September+2011+Meeting+Notes


 * Sept. 12, 2011 Meeting**

**Members Present:** Matt Graves, Dodi Zbuka, Becky Uber, Jeff Ulrich, Tammy Applegarth, Chad Hartong, Andrea Novicki, Pete Geiss, Kyle Sawyer, Amy Hartman, Jodi Burgess, Nancy Roberts

**Location:** Faculty meeting in the library.

**Topics discussed:**

Matt Graves explained the format of the Spartan periods planned for Wednesdays and asked that we help train the faculty on sign-up procedures that were going to be presented at the faculty meeting.

Matt passed out a list of options for teachers to choose for the Spartan Period. Teachers are encouraged to keep them handy so they know where students may be placed in homerooms.

Classroom teachers will be responsible to sign their students up who need extra help in their classrooms.

Homeroom teachers will be responsible to sign up students in their homerooms who do not have a placement for extra help.

Each teacher must sign up a minimum of 16 students per session for extra help. This number will be reduced at a later date.

Teachers were encourage to think of other options for the Spartan Period.

Clubs may meet during the Spartan Period next semester.

Students must bring reading material to SSR.

Teachers need to make copies of the test form cover sheet and attach the cover sheet to any tests to be administered at the Test Site. There will be a mailbox set up in the mail room for Test Site materials.

Each week different groups of teachers will meet for departmental meetings. These teachers are noted in the schedule.

The deadline for registering students for extra help is Tuesday morning.

Teachers may sign out laptops and iPads for use during the extra help sessions. Sign these out online on the Google Docs site.

**Sept. 16, 2011 Meeting** Waiver day

**Members Present:** Matt Graves, Dodi Zbuka, Becky Uber, Jeff Ulrich, Tammy Applegarth, Chad Hartong, Andrea Novicki, Pete Geiss, Kyle Sawyer, Amy Hartman, Jodi Burgess, Nancy Roberts

**Location:** High School Library

**Topics Discussed:**

**Mission Statement** We will engage all students in appropriate, productive activities that ensure academic achievement and promote life-long learning.

**Goals** 1. Improve student achievement. 2. Other enrichment to help students prepare for post-secondary life. 3. Extra help periods with smaller groups 8-10 students. 4. Less stress on staff.

**What We Envision** 1. Spartan Period will be productive and fun for the students and STAFF. 2. Time for clubs for students who have met the REQUIREMENTS. 3. A time for guests to come to our school to talk or to help with community service projects.

We encourage the staff to be patient. This is a work in progress.

Staff requests should be in the data base by 4th period on Tuesdays. Staff may also sign up weeks in advance if need be.

Teachers could create a sign up sheet in their classes for students to request extra help.

Extra help in academic classes should be a top priority before students are assigned to other activities.

There will be a cap on the number of students who can attend various activities due to space limitations. Teachers who want to exceed the established limits should let Matt know prior to the weekly deadline.

The original requirement of 16 students per extra help session with a teacher will be dropped to approximately 8-10 students eventually to make the session more manageable. At this point the maximum number of students per extra help session is set a 22 students. Email Matt Graves if you want this number changed.

Teachers are reminded that some will be in department meetings during the extra help sessions. Those teacher who are unavailable for extra help will not be listed in the data base for that session.

Michelle Hanna is in charge of test administration site. She has created a cover sheet for teachers to fill out when they submit a test or quiz for a student to take. The cover sheet must be turned in with the test or quiz. There will be a special mailbox in the mail room for teachers to leave tests and instructions.

Club meetings may take place during the Spartan periods, but extra help sessions will take priority. Students with a D or F in any subject should not be permitted to attend the club meeting. Teachers should use the Spartan Periods for club meetings with 20 or more students in the club. Smaller clubs are encouraged to meet at other times.

At this point we cannot lock out students with Ds or Fs on computer to prevent them from going to clubs.

Peer tutoring will be arranged in the future, possibly in the iPad lab.

We will have 15 University of Akron students available for tutoring on Spartan Wednesdays.

It was suggested that teachers be given a list of PLCC students and others who are unavailable to attend various sessions for extra help. These students will eventually be locked out of the computer system during the times they are unavailable.

Teachers were encouraged to avoid deleting students from sessions if at all possible.

At this point, students are encouraged to attend the session to which they have been assigned. Students may not get a pass from another teacher to attend a different extra help session. This will minimize traffic in the halls.

Teachers should report students who do not show up to their assigned Spartan period session to Morgan. Remember to specify the AM or PM session.

It was suggested that field trips should perhaps be scheduled on Wednesdays. It was, however, not decided if this would be beneficial to the students involved. We also discussed the possibility of denying student participation on a field trip if they do not maintain a C average. It was decided to leave this up to the discretion of the teacher.

The staff recommended that college visitations could be scheduled during Spartan periods if schedules could be worked out with the various universities.

Teachers are encouraged to think of other options we could offer students during the Spartan period.