DCIS PTSA MEETING
01/11/2012
Attendees: Michelle Abitia, Ray Jones, Frank Stossel, Anne Button, Jason Salzman, Stephen Parce,
Stephanie Parce, Marcy Donovan, Freya Quist, Pallas Quist, Katie Foust, Julie Lewis, Laura Buhs, Chris
Primus, Vicky Virnich, Amy Thieme, Laura Douglas, Melanie Grant, Michele Foust
I.
II.
III.
IV.
Call to order by Michelle Foust, PTSA co-president
Student Report - None
Teacher Report - None
Principal Report
a. DCIS Clubs (Michelle Abitia, Vice Principal)
i. Club descriptions will be added to the club list for benefit of students and
parents.
ii. The school administration tries to check each semester with the faculty sponsor
to see if the club is active. Then an update can be added to the school bulletin
board and the web site as it is developed.
iii. The role of faculty sponsor varies from monitoring meetings to more
participation. Some clubs are teacher-initiated and led such as the Model United
Nations, Debate, Interact, Ambassadors and Philanthropy Clubs. The school is
working towards independent study classes for credit for Debate and MUN.
iv. The principal can approve or deny a request to form a club.
v. A parent suggested the strongly teacher-led, strongly student-led or shared
leadership descriptors be added to the club list.
vi. The school administration is looking at adding club participation to student
records in Infinite Campus. The school wants to know who is or isn’t involved
and reach out as research shows students who are involved in activities outside
of class are more successful academically. This information is also helpful for
grant applications. There is a district initiative to look at student involvement
and some funds are available.
vii. A parent suggested sending the updated club list to all parents not just those on
the PTSA blast. There are 800 or so parents on the PTSA distribution list, so it is
broad, but not complete. Ms. Abitia said the school will work toward that, but
the tracking effort is new and just getting started, so the school will work
toward this.
viii. Currently there is no MS student council. Ms. Rodriguez, sponsor for HS council,
cannot sponsor another council, so a different faculty sponsor will have to be
found. DCIS was able to add 2.5 teachers this year because of additional district
funds. This has allowed Ms. Rodriguez’s advisement to be student council. This
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.
h.
i.
j.
may or may not continue depending on staffing and funding. It could also work
for MS student council.
ix. The school would like to have student groups represented at registration and
other school events for both awareness and fundraising.
x. Junior and Senior students can serve on the DPS Student Board of Education to
provide a student voice to the Board of Education. They receive academic credit.
DCIS will host an ISSN MS conference at the end of January. Host families are needed.
DCIS is one of 30 HS in Colorado in a 3-year federally-funded grant of 13 million to
increase AP classes and concurrent enrollment. It will be rolled out in 3 tiers over 3
years and Mr. Parce doesn't know yet when DCIS will participate.
Roof construction in summer may cause logistical issues for the 6th and 9th Grade
Academies and the College Readiness Institute. The dates may have to overlap and
there is a back-up plan to use Fairmont, a nearby elementary school.
There may also be interior construction. West HS currently houses 3 special education
programs and one of the programs for students with high physical needs may relocate
to DCIS. DCIS will need funds to reconfigure classrooms and make space.
The Drama Club will prepare a production of Grease for spring. DCIS received a donation
of sound equipment for the last Drama Club production which will be useful for this
production and other activities.
CSAP testing, now called TCAP, Transitional Colorado Assessment Program, will begin on
03/05/2012.
i. It will incorporate updated state standards.
ii. The state will add Social Studies testing in year or two and this is a strong area for
DCIS.
iii. DCIS plans to have an ACT boot camp during TCAPs for juniors.
iv. DCIS is considering scheduling the testing over a 2-week period. The scheduling
committee is working with the administration and teachers and the schedule and
parents will be notified of the final result.
Parents can choose via Infinite Campus to have text messages for school notifications.
Mr. Parce will have a meeting at end of month with administrators at UCD about
building a pipeline of DCIS students to study Chinese at UCD. There is the possibility of
scholarships and study abroad through a sister university. DCIS students have already
had some great opportunities to go to China at low cost through relationships with
other partners.
Language Study
i. The ultimate goal of DCIS is to offer 7 years of each language including
opportunities for concurrent enrollment.
ii. It is time for students to request a change in world language. The school wants
students to stay in one language, but they can change. There is a 2-week
window to request changes with a deadline of 01/20/2012.
iii. The school need to accommodate current and new students whose interviews
are this week
iv. Forms will be sent out this week to ask for intention to continue at DCIS next
year
v. The district has a new process for school choice. A school choice application is
not necessary to continue at DCIS.
k. New Students
i. New student interviews will be held on Thursday and Friday of this week and
the next two Saturdays.
iii. Student and parent volunteers welcome from 3:00 to 5:15 on Thursday and
Friday and 8:00 to 12:00 on Saturdays.
iv. Notifications will be sent at end of month. DPS will compare the DCIS list with
the students' school choice forms and match students with schools. Early in
March families will get the assignment from DPS.
v. The deadline for school choice applications is the end of January.
l. DCIS, as well as other schools, is considering expanded learning
i. Three goals
1)to provide more academic support;
2) to provide accelerated support in Math and Eng; and
3) to add some electives such as art and music.
ii. Information meetings for students and parents will be held to discuss various
options which could include a longer school day for MS students, adding a
course at the beginning and at end of day, shortening office hours and lunch,
offering a split lunch hour with half the school in advisement and half at lunch
which will add more structure and focus to schedule, offering additional classes
and compensation to teachers, holding club meetings during elective times or
office hours, bringing in professionals from the community for clubs and
electives, offering MS sports as an elective, etc.
iii. Staff will vote on this soon.
iv. The school will submit a plan to district in the beginning of February if there is
positive feedback.
m. Mr. Parce answered a question about the advisement curriculum by saying it has
changed over 6 years and they are continually evaluating and refining it.
i. One example is that they started with mixed age groups and are now grouped by
grade level.
ii. He has applied for money from DPS for 3-year grant to help refine advisement.
iii. Teachers work in different teams, review student academic progress every 2 weeks
and work on other skills such as communication.
iv. Teachers teach advisement as a 6th, unpaid class and they get to state preferences
for a particular grade for looping.
v. The guidance counselors teach the 12th grade advisement classes and they focus on
the college process.
vi. Advisement is growing in popularity within DPS and nationally.
vii. The school is developing an on-line course catalogue with course descriptions for
the new web page to help students and parents with course choices. It will include a
description of advisement which will help inform parents and students.
n. Highly Gifted and Talented (HGT) and Gifted and Talented (GT) students
i. The district allocates an itinerant teacher for HGT support, each teacher serves 4
middle schools, and each school gets one day of support regardless of the number
of HGT students. There is no direct support for HS students.
ii. The HGT teacher talks to teachers about student strengths and how to support
them and also spends time with teachers on instructional strategies.
iii. Some work directly with students, but they mostly work with teachers.
iv. Various methods are used to identify students. Identified students receive letters
from the district about the option to attend special programs such as at Morey.
v. The DCIS teacher is working with teachers on the Shakespeare Festival, Odyssey of
the Mind, and Mathletics as well as providing resources and coordination.
vi. Mr. Parce hopes this will continue next year , but it depends on the budget and
budgets for 2012-2013 will come out next month.
vii. There are many options to consider for expanded learning including differentiated
English at MS level that will be beneficial to HGT students.
V. Parent Report
a. The treasurer reported not getting many request to disburse the grant money awarded
last fall. The grant coordinator will resend information to awardees and Mr. Parce with
remind faculty.
b. Cooling Initiative
i.
Laura Douglas said the plan is to look at cooling the school by degrees from
comfortable to more comfortable.
ii. Degree and temperature changes have been assigned to various options such as
awnings, shade sails, window film, roller shades, evaporative coolers, high efficiency
cooling on large and small scales, etc.
iii. The district Bond Oversight Committee is accepting applications for funding.
Proposals must be submitted by March and the parents involved plan to submit one.
iv. They also plan for an energy audit and they have identified hot rooms and shortterm solutions.
v. The group meets every Tuesday at 3 pm in Travel Center.
vi. A copy of their report will be posted to the web site and more details will be
available prior to the submission of the bond proposal.
vii. Mr. Parce reported the Board of Education will announce a final decision on the
school calendar in next couple of weeks.
c. Spring fundraiser on March 10
i. Several parents are still investigating venues trying to find a place that is free or
inexpensive and allows groups to bring in alcohol and food.
ii. They have begun approaching liquor distributors and restaurant owner friends
for donations
iii. The event will include entertainment and a silent auction.
iv. It is time to start collecting donations and Michelle has forms and letters. They
will also be on the web site.
v. There will be a meeting on 1/29 at Michelle’s house to plan
vi. You are urged to invite parents to help with as little as a one-hour shift work at
the event or more involvement.
vii. Marcy Donovan will head up advisement baskets with teacher wish lists.
VI.
Meeting adjourned.