May 22, 2007                    Education Program Committee Meeting

In attendance: Mike Egan, Vickie Carr, Colleen Connolly, Leigh Scott, Becky Morales, Steve Kelleher, Debbie Martin, John Cowan, Bill Storm

A. Ideas for Education Program

Philosophy Items

• Utilize cooperative learning teaching approaches and techniques.
• Collegial/collaborative staff working philosophy with articulated, multi-age instruction when desirable, with time devoted to attention to design of the program to respond to change.
• School should be responsive to school community needs with programmatic innovation as required by the student population.
• Utilize support staff with expertise in social/psychological support.
• Outreach to community to EL and families in need (counselor, EL staff)
• Utilize student government/leadership elements with PALS, Conflict Managers, lunchtime clubs.
• Sustain the well-integrated culture of the extant Valley Oak school with the actual neighborhood.
• Sustain the operation of Valley Oak at the same or greater level of achievement as before the charter.
• Valley Oak has been known for welcoming family and including them in our daily life as a campus.  Visibility and accessibility of staff among students and parents are part of who we are.  VO “feels like a family,” and should stay that way.  Also, safe, productive extended care before and after school should be addressed by the school in the interest of its client families.
• Attention will be given to the cultural heritages represented in the VO population
• All children are gifted and talented.  Teachers will work with diverse populations in a differentiated manner.  Technology, art, or other expressive media, can support that differentiation.
• Valley Oak should articulate programmatic elements allowing it to remain part of the DJUSD stable of elementary schools as it is today.

Curriculum Items

• Utilize current school plan to establish priorities.
• Provide a coordinated Reading Program.
• Utilize the proven articulated/integrated EL Program
• Inter-programmatic cooperation to assure student success.
• Use extant school plan to begin development of charter document.

Technology

• Technology access for all is central to twenty-first century education.  The technology gap must be addressed and closed for all students.
• Technology should be designed to support what we already do in all curricular strands, plus EL, art, and music.
• Curriculum should drive any technology acquisition or application.
• Students should enjoy linkage to the world of information that students live in today, accessible around the clock, in their homes.
• All families affiliated with Valley Oak will be assured an Internet connection with the school and its on-line resources.  For families in need of Internet connectivity, a program will be provided to make certain they are connected and supported in their technological needs.
• Staff development needs to address instructional techniques in the context of a professional community of practice for using technology for wide application

B.  Three questions needing addressing for charter formation:

• Who are we targeting?

• How does learning best occur?

• What does it mean to be an educated person in the 21st century?

C. May 31st meeting of all workgroups

Set time for 2-3 day workshop to hammer out draft charter document; suggested weekends are 5-9 p.m. Friday, 8:30-5:00 p.m. Saturday, July 20-21 or July 27-28.