HSU committee meeting minutes 2-14-12
Meeting Started: 2:33 pm
In attendance:
Sandra Hubbard (parent)
Cindy Martin (parent)
Matt Garofalo (student)
Ms. Repper
Mr. Holman
Mr. Kuhn
Mr. Robinson
Ms. Stottman
Ms. S. Johnson
Ms. A. Williams
Mr. Krysinski
Mr. Dallmann
Mr. Crain
Mr. Crady
Mr. Eastridge
Ms. M Johnston
Meeting brought to order, minutes from Feb. 7th read and a motion to approve made by Ms.
Williams, seconded by Ms. Martin.
The committee will discuss the proposed changes to the HSU magnet - which stem from a desire
to provide the best magnet experience for our HSU students and a need to make sure that we are
in compliance with district ILP (Individual Learning Plan) requirements and state accountability
index requirements.
Note: current pathways provided by Ms. Johnston in the draft document reflect ILP pathways.
Every student’s elective choices must match up with their ILP.
Note: Ms. Johnston reports that we look good for ILP compliance because HSU students take 3
years of world language and an additional core content class.
Note: the second discussion of pathways refers to the Career-Ready Pathways which is part of
the state accountability index and is reflected as option “B” under number 2 on the HSU
rationale statement (see attached)
Several concerns immediately brought up:
(1) Technology requirement
(2) HSU students being able to take YPAS classes
First Ms. Williams mentioned that Ms. Spiegelhalter is checking on the availability of a
performance career-ready pathway, but the state will need evidence of performance certification
from YPAS – Mr. Crady is going to speak to the Humanities specialist at JCPS and Ms.
Spiegelhalter. According to Ms. Spiegelhalter, from the first meeting, the state is discussing
putting together performance and art Career-Ready pathways – currently the three state approved
pathways are (1) Business (2) Technology (3) Family Consumer Science. Ms. Johnston, Ms.
Stottman and Mr. Holman will create a document showing the options within the Career-Ready
pathway for the committee to review – document will be based on state accountability
requirements.
Mr. Holman focused the discussion on the main point being that we want to do right by our HSU
students and provide ALL of them with an opportunity to be successful – most of our HSU
students will follow option “A” under number 2 on the proposal and take the 4 AP/Dual Credit
path – currently that is the HSU policy ALL students in HSU must take 4 AP/Dual Credit
courses. However there may be a small number who do not feel they can be successful in an AP
class, we want them to feel good about themselves and be successful in school as well, therefore
the Career-Ready pathway may serve a function for those students and at the same time allow
Manual to make sure ALL students are College and/or Career-Ready.
Note: The main goal is for our students to be college ready and many of our students will end up
being both college and career ready due to the fact that many of them will take the 4 AP/Dual
Credit courses and pursue a career pathway as well. Research from the previous HSU committee
meetings from 2 years ago revealed that the many of our HSU students were already taking more
than 4 AP/Dual Credit courses and through discussion the number of 4 AP/Dual Credit courses
was arrived upon as a number which would be realistic for the majority of HSU students to
accomplish – however after a year of implementation we are now seeing that the 4 AP/DC
pathway may not be feasible for all HSU students.
Ms. Hubbard reported that parents on SBDM met and would like to be kept informed and have a
say in what takes place regarding the HSU magnet re-vamp.
Ms. Stottman responded by saying that the HSU meetings are open and parents are welcome to
attend and that as parent representatives Ms. Martin and Ms. Hubbard are representing parents
and should act as the liaison between parents and the committee.
Ms. Johnson made mention that Ms. Wooldridge values parent input and has encouraged it at
SBDM meetings.
Mr. Kuhn asked that the committee move forward and decide what the goal is and reiterated the
fact that HSU is a magnet and it cannot be allowed to languish and must not be aimless, however
there are many elements to consider with this magnet since it serves such a diverse student
population. The focus needs to stay on the magnet and the idea that there does need to be some
measure of structure to the magnet.
As of now the current requirements may not be serving all the students as best they can, what can
we add to the magnet/take away/or change to make the magnet a stronger, better magnet for our
students?
The current new proposal allows the challenge of taking 4 AP/Dual Credit classes – option “A”
or Career Pathway – option “B”; keeping the 3 world language requirements; and several
different paths to completing the humanities requirement (see attached document)
Technology requirement discussed. Mr. Krysinski made the point that we want Manual HSU
students to leave technology-ready for college and the current SPPG requirement from the
district to be technology ready by passing the grade 8 technology assessment is not adequate.
Discussion regarding having students technology and computer ready a must. Discussion
regarding students who enter Manual with IC3 certification or MOS certification or sometimes
both – what do we do with these students who have already exceeded the computer applications
class? Ms. Hubbard provided her son as an example of an HSU student in this very situation.
It was decided that HSU will require incoming students to either be ICS or MOS certified OR
take a computer applications course.
Note: Question raised by Ms. Johnson will students be able to take the ICS certification test
during their senior year? What if they fail? Committee decided no, students cannot take the
certification exam their senior year. Students would have to enter with proof of ICS or MOS
certification or take the test during their freshmen year to meet the technology requirement for
the HSU magnet.
Note: Question of accountability from Mr. Dallmann: will students who passed the ICS exam in
grade 8 count towards our accountability? Committee unsure, need to check on answer to
question – Mr. Dallman will follow up.
Mr. Kuhn suggested we close the meeting for today and agree to meet again next Tuesday Feb.
21 @ 2:30 pm in room 129.
Please review the revised HSU rationale document – see clarification on number of performance
classes needed to obtain humanities credit and change to technology competency component.