Minutes -- Consultative Meeting 3-15-07

Consultative Council Meeting -- Minutes
March 15, 2007

Agenda:
1. SBO Vote and Proposed Schedule
2. Comp-time positions
3. Discipline Issues-School Safety Schedules posted.
4. Communities feeling isolated.
5. SLC Meetings-How can we better organize the time.

1. SBO Vote and Proposed Schedule
a. The faculty will be voting tomorrow, Friday March 16 on whether to retain the present schedule or accept a new schedule that will be circulated at the meeting. We will be voting on the general time frame for the three communities, not on details of how periods will be arranged.
b. We discussed a number of the problems with our present and proposed schedule. Nigel said that he agrees that there are problems with both schedules, and that he does not at the present time, know exactly how
some of the details of either schedule will be worked out. He assured us that the consultative council will be part of the decision making process, in addressing all the concerns that have been presented.
2. Comp Time Positions
a. Nigel said that he has asked team leaders to discuss comp-time positions with their cohorts, but he hasn't received any feedback at the present time.
b. The SBO can vote to increase or decrease funding for a particular position, or to eliminate positions that they feel are unnecessary. The school would, after looking at the final budget allocation, attempt to fund those positions to the maximum allowed by the SBO.
c. He said the only proposal that he knows about is to bring COSA into all three communities.
d. The staff needs to think about new positions or old positions that they don’t want.
3. Discipline Issues:
a. Michael requested that we have copies of school safety schedules plus Dean’s schedules, including after school time schedules.
b. The Consultative Council felt that the teachers both during the day and those who coach after school teams, or coordinate special events, need to know where the safety officers are in case a situation arises that calls for their presence.
c. In response to our concerns, Nigel said that faculty should let Michael know times and places where we feel there is a need for a regular security presence. After this list is reviewed, an attempt will be made to revise the safety schedule, to address the concerns.
d. Nigel discussed the fact that the school has become aware of a definite gang presence on campus.
e. There are meetings right now with parents and students suspected of being part of these gangs.
The anti gang unit has met with the leadership. The leadership has been working with the unit to develop strategies to address the problem. The consultative council will also be involved in these discussions, after some guidelines are agreed upon, communities will be asked to provide input, as well.
4. Community Isolation:
a. Michael brought up the issue that many faculty feel that each community is too isolated, and that there needs to be more contact and communication. Nigel’s general feeling is that this is a stage of the growth of a school. This was only briefly discussed and mainly as related to the need for a time for the entire UFT chapter to meet.
b. Nigel said he would do his best to cooperate to provide such a time. Michael requested time on professional development days. Nigel agreed to a meeting at the end of the day, with a half hour allocated that would otherwise be part of the PD schedule. If a meeting went longer, then that, the other half an hour or more, would be part of faculty’s personal time.
5. SLC Meetings: a. Nigel says his impression is that communities and individual cohorts handle their SLC times in a variety of ways, and that that this is basically a local decision.

Submitted by Iris Zevin

Proposed Schedule & SBO vote

As you may have read in the Principal’s Information Sheet, we will have an SBO vote for the proposed schedule on Friday at 3:30 – 4:30. This is the least disruptive time because fewer Montossori teachers are scheduled to teach at that time than any other day. Unfortunately, I did not know that the Emerson community planned a ski trip on Friday, which will disable those chaperones from attending the meeting. Most likely, they will vote on the following Monday.

In addition, I wanted to inform the staff that we are only voting on the time change. If the idea of being in school slightly longer Monday thru Thursday and having a shortened Friday schedule appeals to you, then you may vote for the proposed schedule. During the meeting with James Vasquez and Washington Sanchez, Nigel Pugh remarked that he does not have a strong bias to either schedule, but that his concern is that we vote on this as soon as possible so that the programmers can have time to resolve many of the programming issues. Most of the SBO votes are generally held in May, but it is in our best interest to have a schedule finalized as quickly as possible to avoid some of the programming difficulties we experienced this year.

Lastly, the Consultative meeting was rescheduled for this Thursday. If you have any suggestions for topics you would like discussed during that meeting, please write to me at either my BOE e-mail address – mlieber5@nycboe.net, or miky@worldnet.att.net. The minutes for that meeting will be posted on this blog next week.

Fraternally,


Mike