Board Meeting Dates

I.

Call to Order

A.

Roll Call

B.

Adoption of the March 27, 2012, Agenda and the Approval of the February 28, 2012, District and Community Relations Committee meeting minutes (Discussion/Action)

II.

Partners in Education & Advocates for Public Education (PEAPS) (Discussion)    
Presenter: Monica Armenta, Executive Director Communications

III.

Citizen Advisory Council of Communication (Discussion)    
Presenter: Kim Hillard, Galen Smith, Davis Walker, Charlie Countee representatives of the CACC

IV.

School Website Demonstration (Discussion)    
Presenter: Monica Armenta, Executive Director Communications

V.

Council of the Great City Schools Legislative Communication Presentation (Discussion)   
Presenter: Joseph Escobedo, Chief of Staff; Carrie Robin Menapace, Policy Analyst

VI.

Public Forum

VII.

Next District and Community Relations Committee meeting is scheduled for Monday, April 23, 2012, at 5:00p.m., in the Delayo Martin Community Room of the Alice and Bruce King Educational Complex

VIII.

Adjournment

I.

Call to Order

The meeting was called to order at 5:04 p.m..

A.

Present:  Lorenzo Garcia, David  Peercy , Kathy Korte, Paula Maes, Analee Maestas, Marty Esquivel ,  David  Robbins by phone then arrived at 6:07 p.m.

B.

Adoption of the March 27, 2012, Agenda and the Approval of the February 28, 2012, District and Community Relations Committee meeting minutes (Discussion/Action) – There were no minutes to approve.

II.

Partners in Education & Advocates for Public Education (PEAPS) (Discussion)    
Presenter: Monica Armenta, executive director  of Communications, Angie  Gonzales Carver, and Jay Zook.

APS contacted everyone who had expressed an interest in getting involved to organize a district wide advocacy group and provided a meeting space for the group now known as PEAPS.  PEAPS members gave an overview of their independent organization that included a discussion of their accomplishments to date and goals for the future.

• The success of the students.
• To get parents into the classroom and getting dads to become involved.
• PEAPS has a Facebook page, meets with principals, parent liaisons and would like to go statewide, and get involved with media.

III.

Citizen Advisory Council of Communication (Discussion)
Presenter: Kim Hillard, Galen Smith, Davis Walker, Charlie Countee

In August 2011, a group of citizens brought a petition forward at the APS Board of Education meeting for the board’s consideration in forming a Citizen Advisory Council.  The board had eight community meetings to gather input from the community regarding district goals.  One of these goals was community engagement.  The CACC presented its ideas and gave the board opportunity to ask more questions and learn more about the concept.

Mr. Walker’s function is to help develop a mechanism for the public to communicate with the APS system, who to speak with and who to get an answer from for their concerns.  Board members felt that APS already has many of these requests in place (Student Service Center, PEAPS, open audit committee meetings, APS website, etc.).  Board members felt many people do not utilize the services APS has and does to help engage families and communities.

IV.

School Website Demonstration (Discussion)
Presenter: Monica Armenta, executive director  of Communications and Lesley Moleckey, APS web manager.

Lesley presented School Loop – a low cost, feature-rich, school-specific website tool which is being used to unify APS websites to promote consistency across the district.  School Loop will save money and improve communication between schools and families.  There is a link to translate all pages for all non-English speaking people.  Ten school sites have been launched already and 17 more are in the process.  The project should be complete by the end of 2013.

V.

Council of the Great City Schools Legislative Communication Presentation (Discussion)   
Joseph Escobedo, chief of staff; Carrie Robin Menapace, legislative liaison and policy analyst Superintendent Brooks and staff attended the Council of the Great City Schools Legislative Conference the week of March 17, 2012.  Issues discussed at the conference were:

• Federal Budget and Sequestration
• Elementary and Secondary Education Act Reauthorization
• Elementary and Secondary Education Act Flexibility Waivers from the US Department of Education
• US Department of Education’s plan for district level Race to the Top grants.

VI.

Public Forum

There were no participants in the public forum.

VII.

Next District and Community Relations Committee meeting

The next District and Community Relations Committee meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, April 24, 2012, at 5:00 p.m., in the DeLayo Martin Community Room of the Alice and Bruce King Educational Complex

VIII.

Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 7:00 p.m.