical way in how to handle volunteers, so that has been confusing.  Email africarennie@yahoo.com    Tracy also needs some lead time for getting volunteers.  Contacting her 2 days before an event is not enough time for her.  She needs at least a week notice for dance chaperones, and several weeks for a major event- like Freshmen Interviews.

Freshman Transition Report –  We had a great turnout at our Back to School event for freshmen.  Students came in to pick up schedules and pay fees, take ASB photos and pick up handbooks and other important papers.  ASB students were available for group tours of the buildings and freshmen classrooms.  Then, we held an hour long orientation for freshmen and parents.  Each freshman teacher talked a little bit about what high school life is like.  The event concluded with a hotdog feed outside.  Freshmen are also proceeding with the Navigation 101 curriculum during homeroom.  This program will help the students begin planning goals to be achieved during high school and beyond, as well as explore career interests.  There are 5 freshman homeroom teachers (who have only freshmen).  The freshman teachers also get together for lunch once a week which is a great way to connect about the kids.   We have not yet decided whether Navigation 101 will go beyond freshman year or not.  That would take further discussion in regards to other interest based homerooms and their role at PTHS.

Enforcement Support for Drug Free/Alcohol Free Events at PTHS- After a discussion regarding the alcohol use by PTHS teens prior to school dances, we talked about the different options that have been explored in  how to deal with this issue.  Originally, PTHS changed the dance time from 7-10 p.m. in the hopes that would minimize the drinking before dances by students, but that idea has not been well received by students or many parents.  The student ASB council worked with Carrie to come up with another option that would include random breathalyzer testing of students prior to entering the dance and that any student caught would be turned over to school administration.  This idea met with agreement by the ASB council, but did not meet with agreement by several parents who have since contacted the school or sent correspondence. 

While the goal is to encourage students to attend the events as drug and alcohol free, there is a need to deal with this issue from a legal perspective.  The final decision has been to hire two police officers to provide supervision at the dances.  Their role will be to assist the administration in the ongoing supervision of students during the dance and to intervene in situations where either the police find just cause or the administration finds reasonable suspicion in regards to the students actions or behaviors.  Because we are handling this as a legal matter, any student identified to be in the possession of or under the influence of drugs or alcohol during the dance may be arrested by law enforcement.  Law enforcement at dances is commonplace at other area high schools, including Bremerton, Klahowya and Port Angeles.  It appears that it is time for Port Townsend to proceed this direction as well.

For our next meeting:

Communication