CHS Site Council Meeting Minutes

May 19, 2009

Members Attending: Cris Kuhnhausen, Dianna McMahon, Diana Shumate, Will Coltrin, Paul Goldspink, Deirdre Jackson, Jack Stepp, John Moran, Jan Ophus and Sue Bowers

Guests: Silvia Alloway, Carrie Danchok, Deniese Henderer, Stan Kramer, Dave Nickelson, Debra Weber

The meeting was called to order at 3:20 p.m. by Mr. Ophus. After checking that everyone had copies of Mr. Mounce’s proposed Handbook changes, he asked Ms. Shumate to initiate a call to Mr. Mounce, who then joined the group via speaker phone.

Proposed Handbook Changes

Mr. Mounce provided some background for his proposal, noting that the system described is familiar to him and has worked well at Clatskanie. He emphasized the use of positive terminology (“Extended Learning Time” vs. “Detention,” as an example) and other aspects of the Positive Behavior Support philosophy. He has faxed some statistics to Vicki that show improvement in overall behavior over the past couple of years there.

Responding to questions/suggestions from the group, Mr. Mounce clarified that “Dean of Students” could mean Asst. Principal in Creswell’s organization. The latest budget projection will allow funding for after-school and/or Saturday supervision for discipline purposes. Staff training time will have to be “creatively” found in our schedule rather than sending teacher teams out or bringing experts in for training. It was suggested that the proposed document be re-arranged a bit to put the “Definitions” section at the beginning. Mr. Mounce stressed the importance of accountability for students and staff as this system is implemented.

With Mr. Mounce signing off, a motion was made and seconded to approve the changes and send them on to the School Board with some minor editing to include moving the Definitions, as suggested and using the phrase “Principal or his/her designee” where an administrative role was described. During discussion, Mrs. Weber expressed concern about the difficulty of combining counseling and discipline roles, should she be asked to be more involved in the latter. Parents felt this proposal had more clarity than our current language and suggested it must be a model that Mr. Mounce has had success with elsewhere and felt was important enough that he wanted to implement it right from the start. Ms. Jackson noted that it would “catapult PBS into our laps,” requiring more serious implementation of the Positive Behavior Support model than we have seen here to date. It may be that changes to roles within our administrative team are required, but the group felt that would be up to the administrators to define. Following discussion, the motion was passed unanimously by the voting members of Site Council.

Minutes—The minutes of the April 21 meeting were approved by the group.

Old Business

Mrs. McMahon asked Ms. Shumate to share a list of needed library books so that possible donors could help CHS acquire them. Mr. Ophus reminded everyone we have a district policy on accepting donations which applies even to library books.

New Business

Mrs. McMahon made an announcement about June 3 being celebrated in Creswell as National Running Day. There will be activity on our track between 4:30 a.m. and 8:30 p.m. that day, including PE classes from the various schools. There will be several team challenges going on and the ASB will have concessions available. She encouraged everyone to consider taking part in some way, as a fun and healthy multi-generational community event.

Principal’s Report

Mr. Ophus reported that, in addition to the 12 days, a little over $33,000 in cuts has been made to the CHS budget for next year. This compares with $68,000 in cuts projected at the last Site Council meeting. The majority comes from eliminating JV coaches for three sports, funding for instrument repair, textbooks and tuition reimbursement. The budget now provides funding for the same extra duty pay as is in place this year. Mr. Mounce will have some prerogative to “juggle” funds between CHS categories as he sees needs next year.

There will be changes in our athletic department next year. Mr. Mounce will be hiring a new Athletic Director and Girls’ Basketball Coach.

Forecasting for next year has gone smoothly, with most of the student requests now input into the scheduling system. As of now, there are 79 eighth graders entering and 98 (+ or –) seniors who will be graduating.

With no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 4:15. (Secretary’s Note: This is likely the last Site Council meeting of the year. However, no one thought to include selection of new members, which is usually done in the spring, on our agenda this month, so that could become an agenda item for early June. If not, it will need to be addressed first thing in September.)

Respectfully submitted,

Sue Bowers, Secretary