Site GATE Advisory Meeting 
December 6, 2007 

1. Welcome and Introductions 
Kate Gibson, Cathy Perlmutter, Tammy Wong, Cathy McMahon, Robin Wilson, Betsy Hamilton 

2. Teacher Updates 
Fifth grade has purchased and is utilizing the Choices Curriculum – there are three or four types of universal theme books designed for gifted instruction. 
Cathy McMahon reported on Battle of the Books, short story writing 
Tammy Wong spoke about working on her administrative credential and writing article for the PawPrint regarding differentiation as an instructional strategy 

3. Report from District GATE Meeting 
Donna Bennett, lecturer from Cal State University, Fullerton, presented “A Discussion: The Social and Emotional Needs of Gifted Students” – Donna Bennett gave a presentation last week. Handouts were shared and discussed. 
Ellen Dougherty is looking into the possibility of having Donna Bennett do in-house professional development for teachers. 
Next Thursday there is a District GATE Meeting 13th at district office 3:30-5:00 
January 31st is the next site meeting. 

4. Follow up on website, Parent Knowledge Bank and Science Closet 
§ Cathy will forward the minutes and resources to Holly Lang so that she will post them to the web. Lots of parent literature on there. We can post any parent resources to the website. 
§ Betsy will write about the Marengo website in the PawPrint 
§ Kate will email Sherry about the website 
§ Cathy and Tammy will raise the hit counter for our website with the tech committee 
§ Parent Knowledge Bank went out in backpack mail; Cathy will email Sherry Hodge for more ‘entries’ 
§ Science closet was discussed. We still do not have the new science kits. Kate Gibson has offered to organize the closet and to visit Arroyo Vista to see how they have their science materials organized. 

5. Open Forum 
§ Kate submitted feedback on the district GATE brochure to Cathleen Hoadley at the district office
§ 5th grade went to Cal Tech November 9th, saw film and invited on stage with a scientist and reviewed presentation. This scientist’s area of study is how water swirls around the tentacles of the octopus. Film was about wind and how it moves around the Earth. 
§ Site Council and SPSA report 
§ Parent had offered to contribute to GATE program – Betsy will follow up. Kate suggested going through Wish Night. Need to explore with the potential donor the level of gift and then come up with ideas. Models, field trips (Lynx Sailing Experience, San Diego simulated spaceship experience) Discussed ideas for additional fundraising so that all students at a particular grade level. 
§ Discussed what it is that teachers need and how parents can support that. We discussed that there are many parent resources that benefit Marengo, and that we would benefit from teacher input into what would be most educational or supportive of our students. Difficult to get parent involvement in the more academic activities like GATE, ELAC. Kate shared that change is slow and that it is hard to get parents to commit to a vision – need for things to happen more quickly. Parents get involved when they are not happy with something. GATE parents are only here for two years – if they feel that coming here doesn’t make a difference, they aren’t encouraged to come.