LISD Academic Advocates

1. Call to Order and Pledge. Vice President Chris Cavalli called the meeting to order at 7:07 and those present recited the Pledge of Allegience.

2. Minutes & Correspondence. Minutes of the April 23 meeting were approved as read.

3. Treasurer's report and appointment of audit committee. There was no change from the previous month's treasurer's report. An Audit committee is being formed.

4. Scholarship committee report and announcement of 2003 winners
Student winner: Yuan Xing from Cedar Park High School. Yuan has been accepted at Texas A&M University where she plans to major in biology in the pre-med program.
Faculty winner: Sandra Arguijo from Nauman Elementary. Sandra will use her award to strenghten the resources she is building for an integrated social studies/language arts/science curriculum scope and sequence for third grade in her school.
Yuan and her parents and Sandra received certificates designating their awards. Thanks to Scholarship Committe Chair, Chris Cavalli and essay reviewers Karin Johnson, Adrian Ivey and Erika Mittag.

5. Speaker: Tom Glenn, Supertendent for LISD, addressing budget issues related to academic programs. Mr. Glenn discussed a variety of issues related to the budget. He pointed out that our board and administration have tried to be frugal for some time which has resulted in a higher bond rating which helps the budget. The budget for 2002-03 was $98 million, the 2003-04 budget is expected to approach $101 million with two new schools opening to accomodate the approximately 1,000 new students expected this coming year. Our district is getting close to the situation of hitting the maximum $1.50 per $1000 assesed value cap for maintenence and operations budget and will soon face the prospect of sending money back to the state as a designated 'property rich' district. We currently have the lowest per pupil spending in the area with $5800 per pupil compared to the state average of $6100. Measures being taken to addess the budget squeeze include 1) raising the student/teacher ratio in the secondary schools from 25:1 to 27:1 which means that some campuses will lose teachers; 2) lengthening the distance between bus stops where appropriate to cut transportation costs; 3) encouraging more use of technology to reduce paper usage - 60 million copies were made in the last year!; 4) use of substitutes will be cut back as well as different scheduling for early release days. 5) increasing the number of students taking AP/IB classes to target at least 18 students per class to reduce the costs of offering these programs. 6) block scheduling may be looked at for possible adjustments to save costs. One attendee questioned the large difference between 'regular' and AP/IB courses. Mr Glenn suggested that the increased standards of the new TEKS/TAKS will force improvement in this area. Another attendee remarked on the significant improvement in the senior projects this year. Mr. Glenn noted that a number of juniors this year were considering their senior project as they participated in COOL week so they could align and leverage these two experiences, making this a capstone experience.

6. Short feedback session on 2002-03 Academic Advocates program year - what you liked and what you didn't like, suggestions for future programs. Suggestions: have some of the senior project students present to our meeting; learn about Academic Decathalon and other UIL academic competitions; learn more about the AP/IB programs; hear from teachers of special methods, programs;

7. Announcements. Check the website over the summer and watch e-mails for continuing activities

8. Adjournment: Meeting adjourned at 8:32 pm

Respectfully submitted,
Erika Mittag
Secretary