February 8, 2007 Meeting Minutes

South High Parent Council Meeting, Feb. 8, 2007


College Success- Conley and Brunson-Newton:

This will take place March 6 – come hear abut what you need to do to prepare your child for college.

Stand for Children – Joy Marshall:

4J is not what it used to be – so much funding has been cut.
State economy is brighter, so we’re hoping for money this year. We have to as voters show that this is unacceptable. The capitol needs to see public pressure.
Please come to the capitol on Feb. 19th noon to one on the State steps.
The bus leaves South at 10, drops you off right there. The governor’s going to speak, there will be a high school band. We’ll sign everyone in who comes and YOU are COUNTED. We will return at about 2:30-3.

Principal’s Update – Stephanie or John for Randy

Staffing for next year – we’re looking at a decrease in enrollment. We’re looking at a loss of a .8 FTE as a result. District is maintaining 25.38 to 1 FTE. We’re trying to raise $90,000 for an FTE. So far we have $30,000.
We sold 135 Chinook books – we made 4,000 dollars.
We’re looking at a new school improvement plan – support those kids falling through cracks, reducing student stress and helping the 9th graders adjust who are having difficulty.
New graduation requirements are in: total is same – 24 credits to graduate. Now you need 3 credits, 9th graders take Alg. 1, 3 science credits, 2 lab credits, 3 credits from Arts/2nd Lang./ Prof. Tech Training, 6 elective credits. It’s still 4 of English, 3 of Social Sciences and 1 health, 1 PE

Financial Update: Cindy Wright

We paid $29,000 – statement available upon request.

Action Items:

Helen asked if we want to have a “seminar” time so that we can learn abut the new requirements for graduation. Should we be “parent mentors” to other parents so that they can learn about these new requirements and how to implement them for their children?

Next Meeting: Tuesday, March 6


Teen Time Management

Liz Coleman teaches a class for incoming students to LCC on this matter.

Some questions this group has –

Help your children organize their time to study as well as everything else.
Balancing multiple responsibilities/activities at a high level.
How to anticipate the varying learning skills of different kids.
What is down time?
How to convince kids that organizing their time is necessary?

Liz teaches kids how to manage themselves, interdependence, time management…

Encourse, by Skip Downing. Paperback, easy to read. It has exercises in it – how to manage yourself, not time. we all have the same 24 hours. How will we manage it? He breaks time into a grid – i important things, not so important things. We have urgent things and not so urgent. These are in 4 quadrants

Important: sleep, school (attend class), homework, eating,

Urgent, but Not important: TV show, party, talk to friends, computer time, shopping, relationships. Making other peoples’urgencies your own. Always helping others.

Not Urgent and Important: Everything that you’re able to do ahead of time so that it doesn’t become Urgent and Imp.. This means PLANNING ahead. For this you need to be 3 steps ahead all the time!

Not Urgent and Not Important:

In college it’s 2 study hours for every hour you’re in class.
Kids need to put all their necessary times on the calendar – sleep, computer, school, activities, studying

Studying has to come first. If they are engaged in lots of activities, then they have to come through with the work first, THEN the social activities.

How are you going to manage your 24 hours every day? On the bus you can text your friends, read a chapter of a book…

What can families do to ensure success? Media time outs, personalized tutoring time with each child, agreeing to help with a project if they bring it to you the DAY it’s assigned.don’t over manage their every minute!

Help your child prioritize – make sure they have down time – give yourself downtime!