The ACC: Arbor Community Council

October 21, 2009 ACC Meeting Minutes

NEXT ACC Meeting: Wednesday, February 3, 7:00 pm. In addition to our ACC meeting, we will have a guest presentation, “Playground Politics” from Julie Carnes, M.A., Clinical Coordinator, who served as the Educational Director at Arbor for 10 years and is AMI certified.

“Putting into Practice Arbor’s Community Spirit”

From the Board of Trustees:
The purpose of the ACC is to discuss and share information about issues that affect the Arbor community. It will provide a nurturing environment that we anticipate will meet the communication needs of parents, enhance the sense of community at Arbor and celebrate who we are. The Arbor Community Council (ACC) is a group comprised of Arbors’ Parent Involvement Committee (co-chairs and classroom coordinators) and the AMI Team. The purpose is to discuss and share information about issues that affect the Arbor community.

Through their current coordinating work with parents, classroom coordinators (informally referred to as PICs) naturally hear many questions and concerns. Beginning in the year 2004-5, the role of the PICs expanded to include serving as liaisons between their classrooms and the AMI Team. In their expanded role, PICs are asked to bring questions and concerns of parents in their classrooms to the Arbor Community Council.

The ACC will meet three times during the school year, dates and times to be decided. Special ACC meetings may be held to discuss time-sensitive issues which need to be addressed before the next scheduled meeting. The ACC may also choose to organize school-wide forums to address specific topics as needed. The ACC as a whole will be responsible for ensuring appropriate follow-up issues discussed in the ACC meetings. At least one PIC from each class is expected to attend each ACC meeting, but all may attend if they wish to do so. Each classroom’s PICs will decide among themselves who will attend the ACC meetings. The current year’s PICs will ask for volunteers willing to serve as PICs for the following year, dialogue with the classroom teacher about these volunteers, then select from among them the subsequent year’s PIC’s. Every classroom will have at least three but not more than four PICs.

The agendas for ACC meetings will be collaboratively reviewed and decided upon between the Parent Involvement Committee co-chairs and the Education and Business administrators as follows:

Classroom PICs will submit topics to the Parent Involvement Committee co-chair for their level (primary, lower elementary, or upper elementary/middle school).
If a parent who is not a PIC wishes to address the ACC in person, this request may also be submitted.
The co-chairs will meet with the Education and Business Administrators to establish the ACC meeting agenda.
The agenda will then be sent to all PICs and AMI Team members.