Welcome and thanks to the Community Conference volunteers.
Barbard Berkowitz and Donna Peirez spoke about the history of UPTC and gave their perspectives on the work it has done and how it fits into the decision making processes of the district. The nutshell description is that it should function as a forum where parents can work towards the good of the entire district, rather than focusing on the needs of their own children or their particular school.
LWG talked about Mrs. Johnstone (a former French teacher as SMS and NMS). She died recently and was trying to gauge interest in doing some memorial for her.
He talked at length about testing, and how we rate schools and children with them. He does not like the current crop of tests, but the state forces them on us. One parent spoke about the "pressure" that the kids feel from the teachers about the tests and that teachers seem to be teaching to the tests.
Dr. Shine said that they do try to avoid that, but are not always successful. One of the biggest problems is that there is substantial pressure from parents. If the district were to not perform at a high level in comparison to other districts (based on these tests) there would be a dramatic and sharp response from the parents.