Date: September 10, 2019

Location: Administrative Conference Room
Time: 4:05 – 4:53 pm

Certified Representatives:
Susie Ribaudo
Cara Grasso
Ken Marrs
Melissa Martinez
Patricia Olstad

Parent Representatives:
Maria Saavedra (absent)
TBA (2 positions)

Student Representatives:

Hayli Kubley
Chloe Chavez
Courtney Walker (absent)
Lucy Rojo (absent)
Ayissa Vizuet (absent)

Classified Representatives:
Paula Saldutti

Community Representative:
TBA

Administration Representatives:
Bobby Estrella
Patricia Hurley (absent)

Call to the Audience: None

Principal’s Report:

1. Conference Period Update: I appreciated the students who helped to gather feedback and design our plan. Will need more refining. Too many students are out wandering during the first 15 minutes. Once we settle them in, other students come out legitimately to report to other classes. We need to develop a set of guidelines to address this problem. Last 20 minutes is still a problem too.

2. Target School Interventions (TSI) Even though we are not a Title I school, we are in a Title I District. Therefore, we are now obligated to develop a plan to address any subject group whose academic success dips below 14% as measure by AzMerit. We need to focus on IEP and ELLs students. District received a grant to provide Math Pathways and Pitfall Training for our faculty to help us address this issue. We have trained a core group of math teachers who will now organize training for the faculty. All training is paid. It must be outside of contract hours. Must have a sign in/out sheet (or clock in/out). Must have an agenda. More information soon. (Teachers will be paid $25 per hour.) Charles Collingwood is leading Sahuaro’s TSI.

3 Librarian & Career College Readiness Counselor positions have been offered to candidates. HR is in process of clearing them. We have two teacher positions open recently. Social Studies and English. We posted immediately. However, we are not authorized to hire at the moment, so the District can complete its DIT process. This will last at least two weeks.

4. Two biggest changes in the Student Code of Conduct for us this year. First is the one day suspension for students fighting with a potential day for a “cooling off” period. We must be very careful not to abuse this and use this as the norm. Secondly, all vaping device will be considered an illicit drug (level 4).

5. We conduct monthly discipline reviews to monitor trends and to ensure that our discipline is consistent and avoids disproportional consequence among student of various ethnic sub groups. We found that there were no disproportion problems for the month on August. Drugs and fights continue to be the leading cause for a student to be suspended at Sahuaro. We spend a lot of time on prevention. 6 PBIS lesson for the whole school over two days; class assemblies, Open House Conversation, Freshman Orientation Conversation, Frosh Academy, ISI Teacher establishing student ambassadors/mentors, Internet Safety Assembly, and more . . . There is a possibility of receiving another PBIS award for our efforts last year. This would be the third year in a row Sahuaro would be recognized for our work in this area.

6. Had a really strong showing at our Senior Parent Night . . . agenda is posted on our website. Also posting my ParentLink emails on the website as well to help improve communication.

7. New CPR graduation requirement start with 2020 grads. Will provide the seniors this training in the Econ/Govt classes during the week of November 12. Will work this through our Health classes in the future. (This is not CPR Certification.)

Tomorrow Parent Teacher Conferences
Orchestra Concert Thursday night
Half Day on Friday. No lunch or supper service. School is released at 12:17.
Saturday CAR (College Application Resource) Event at Tucson High School
October 1 we will host a FAFSA night in the cafeteria at 6:00pm for our senior families
October 16 PSAT
October 22 College and Career Night at TCC. Free Parking. Free event.
October 25 will host a College and Career Night along with Tailgate for Homecoming
November 13 we host Future Frosh Night

Parent Report None

Student Council Report:
 Cougar week (which is similar to Spirit Week) went well on Sept 3-6.
 Representatives from each graduating class are now enrolled in the Student Council (StuCo) Class, including freshmen
 Spirit Week will take place Oct 21-25. StuCo is going to try to create a place for students to take pictures that represent each day’s theme (eg: a background of planets for Alien Day, etc).
 Homecoming will be on Friday, October 25. We will have a Pep Assembly (Assembly One Schedule), Tailgate, Football Game, and Dance.
 StuCo has been busy approving fundraisers and chartering clubs at their meetings.
 The Parking Fundraiser made almost $3000 for StuCo.

Community Report None

Discussion and Action Items:
1. Regretfully, although Sahuaro’s Site Council voted to fund the stipend for two Robotics Team Coach positions at the October 24th (2017) meeting, it is not a Board Approved position and is not an extra duty position listed in the TEA Consensus. This was not known prior to Site Council approving the stipends. Andy Christian and Ben Davis will not receive the stipend as the Robotics Team Coaches that year.
2. The Speech and Debate Coach has requested approval from Site Council to approve this stipend (up to $3000 or the appropriate amount determined by HR). The motion passed. Paula Saldutti is waiting for response from HR on what that amount will be.
3. Ryan Robinson requested a one-time $150 bus payment for his students to see a performance related to their subject. The motion passed.
4. Melissa Martinez’s Government class brought up the need for a student group much like the Student Advisory Council (SAC). Bobby Estrella expressed that the current SAC and StuCo may be able to find a time to facilitate good communication to ensure that concerns by the student body are addressed and heard. It was mentioned that it may be a good idea for the school to advertise for the SAC so students know it exists, students know they can be a part of it, and that students know they have representatives in SAC and in StuCo that are willing to hear their concerns/ideas.

Minutes taken by Ken Marrs.

The next meeting of the Sahuaro Site Council will be November 12, 2019. This will be second of 4 required meetings.