Pajaro Valley Unified School District

Bradley Elementary School

April 1, 2008

School Site Council Minutes

Members Present: Kathy Arola, Kathleen Blair, Marci Ernest, Steve Harrington, and Debbi Puente

Call to Order: Steve Harrington called the meeting to order at 5:04 p.m.

Approval of Minutes: Marci Ernst moved

Kathleen Blair seconded

Safe School Plan: Kathleen Blair motioned, Steve Harrington seconded and all present approved the Safe School Plan. Kathy will get the rest of the approvals via email.

Similar Schools: Debbie Puente is a consultant regarding training of ELD curriculcum and best practices. She studied various schools with similar demographics as Bradley, including Fullerton School District. Most schools are grouping students by proficiency level (5 levels) for 30-45 minutes per day. By 2009, this will be mandated by the state at 1 hour per day. Some ways other districts are incorporating ELD into their schools: 1.  Schools are doing language development for English only students at the same time as for ELD students; 2. Focus on oral language, not just reading and writing; 3. Use of challenge Language Arts books and 4. Literature circles. Schools are also using other certificated staff to make smaller groups. Debbie with meet will Jennifer Fish to discuss some ideas and make a presentation to the K teachers, grade level 1-3 teachers and grade level 4-6 teachers.

School Plan Update: We reviewed our budget to build our School Plan. We have an 8% cut from last year. We want to keep our 50% ELS position. We will most likely lose two aides and try to partially fund the Reading Intervention teacher, asking for help from the Home and School Club. (The next day it was noted that Driscoll’s has donated $7,500 towards our Reading Intervention teacher and $2,000 for books for second language learners.) We reviewed last year’s School Plan briefly. Kathy will crunch the new numbers for performance; Andrea is going to summarize the survey update. Otherwise, there will be very few changes to the school plan as we are working off the same template we were given by the District last year.

Principal’s Report:

Traffic: Letter from Ellen Pirie noted that Bradley made its internal changes and now the County will attempt to get an air quality grant to put in a turn lane in front of the school. Driscoll’s has donated a strip of land for the turn lane.

Sweet Technology Grant: Three showcase classrooms: Parker, Silva and the computer lab (Bunner). The focus is on writing. These three teachers are required to collect data and report on students’ progress. We received 36 new computers for the computer lab and the old computers will be placed around the campus, including Parker and Silva’s rooms. Also, on a technology note, the bulletins to the teachers are going out electronically to save paper. Next school year, the teachers will take roll on the computer.

Budget: See the Bugle. Decisions about the budget cuts will be made in the next month. Call your board members if you have strong feelings. Reviewed how the budget cuts may affect Bradley: 1. Class size reduction in K-3; 2. Loss of release time teachers for upper grades; 3. Loss of Elementary Assistant Principal position. Kathy passed around the Budget Committee’s prioritized list for budget cutting. $11.8 million must be cut from the budget. The committee put together the recommendations that are going to the Board and the Superintendent. The Board makes the final decision. This Thursday at 6:00 p.m. there is a Board meeting at the District Board room to discuss the budget; all are welcome to attend. Once again, we were encouraged to contact our Board members.

Adjournment: Meeting adjourned at 6:15 p.m. with the Principal’s Report combined with the Home and School Club meeting. Principal’s report was completed at 6:42 p.m. Next meeting is Tuesday, April 29, 2008, at 4:30 p.m to review and approve the School Plan.