East High School CSC Meeting Minutes
Date: 10/14/2015
Location: Social Room
Attendees: Andy Mendelsberg (Principal); Aubrie Nelson (Student); Christian Merida (Student); Christine Miller (Family and
Community Liason); Mario Ortiz (Enrollment Counselor-CSC Chair); Angela Norris Hawkins (Parent); Rachel O’Bryan
(Parent); James Johnson (Parent); Brian Buddenhagen (Teacher); Lindsey Vesceri (Teacher)
Absent: Salt Wall (Community Member); Cassie Perlmutter (Parent); Emmy Brown (Student); Susan McHugh (Teacher); Matt
Murphy (Teacher); Jennifer Young (parent)
Agenda Topic:
o Topic 1: Introduce new CSC Members (4:03-4:05)
o Topic 2: Principal Update (4:05-4:15)
o 2,475 students, down 105 from last year; There is a desire to keep East smaller (from a district perspective),
which means less dollars, therefore, we have a tight budget for the rest of the school year
o Staff member injured on Monday, hurt in an attack (no other students involved)
o We are fully staffed (however, we do have two teachers out for personal leave)
o Why go smaller? What’s the ideal size? District probably wants East to be near 1,800. We have a 400-kid
waitlist. We want to give everyone the opportunity. The students don’t get caught up in the size of our school.
o Topic 3: Review of the Spring 2015 ACT (4:15-4:25)
o Current ACT Composite Score 22.2, up from 21.7 (last year)
o We are meeting or exceeding all composite and sub score
o We are not meeting in the category of college
o Algebra 2 is being completely revamped right now (highest failure rate class); we are moving to align on math
classes to align with ACT
o This summer they went through the entire currently to cover all things in the ACT
o We hope to see a lot less remediation as a positive impact of these efforts
o We have two full sections of ACT Prep to move students into college readiness in Math (these teachers have also
coordinated 2-4 other practice tests to further prepare these students)
o We also offered the Practice ACT as well; we don’t have a benchmark composite currently
o Topic 4: Review of ACCESS Scores (4:25-4:29)
o This exam for our students that are English Language Learners (ELL)
o 60% met state and district proficiency levels in English
o 68% of those students also met proficiency levels in Reading and Comprehension
o They do not exit out of school services through high test scores
o All DPS schools are now English Language Acquisition schools
o Topic 5: Brainstorm 2015-2016 meeting topics/guest speakers/ideas (4:30-5:00)
o Seal of Biliteracy (Jen Hanson)
o How do we deal with Mental Health issues (Elisa Spratt/Anita Robinson)
o ROTC and Angels for AP Excellence (how do we get Funding sources); Partner with businesses (Tee McDonald
and Anetta Gallegos would be good partners)
o Parent/Teacher conferences-brainstorm ways in which we can communicate the way it works (not enough slots
for parents to have a one-on-one with the instructor); SLT runs it (contractual limitation); SLT as a topic?
o D/F Policy (Teacher/Counselor)
o Angels for AP Excellence and First Gen (Mario Ortiz)
o Budgeting and how we build our student size (Andy Mendelsberg)
o STEM School? Who can present? What would a STEM Partnership at Manuel look like?
o Testing changing (Flo/Keith); “from achievement to opportunity gap”
o Interventions to support our opportunity gap students (Homeless Liaison)
o Healthy Kids Colorado
o Program for Parents to be better Parents; Parent Mentoring (Christine Miller)
o Suggestions for upcoming topics: Budget and how we allocate funding (December’s Topic); Priority for NorthEast
 Important Calendar Items:
 Conclusion:
East High’s Statement of Common Purpose: East is committed to creating every “Angel” with a relevant, rigorous,
relationship based learning experience preparing all to become creative, active citizens ready for academic and career
success beyond graduation.
CSC meets every first Wed of the month, 4:00-5:30 in the Social Room, (2ND floor, next to Main Office)
2015-2016 Dates: