APPROVED

OLD MILL SCHOOL SITE COUNCIL MINUTES

Monday February 23, 2009

Time:  3:30 pm

Location:  Bahia Vista (BV) Elementary School, San Rafael

Present:

BV Representation:

Juan Rodriguez – Principal

Approx 7 staff / enrichment teachers

OMS Site Council:

Jane McDonough - Treasurer

Mary Anderson – Secretary

Molly Bass

Dawn Dobras – Vice President

Bryce Goeking

Andy Mercy - President

Lisa Mudd

Ann Nichols

Virginia vanRoyen

Apologies:

Hope Timberlake

Approval of Previous Meeting Minutes:   Minutes of the January 12, 2009 meeting were approved.

Approval of 2008/2009 Action Plan Objectives:  Approval was given to Jane to go ahead with the agreed 2008/2009 Action Plan objectives as outlined in previous minutes.

2008/9 Action Plan, Objective 1:  Support students to develop strength of character

The purpose of this meeting was for OM Site Council to get to know BV and to brainstorm with BV representatives on how best to structure our school partnership with them in a way that works for both sets of students and teachers.

Both principals introduced their schools and an extremely positive and constructive brainstorming session took place in which it was obvious that both schools have many potential programs / activities to share with each other.

Some points to note about BV:

•BV relies mainly on state funding and so is currently suffering from state budget cuts.  This means that any funding required to implement activities related to the BV/OM school partnership will need to be covered by the OM parent community in a discreet way.

•Gardening opportunities at BV.  BV has a beautiful, spacious campus and they are looking to plant some more native plants in raised flower beds.

•Solar energy.  A solar panel array is in place in the school yard and could be used for studying science.

•Bird Club.  With help from Point Reyes an out reach program has been established to educate the students about local birds, how birds are an indicator of the health of the community and what actions students can take to improve their habitat.

•Nutrition program.  With a nutrition grant from USDA cooking and tasting activities are underway to educate students and their parents to make healthy nutrition choices.

•BV does not have PE, music, art or science teachers.  Virginia kindly offered to talk to BV teachers about some PE activities which can be conducted by grade teachers, such as brain gym.

•BV is a larger K-5 school with about 150 more students than OM. 

Next steps:

It was agreed that this school partnership would mainly be driven by the individual teachers at each school and they would have the flexibility to go at their own pace.  Already contact details have been exchanged and some pen pal activities have been initiated.  In addition some joint assemblies and volunteer projects can be planned.  The idea of developing long-term relationships between students was suggested if this can be achieved at a practical level.

Action:  Dawn will kindly provide Juan Rodriguez with a draft 5 year partnership outline.

Action:  Faculty Site Council members to discuss the partnership further with their colleagues and report back.

Next Site Council Meeting:  Monday, March 23, 2009, at 3:00 pm in Old Mill School library.