Date: September 12, 2017 Location: Room 207
Time: 4:03-5:30 pm

Certified Representatives:
Eva Lange
Matthew Barany
Ashley Depugh
Michael Halfmann

Student Representatives:
Austin Molina
Katelyn Kubly

Parent Representatives:
Maria Saavedra (absent)
Sunshine Turner (absent)
Craig Courville (absent)
Nelson Brown

Classified Representatives:
Lori Emrich
Community Representative:
Darryl Day

Administration Representatives:
Bobby Estrella
Patricia Hurley

Call to the Audience: No Call to Audience

Action Items:
1. Minutes to August 15 meeting amended with unanimous vote that verbiage of “Scholarship opportunities for athletes” be changed to “scholarship opportunities for all AIA fees”
2. Votes for approval of undesignated tax credit monies:
a. $1,260 for Ms. Lange field trip to Arizona Theatre Company for students to attend The Diary of Anne Frank approved unanimously
b. $5,000 for Robotics Club for TI-84 calculators and batteries approved unanimously
Discussion Items:
3. Request for undesignated tax credit funds to be used for Speech and Debate – Mr. Robinson, co-sponsor of Speech and Debate Club requested a stipend of $2000 to be split with other co-sponsor, Megan Hughes. Only 3 schools in Southern Arizona have speech and debate teams (Sahuaro, Salpointe, Catalina Foothills – Sahuaro is the only TUSD school). All events are in Phoenix and require an overnight stay (usually a Days Inn) on Friday with a late return on Saturday. There are approximately 6 tournaments and the season goes from October-March. They practice on Tuesdays and Thursdays after school. S and D is open to any student, however because the van only holds ten students, only the top ten may compete. They fundraise for food, water, snacks, etc. The do pay an AIA fee, therefore meeting all requirements to receive tax credit monies. Site Council unanimously supports this; it will be put on next month’s agenda as an action item for the official vote.
4. Morning traffic in the parking lot solutions: Staff can arrive earlier to beat the rush, staff can use the south parking lot to avoid student drop off, Mr. Estrella will look into signs asking parents to move up rather than block those coming in. Traffic during this time is unavoidable. Everyone must do their part to ease the flow.
5. SHS 50-year anniversary – clarification.
a. The 2018 edition of the yearbook will be the 50th edition
b. This spring will be the 49th commencement
c. When school starts in August, it will be the 50th anniversary
d. 2019 will be the 50th commencement ceremony
6. Mrs. Emrich – tax credit campaign
a. Finance Manager, Lori Emrich, is initiating a postcard mail campaign to boost donations. She suggested the 85710 area from Pima to 22nd street and Kolb to Harrison. Nelson suggested backing away a bit and moving toward the 85748 code as the socio/economic status is better. We currently receive about $1000 toward undesignated. This would cost approximately $815, with Mr. Estrella coming up with the funds. Site Council fully supports this endeavor,
7. New features on school newspaper – The Paper Cut – on the right hand side is a new feature – a calendar of events. Events for teachers, students, and parents are listed chronologically though the end of the semester. If you would like an event added, please email: [email protected]

Principal report – Mr. Estrella explained the School Letter Grade. This was presented to the staff at a Professional Development. The main focus for all staff should be on instruction and strategies to have more impact on student achievement and raise our letter grade (which we do not know yet). Some of the basics: We are a fully integrated school (no majority). The letter grade is based upon: 30% AzMerit; 20% HS graduation rate; 20% growth (AzMerit) from year-to-year; 20% college and career readiness (ACT/SAT/CTE/AP); 10% proficiency and growth of English learners
Ideas: Offer dual credit (Questions: would it take away from our AP pool? How would it change school culture if 20-30% of seniors are off campus after lunch?) Different from AP in that students must take proficiency test up front rather than after a course. We can measure college readiness by students who submit FAFSA (data is shared with state), Passing CTE with C or better, and ASVAB test-takers can contribute data.
Big issue is how do we transfer motivation on to students when it comes to AzMerit, something Sahuaro culture is struggling with. One problem can be that scores are delayed until the following school year – Mr. Barany likened this to waiting months to find out if you passed your Driver’s Test. Scores have gone down since 2016 in ELA9, ELA11, Geometry, but are up in Algebra II
Parent report – no parent report
Student Council report – Homecoming theme is “Glow Hard or Go Home” (Neon) throughout the assembly, game, and dance
Freshmen SC members are just starting and are welcome
Community report – Positive moves toward spending undesignated tax credit money – more sponsors and teachers are coming forward to support enrichment activities. Mr. Day encourages staff to come to our meetings and “sell your legitimate program”

Announcements: The next meeting of the Sahuaro Site Council will be October 24, 2017.