West Briar VPAC Meeting Minutes
November 8, 2010

 

The meeting started at 4:20 pm.

In attendance:
Mr. Ohl, Ms. Hoyt, Mr. Vanderbilt, Ms. Fitzgerald, Ms. Robey, Jane Miller, Valerie Breunig, Cheryl Hoffman, Laura Grobowsky, Sherry Campbell, Tara Blood, Mei Preimesberger

  1.  National Junior Honor Society

Parents are confused as to when paperwork is due.  There’s a lot of confusion about it in general.  Though there may be morning announcements about NJHS, parents are not getting this information.  The school will work on communicating important information to the parents.  Additionally,

      1. Ms. Hawkins, Ms. Lowe and Miss Smith are in charge.
      2. Deadlines are not written in stone.  The school can be flexible.
      3. It’s also going to be open for 6th graders this year.
  1. Discussion with History teachers at Westside

Ms. Fitzgerald reported that the meeting with Westside went very well

    1. Discussion about AP Human Geography
        1. Who should take this class? – Mr. Hill (AP Human Geography teacher from Westside) said that the type of person who should take this class is someone who doesn’t mind homework every night and has a high interest level in the subject (learning about people from different cultures).  He said that he would come to West Briar and talk to the 8th grade students about this class.
        2. To get college credit for this class, students must earn a 3, 4 or 5 on the exam.  Last year, 30% earned a 3 and 10% earned a 5.
        3. The merits of this class included helping students be better prepared for future AP classes.
    2. How West Briar can help prepare their students for Westside history
        1. The main experience that West Briar can give their students is analytical skills, such as looking at political cartoons and generating thesis statements.  DBQs are not used until the 10th or 11th grade.  At West Briar we should used Optics in 6th grade, AP parts and 1 DBQ in 7th, and AP parts and 2 DBQs in 8th.
        2. At this school, it was decided that doing an essay and analysis was too much for the students to do at once.  It’s better to split it up. 
  1. E-mail/website

-     We’re trying to determine how to best communicate to parents.  HISD won’t pay for List Serve.
-     Mr. Ohl discussed using Yahoo! Groups. Yahoo! Groups would be free and would serve the purpose. 
-     It was decided that this was not going to be only a VPAC communication, but something that would go out to all parents from the school who signed up for it. 
-     A volunteer is needed to take over this job.   Neither Mr. Ohl nor the office staff have the time to do it.  The volunteer would need to gather the information, type it up and send it out.
-     It would go out once a week on the same day of the week.  Highlights of the week and important information would be included.  We can start with basic information and build on it, once we get more experience.  Judy from the front desk would help gather information and Mr. Vanderbilt would help with link information.

  1. Testing schedule

-           Testing calendars produced by the district were distributed.

  1. Plans for November 16 Open House

-           A PowerPoint presentation put together by Mary Jane Mudd was shown.  This will be shown at the Open House as well.  There will be some changes made to it before the Open House.
-           Flyers should be sent home with 5th grade students this week and we will also put it on the marquis.
-           Volunteers are needed to help out that night.
-           The schedule will be as follows:
5:30  - Dinner will be served to teachers who stay
6:30 – West Briar students will arrive and go to their assigned areas.
6:30 – The meeting starts
6:40 -  The presentation will begin
7:00 -  Presentation is finished and tours are started.  We should be finished by 8:00.

The meeting was adjourned at 5:50 pm

Respectfully submitted,
Tara Blood
West Briar VPAC Recording Secretary, 2010-2011