SITE COUNCIL MINUTES
Tucson Unified School District
Catalina High School
School Council
December 11, 2012 3:30 pm; Catalina High School Library
Attended: Cindy Dunn, Kate Gallion, Lysa Nabours, Rex Scott, Mark Hanna, Rosa Lara, Cheryl
Beran, Terri Herlein; students Zeljka Klipic and Diana Martinez.
Call to order: 3:35 pm.
Previous minutes: were approved with friendly amendments.
Call to Audience: No one present.
Reports:
Principal’s Report:
Governing Board has been holding their meetings here concerning school consolidations. Rex
has received lots of compliments regarding our customer service. Everyone has worked hard to
accommodate all their needs. Rex had the privilege of attending the Boys and Girls Club Youth
of the Year Award assembly at Doolen. One of our students, Victoria Begay was one of the
honorees. Catalina leads in the number of winners of this award.
Achievement: We had promising results from the fall AIMS. We had more than twice the
number of seniors pass this year than last. There was an increase in juniors also but not as much.
ELLs are still having trouble with standardized testing. All departments are working on AIMS
reviews. ATI testing for sophomores is tomorrow and Thursday. Mr. Berry is setting up the
North Gym to simulate an AIMS environment. The January 9th PD will look at 2 reports from
ATI: Item Analysis and Risk Report. The students are classified as low, moderate and high risk.
Lows and moderates should be able to pass the test with a little push. High risks will require
more work. This report will determine which sophomores will move into Collingwood’s RTI
classes. Over break, every sophomore will receive a letter listing all tutoring options available
and the student will be notified if they are being enrolled in an RTI class. Our DD letter grade is
determined by a number of things but mostly by sophomore’s tests scores. We get bonus points
from our graduation rate, our drop out rate, our AZELLA and reclassifications. Rex is less
worried each day about us becoming a DDD school because of all the work we are doing.
Concerns from the groups we represent:
Admin: Rex is blissful.
Classified: Letter read by Mr. Hanna. (See attached).
Certified: Bathrooms are still a mess. The lounge by Nurse’s Office is often not stocked with
paper products.
Ms. Beran reported that next semester she will be teaching a class 4th period in MP109 for atrisk freshmen. The room has the Title 1 computers and the students will be able to use the online
reading program. Using the Pueblo model, she will be targeting reading and writing issues using
learning centers. Rex commended Cheryl for developing this class. This class is a specialized
section of freshmen English and the students will receive English credit. Cheryl is very familiar
with the virtual reading coach program. This early support should help them get off to a good
start when they take the AIMS test as sophomores. The students that will be in this class are
students that are reading way below grade level. Hopefully, upperclassmen will come in as tutors
to work in the learning centers. Test scores, ATI, AIMS, and teacher recommendations are the
criteria for how a student gets into this class. The class will be very structured. Last year’s RTI
reading class was an elective. This one will give them English credit. Numbers will be an issue.
Cheryl doesn’t want more than 20-24 students. Students will not be pulled from a class and put
into this. They may have their schedule re-arranged because this class is only being offered 4th.
If other teachers want to use this with students during lunch Cheryl can help them set it up. We
will keep trying things until they work.
Lysa wanted to know why we don’t have a Conacademy for geometry, and will be having a
trailer geometry class. We are not sure if we will even have the money for the algebra trailer
class. There is a concern about upper classmen’s performance on the tests even after taking the
class. Sophomores that failed algebra the previous year will be in the algebra re-take class.
Juniors and seniors are a significant problem and are widely unsuccessful in this class. They will
need to have to take credit recovery algebra.
Predictors: counselors went to classes and explained ACT Explore scores. Mr. Hanna will look
into the dissemination of data. Lysa feels the scores are a little worrisome. The kids were even
upset with their scores. But they were given specific data on what to work on. The data needs to
be shared with the math teachers. Mr. Hanna says PSAT scores were good and we might have 2
qualified for National Merit.
Students: Bathrooms are a mess. They suggested taking stall doors off. We tried that a couple of
years ago. They suggested closing some bathrooms down. They are concerned with the tagging.
They feel if a student gets caught tagging he should have to clean it up, be suspended and/or
charged with vandalism. Custodians paint over the graffiti each night. Graffiti Abatement Team
will come to clean up large problems. Mr. Berry meets with security team each Wednesday to
discuss isssues.What about teachers/volunteers to monitor the bathrooms? Glass etching is up. It
all comes down to individual responsibility. Maybe we should have a “Take Pride in your
School” campaign. Holly used to have a notebook of pictures of graffiti. Pictures of graffiti
would be sent to her and she would review her book to find similar ones and who was
responsible. Rex knew nothing of this book or what happened to it after Holly left. All concerns
should be sent to Mr. Madrid. Students feel ELLs should be given more time to learn science
vocabulary. Also feel there should be 10 – 15 minutes of SSR in English classes. They were
curious as to the electronics policy. Rex allows students to use them during passing period and
during lunch. All other times they should be put away. First offense the device gets sent to
principal and student retrieves it at the end of the day. Second offense warrants a phone call to
parents. Upperclassmen rarely get theirs taken away a second time.
Shared Vision: No report.
Continuous Improvement Plan:
The one year plan will be discussed at tonight’s parent meeting.
School Consolidations: No report.
Unitary Plan – deseg ruling: No report.
Action items: None.
Discussion/Information Items: Student Punctuality (see attached)
Rex disagrees with the letter Mr. Hanna read earlier. When Holly was here she sent letters home,
documented the tardiness in Mojave, and assigned community service. Rex insists we will have
ISS again next year. Without Holly, Rex instituted weekly tardiness emails and the Impact Team
would deal with those with numerous tardies. Some of these kids have been suspended. It’s not
the A and B students that have a problem with tardiness. What consequences are we putting into
place? All students will start the second semester with a clean slate. Teachers should attempt to
address tardiness first. They should have a clear and well-defined classroom management policy
in place. Board policy says we can use tardiness to take away participation points. If the
classroom policy doesn’t work then the teacher should contact the parents. If there is still a
problem then the student (chronic offenders) should be referred to admin. There will be
community service at lunch, suspensions if necessary and after school detention. After school
detention will be re-instituted with administrators manning it. It will be in Room 223 on
Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays from 2:45 – 3:45. Only administrators can assign after
school detention. Outside community service may count in place of this if given a written notice.
Consistency is the key. All students will be told this new policy during their grade level
assemblies in January. After school tutoring does not count for detention.
SCPC- SCPC representative: No report.
Agenda for next meeting:
Shared Vision
Continuous Improvement Plan
Review
School consolidations
Unitary de-seg ruling
Tardiness Policy
Next Meeting: January 15, 2013.
Meeting adjourned at 5:38 pm.