Climate, Equity, and Guidance Committee
May 2, 2001

Members present:  D. Barnes, B. Burton, J. Whitaker

Members absent:  T. Butler, J. O’Hara

The Climate, Equity, and Guidance Committee addressed the following issues:

·                     Clarifications of the committee’s goals and responsibilities

·                     The use of student helpers as messengers during instruction time

·                     Whether there is a need to change the goals and responsibilities of this committee

This committee discussed the need to decrease the interruptions in classroom instruction by using student helpers to send messages to and from the classrooms instead of using the intercom system or telephone.

An observation was made that too many students are being pulled from all classrooms (including special area classes). As a result, the students are missing curriculum and instruction.

The committee also discussed the need for strategies to teach ESL students.  A suggestion was made to provide in-service training in this area to help teachers communicate with their ESL students.

There is also a need for hands-on materials and other teaching material for ESL students.

The committee suggested that parents of ESL students or those proficient in Spanish, Japanese, etc. help ESL students and English speaking students bridge the gap in communication. This could be done by providing an after-school foreign language immersion program for English speaking students by teaching them either Spanish or Japanese.  The ESL student could be taught English both during school hours and possibly after-school by parent volunteers.

The committee feels there is no need to change the goals and responsibilities of this committee at this time.