MINUTES
SCHOOL SITE COUNCIL MEETING
November 1, 2006

  1. Call to order
  2. Flag Salute
  3. A quorum was confirmed.

4. Minutes approved for October 2006 with changes
5.   Student Reports— Andrew Palacios
a.   Homecoming week is over. It was a successful event. Thursday night was the pep rally. Although everyone did well, the Seniors won the event. The Homecoming King was crowned on Friday, October 20th at the Homecoming Assembly. The 2006 King was Senior, Steven Vega.
b.   The next event for all the classes will be the canned food drive. The winner of this class competition will be the class with the heaviest total cans.
c.   The Seniors are also preparing for the Christmas Tree Decorating Contest in December.
d.   The deadline to register for the December 2nd SAT is November 7th. The deadline to register for the December 9th ACT is November 3rd.

  1. DAC – Tony Paez will report at the December meeting.
  2. Special Ed – Priscilla Linares
    1. El Rancho High School hired Frances Nguyen for the position of Special Education Counselor.
    2. On September 29, 2006, Gov. Schwarzenegger signed Senate Bill 267 which provides a one-year exemption for the requirement to pass the CAHSEE for certain students with disabilities in the class of 2007. This Bill is similar to SB 517, which provided a similar exemption to the class of 2006. For more information, please refer to www.leginfo.ca.gov/bilinfo.html.
  3. Title 1
    1. At the end of the first trimester, approximately 30 students in the Language! Program will exit the program and begin taking English 9A and 9B 2nd and 3rd trimester.
  4. GATE – Nothing to report
  5. Administration  - Julie Ellis and Priscilla Linares
    1. Priscilla Linares apologized for the incorrect information she gave to the School Site Council at the October 2006 meeting. Ms. Linares originally stated that student eligibility for the Night Pep Rally would be based on the 2006 3rd trimester grades. This was incorrect information. Student eligibility would be based on the 2006 1st trimester progress reports.
    2. Julie Ellis reported that out of the approximately 3300 students at El Rancho High School, 2450 were eligible to participate in the Night Pep Rally. Out of the 2450 eligible students, approximately 1400 students attended the rally.
    3. Ms. Ellis continued by stating that while the school’s administration did receive some backlash from both students and parents, they thought it was very important to set this academic standard.
    4. From a teaching standpoint, it was the best-behaved pep rally. The atmosphere after the rally was very healthy. Ms Ellis said she was very proud of El Rancho’s students.
    5. Ms. Ellis expressed frustration about the fact that parents received both students’ progress reports and notification about parent conferences very late this trimester. Ms. Villon and Mr. Moreno said they received progress grades 2 to 3 days after parent conference night. While the school had them prepared in plenty of time, the Pico Rivera post office has new guidelines regarding bulk mail that unexpectedly slowed the process.  Ms. Ellis apologized for the inconvenience this caused parents, and while parent conference night was well attended, it could have been better. The school will do a better job beginning second trimester.
    6. Frank Moreno suggested making better use of parent’s email when sending out notifications.
    7. Ms. Villon also stated that the school could make better use of the automatic dialer.
    8. Ms. Mendez also suggested forming a calling tree and have parent volunteers make calls home.
    9. At this point Ms Ellis asked if there were any questions or issues that she may be able to answer.
  1. Separate or Action items
    1. Voting was held for a new School Site Council Chairperson for the 2006-2007 school year. Esther Mejia was elected as the new School Site Council Chairperson.
    2. Aurora Villon was elected the Parliamentarian. 
    3. Aurora suggested keeping the Parent Involvement Policy on the agenda. Mrs. Villon also suggested looking at the School Plan to see what it says about parent involvement. Priscilla Linares will bring copies of the school plan for the SSC to the December meeting.
    4. Esther Mejia said she will have someone make a presentation about PTSA at the next School Site Council meeting.
    5. Ms. Villon would like the school administration to look into a translating system to better accommodate the great turnout of bilingual parent at the SSC meeting.
  2. Public Comment
  3. Agenda—next meeting will be Wednesday, December 6, 2006.
    1. School Plan  
    2. Parent Involvement Policy
    3. PTSA presentation
  4. Meeting adjourned at 6:55 p.m.