June 18, 2009 Consultation Minutes

Consultation Notes
June 18, 2009


The consultation meeting was called to order at 4:32Pm.
First order of business was the proposed EIA on grading and progress reports to parents. Changes form original proposal were as follows
1. Require intervention for students having difficulty in mastering district objectives. Discussion on this noted that the IEP fir special education will override this if there is a conflict.
2. The campus shall make all decisions relating to grading with the full input of the SDMC and faculty and staff. Parents shall be notified during the first three weeks of the school and the plan shall be reviewed and revised as needed yearly.
3. Campus/departmental grading plans shall include categories of which are not inclusive others may be added as needed
a. Classwork
b. Homework
c. Quizzes
d. Tests/Performance Assessments
4. Choice of categories and weighting for each category will be made by the campus or department in consultation with the principal. All courses will have weighted categories.
5. The principal on each campus will work with the SDMC, Faculty and staff to set an average number of grades per subject/course for the school or for the departments. Regardless of the number of grades it shall be applied uniformly across the entire department or campus.
6. Opportunities for reassessment, submission of late work, the number of grades dropped per cycle shall be determined by the principal in consultation with the SDMC, faculty and staff of each school.
7. A minimum grade for any assignment may not be established by the district or any school.
8. High school final exams shall have a weight of 15% for all credit courses.
9. Students failing to complete assigned work shall be given an “incomplete” for the cycle which must be resolved by the end of the next cycle.
10. Students found to have engaged in academic dishonesty shall be subject to penalties as defined in the student code of conduct. The principal shall work with the SDMC, faculty and staff to determine penalties that will be given to students engaging in academic dishonesty.
Intense discussion ensued high points are
1. SDMC has no power it is opinion only and the vast majority of decisions are already made when they are presented to the SDMC. If this is to truly be a faculty /staff decision then there must be some process fro a faculty/department vote.
2. Be sure that for high schools that this is a departmental decision and for elementary schools possibly grade level.
3. make sure that the final campus policy requires a faculty vote. And sign off
4. Look at department and add PLC
5. Possibly pull off the academic dishonesty issue.

Second order of business was the budget
Issues were
1. new buses
2. no tax increase
3. delinquent taxes are down
4. State 73% local 27%
5. adding new charter school
6. reduction in staff 14 and below 15.2positions 15 and above 25.13positionsfrom central office
7. Teacher salary schedule state mandates $60 dollars per WADA which for HISD is $960 per teachers. Districts want to override the legislature and develop a contingency salary schedule. State requires that this be on top of the step. District wants to renege on this. Wants to adjust the schedule and revamp. Board wants an option. Possible changes in schedule to compress the schedule.
8. Basic increase is $960 we need to consistently fund the steps.
9. Insurance changes if federal program comes through District has not started planning as no plan is currently clear.
10. No increases in health insurance rates but the incidentals are increasing in price.
Meeting adjourned 6:30

D. Krieger

NOTE:

The grading proposal was pulled from the June 25,2009 HISD School Board meeting. Another revision is now in the works. The board passed a $960 pay increase for all teachers but did not give the state mandated step increase to all teachers. They increased the number of steps from 17 to 21 forcing teachers at the top of the schedule to take two years instead of one to get the promised last step increase. They also inserted steps in the middle of the schedule.