Verified EESAC Meeting Minutes

Approval of Previous Minutes: Ingrid Robledo, chairwoman, called the E.E.S.A.C. meeting to order at 8:25 a.m. The February 25th E.E.S.A.C. minutes were reviewed. The necessary corrections were made and the minutes were approved.

Principal’s Message: The Principal’s Message was given by Mrs. Stroleny. The FCAT testing went extremely well. She thanked the PTSA for providing snacks to the students during testing. The delivery of snacks took a tremendous amount of man-power and coordination. The snacks that were provided were chosen as a result of a math survey given to students last year. The curriculum alignment continues. Tuesday and Thursday morning meetings are being used to revise and complete the curriculum templates that were written at the beginning of the year. The district wants the curriculum maps to be resubmitted. The district is now requiring an assessment component and a specific format. The 2005 – 2006 School Improvement Plan is being worked on. It is expected to require a reading objective, math objective, writing objective, and a parental involvement objective. The over-all goal is to raise our FCAT test scores. Departments were instrumental is formulating the strategies. The quarterly exams for the third grading period were given in social studies and science classes. The exams were given in the individual classrooms rather than the auditorium. The results will be used to track students’ progress. These tests are not district required exams. They have been instituted by the Carver administration and are written by the Carver teachers to test what has been taught. The results are being compiled and will be available by the next EESAC meeting. Last week the faculty voted to maintain the block schedule. Block scheduling is crucial at Carver so that the students can take their foreign language classes. The scheduling of the end-of-the-year activities, examinations, and events is currently taking place. Magnet recruitment is almost completed. The first orientation meeting for Carver Elementary was held on March 15th. The 2nd orientation for random selection IS students was held on March 29th. The 3rd orientation for random selection IE students will be held on April 6th. On April 11th the final orientation meeting will be held for Sunset Elementary. There will be approximately 300 students coming. Carver received the Magnet Schools of Excellence Award and is currently a semi-finalist for the Schools of Distinction Award. Carver will be participating in the city-wide language competition on April 9th. Students from Carver’s language programs will compete in the annual contest which is organized by the teachers of Miami-Dade County. Students participate in impromptu, drama, poetry recitations, and other oratorical competitions.

Uniforms: Cristy Basso informed the EESAC Committee that parent voting for uniforms is currently in progress. The official count will happen on Friday, April 8th. If the uniforms are not approved, then Carver will follow the district dress code guidelines. If uniforms are approved, then EESAC will be responsible for providing the requirements and guidelines for the uniforms. Although waivers cannot be discouraged, the strict implementation of the uniforms will help keep the number of waivers down. EESAC reached the following consensus: yellow, light blue, dark blue, red, and white will be the official shirt colors for Carver. Any of the approved shirt colors can be worn by any student regardless of the language program in which the student is enrolled. The current bottom choices of navy, black, and khaki shorts, skorts, pants, skirts, and capris will remain unchanged.

Open Forum: Summer school will not be held at Carver. Candidates for a lateral assistant principal transfer are currently being screened to replace Mr. Bentley. The practice language AP tests are currently taking place. Mrs. Gramling announced that the four Odyssey of the Mind teams did very well at the March 12th regional competition. One team earned a 3rd place award. Two teams earned 2nd place awards. One team won a 1st place award, and another team won the special “Ranatra Fusca” creativity award. Both those teams go to the state competition on April 23rd.

Adjournment: Mrs. Robledo adjourned the meeting at 8:55 a.m.