The ACMtg took place on the 18th of November.  Participants took part in three 20 minute, rotating sessions themed on the topics below .  Here is a brief summary from each committee:

Senior Projects: Senior Projects/Passages: Past, Present and Future

Family Communications:

There were several reoccurring themes:

• create a survey for parents to fill out.  How are you feeling about Steller.  What is right what is wrong. Parent group to select and create the questions. Survey to be given twice a year.

• Short Advisor positive phone call to parents a few times a year.
• assign homework that requires students to talk to family members
• have a joint advisory meeting with students and parents, this would allow parent to meet their child’s advisor.
• Parent orientation, explain everything about Steller.  What is a parent group meeting, an advisory, all school?  give descriptions of all of the events and special programs.

Advisory Handbook: Jen and Danielle gave a bit of background on the development of the Advisory Group Handbook. Parents and students were able to review the handbook and give feedback on particular topics, including credit counting and communication. Jen and Danielle will consider the feedback from the three sessions when they revise the handbook next semester.

Teacher Recruitment: Ideas generated to recruite teachers include advertising on public tv/radio; posting pertinent, educational materials on our website; collaborate with the preservice teacher programs within the state university system and APU; develop a marketing plan for recruitment!

Strategic Plan Update: How far have we come and where are we heading?

People who dropped by to check in on strategic planning heard that an ad hoc committee of parents, teachers and our principal began to meet in October to do an informal review of the progress made on the Steller 2006 – 2010 Strategic Plan.  Participants heard that more parents and students are needed and welcome at the meetings that are being held about once a month on Friday afternoons.  They also got to check out the plan, hear about the review, how it had been developed initially and discuss some of the ideas for developing our next five-year strategic plan.  These future focus areas include:  student retention, parent/family communication, senior projects, advisory groups, teacher recruitment and retention, exit surveys, and facility enhancement.

Please feel free to contribute ideas, time and energy as we deal with these issues throughout the year.  Your participation at Advisory Board, All Community Meetings and Parent Group is vital to our growth and continued excellence .  We look forward to working together with you!