Board Meeting Dates

Additional Details

District and Community Relations Committee Meeting

AGENDA

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

5:00 PM

DeLayo-Martin Community Room, Alice and Bruce King Educational Complex, 6400 Uptown NE

Albuquerque, New Mexico

Minutes of the District and Community Relations Committee Meeting

Board of Education

Albuquerque Public Schools

A District and Community Relations Committee meeting of the Board of Education of Albuquerque Public Schools (APS) was held Tuesday, February 26, 2013, beginning at 5:00 p.m., in the DeLayo Martin Community Room, Alice and Bruce King Educational Complex, 6400 Uptown Blvd. NE.

I.          Call to Order

The meeting was called to order at 5:01 p.m.

1. A. Roll Call

Present:  Analee Maestas, Kathy Korte, Lorenzo Garcia, Marty Esquivel, and David Peercy.

Absent:  Paula Maes and David Robbins were absent.

1. B. Adoption of the February 26, 2013, District and Community Relations Agenda and the Approval of the January 22, 2013, District and Community Relations Minutes (Discussion/Action)

Chairman Lorenzo Garcia asked for a motion to adopt the agenda and approve the minutes.  ­­­­­­­­­­­­­David Peercy moved for approval; Kathy Korte seconded the motion; motion carried.

II.         Public Forum

There were no participants in the public forum.

III.        Superintendent’s Student Advisory Council (SuperSAC) Report

Superintendent Brooks and Joseph Escobedo, chief of staff, introduced SuperSAC students Manuel Marquez and Nicholas Martinez, both from Early College Academy and Career Enrichment Center Alternative High Schools.

Mr. Marquez shared that members of the SuperSAC paired with teachers from each of the district’s high schools to learn the ins and outs of the Discovery Education program recently implemented by APS.  (APS has partnered with Discovery Education to provide online learning tools for students, teachers and instructional staff at aps.discoveryeducation.com).

The student/teacher pairs spent a day doing research and learning how to make classroom lessons more interactive.  The program is like a one-stop shop for video clips, pictures and text; it offers interactive “techbooks” that can be updated in real time, providing more complete content than traditional textbooks.  The interactive lessons are designed to better engage students in their learning.  Students would have their own accounts that they can utilize to log into the system and review class material.  Over the next few years, students at all levels in science, social studies, and health classes will transition to the techbooks, which are about half the cost of textbooks.

Mr. Martinez shared about his visit to Santa Fe where he listened to different committee discussions and spoke with Senator Padilla about cafeteria food.

SuperSAC was recognized in the House of Representatives with a proclamation of congratulations.  Both students enjoyed the experience and are interested in being involved in legislature.  Committee members were appreciative and encouraging.

In other discussion, the district is in the process of changing over to EduPoint as the new parent portal, which will greatly improve parent access to student information district wide.

IV.       Approval of Board Items for 2013 Quality of Education Parent Survey

Tom Genne, director, Research, Deployment and Accountability (RDA), shared that all public school districts in New Mexico (since 1991-92) have been mandated by legislation to conduct a Quality of Education survey to get parent’s views of the quality of their children’s school.  Legislation limits the number of items to 20, the format to a five point Likert scale (strongly disagree to strongly agree), and states that distribution to the parents should be by having the surveys sent home.

RDA organizes the surveys.  Charter schools are fully supported in this process. The district response rate averages 30 percent over the last nine years, which is reasonable for this type of survey.

Three groups develop the items for the survey.  The Public Education Department develops the first ten items approved by the Secretary of Education. The local board of education develops the next five items, and individual schools may add up to five items to the survey.  Teachers must contribute at least half of the school-developed items.  The items submitted by APS’ Board of Education usually are topical and reflect the board’s desire to know how the community perceives certain initiatives and policies that have been placed in effect.

All survey responses by individual school and the results of the school-based items (the last five of the survey) may be found on-line at http://www.rda.aps.edu/RDA/ReportCard/index.cfm.

The following questions were presented to the committee for consideration for the 2013 Quality of Education Parent Survey:

1. My school has an adequate response to bullying.
2. As a parent I feel welcomed when I come into my child’s school.
3. The services provided by APS to my English Language Learner are adequate.    (If your child is not ELL mark NA)
4. APS provides opportunity for meaningful parent engagement in schools.
5. The school staff does a good job of teaching my child mathematics skills.
6. The school staff does a good job of teaching my child literacy skills.
7. My child will be well-prepared for next year because of the education provided by APS.

Chairman Garcia requested a motion to approve the committee’s selection of questions 1, 4, 5, 6, and 7 as the five recommended questions for the 2012-13 Quality of Education Survey.  Mr. Esquivel made the motion; Ms. Korte seconded the motion.  The motion carried unanimously.

The committee agreed that the district should request feedback via separate survey on the adequacy of alternative language programs.  It would also be beneficial to know how responses differ across the district.  Further discussion clarified that more advertising and communication would help to raise survey awareness and participation.

V.        Grants Strategic Plan and Update

Mr. Escobedo and Michele Tigelaar, grant manager/writer, reported on the strategic plan for grants.  The presentation before committee members will be used for communication purposes both internally and externally.

A survey was done among instructional leadership on what they would like to have in a grant office.  The survey gave weights to the importance of the items as well.  Flexibility and preparedness were among the more important; being ready to offer information about the district’s direction and goals.  A digital library of base grant information is being developed (utilizing grants currently in process) that will be useful for future grants and for teachers to utilize for professional development.  Pre-approval forms are being developed for teachers.  The grant office and the APS Education Foundation work closely together and support one another in strategic plans.

Feedback on grant applications is used to improve future applications.  Current comparisons show that winning applications for U.S. Department of Education “Race to the Top” funds have been a little further along in their processes and were able to show success of implementation and determine what improvements could be made.  The APS district needs to determine whether it is more advantageous to apply as a district as a whole or just specifically focused areas.

Committee members advised that recent applications should be more directed; they have been too broad.  The data being presented should be meaningful to the reader and address what is being gained from the money being spent.  They encouraged utilizing RDA to help track and define data and enable the district to make strategic decisions and engage in more focused, cost-effective, and sustainable work.  Ms. Tigelaar shared that case studies are being documented.

The grant office is currently working on a major grant for $20 million for the Department of Defense (DoD) that would fund improvements for Wherry Elementary School.

VI.       Next District and Community Relations Committee Meeting

Chairman Garcia announced that the next District and Community Relations Committee meeting would be held on Tuesday, March 26, 2013, at 5:00 p.m., at the Alice and Bruce King Educational Complex in the DeLayo Martin Community Room.

VII.      Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 6:08 p.m.