January 22, 2008
3:00 pm, Library

Members present>: Nancy Faaren, Susan Kirkpatrick, Bill Liechty, Annie McManus, Paddy OÕBrien, Kathleen Lawrence, Lucas Nardella, and Stefan Wheat.

Guests>: Ed Thorpe

Joint SIP Team/Site Council Business Discussion>:

Several issues of note were discussed:

Paddy provided reported on a project to place information for parents on the school web-site. The information would explain options to bring issues of concern to the attention of faculty and the administration.

Lunch Tray discussion-concern was expressed about lunch trays leaving the cafeteria and not returning. Annie volunteered to work with staff and report back regarding how many trays are lost each week. The group liked the idea of creating lunch tray drop zones near the waste food garbage cans. Lucas stated that there was not enough room for students to sit down and eat so they were wandering off to various locations on campus to find a quiet and private spot to eat with friends.

Sportsmanship-Nancy reported the school would be following WAIAA rules and distributing Cougar Pride flyers.

Building Community-Nancy lead a discussion which focused on ideas to build a greater sense of community between CHS and the community outside the campus.

Site Council Business Discussion: >Nancy and Paddy co-facilitated the Site Council discussion.

Credit Recovery-Nancy lead a discussion regarding options to allow students who have failed a class to recover credit and thereby remain on schedule to graduate. She would like to utilize an existing program called ÒApexÓ which allows students to do on-line self guided studies. Apex has been used by Avanti and Olympia High Schools and has been successful. The Olympia School District has donated 20 computers for CHS to use. Nancy would like to target seniors who need to recover credits in order to graduate. Counselors will recruit potential students. Ed recommended that this program also be used to benefit kids who arenÕt necessarily failing a class, but simply have scheduling problems.

Culminating Project-Nancy gave the group an early notice regarding students who have not been making satisfactory progress with the Culminating Project (a new mandatory graduation requirement).

Community Connections-Nancy reported that she has joined the Westside Rotary.

Student Protest-Nancy reported on a recent student lead protest.