APP TASK FORCE MINUTES November 15, 2001 7:00 PM Jane Fellner, Chair Attendance: Jane Fellner, Alex Ginn, Norm Hollingshead, Heather Holmback, Courtney Jelaco, Hal Kimball, Lenora Lee, Marissa La Madrid, Dorothy Neville, Marian Sussman, Lanie Young The minutes from the October meeting were approved with no changes. SCHOOL REPORTS GARFIELD: Garfield Assistant Principal Lenora Lee attended the meeting and provided a very informative Garfield report. There is a new administrative team and a new counseling team at Garfield. This year Garfield has 15 AP classes and 20 Honors classes. Last year there were 19 National Merit semi- finalists and 70% of the Seattle School District students taking AP tests were Garfield students. The AP Calculus classes were improved last year and 83% of those taking the test passed. Garfield has started a summer program to help more students of color get into the Honors and AP programs. This will create a need for more AP classes. With the Gates grant, Garfield is addressing the achievement gap but also advancing those who are already relatively advanced. They are working on staffing and getting enough classes and enough qualified teachers to teach AP classes. The money awarded thus far as been used for 9th grade orientation and developing the "school within a school" concept for 9th and 10th graders. They are looking at teaming up Language Arts and Science for all students and hope to have year-long scheduling (as opposed to semester-based scheduling) next year. Garfield is seeking a parent volunteer coordinator to get more parent involvement. WMS: Norm Hollingshead reported that the work on the Gates grant is continuing with monthly meetings. The grant involves a 5-year plan with a certain amount of money for each student in the school. The plan is not necessarily for technology but rather addresses the areas of reading, staff collaboration, parent involvement and the creation of a "small school" environment. They are just at the starting point in the process but Norm is pleased by the high motivation of the team members at WMS. Jane expressed the view held by many APP parents that the Gates grant work address areas of relevance to highly capable students as well as other students at WMS. Norm said that they are trying to do things that will positively impact the whole school and all programs and that he will keep us informed on the progress. WMS is being painted and getting a new roof. LOWELL: The night of the meeting, teachers were having parent-teacher conferences so none were in attendance. Hal Kimball reported that Debbie Judd is resigning, for personal reasons, and Lowell is looking to hire a new teacher. Preparation for the Math Olympiad is beginning, led by math specialist Fritzie Reisner. She has prepared a note for Dragon Tales to communicate about her math enrichment activities at Lowell. Alex Ginn reported that they have received computers for the classrooms that didn't get any before and that they will be installed soon. The Lowell PTSA donated money to get them all set up. COORDINATOR'S REPORT We missed Bob. Edie Holcomb was unable to attend the Task Force meeting due to a previous out-of-town obligation. She is planning to come to the meetings on a regular basis. Bob is helping with the Highly Capable program testing process. The office is intending to hire some others to help with testing and analysis. APP PARENT COMMITTEE REPORT Courtney reported that the general APP parent meeting in October was well attended. The school board candidate forum, also in October, was very informative. The next newsletter will be put together by mid-December. There will be another general parent meeting on January 30th. The APP parent committee meets the first Saturday morning of every month and organizes activities such as Lobby Day, APP transition meetings, and new parent meetings. Anyone interested in participating can get more information from Courtney Jelaco or Jim Corcoran. Donations to keep the parent committee functioning can be sent to: APP Parent Committee, Bev Hesterberg - Treasurer, 2628 31st Ave. W, Seattle, WA 98199. COMMUNITY AND OUTREACH ISSUES In response to the NAACP's concerns about disproportionality in the Highly Capable program, a few parents are drafting a letter and making contact with the NAACP to provide them with more information and discuss minority recruitment and representation in the program. Ester Greenfield, a lawyer and parent, is leading the effort. Also, James Kelly, head of the Urban League, and Joanna Cullen, president of the Seattle Council PTSA, are working to increase communication between parents of students in the program and members of the community. HIGHLY CAPABLE REVIEW PROCESS A Highly Capable Steering Committee has been formed to continue work on the Highly Capable Review. It is made up of 15-20 members, some of whom will be on one of three subcommittees dealing with issues for the Highly Capable programs: 1) standards-based learning, 2) rigor, and 3) identification and outreach. Jane presented an outline of the critical questions and desired products of each of the subcommittees and we discussed refinements and concerns. The development of standards for APP and Spectrum, which will drive the curriculum, is one of the first topics the committee will address and it is expected to be done this year. Those interested in learning more about or getting involved with the Highly Capable Review process should come to the Task Force meetings or contact Jane for more information. The next Task Force meeting will be Thursday, December 20, 2001. Task Force meetings are the third Thursday of each month, unless there is a conflict with another event for a large number of regular attendees. The meeting adjourned around 9:00. Submitted by: Heather Holmback, APP Task Force Secretary