Page 3 of 3

School Advisory/School Improvement Committee

Meeting Minutes

December 8, 2015

Attendees

Reyna Alston, Mary Bowen Barringer, Carrie Baines, Kim Belmonte, Victoria Bostick,

Stephanie Brennan, Kate Buchanan, Chad Carpenter, Erica Chorosevic, Lori Crooks, Cory

Draughon, Michelle Elliott, Steven Gatlin, Wendy Henderson, Gwen Johnson, Michael Jones,

Michele Nease, Mya Plummer, Catherine Quick, Heather Roberts, Justin Smith, Victoria

Smith

Meeting called to Order 6:08 pm

Business

Approval of Meeting Minutes:

Discussion: Chad opened floor for discussion; no comments or changes made

Motion: To approve the minutes for October 20, 2015

Vote: Motion carried unanimously.

Managing Director Updates

Managing Director was unable to attend. Mya Plummer provided the SACS Goals and

Objectives for Voyager which contains the Strategic Goals and Action Steps, summary of

School Plan, and Financial and Operational Goals.

Question: Have the student’s been surveyed and are their results included in this document?

Response: The students have been surveyed; no one was sure if their responses were include in

this document; the goals have been submitted.

Question: When the committee comes, who chooses who they speak to?

Response: No one was able to respond.

Page 3 of 3

Question: Student representatives were asked what they thought of the survey?

Response: The survey was very long; one student didn’t even know about the survey; those

that did, were not sure what the survey was for; they felt students that took it rushed through it

because they were not “clued in” to what the survey was for; taken during advisory

Comment: response rate of students unknown; the collection of responses did not have any

consistent items listed to mention (what was most valued and least valued).

General

School Bell Times Discussion

Proposed bell schedule for next year: HS 9-4; MS 8:30-3:30, ES 8-3; Reason for change is the

evidence that high school students perform better with a later start time; this is in-line with

what DPS is proposing for HS.

Comments: fully support the change; suggest to change to not on the hour (?); how will this

impact multiple drop offs; before/after school program will need revamped; communicating

change to parents is key to making it accepted and successful; the community needs to know

about the changes as well due to change in traffic pattern; students agreed the earlier start time

has been difficult; after school activities and homework get them into bed very late so the early

start time has been difficult and they felt impacted their grades; need to look at the quality of

instruction during the say versus the amount of homework given; students need to better

manage their time; students work at different rates- it doesn’t mean their time management is

bad.

Question: When will the board discuss this? Needs to be decided ASAP so families have the

ability to adjust schedules or even make changes.

Response: A leadership teach will be formed and propose to the board. Not sure when this will

take place.

Question: Will there be administration on hand to monitor high school students that need to

come early?

Response: Teachers may shift tutoring to the morning rather than the afternoon; Cory stated

there would be someone there to monitor.

Question: Can we go back to last year’s schedule and not match DPS? Will SIT have it’s own

voice towards this proposal?

Page 3 of 3

Response: the leadership team will look into this; main goal is to support student achievement;

the leadership team will draft a proposal and bring back to SIT.

Suggestion: Survey students and parents on new start times

Action Steps: A database is needed to allow teachers/administration/groups to enter their

volunteer needs and for parents/students/others to be able to go in and volunteer; suggestion

made to put something in the newsletter to see if we have any tech savvy

parents/students/family members that may be able to create something; Mya will get this in the

newsletter.

Next Meeting

January 19, 2015 6:00 pm, VAHS Common Room

Future Meetings

January 19, 2015

February 16, 2015

March 8, 2015

April 19, 2015

May 17, 2015

Adjournment

Meeting adjourned at 7:02 pm