Voices for International Business and Education
Minutes
Academic Committee Meeting
Date and Time
Thursday October 8, 2015 at 5:30 PM
Location
IHS Community Roomm
Voices for International Business and Education
http://public.boardontrack.com/VIBE_1
Committee Members Present
C. Allen, L. Hughes, S. Retzlaff, S. Thomas, S. Wilson
Committee Members Absent
A. Anderson, H. Bunn, M. Garcia
Guests Present
Betty Wolfers, Carmelita Johnson, H. Blumenthal
I. Opening Items
A.
Record Attendance and Guests
B.
Call the Meeting to Order
C. Allen called a meeting of the Academic Committee of Voices for International Business and Education to order on Thursday Oct 8, 2015 at 6:05 PM.
The meeting was called to order at 6:05 pm at which time a quorum was reached.
C.
Approval September 8, 2015 AC meeting minutes
L. Hughes made a motion to approve the minutes from the Academic Committee meeting held September 8, 2015.
C. Allen seconded the motion.
The committee VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.
II. Academic
A.
Academic Pillars: Strategic Plan
Carol presented the action items in the Academic Programs Pillar of the Strategic Plan with annotations. The committee agreed that the expected achievement date of August 2015 would need to be modified for all objectives with that date. Goal one is on track as we are offering 5 languages. It was suggested that we add tracking the growth of the language program to the Dashboard. It was suggested that the wording of Goal 2 be modified. The first objective has been accomplished. All faculty have received and continues to receive IB training. Goal 3 is on track with the development of a technology plan. All teachers have laptops in their classrooms and there is a staff resource space. It was suggested that the wording in Output, goal 3 be modified to exclude "generated a report on best designs".
B.
Discussion of Academic Dashboard to specify info needed from administration
Sean reviewed the Dashboard with the committee. It was determined that we would review the Dashboard Quarterly. Upon review of the EOC scores, it was determined that improvement is needed in Biology. Sean said that State Standards had not been the focus before and we have hired a new Biology Teacher that is truly committed to the subject. She's on target and focused and has an assessment tool that she is using. Upon review of the ACT scores, the question was asked about the difference between "passing" and "college ready". Sean explained that students have opportunities to make up work in classes and therefore will pass. However, these same students may not do well on standardized tests. Carol asked why 2014 IB scores were so out of range in comparison to 2013 and 2015. Sean explained that those students were truly hand picked for the program and it also does not say the # of students that actually took an IB course.
C.
Role of IHS Academic Leadership
Sean discussed the Leadership Mini-Retreat. The purpose was for staff to collaboratively develop a plan for the 2015-2016 school year where they also established a mission and vision statement with goals and objectives for each department to address the Strategic Plan. They also identified challenges faced in the beginning of the school year and will continue to discuss this at the next retreat to be held in the fall.
III. Closing Items
A.
Adjourn Meeting
S. Thomas made a motion to adjourn.
L. Hughes seconded the motion.
The committee VOTED to approve the motion.
Because of the difficulty in some committee members getting to the meeting at 5:30, the committee decided to change it’s meeting time to 6PM.
There being no further business to be transacted, and upon motion duly made, seconded and approved, the meeting was adjourned at 7:04 PM.
Respectfully Submitted,
S. Retzlaff