- Welcome and Introductions
- Announcements/News
Annual Fall Festival this Saturday, 1-4pm. Please contact
Jill if
you can help out e.g. cakewalk supplies etc. We will also need people
at the Parent Association information table (Ruth will be selling tickets instead). A sign-up sheet is
available, please help out if you can.
Ruth Milner gave a brief summary of the Facilities Committee meeting held on Tuesday
November 1. The committee debated the pros and cons of keeping vs
demolishing the old hospital building for about an hour and a half,
then voted. Results: 7 in favor of demolition, 3 against, and
1 who wanted additional information and therefore abstained. Following
this report, there was some discussion about how much opportunity interested parents were given to
speak about their wishes on this subject, and whether the Facilities
Committee membership and voting process was even valid. Tracey Hamilton
recommended that this concern be brought to the next meeting of the
Governing Council (Wednesday November 9 at 7pm) as it is something they
would need to address.
Committees: Tracey Hamilton gave a quick overview of the
Accountability Advisory Committee that is getting underway. Handling of
committees is being improved by the Governing Council through
development of charters,
clarifying membership procedures, and defining current committee membership. All committee information
will be posted on the Web site when this effort has been completed. A
couple of parents expressed dissatisfaction about the lack of response they've received after expressing
interest in helping out with various committees or other school
activities. The Governing Council is aware of this problem and it
is a key reason for the changes that are underway.
- Ms. Candy Lindquist: New CVCS Bullying Prevention
and Gifted programs
Gifted: This program has mostly been on hiatus for
lack of resources, but it
is required by the state that the school provide one, and it is now
being revived.
About a dozen CVCS students have previously been identifed as Gifted,
either while they were at other schools or during a brief period a few
years ago when CVCS did some limited testing. The testing process is
long, very specific, and quite expensive, so it is prudent to do
preliminary observation in each classroom
to identify good candidates. A number of different methods
are available to us and are being evaluated. There are also new
regulations from the state expected in January, which CVCS has been
told may include some significant changes. When those have been
released and the best testing choice for CVCS has been determined,
testing will begin in earnest. This will probably happen in early 2006.
In the meantime, the students already identified are receiving some
services; for example, a one-hour pullout per week for those in the
older grades where they work together on projects that will then be
taken back to their classrooms and integrated with the general
curriculum. Additional activities are being developed.
Bullying:
Ms. Lindquist provided handouts of anti-bullying materials
that she has obtained through the federal government. Some information
has been included with the weekly newsletter, and a parent packet will
be sent home in the near future. Several steps are being taken to raise
awareness
among both teachers and students, e.g. the middle-school drama class will
put on a play for the whole school which demonstrates bullying situations.
Children need to understand that reporting bullying is not "tattling",
and teachers need to be trained to recognize covert signs that bullying
may be taking place. Books are also available to borrow from the school
library. One of the most difficult aspects of any anti-bullying program
is how to get bullies to change their behavior. Many of the methods
used in the past,
such as suspension and peer mediation (which CVCS tried in the past),
have been found to be
ineffective at best, and in some cases actually counterproductive. She
is continuing to research ways to improve general awareness and
welcomes ideas from parents. A couple of suggestions were made: first,
that she make a brief presentation to individual classes so that
students and teachers are made aware that some forms of bullying are
subtle (e.g.
exclusion) and are given useful ideas on what to do when they see it;
and second, that she look at "Teen Court" methods which,
unlike some of the original versions, don't require the victim to be
present (in order to avoid further humiliation).
A
number of the parent surveys that were returned last spring noted
bullying as a concern, so it is a topic that parents care about.
- Open Forum
No additional topics were raised.
- Next Parent Association Meeting
The handful of the meeting-day preference forms that were returned
last spring showed
Tuesday
being marginally preferred over Wednesday. After discussion among
the parents present at this meeting, we decided to try holding future
meetings on the first Tuesday of each month instead. Ruth noted that,
either way, we will probably not have a meeting in January since it
would be either the first day back at school or the night before.