elacjjaneng

School: Bradley Elementary

Minutes of ELAC Meeting of 1/22/09

MEMBERS PRESENT: See attached list of parent sign in.

Number of elected ELAC members present: 4, Number of additional parents: 10 (see attached list)

Number of staff: 3 (Jennifer Fish, ELS; Rosario Weckler, MEST; Jennifer Goodheart, Kindergarten teacher )

Meeting called to order at: 6:35.

Legal Requirement/Training Covered:

	Advice on the school’s program for English learners
	Advice on the development of the Single School Plan for Student Achievement
	Assistance in the development of the school’s needs assessment X
	Assistance in the development of the school’s annual language census (R-30 report)
	Assistance in the development of efforts to make parents aware of the importance of regular school attendance X

Opening: Jennifer Fish and Rosario Weckler welcomed everyone to the meeting and applauded the continued significant number of parents participating. Mrs. Weckler explained that this meeting had been called at the request of the ELAC members who wanted to build on the positive turn out of families at the December meeting, instead of waiting for our next regularly scheduled meeting in February.

Meeting Minutes: Minutes were distributed from the December meeting. ELAC members said that they appreciated having the minutes as a reminder of past and on-going topics and business.

Old Business:

CELDT testing update: Mrs. Fish and Mrs. Weckler gave a quick review of what CELDT testing is, what it is used for, and when it occurs. They announced that this year’s results would be mailed home to parents soon. Parents were encouraged to review their children’s results and bring them to the next meeting. ELAC members would like to discuss results and reclassification process in greater depth at the next meeting.

School Events:

Spelling Bee: On Thursday, January 29 we will have our school spelling bee. Our spelling competition will be for 4th-6th grade students. Class representatives were chosen to compete, but all students will participate and spell along with the competitors. All schools will have competitions and the best spellers will go on to district and then county competitions. Mrs. Weckler explained that Spelling Bees are popular and traditional events in US schools and that the competitions go all the way up to the National level.
Science Fair: The Bradley School Science Fair will take place on February 4th. Students in all grades can participate. Lower grade students often do a class project or experiment, while upper grade students compete with individual projects. Projects will be judged and the winners will compete in the county competition.

Share the Love Auction: Andrea Willy and BobWilliams from the Bradley Home and School Club came in to speak about the upcoming fundraiser. The live auction, silent auction, and dinner will take place on February 7th at the Seascape Golf Club in Aptos. Tickets for the event are on sale in the office. There will also be a 50-50 cash raffle that everyone can participate in, even if they don’t attend the event. Raffle tickets are on sale in the office. Mrs. Willy also invited all of the ELAC parents to join in the monthly Home and School Club meetings at the school.
There will be two school holidays in honor of the President’s birthdays: February 9th and February 16th.

DELAC Report: There have been no DELAC meetings since the last ELAC. Representative Carlos Gutierrez announced that he may have to miss some meetings due to work and school commitments. Alternate representative, Javier Marin, has agreed to fill in when needed. Mr. Marin explained the purpose of the DELAC to the new parents.

New Business:

Activity/Summary	Document(s) Reviewed
Communicating the Importance of Regular School Attendance: Mrs. Fish and Mrs. Weckler gave a brief overview/training of why regular attendance is important for the student and the school. A brief review of the procedure for excusing students absences and what constitutes excused and unexcused absences was given. Data on attendance from the prior school year was shown and we celebrated Bradley’s Number 1 in attendance for the North Zone award.	Data related to 07-08 Attendance District Wide
Elected ELAC members’ Input:
Parents indicated that they would like to continue the conversation about school attendance. A discussion and input time will be scheduled for the next meeting. Parents would like to know the amount of funds lost from ADA. Parents also brought up some issues that have been occurring with school transportation. Several specific problems were related and have been passed on to Principal Arola for follow-up. Parents were advised that they should contact the school office and/or the district transportation office whenever a problem occurs. They were encouraged not to let problems persist unreported.	.
Planning meeting topics: Members were reminded of official ELAC business that will need to be covered in future meetings. Mrs. Weckler handed out a list of possible topics in addition that parents might want to discuss or have presentations on. Parents discussed possible topics and handed in checklists with feedback.	Migrant/ ELAC checklist/survey of meeting topics. Calendar of ELAC/Migrant dates for the remainder of the school year.
Parent Survey: District Parent Surveys had been distributed to parents. Copies were available and time was allotted for filling out the surveys and asking questions or giving feedback. The importance of giving the school and district parent feedback was discussed. Members talked about ways to get involved with the school including participating in school events and driving on field trips when possible. One member brought up the fact that North Zone schools rarely have buses for field trips and must rely on parent volunteers. Parents shared their positive experiences participating in class events and field trips.	District Parent Survey

Migrant News and Upcoming Conferences:

DREAM Conference for students in grades 6-12. Mrs. Weckler spoke about this leadership opportunity for students. The conference will take place the last Saturday in March at EA Hall and is sponsored by the Migrant Program. Parents were uncertain if Reclassified students could participate. Mrs. Weckler clarified that the conference is open to all students who wish to attend.
Dental Check-up –The Migrant Program sponsored a dental check-up at school for Migrant students recently. About 25 students were screened and most had excellent dental care. Those who required follow-up were referred to dentists. Students were given a packet including a new toothbrush to take home.

***PVUSD Annual Parent Conference – Mrs. Weckler handed out flyers for this year’s Parent Institute and encouraged everyone to attend. Parents shared their experiences at past conferences. Over ½ of the parents indicated that they are interested in attending. Names were passed on to Ruby Vasquez for follow-up.

Follow up: Items from this meeting that require further follow up

Item to be followed up on:

By whom?

Parents pointed out that Auction information had not gone home in Spanish. There had been confusion about the raffle tickets and also about where the auction/dinner was being held.

Parents choices and feedback for future meeting topics will be reviewed by Mrs. Fish and Mrs. Weckler. Results of this feedback will be shared at the next meeting and ELAC members will determine items for the next agenda.

Next Meeting February , 2009

Mrs. Fish will report this to Principal Arola for follow-up. Announcements will go out in Spanish.

All questions were answered and information regarding the raffle and auction was clarified by Andrea Willy.

Meeting adjourned at 8:30 pm .