Dunwoody High School Minutes for School Council Mee7ng
August 19, 2021 at 4:00 p.m. at DHS Media Center

School Council Mission Statement: The purpose of the council is to bring schools and communi5es closer together to solve educa5on problems, improve academics, provide support for teachers and administrators, and bring parents into the decision making process.

A;endees - Dave Levy, Ka5e Scharf, Principal Bass, Allegra Johnson, Fran Hughes, Kevin Travis, Fran Bartel (PTSO), Julia Ledoyen (PTSO), Mr. Jamieson (DHS AP of Instruc5on)

1.	Welcome & Mee7ng called to order by Dave Levy at 4:15pm

·	Approval of Minutes from last mee;ng - mo;on to approve called by Allegra Johnson & seconded by Fran Hughes

2.	Teachers’ Report - Kevin Travis

·	Faculty is very enthusias;c for the school year and being face to face, they are following the requirement for masks/pod groups/tracing, they are very excited for our new Principal Bass to be a Wildcat again, they are happy to see his presence around the campus and the energy in the school

·	Students seem to be following mask requirement with a few excep;ons of not covering nose

·	Staﬀ is concerned about the con;nuous interrup;ons during class ;me (P.Bass assured them this will stop as the chromebooks have been rolled out)

·	Staﬀ is concerned over the lower student numbers and possible reduc;on in staﬀ

3.	Principal’s Report - Principal Bass

·	New chromebooks have been rolled out, which caused most of the interrup;ons and will stop now. It was a BIG project. He assured that if there are future class ;me disrup;ons they will spread out over all class periods and not always during the same one. Distribu;on went well, and WiFi seems to be working well for staﬀ and students.

·	All staﬀ received new laptops.

·	One of his priori;es is to build community and connec;vity among the staﬀ

·	August 27 (Wednesday) will be “Club Rush” for students. 2nd period will be extended and students will be released by ﬂoors to walk by the Club Drive tables. This allows the freshmen and the sophomores to be introduced to all of the ac;vi;es at DHS and rebuild some of these groups.

·	Feeling very conﬁdant that DHS staﬀ is set & in a good place in regards to staﬃng. If teachers are moved out of the region schools, there are several vacancies in the virtual academy.

Dunwoody High School 5035 Vermack Road Dunwoody, Georgia 30338
hfp://www.dunwoodyhs.dekalb.k12.ga.us/ Main Oﬃce: (678) 874-8502 Tom Bass, Principal

·	Mr. Andy Jamieson - Enrollment/Instruc;onal Needs/Schedules/Staﬃng/Subs;tutes

a.	Total Enrollment = 9th (625), 10th (506), 11th (500), 12th (500), Virtual Flex Academy (25) = TOTAL 2127 students

b.      Administra;on found around 40-50 students were skipping school and calls have been made to address this concern. Some of the 9th graders are retained 10th graders.

c.	The projected enrollment was 2,250 and we are about -130 short from that total. We do not know yet if this enrollment will change our teacher allotment, but if it does we currently are not ﬁlling vacancies in Science ESOL, Social Studies or Interrelated Special Ed posi;ons. Staﬀ is also looking into moving a few general ed teachers with special ed cer;ﬁca;ons to ﬁll the vacancies in special ed.

d.	The district as a whole is short 100 special ed teachers, this is our most cri;cal need.

e.	DHS is lucky to have 3 great regular subs in these classes currently (Ms Bashuh, Dr. Montgomery & Mr. Bachman). DHS has awesome subs and we currently are using around 40 subs with 100% coverage of classes. We are also wai;ng for a few applicants to ﬁnalize their tes;ng and ﬁll some of these vacancies.

f.	DHS is also looking for an Oﬃce Admin Asst. (former was promoted to another school) & 2 Paraprofessionals.

g.	Fall FTE #’s are not looked at un;l October. District as a whole is under enrolled and are several hundreds of teachers short. There are some student schedules that will need to be balanced out due to the vacancies in some classes.

·	School Safety, Security and Covid - P. Bass expressed his approval on how Dekalb County is handling the current school year. Classes have sea;ng charts, students are in PODs, masks are mandated, and contact tracing is being used to tract exposure. Currently students only go home if they have Covid or have symptoms and have a known exposure. Contact with a student with Covid does not require quaran;ning as long as masks were worn. Lunch exposure (where masks are not worn) may require quaran;ning for 3-5 days and can return with a nega;ve Covid test. A lefer is sent out every ;me a case is found in our school. Currently DHS has about 12 staﬀ and students with Covid. Discipline issues are prefy typical right now - vaping, drug possession, weapons in bags and a small ﬁght.

·	Facility Issues and Repairs - P.Bass laughed that the building and facili;es are exactly how it was when he leo years ago. On going issues with HVAC, water leaks, mold issues & sewage issues that pop up because of the age of the building are dealt with immediately and all have been resolved currently. Custodial staﬀ is working hard and there are currently 10 open work orders at the school. There are a few Security cameras not working and these have been pushed to a High Priority. ** Lack of latches in the boys bathroom (on the 2nd ﬂoor) will be addressed.

·	Instruc;onal Needs - VERGE is an important tool for students to stay on track if they have to be out of school for illness or quaran;ning. P.Bass is asking for teachers to show some grace on students growth and mastery of skills. Aoer losing last year, students current mastery of skills are behind and it may take some ;me in the semester to regain the skills needed for the class.

Dunwoody High School 5035 Vermack Road Dunwoody, Georgia 30338
hfp://www.dunwoodyhs.dekalb.k12.ga.us/ Main Oﬃce: (678) 874-8502 Tom Bass, Principal

Teachers should collaborate with their subject team on balancing their assessments and grading requirements across the team. Teachers are being asked to focus on GOAL (get obvious about learning) vs GOAT (get obvious about teaching). Teachers may want to block the semester inset smaller units to allow for several checkpoints of mastery.

✴ Kevin Travis expressed the concern many teachers have over how behind many students are currently in their subject mastery.

✴ P. Bass stated that there are signiﬁcantly more students who failed 2 or more classes last year. Counseling staﬀ and teachers are working together to iden;fy these students and reach out to families to see what the student needs to get back on track. Teachers are being asked to look aggressively at this ﬁrst grading period to address any concerns now and not let them spiral out of control. Teachers and staﬀ need to be ﬂexible on geqng students back on task.

✴ School is currently oﬀering Study Skills (most believe this is only oﬀered if a student has a 504 or IEP), Wri;ng Labs and Math Labs during 3rd period lunch for added help.

·	Other Current Issues - “Breakfast with Bass” begins this Friday. Seniors will be invited in small groups to eat with Principal Bass and discuss concerns & celebrate achievements. Star;ng a group called “Kaleidoscope”, with selected students from each grade, student government and several clubs to be a part of his Principals Advisory Community.

4.	New Business/Unﬁnished Business

·	Status of mold remedia;on/preven;on in modulars - all of these cases have been addressed and repaired.

·	Deten;on Pond - the county has dug out the dirt to repair the deten;on pond, even though there had been plans to remove it in the last CMP.

·	Turf Field progress and ;meline - The Track will be done by the end of September! DHS is planning on a BIG Community event to open the ﬁeld.

·	Discussion of Facility Condi;on Assessment report from Perkins & Will (site visit) - David Levy emailed them but hadn’t heard back as of the mee;ng

·	Discussion of Educa;onal Suitability Assessment report from Perkins & Will (site visit) - David Levy emailed them but hadn’t heard back as of the mee;ng

·	CMP - members of the commifee expressed frustra;on over the fact that we feel like the current CMP and assessment reports are star;ng this whole process over again. County is not speaking about any projects.

·      New DCSD enrollment projec;ons - P. Bass wants his kids BACK. He wants to change the climate of the school and reconnect to the community and bring the students who leo back to DHS.

·	Status of decisions on any modular units for SY2021-22 - no new modulars for next year.

Dunwoody High School 5035 Vermack Road Dunwoody, Georgia 30338
hfp://www.dunwoodyhs.dekalb.k12.ga.us/ Main Oﬃce: (678) 874-8502 Tom Bass, Principal

·	Wildcat fund update and concession stand and bathroom project progress - “Dunwoody Turns 50” Gala & Casino Night with alumni and community members to raise money to ﬁnish the bleachers and compete the bathroom project out at the ﬁelds. Game On Campaign is s;ll trying to raise money since 2005.

·	Other business & concerns - Are students who lost a year of eligibility due to failing last year able to appeal? P.Bass said that GHSA is holding strong and not allowing these students to par;cipate. EOCs will return to 20% of the ﬁnal grade and AP tests will return to normal schedule.

5.	Public Comments - PTSO Update - Fran & Julia - have supported many learning ac;vi;es & socials, amazon gio cards for staﬀ, lab supplies, auditorium materials, grant approvals, Wildcat Pride campaign rollout with t-shirts for all staﬀ and students, fall sports support and are planning of a speaker for Social and Emo;onal Wellness.

6.	Mee7ng adjourned unanimously - mo7on called by Allegra Johnson and seconded by Ka7e Scharf at 6:35pm

7.	Next mee7ng is scheduled for September 14th at 4:00pm

Dunwoody High School 5035 Vermack Road Dunwoody, Georgia 30338
hfp://www.dunwoodyhs.dekalb.k12.ga.us/ Main Oﬃce: (678) 874-8502 Tom Bass, Principal