SIAC Meeting Minutes

May 2, 2006

Attendance: Suzi Rollins, Denise Carter, Cynthia Halliday, Kim Rhoton, Erinn Tatom, Katie Brock, Tracy Passey

1) Review and approval of minutes from April 4, 2006 meeting.

2) Update on Parent Advocates For Quality Schools by Cynthia Halliday. The final meeting of the year discussed Nutrition. The Fed Wellness Guidelines has set out calorie guidelines and established the percentage of fat based on a weekly average not to exceed 30%. The Junk Food Bill does not cover the lunch meals but does cover the ala carte menu. The new wellness standards must be in place by June 2006, a meeting school board meeting will be held in May to discuss the guidelines. Concern is that the changes will be to the classroom, not the cafeteria such as taking away candy for motivators and rewards and address parents ability to bring in birthday treats and classroom parties. Cynthia learned about 2 schools that are piloting an overall wellness program that involves the entire school, right down to the bus drivers to "Be Healthy". Additional aides were hired to monitor the playground to keep the kids moving. 3 minutes of exercise in the class in the afternoon among other things. Cynthia volunteered to go to the schools to observe and bring back the plan for Highland to incorporate for our students and staff. MPSD has an excellent fitness program. Other suggestions to check into were working with a dermatologist for sun screen programs and skin cancer awareness. Keeping the playground sports going with balls, hula hoops and assigning classroom clean up/equipment tracking.

3) Status of the School - Suzi Rollins - 1) School numbers will remain about the same for next year, 630-650 kids. 2) Meet the teacher night schedules were discussed, Suzi proposed 2 plans, 1 with 3 full rotations with 15 minute pass and 1 with 3 sessions and a question and answer time at the end. SIAC suggested 2 sessions with a Q&A at the end. Suzi reported on May 3rd that the 2 session scheduled was agreed upon by the staff and the schedule will be sent out in the next 2 newsletter and sent home with summer information. 3) Teacher requests for next year, most requests were met. If the request was not met a phone call to the parents was made. A new line was added to the form this year asking if the request was met last year, if it wasn't then extra attempts are made for the next year. The students will know on move up day who their teacher for next year will be. Move up day is May 19th, 2006. 4) 6th grade will continue next year rotation classrooms. 5) Next year the resource teacher will go to the classroom, instead of the students leaving for 4th to 6th grades. 5) Computer status - the PC lab is complete, classrooms are in process and the A/R library testing is currently pending. Goals will be adjusted is necessary due to the A/R testing being down. 6) Dress Code for Highland was discussed, shoes, specifically flip flops and high heels were discussed, tennis shoes are best for safety, flip flops break easily. However, the weather and the fashion on children shoes indicate the flip flops and the high heels. Children cannot participate in PE if they don't have tennis shoes. Suzi reported on 5/3/06 that due to hot weather, flip flops were approved, the children must bring a change for PE. The staff was updated that flip flops are allowed. Further review of the dress code will be on next years agenda.

4) Open Forum 1( Edukid, the new publication for students, teachers and parents is being well received. Mrs. Hibner's 3rd grad class from Highland was featured on the cover. The students and parents are very excited about the paper. Highland would like to have our progress on the bike helmet program published in the Sept edition. 2) Bike Helmet program, Kim Rhoton updated us on the success of the program, although the numbers are a bit elusive, due 5th grade walk on program, difficulty in actually measure the numbers in the morning. There are a great deal more kids wearing helmets. Suggestion for next year included - older classes promote the program in the younger class rooms through the buddy program, repeat the showing of the safety video, a letter out to the homes on the benefits of the program. Suzi reported on 5/3/ that all classrooms will be discussing bike helmet safety the week of May 8th and the staff approved the buddy class suggestion. 3) SIAC meetings and the minutes going surfing (on the web)!! The suggestion to have our meeting minutes and agenda posted on the Highland website was made and Suzi reported on 5/3/06 that Mrs. Sluzar will check into posting them next year. 4) Next year SIAC meetings will be held the 1st Thursday of the month. 4) Returning members to SIAC for next year are: Suzi Rollins, Denise Carter, Cynthia Halliday, Kim Rhoton, Erinn Tatom, Tracy Passey, Patricia Gifford, Stacey Hemeyer. Teachers are to be determined.

5) Next Meeting Agenda Items - Bike Helmet Safety, Welcoming any all new members, Approval of SIAC funds for the 5th grade Science Camp.

Meeting Adjourned .