Verified EESAC Meeting Minutes

Approval of minutes: Mrs. Robledo called the meeting to order at 8:15 a.m. The minutes from May 1, 2012, were reviewed and approved.

Official Business: The first order of business was electing the chairperson for the year. Mrs. Robledo was nominated and reelected unanimously as chairperson. Mrs. Robledo inquired about the needs for EESAC funds for this school year. Mrs. Stroleny said there is a great need for technology funding, and that she would like to use the funds for technology as needs arise. This motion was approved unanimously.

SIP Review: The EESAC is the sole body responsible for the approval and implementation of the School Improvement Plan, (SIP). Mr. Rivers gave the SIP report. The school faculty and administration started working on the SIP at the end of last school year and submitted a preliminarily plan at the end of July. Mr. Sejeck, Mrs. Basso, Mrs. Coto-Gonzalez, and Mr. Rivers in collaboration with the department chairpersons will continue working on the SIP next week to add FCAT scores and other data. Near the end of September, we must upload the final version, which EESAC must approve. We can always make adjustments; goals and objectives come from the teachers. We are behind with the baseline testing because we missed one day of school due to the storm and two additional days this week because of technical issues. Reading, math, science, and civics all have District baseline exams.

Mr. Sejeck said this is the pilot year for the civics EOC. All seventh-grade students will take the baseline and post-test; they are expected to start with low proficiency because they have not been exposed to this material; our students will learn civics and do fine. Next year’s seventh-graders will have to pass the test. We are gathering data on the civics’ benchmarks. No interim exam is scheduled for civics. Mrs. Stroleny asked Mr. Sands to comment on the civics program. Mr. Sands said we have our own pretest that we administer.

Mrs. Robledo asked the student members about testing, Mr. Millares said he really doesn’t mind the testing because he is used to it from Sunset Elementary. Mr. Morrison said teaching to the test limits learning. Mrs. Stroleny said Carver does not and never will teach to the FCAT, adding that teaching our curriculum gives us top results. Mrs. Planell said the testing creates stress in the students, but that teachers here also do a good job of teaching the curriculum. Miss Ordonez said some teachers in core subjects do seem to teach to the FCAT and that she prefers non-core classes sometimes because of this. Mr. Rivers said we did well on AP exams last May: German and Italian both had 100 percent of their students pass the test, while French and Spanish both had 95 percent passing. Mrs. Robledo noted that 95 of 100 students passed the Spanish exam. With last year’s EOC in Algebra I, 98 percent passed; in both geometry and biology, 100 percent passed. On the FCAT, passing rates were 95 percent in science, 96 percent in math, 93 percent in reading, and 98 percent in writing. Mrs. Daniels commented that we have a very diverse curriculum that supports the testing. Mr. Rivers explained that this year students taking the Algebra I EOC will not have to take the FCAT math exam; previously students took both tests, causing math teachers to teach two different curricula. Mrs. Stroleny said we will continue reading and writing across the curriculum as one of our SIP strategies. Mr. Sejeck spoke about attendance, which is part of the SIP. We will be strict and try to reduce the number of students with 10 or more absences, by doing home visits and making parents aware of the clinic and the nurse here. We have had a clinic for the last six years. The reason we do so well academically is because our students come to school; the attendance rate this week was 99.5 percent. Students need to be here for the rigorous curriculum. Mr. Sejeck also said we are working to lower indoor and outdoor suspension rates by encouraging students to report bullying as soon as a problem arises instead of waiting until the situation worsens. We had 42 suspensions last year out of about 1,000 students. We also try to keep the number of days per suspension as low as possible.

Principal’s Message: Mrs. Stroleny welcomed the members. As principal, she wants “to maintain what was working perfectly, wants to keep on moving ahead as we have done in past years.” Mrs. Sylvia Coto-Gonzalez is our new assistant principal and is at a training program today and cannot be here. Over the summer, Home Depot sent 30 volunteers to work on a campus beautification project, including working on the brick walk of fame, painting, planting, and spreading mulch. The PTSA then finished the job, with much help from Mr. Stauss, a former Carver parent, who donated much time and resources. Raquel Medina, a teacher from Spain, will start teaching by end of next week; Germany has sent a full-time teacher, Thies Wegner, who is doing a wonderful job and adjusting. Kimberly Williams is new in language arts, teaching sixth and seventh grades. We opened school short of custodians; Mr. Dekle retired in the summer and another custodian has been out. Mr. Rivers has been interviewing candidates and we will soon have a veteran head custodian; we also have hired a part-time hourly custodian. Everybody had been giving a lot of help in this area to keep the school as clean as possible. Mrs. Stroleny especially noted Mr. Sejeck and Mr. Grant for their efforts to keep the cafeterias clean. To help us meet deadlines for computerized testing, a new lab was established in Room 25. This will enable us to do testing without displacing Mrs. Miyares’ computer classes. Mr. Valerio worked on the Saturday before the start of school with a crew to set up the lab in Room 25. Mr. Gonzalez was gracious and moved to Room 13 at the last minute, allowing us to begin baseline testing at the beginning of school.

Open Forum: Dates of upcoming events were given: Science Fair workshop for eighth-grade parents on Sept. 5; PTSA meeting on Sept. 14 at 8:30 a.m.; Open House on Sept. 19. Mrs. Daniels said that cross country is underway and that soccer and volleyball seasons will begin soon. Mrs. Stroleny concluded by wishing everyone a wonderful long weekend.

Adjournment: Mrs. Robledo adjourned the meeting at 9:04 a.m.