CRESCENT VALLEY
PARENT ORGANIZATION AND PRINCIPAL COFFEE
March 13, 2008
CVPO Business
Minutes: The minutes of the 2/14/08 meeting were approved.
Treasurer’s Report: Available funds of $3,072.76 were reported. The
increase over last month is due to income of $178.45 from the Dream Dinners and
E-Scrip fundraisers.
Teacher Grants: A motion passed to disperse $864 in the following way:
Link Crew ($300), Calculators for Mr. Rada’s math classes ($100), a DVD player
for the Career Center ($40), Speakers for the Social Studies Department
audio-visual cart ($124), and $300 to the World Languages department (either
dictionaries and/or “Guess Who” games). A second motion passed to
authorize the committee to disperse the remainder of the money (up to $1924) to
other grant applicants at its discretion after further discussion with the
applicants. The committee will report back at the April meeting.
Volunteer News: Volunteer Coordinator Amy Adamski made a request for a
few parents to man the registration table at conferences on Thursday, April
10. Help is needed for two-hour
shifts from noon to 6 p.m. Contact adamski@proaxis.com
if you can help.
Nanette Armstrong will coordinate the conference dinner and requests help with
food donations, set-up, serving, and clean-up. The dinner will be served
to teachers from 6-7 p.m. on Thursday, April 10. Contact nyarmstrong@comcast.net if you can
help.
Alex Vincent reported that the planning committee for the Staff Appreciation
luncheon will meet soon to begin work for this event, which will be held on May
7th. Next year new leadership will be needed. Those interested
should contact alex@vincent-hill.com.
By-Laws: Roberta Lundeberg distributed a draft of the CVPO By-Laws which
include changes suggested by the committee that reviewed them. This
document will be e-mailed before the April CVPO meeting. Discussion and a
vote on the changes will be held at the April meeting.
Student Directory: Will be distributed through the listserv. Paper
copies will be made for the staff. The directory will not be available on
the CVHS website or at the school.
Officers for Next Year: Nanette Armstrong will serve as CVPO President
next year. Alex Vincent will continue as Secretary and Listserv
coordinator. If you are interested in serving in one of the other
leadership positions, please contact Roberta.Lundeberg@oregonstate.edu.
Next CVPO Meeting: The next meeting and Principal Coffee will be
Thursday, April 3, 2008. This is a week earlier than our usual date due
to conferences.
Principal Topics
Leadership Corvallis: This group, which visited CVHS on March 13th,
provides its participants a broad overview of Corvallis and Benton County. As part of the education arm of the program,
five participants observed two classes, held private discussions with teachers,
and met with a group of students over lunch.
Teacher Evaluations: Cherie Stroud reported that these are ongoing now at
CVHS. She expressed needs for more alignment across schools and for
higher investment (mentoring and evaluation) in new teachers during the three
year probationary period.
Site Visit and Accreditation: Every six years the state of Oregon visits
CVHS as part of the accreditation process. The next visit will be on
April 26, 2008. Administrators from three high schools similar in
socioeconomic makeup to CVHS will comprise the visiting committee.
Cherie pointed out that new data on CV test scores are available on the school
website. They show that CV students perform at or near the top of every
category when compared to students at other schools of similar socioeconomic
makeup.
Read 180 Program: This intervention program for reading success is being
started at CVHS. Cherie invited parents who would like to administer
testing for Read 180 to contact her at Cherie.Stroud@Corvallis.K12.OR.US. She asks for a one-block commitment during
the first two weeks of April when the tests will be administered to all
freshmen during their study hall periods.
Results of the testing will be used in a broader program for reading success,
including structured study halls.
Conferences: Will be held drop-in arena-style in the cafeteria on
Thursday, April 10 from noon to 6 p.m. with a break for the teachers from
3-3:20 p.m.
Scheduled conferences will be on Thursday, April 10th from 7-8 p.m. in the
teachers’ classrooms. Scheduled conferences will also be held on Friday,
April 11th from 8 a.m. to noon in the classrooms. Beginning March 31,
call 757-5801 to schedule conferences.
Pinnacle Internet Grade and Attendance: A written survey about the new
Pinnacle grade and attendance reporting system will be available at the April
10th arena conferences. Cherie and the staff are still de-bugging the
attendance reporting part of Pinnacle. Please call the attendance
secretary or front office if you have a problem or concern regarding Pinnacle
attendance reporting.
Cherie reported that teachers have received the changes well and she apologized
for the problems with the new system and thanked parents for their patience
during this transition.
Registration: The process for registering for ’08-’09 courses begins
April 7th for freshmen, sophomores, and juniors in advisor period. Teachers
can answer parents’ questions about courses during conferencing on April 10th
and 11th and registration forms will be available for students to bring home on
April 14th. Registration forms signed by parents are due back at school
on April 17th.
The staff is using a new registration computer system which is expected to
improve the semester balancing of course work loads.
Cherie stressed the importance of listing alternate courses on the registration
form. This improves a student’s chances of getting into an acceptable
course if their schedule can’t accommodate their first choice.
New Courses for ’08-’09:
Introduction to computer programming through game design
German 3
Applied mathematics: real world math for students not on the geometry-algebra
track
Advanced topics in Spanish literature
Oracle: technology, analytical, and business skills that support the pursuit of
professional careers and advanced study
Applied science: chemistry, life science, and physics course that will replace
the current horticulture program
Latin American culture and history: an elective that is an integration of
the World Language and Social Studies departments
Language Lab: Problems with hardware, software, and teacher use are being
addressed through work with the supplier, purchase of new headsets, and teacher
training.
’08-’09 Budget: Cherie distributed a graph showing enrollment at CVHS and
CHS since 1993. Since 2000, when enrollment was equal at the schools,
student population has grown at CHS and shrunk at CVHS. Currently CHS has
300 more students and next year is predicted to have 200 more students.
Since the open enrollment policy was changed, the District has made an
exception for siblings, reconfigured boundaries, and allowed open enrollment
for Jefferson Elementary School students. These actions have resulted in
the continued large disparity in high school enrollment.
Cherie has been serving on the district budget committee and reported on its
recommendations to the superintendent. The first recommendation, which
was adopted, is the basic school budget which provides a minimum level of
staffing. The basic school budget will benefit CVHS by providing a 0.5
FTE
technology support position and an increase in counseling positions.
The second recommendation, which was adopted, is the allocations per student. “Beginning
in 2008-09, the poverty factor will be the only special needs factor remaining
in the weighting formula.” Special education, English language learners,
and talented and gifted students will no longer be weighted when per student
financial allocations are made. The largest population of these students
at CVHS is talented and gifted learners, which is 37% of all students, but
because the TAG weighting is so small, the financial loss is minimal. The
recommendation’s rationale is that the services to these students are funded
centrally in the district.
A third recommendation, which was not adopted, is to grant to the smaller high
school one half the per pupil allocation for those students exceeding the 7%
margin of average high school student enrollment. This recommendation was
not adopted due to the financial hardship it would impose on CHS.
The committee will deliver its recommendations to the board next month, which
is not required to vote on them. The committee will meet every year.
Cherie presented the 2008-09 CVHS budget, which included funding from the local
option levee, amounting to $4,955,106
and serving 1078 students. She said that in general, CVHS is in good
shape with the budget. She asked if there were additional funds, how
parents want them spent, hiring more
teachers or allocating more money to the teachers to run their courses.
There was discussion of improvement to school fundraising, utilizing the
Corvallis Public Schools Foundation, and how the CV community can better
publicize school events in Benton County.
CVHS in the Newspaper: Both Corvallis Gazette-Times editors will attend
the April Principal Coffee on the 3rd at 11:30. They want to know what
parents of CV students consider newsworthy. They also are interested in
the parent perspective on G-T reporting. If you have input and can’t
attend the meeting, reply and we’ll make sure they get it.
Announcements: The weekly agendas for the advisor periods are now
available on the school website.
A course called “Understanding the Teenager in Your Life” covering “parenting
teens today; perception, misperception, and self-fulfilling prophecy;
adolescent development; communication between parents and teens; conflict
resolution; and the adolescent brain” will be offered Tuesdays, April 1-May 6
from 7-9 p.m Cost is $180/person or $275/couple. Call 753-1820 or contact
Catherine@courageconsultants.net
to register or for more information.
AFS, the foreign exchange student program, is looking for host families and
offers local support. Contact katherine@clelandmarketing.com
for more information.
Upcoming Events:
Spring Break, no school: March 24-28
CVPO mtg. and Principal Coffee: Thursday, April 3 at 11 a.m., staff
dining room
Conferences, no school: Thursday and Friday, April 10-11
CVHS Website: http://www.csd509j.net/cvhs/
Current Raider News:
http://www.csd509j.net/cvhs/raidernews/Raider%20News%20March%202008.pdf
Respectfully submitted,
Alex Vincent
March 20, 2008