CHURCHILL HIGH SCHOOL DECISION MAKING POLICY

[Document last updated 05.09.2007]

Site Council · Staff · Curriculum Council · Operations Group · Staff Leaders · Parent Council · Leadership Monies

The elections for the various positions will be by the following dates. Interested parties will turn in their names.

Site council has approved the following proposal regarding decision-making processes at Churchill High School. This plan will be evaluated yearly by Site Council taking input from all constituent groups.

SITE COUNCIL

Purpose

• "The duties of the 21st Century School Council shall include but are not limited:
  1. development and implementation of a plan to improve the professional growth and career opportunities of the school's staff,
  2. improvement to the school's instructional program
  3. development and coordination of the implementation of this reform Act at the school site." (State definition)
• "Site based decision making is a participatory, decentralized form of school governance and organization in which major decisions are made by those closest to the students and the classroom, including building staff (administrators, teachers, and classified) and parents. Site-based decision making is an ongoing process that evolves and is responsive, but that is also accountable to itself, to the school district, to the community, and to its constituents." (District 4J Policy)

Decision Making

• Decisions will relate to all issues and concerns of the Churchill community including budget, program improvement and change, school policy, facilities management, professional development activities, and other school wide concerns. Site council will advise the administration on issues of staffing allocation. There are two areas of decision making that without exception are reserved for administration: individual staff personnel matters and individual student personnel matters.
• For all Site Council decisions there will be input from staff, students and parents via their representatives prior to a decision being made.

Goal: Strive for consensus with all decisions.

• All participants contribute resources, encourage the use of one another"s resources and opinions, and view differences as helpful rather than as a hindrance.
• Everyone understands the issue and is able to paraphrase it.
• Consensus does not mean that the decision gives everyone his or her choice; rather, consensus means that members are sufficiently in favor of the decision that no one will become an obstacle to carrying it out.
• All share in the final decision; if consensus is not reached, the discussion is automatically recycled for more information.

Decision Making Process

1. Collect and utilize data pertinent to the issue.
2. Introduce the issue as an informational item at one meeting and act upon it at a later meeting.
3. Communicate with stakeholder groups, collecting and distributing information.
4. Each member has equal responsibility for making the process work. Consensus is reached at the individual level, and not at the stakeholder grouping level,
5. Eleven members of the 16 have to be present to constitute a quorum. Decisions cannot be made without a quorum, and without at least one member of each stakeholder group present.
   • An alternate student and administrator should be selected to fill in for each position as a voting member if the committee member is absent. Both would be invited to attend all meetings.
6. Consensus is reached if: (using the five finger model)
   • All members agree with " 5's"
   • All members agree with either " 4's" or 5's"
   • All members except two agree with either " 4" or " 5's," and the two being in agreement with a " 3".
7. A " 1" or " 2" opinion by any member would automatically result in recycling the issue for more information and discussion.
   • Members expressing a level " 1," " 2," or " 3" opinion have the responsibility to provide more information and / or to offer possible solutions.

The decision making model and process will be reviewed and adjustments made if proven to be necessary.

Membership

• All Churchill High School teacher Site Council representatives will be paid $ 1, 000 per year in the form of salary that the teacher can choose to use for reimbursement for supplies, conferences, or travel. The District Site Council teacher stipend will be in addition to this $ 1, 000. The following Site Council members will be elected for two-year terms by their constituent groups. Site Council members may hold consecutive terms.
  1. Two students
  2. Three parents
  3. Eight teachers
  4. Two classified
  5. One administrator
• A teacher representative from International High School will be included as one of the eight teacher members of Site Council.
  [Look in the current CHS Student/Parent Handbook for a list of the Site Council Representatives.]

Committees

• Site Council may set up ad hoc committees during the year. These committees will be set up based on the goals that are established through the Site Council process. The usual duration for an ad hoc committee will be for a year or less depending on the committee charge. Site Council will develop the charge for the ad hoc committee and the committee will be responsible to report to Site Council and affected parties on a regular basis.

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STAFF

Purpose / Meetings

• Meetings will be at least once a month. Late start times will be used for meeting as appropriate. Agenda items for staff meetings may come from any staff member, Site Council, Curriculum Council or Operations Group. The agenda will be posted by the mailboxes. Staff meetings will be convened by the Staff President.

Decision Making

• The staff is a key part in making decisions at Churchill High School. Site Council, Curriculum Council and Operations Group decisions will take into account staff input. The staff may also make decisions that relate to staff issues or on tasks as requested by Site Council, Curriculum Council, Operations Group or Administration. The goal will be for consensus. If this in not possible, a decision will be made by 60% of those voting.

Operational Guidelines

• Meeting minutes will be kept of decisions only that are made at staff meetings. These will be kept by the Office Manager in the office. A representative from International High School will be invited to attend all staff meetings.

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CURRICULUM COUNCIL

A Curriculum Council will be formed. In the Curriculum Council, all curriculum areas are valued and represented. All curriculum areas have their own unique, intrinsic qualities that balance the kinds of things they deal with. All areas are important. The membership of the Curriculum Council will include:

• An Administrator
• Media Specialist

And a representative from each of the following areas:

• Arts & Communication / Music
• Counseling
• Family Studies / Health
• Language Arts
• Math
• P.E.
• Science
• Second Languages
• Social Studies
• Special Education / Alternative High School
• Lancer Communications
• Smaller Learning Communities
• CAM representative

The Curriculum Council will make decisions regarding: articulation among departments, integration, standards, curriculum evaluation, and staff development funds from the District staff development allocation. The Curriculum Council will also make decisions on the allocation of any additional teacher leadership money to compensate teachers for leadership responsibilities. The Curriculum Council will make recommendations to Site Council about major program changes and new course offerings or deletions.

The Curriculum Council will meet twice a month. The group will decide their own operating and group agreements including how minutes will be taken. The Principal will facilitate the meetings. The Curriculum Council will make a regular report to Site Council.

Each of the represented curriculum areas listed will be given $ 2, 000 per year. The $ 2, 000 allocated to each curriculum area to be allocated by the in the curriculum area among themselves to accomplish the business of the department for teacher salaries which each teacher can choose to use for salary or reimbursement for supplies, conferences of travel. The business of the department is:

• Providing a representative to Curriculum Council
• Ordering
• Budget development
• Textbooks
• Student recommendations
• Coordination with feeder schools
• Course descriptions
• Curriculum handbook
• Staff development
• Special needs

The decision on how this $ 2, 000 will be used will be decided by the members of that curriculum area. The curriculum area will choose, by vote each year their representative to the Curriculum Council. It is recommended that representatives serve for periods of more than one. These representatives will call department meetings on a regular basis and share curriculum Council issues.

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OPERATIONS GROUP

This group will be made up of the following people:

• Administrators
• Office Manager
• Staff President
• Process Advocate
• A student representative from leadership
• A parent representative
• An IHS representative will be invited to attend
• At large teacher representative

This group will meet on a weekly basis, or as the group decides. The convenor of the group will rotate weekly. Minutes will be kept and distributed to the entire staff.

The responsibilities of the group are to make decisions in the following areas:

• Calendar
• Agenda suggestions for Site Council, staff and for Curriculum Council
• Supervision
• Discipline
• Student issues (student leadership connection)
• Activities
• Graduation
• Back-to-school
• End-of-school
• Use of building and room assignements
• Transition - 9th in and 12th out
• Awards
• Facility issues
• Attendance
• Testing
• And other day to day operational decisions

In an emergency situation, or when it is impossible to have the group meet, The administrative team will make operations decisions.

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OTHER STAFF LEADERS

Staff President

A staff president will be a classroom teacher chosen by vote of the whole staff each year. The staff president will be responsible for the following duties: facilitate staff meetings, represent staff on Operations Group to inform and work out issues, seeks input / feedback from staff, builds staff meeting agenda in cooperation with the Operations Group.

Process Advocate

A process advocate will be a classroom teacher chosen by vote of the whole staff each year. The process advocate will be responsible for the following duties: attending Operations Group meetings, and listening and communicating with all staff members. This person's major responsibility is to help staff give input and make sure all stakeholders who need to, get involved in decisions. This person will be available to staff members to listen in a confidential manner and facilitate an appropriate response. This person is expected to work to not be positional but seek the interest behind issues.

Four thousand dollars per year will be split between the Staff President and the Process Advocate for training, release / dub time, or extended contract time to attend meetings. The Process Advocate and the Staff President will hold a voluntary staff meeting once a month as a forum for open discussion and to share ideas and suggestions.

Smaller Learning Communities Leadership

Two thousand dollars will be allotted to the SLC coordinators for leadership responsibilities. The team will decide on how to allocate these funds.

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PARENT COUNCIL

A representative group of parents will develop a plan for a Parent Council who will be elected by the parents at large. There will be a teacher representative to the parent council. This teacher representative will be paid $ 500 salary for this responsibility. This person will be elected by the staff each year. The Parent Council will meet on a monthly basis. The Parent Council will decide how to select Site Council representatives and an Operations Group representative. [Note: This Parent Council merged with the United Boosters on 4-9-2007 when they voted to approve joint bylaws at a general meeting. This representative parent group will be know as the Lancer Parent Association. No dues will be required and every parent or guardian who attends two meetings in a school year will be a member. This group will elect Parent Site Council representatives each May. - jep]

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LEADERSHIP MONIES

Money is allocated to Churchill High School for teacher leadership, annually. These monies are distributed for leadership roles as follows;

• Athletic Director, Assistant Athletic Director and Media Specialist - $ 14, 342
• *Site Council teacher members - $ 7, 000
• *Curriculum areas - $ 22, 000
• *Staff President / Advocate - $ 4, 000
• *Parent Council / Teacher rep. - $ 500

Additional money - if allocated for teacher leadership - will be used to compensate teachers.

Note: A teacher who chooses two or more of these compensated leadership responsibilities will be compensated for each one, separately and cumulatively.

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KMN/mac hd/off doc

[official 09.21.2001 document held by Karla Nelson]

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