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Collaborative Coordination Meeting
September 9, 2008
Meet the Principal!
September and October are great months to meet the principal at your child's school. Visit during open house!
Dr. Chuck Podhorsky
Hoover High School
Open House
September 24, 2008
6:00 PM
Thomas Liberto
Monroe Clark Middle School
Open House
October 1, 2008
Peg Crane
Rosa Parks Elementary School
Open House
September 16 - Grades K/1
September 17 - Grades 2/3
September 18 - Grades 4/5
All nights parents begin by meeting with principal in multipurpose room at 5:30, then go to their child's classroom.
A Message from Tim Allen
Each Tuesday morning, I hold a meeting at the
Collaborative Offices that includes representatives from SDSU, Price Charities
as well as the Collaborative school principals. This group shares information
that supports coordination of our work with the Collaborative schools and
provides for Pre-K through 12 articulation. One of the questions we leave each
meeting with is “how do we share this information with teachers and staff of
the Collaborative schools?”
"I think it is important to offer you a summary of the issues being
discussed so that the same information is available to all and so that there is
an opportunity for comment."
Beginning with our first meeting of the 2008-09 academic year, all meetings will be available here on the CHEC
web site. Please feel free to e-mail me any questions or
comments you may have.
Presentation: Antiviolence Task Force
Dr. Dorothy Zirkle,
Director of Community Schools for Price Charities, and vice principals from
Hoover, Monroe Clark, and Wilson presented information on an innovative project
for truancy prevention that will target approximately 30 students at each
campus. The program will address enforcing existing laws and policies, focusing
resources and supports, and enhancing existing efforts and programs to prevent
truancy. Dr. Mike Corke of SDSU
and the Collaborative’s evaluator is providing evaluation services for this
grant.
NOTE: If you would
like more information or copies of the report, please e-mail me.
CHEC School Updates:
Hoover High School
Chuck Podhorsky discussed some of the key changes
at Hoover including the addition of 9th grade advisory that addresses the transition needs of students, the school-wide
emphasis on vocabulary instruction (based on Marzano), and the
facilities work being completed. We also discussed how the SDSU work with the
English department will extend to grade 10 this year.
The SDSU/City Heights
Student Teaching cohort is also beginning at both Hoover and Clark with a
little over 20 students.
He also discussed the work of the Project
Recovery group (SDUSD police and Internal Auditing staff) at Hoover who are
calling student no-shows and trying to get them back into school.
NOTE: In case you haven’t seen the campus this
summer: Construction of new entrances for the main office and the auditorium as
well as new concrete quad areas and walkways – and a new marquee –
is being completed. Also, with Price funding, the front office interior
has received a great make-over based on the designs of local artist Lynn
Susholtz!
Monroe Clark
New principal Tom Liberto discussed the opening
of school and the enrollment – which is not as high as last year’s.
While there are still outstanding issues regarding staffing and scheduling, he
said Monroe Clark opened very well and that he is very happy to be there. He
also discussed that he has 5 students with challenges that he is giving special
attention to – for example, he has done home visits – in order to
provide support and to become more acquainted with the Monroe Clark community.
Tom also related how he wants to support the
great things that have gone on at Clark that resulted in a gain of 22 points in
API ranking in 2008!
Rosa Parks Elementary
Peg Crane talked about school opening that went
very well – she also said the grade K-2 enrollment – especially
Kindergarten – is high while some other grades are down. She said that
the new preschool classroom has a full enrollment for the AM session and that
they are waiting for Child Development to enroll more students for the PM class
which is at 8 right now. The new preschool classroom is being funded through
Price Charities this year with plans to make it a district funded program in
future years.
Wilson
I invited Wilson to participate in these meetings because that school is critical to the success at Hoover. Principal Bernadette Nguyen discussed the improved test scores for 6th and 8th grade English and the school’s emphasis on data analysis this year.
Other Collaborative items
Goal Setting
SDSU’s
Dr. Joe Johnson of the National Center for Urban School Transformation (NCUST) and I are meeting with each principal to discuss each school’s goals, plans and
focus for the year so that we can support that work by looking at indicators of
success during the year (and not just at the end with CST). We will also be
looking at ways that each school can address the challenges that Robert Price
stated regarding facilities and articulation among the three schools.
We will also work with each school to ensure that
we have full access for all on DataDirector which is an amazing tool that we
will all find useful in improving student achievement.
Music
Ann Bossler and Midge Backensto met with the music teachers of all three Collaborative schools as part of our articulation and support for the arts.
Counselors
Midge
discussed the continued work with SDSU’s Dr. Trish Hatch and the Collaborative
schools’ counselors. In addition to monthly meetings, the counselors and Trish
will meet several Saturdays to continue development of their K-12 Counseling
plans.
Achievement Gap Conference
Dean of SDSU’s College of Education, Ric Hovda, announced that SDSU will be offering a conference on what works in urban education on the 21st of November. More details will follow after the planning committee has met.
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