LISD Academic Advocates

1. President Elizabeth Frey called the meeting to order at 7 p.m. and those present joined in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.

2. Board members present were introduced. E. Frey, Chris Cavalli - Vice President, Erika Mittag - Secretary, Fattenah Hashemi -Treasurer, Jeremy Story - Membership Chair, Chris Kay - High School Director, and Marilyn Hosier, CPMS Liaison.

3. Secretary's report. E. Mittag read the thank you note from Amanda Young acknowledging her receipt of the first Academic Advocates student scholarship. As previously noted, Amanda will be studying aerospace engineering at UT Austin. It had been brought to our attention that notice of the spring election of officers had inadvertently been omitted from the minutes of the April meeting. C. Cavalli moved and M. Hosier seconded that the April minutes be amended to include the officer slate and election results. Motion carried unanimously.

4. Vice President's report. C. Cavalli noted the need for more members to carry out the ambitious goals we developed last year. Meetings with district staff and an Academic Advocates committee consisting of E. Mittag, Shana Nardecchia and C. Cavalli occurred in May and a number of district action items resulted. It is important that parents from all areas of the district provide feedback on how these initiatives are taking hold..

5. High School Director report. C. Kay noted that the Cedar Park High School Academic Hall of Honor was being updated to include all of the students receiving all A's throughout the second semester of the 2001-2002 academic year. She is still trying to find someone to be the liaison for Leander High School.

6. There was a brief discussion concerning future meeting topics including 1) hearing from the LMS differentiation implementation team; 2) hearing from district staff or state education officials about the legal requirements for gifted education; 3) learning about the Roger Taylor workshop being held 9/21 in Georgetown.

7. Everyone present introduced themselves and commented on their interest in attending the meeting. Interest was particularly strong in the gifted and talented area as well as concerns with challenging curriculum. Attendees were encouraged to return for the September meeting and our practice of alternating speaker meetings with round table discussion meetings was noted.

8. Speaker Program. Nancy Scott and Mona Parrish, transition coordinators for CPHS and LHS respectively, discussed how LISD provides career readiness experiences for students. The program includes several components: career education/planning semester-long class for 9th graders; a career fair Career Day at the 10th grade level (on hiatus for this academic year to allow for more preparation for the news TAKS testing); the 11th grade COOL Week work experience and 12th grade capstone internship and post-graduate planning.

Each of the components of career education was covered in some detail with national, state and district data related to career trends, post high school education, drop out rates and ACT and SAT scores being presented. It was noted that it is very difficult to track the student's success after leaving the district as many go out of state, attend community colleges for a time and then transition into a 4 year program and many take other post secondary training that does not necessarily lead to a degree.

9. The meeting adjourned at 8:30 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,
Erika Mittag
Secretary