Trustee Report, December 14, 2012

1. Education Minister visit – The Hon. Thomas Lukaszuk will be visiting our school division as part of a regional tour. A tentative date has been set for January 26. More details to follow.

2. Transportation survey – As a follow-up to the division surveys completed in the spring, the Board has asked for a survey of our bus system. There are 1,800 students in our division who take the school each day. Letters will be sent home soon to inform parents of the brief, paper survey. All parents of students who ride the bus will be surveyed, as well as students in Grades 4 to 12. Data collected will be used by administration only to identify any concerns.

3. Lac Sante – A committee has been formed to further investigate a request from the County of Two Hills to re-designate municipal/school reserve land in the Lac Sante area in order to develop a public campground.  Each time a subdivision is built, municipalities must set aside land for items such as schools and recreation areas. The school division does not own the land, but has a vested stake in the property. Trustees Rudkowsky, Pedersen, Miller will be serving on the committee.

4. Rural AB Development Fund – Trustee Rudkowsky reported on the provincial grant that has provided funding to other rural school divisions for items such as a mobile trades unit. The funding for the program ends on March 31, 2012, but the organizers hope to receive further funding from the Province. Trustees will research its proposal at its January information meeting.

5. Remembrance Day - Admin Procedure 206 – the division is looking at ways to allow flexibility for our community groups to participate in the school ceremonies, especially in communities where there is more than one school – administration is considering changing the policy to allow ceremonies to take place at different times of the day - not just at 11:00 a.m. - on the school day(s) preceding Remembrance Day.

6. Calendar Committee - the first meeting will take place on January 16. Drafts will be available for the Board, staff and other stakeholders to review prior to the Board making its final decision.

7. Alberta School Councils Association AGM - April 20 – the Board will continue sponsoring three parents to attend the conference - hotel and registration. Further details coming soon.

8. Policy review – Policy 18 Community Engagement and AP 110 School Councils were reviewed, with comments from our school councils. The Policy Committee will be meeting in January to make recommendations to the Board on changes to policies reviewed since September (Policies 8,9,3,5,2,6, 18, AP 110). Up for review at the January 11 Board meeting are Policy 10 Policy Making and Policy 11 Board Delegation of Authority.

9. Superintendent's report:

• assessment plans in schools – Assistant Superintendent Dalane Imeson visited all schools - overall word is "excellent” - goal is to improve teaching and learning - principals are true educational leaders – the key emphasis on communications and how we treat each other.
• M.E. LaZerte presented on Dec. 5 - speaker from the assessment consortium – schools continue to develop assessment plans based on goals of division.
• AISI cycle is ending - fitting into overall plan direction - new plan focuses on assessment - not getting rid of what we are doing, but continuing to enhance - meeting in January to develop new AISI plan.
• Children's fair Nov. 15 and 16 - 58 families attended the fair - health and education partners had various screening tests for pre-school children- very successful - children have excellent opportunity for early supports before entering school system.
• Succession planning – identified characteristics of a good vice principal and good principal - 20-25 people identified – First meeting planned for January. Those chosen will hear from those who have already gone through the succession program.
• High School Flexibility Program – being piloted in a few divisions across the province - more student-directed - flex days - students free to receive help wherever they need it (similar to the SST (Student Support Team) time we already have built into many of our schools.
• Wi-Fi letter sent out to parents - lifting some security so that students and staff can access wi-fi similar to how accessed in a hotel or at home - need to ensure anti-virus software is up to date.
• New professional practice competencies being developed (provincially) for school leaders - three-year process.

10. Capital projects:

• site meeting at Two Hills Mennonite - received approval for four modular classrooms (to arrive tentatively in January) - discussion on demolition - possible option to keep the newer one-story potion vs. demolishing and adding more modulars - budgeted money to demolish now - however school will be full by the time the new school is built - said no to a two-storey structure because it costs more money - introductory home-ec and woods in the new building
• Racette - general contractor chosen - Binder Construction Ltd. – recently completed Vilna modernization - first meeting on Dec. 16
• Elk Point - construction expected to begin around Easter break - design is being completed

11. Strategic Planning /Community Engagement Meeting - letter of invite being developed and an invitee list - tentative dates April 18 or 19, 7:00 - 9:00 p.m. The division will develop a video that paints an accurate picture of our school system today. Will be presented to participants at the community engagement meeting, as well as at other public relations opportunities.

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12. Financial update - Due to a number of factors including unforeseen increased federal revenue from tuition agreements and severe disabilities funding, additional funding announcements from the province, and a slightly better than expected student enrollment count, the overall division financial picture has improved somewhat from the projected deficit in the spring of 2011.  After taking into account a number of recently approved staffing and program additions, capital expenses, and additional school-based budget allocations the Division is now projecting a deficit of about $600,000.

Teamwork, dreamwork...

"Teamwork, dreamwork. We are all in this together." These are the words keynote speaker Earl Rickman III said over and over again in his address to the 420 members attending the Alberta School Board Association Fall General Meeting. The past president of the National School Boards Association in the U.S. may have spoke of the American school system, but many of his points ring true here in Canada as well.

Mr. Rickman said, as trustees, we need to ensure that the entire community is working together to nurture the dreams of all of our children. And that too often, children are labelled as "failures", where it is really the adults in their lives who have failed them. Mr. Rickman said trustees are the best line of defence for the children in our communities.

Mr. Rickman did not say anything I didn't already know, but his words resonated with me as I carried on to my first workshop session. I decided to change to a different session after I found out no one from our table was attending. It was entitled, "Making it Better: Sexual and Gender Minority Students Speak Out About Their Experiences."

As I entered the conference room, I saw a table at the front, lined with seven very brave students. They were accompanied by Dr. Kristopher Wells from the Institute for Sexual Minority Studies and Services at the University of Alberta.

Over the course of two hours, these courageous students from various Edmonton schools, spoke of how teachers told them to act "less gay" and how the homophobic bullying in the schools was ignored. They spoke of how they were told to change for gym class in the washrooms and how they were told they would go to hell. I cried and I soul searched, wondering how LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans-identified, two-spirited, queer) students in our division are treated.

Most of the bullying and negative attitudes towards these LGBTQ students occurred during their junior high years, but there was some hope when they told us of how there were adults they could turn to in their lives, including in their schools. Most of them are now presidents of their high school Gay Straight Alliance clubs and reaching out to other students to offer their help.

The courageousness of these young adults rekindled my spirit to ensure that, as a trustee, I am acting as a line of defence for all students in our school division. We all need to nurture our children's dreams.

This is the poem that Mr. Rickman left us with, and will always remain in my heart:

"We Pray for Children" by Ina Hughes 
We pray for children
Who put chocolate fingers everywhere,
Who like to be tickled,
Who stomp in puddles and ruin their new pants,
Who sneak Popsicles before supper,
Who erase holes in math workbooks,
Who can never find their shoes. 
And we pray for those
Who stare at photographers from behind barbed wire,
Who can't bound down the street in new sneakers,
Who never "counted potatoes,"
Who are born in places we wouldn't be caught dead  in,
Who never go to the circus,
Who live in an X-rated world.

We pray for children
Who bring us sticky kisses and fistfuls of dandelions,
Who sleep with the cat and bury goldfish,
Who hug us in a hurry and forget their lunch money,
Who squeeze toothpaste all over the sink,
Who slurp their soup.

And we pray for those
Who never get dessert,
Who have no safe blanket to drag behind them,
Who can't find any bread to steal,
Who don't have any rooms to clean up,
Whose pictures aren't on anybody's dresser,
Whose monsters are real.

We pray for children
Who spend all their allowance before Tuesday,
Who throw tantrums in the grocery store and pick at their food,
Who like ghost stories,
Who shove dirty clothes under the bed,
Who get visits from the tooth fairy,
Who don't like to be kissed in front of the car pool,
Who squirm in church and scream on the phone,
Whose tears we sometimes laugh at and whose smiles can make us cry.

And we pray for those
Whose nightmares come in the daytime,
Who will eat anything,
Who have never seen a dentist,
Who are never spoiled by anyone,
Who go to bed hungry and cry themselves to sleep,
Who live and move, but have no being.

We pray for children
Who want to be carried
And for those who must,
For those we never give up on
And for those who never get a second chance,
For those we smother.
And for those who will grab the hand of anybody kind
enough to offer it.

We pray for children. Amen. 
(We pray for Children, 1995,  William Morrow publishers)

Trustee Report – November 9, 2011 Board Meeting

1. School council reporting requirements – School Council Regulations require councils to report back to Superintendent on their annual activities. The Board is assisting with this requirement by providing a template for school councils to review. Councils are also asked to discuss AP 110 School Councils - moving to Board Policy #19 and Community Engagement (Policy #18) – need prior to December Board meeting. 
 

2. Extra budget allocation:

•        SPERD received $632,269.00 in additional funding from the Province:
•       School administrators had a chance to meet twice as a group since then, and were also contacted individually.
•       Administrators came to consensus to address “hot spots” across the division and put money back towards the deficit ($1.2 million for 2011/2012) – to provide some consistency for next year’s budget.
•        The Board approved the plan to hire approximately 5 fte teachers spread across 7-8 schools and approx 4 instructional assistants across 3-4 schools.
•       As a result of other adjustments and an increase in enrolment, the Board was also able to put approx $500,000 against the current deficit lowering it to approx $700,000.

3. SPERD Community Engagement – the division’s Strategic Planning Committee has begun planning an opportunity for its stakeholders to provide input on the way we operate our schools – a meeting is tentatively planned for March in St. Paul, with subsequent meetings to follow in other communities. More details will be available in December.

4. School bus driver shortages – a local bus contractor appeared before the Board to discuss the shortage of bus drivers – the Board did make an exception to policy to allow a town bus driver over the age of 68 to drive for the 2011/2012 school year on a relief basis – the Board is also following up with the proposal for the Alberta Government to establish province-wide tests and standards of competency for bus drivers.

5. ATA/Board relations – The Alberta Teachers Association Local and the Board have written a letter to all students and parents to inform them of their efforts to enhance their partnership in student success. The letter will appear in upcoming newsletters. The Board also agreed to share in the sub costs for an extra ATA member to attend monthly Board meetings.

6. Three-year plan – Trustees began its Three-Year Plan requirements by receiving a draft layout from Central Office admin. Trustees will have a chance to study the plan and make further revisions before it is passed later in November.

7. Transportation survey – Trustees asked administration to look at creating a survey for students and possibly parents on bus safety. Results from the division’s survey this past spring raised some concerns, and Trustees asked for clarification. The Board has forwarded questions to Admin Council to find the most effective way to conduct the survey. School Councils are also being consulted.

8. Supporting K-4 Learners Tablet Pilot - received $50,000 funding from Alberta government for pilot program to use ipads in classrooms - 3 years - Ashmont and Myrnam schools.

9. Capital report:

•        Racette – Traffic impact study finalized. Hazardous material abatement is wrapping up (should be completed by Nov. 10). Construction tender closes on November 17. Award of tender and construction to follow.
•        F.G. Miller – Architectural consultant has been chosen – Bennett Architect Inc. Schematic design consultation with Board to start soon. Cost consultant has been hired. Preliminary hazmat research completed – hazmat abatement will be required.
•       Two Hills Mennonite – RFP for consultant closed on Nov. 4 – final selection to follow. Schematic design consultation with Board to start soon. Cost consultant has been hired. Geotechnical site investigation underway.

10. Superintendent’s report - monthly communications for division staff, CO staff; Children's Fair - Nov. 15-16 - appointment or drop-in - ages and stages questionnaire - range of community services; another round of succession planning in the works; administrative teams to visit other schools; Oct. 24 collaboration PD day successful – planning another session during February PD; Assessment Consortium – conference excellent overall – bringing one presentation to St. Paul on Dec. 5 for assessment committee members, etc.; Rock the Diploma – optional supplementary tutoring for diploma exams being made available online; school calendar - schools to submit bell times and instruction minutes; AISI approved for next cycle - overview of current cycle for Dec. 5 Board meeting.

Trustee Report - October 12, 2011 Board Meeting

1. PATS and DIPS - data from all of the Provincial Achievement Tests and Provincial Diploma exams are in from the past school year. Overall, results from our division are gradually improving. There are some areas of concern, which we will continue to examine for future action. The division’s Accountability Pillar (report card for the division) will be published on the division website.

2. September 30th enrolment count - up 29 students from predictions - hiring 0.5 teacher at Glen Avon School for high class numbers in Grade 2 – consideration also required for further computer technician support - also waiting to see how the $107 million the new premier has promised for education will flow back to divisions

3. Policy review - Role of Trustee and Role of Board Chair reviewed - School Councils will receive copies of the review schedule and the policies we have asked them to review.

4. Family School Liaison Workers – the Board will be submitting requests for partnership funding from our local municipalities - FSLW is a valuable program offering personal support for students when required.

5. TBAC (Teacher Board Advisory Committee) – the Board and the local Alberta Teachers Association have agreed to re-establish regular, informal meetings – the first meeting will take place October 25^th.

6. Tripartite Negotiations - teacher contracts come to an end in 2012 - this past summer Alberta government invited the Alberta School Boards Association and the Alberta Teachers Association to start discussions for a framework agreement (teacher wages, school board funding, term and dispute resolution) – the Board made a motion for ASBA to negotiate on its behalf for a provincial agreement - some items will remain for local bargaining

7. Superintendent’s Report:

November 23-26
Senior Girls' 3A provincials - Regional High School

October 14 at 1 pm
Ashmont Secondary Awards ceremony

October 18 at 730 pm
Two Hills Awards ceremony

October 15
ATA Retirement and Induction (St Paul)

Report Cards (starting first term this year)
All K-3 schools will use outcome-based report cards
Two Hills School, Ashmont Elementary, and Mallaig - will also be 'piloting' outcome-based reporting in grades 4-6

October 25 at 7 pm
Two Hills School Open House and presentation to parents regarding Outcome-based reporting

November 15 (pm) & 16 (am) - with exact times to be determined
Preschool Children's Fair in cooperation with local Health partners (to be advertised through local media) -  at the St. Paul Elementary School (open to all parents)
Topics: developmental screening, literacy, resiliency, FASD, and other preschool related topics

8. Education Transformation Meetings - trustees, teachers and government have been meeting in group-discussion meetings across the province to discuss the transformation of our education system – these meetings are another piece of the Inspiring Education initiative and School Act review

9. Capital Report - hazmat started at Racette; hope for construction to start before Christmas - architects shortlisted for F.G. Miller and Two Hills Mennonite

Transforming the way we learn in Alberta

I had the opportunity to take part in one of the Education Transformation meetings that Alberta Education hosted throughout all regions of the province last month. The meetings were a way to bring the three main partners - Alberta Education, Alberta Teachers Association and Alberta School Boards Association - together and discuss how we will transform our education system to meet the needs of our students in this ever-changing, global society.


At our meeting in Red Deer, there were 19 tables. Each table had local representation from all three partners in their respective school division areas. We had two trustees, an assistant superintendent, three local teachers (including our local ATA president), an Alberta Ed rep and a notetaker at our table.


The day started off with a panel discussion from leaders of all three provincial partners: Deputy Minister Kerry Henkay, ATA VP Mark Ramsanker and ASBA President Jacquie Hansen. 


The remainder of the day was divided into three sections for group discussion, each discussing three questions:


Focus Area #1: Shared Understanding/Shared Opportunity - Support for the idea of transformation as a shared process
1. What's the most important characteristic of education transformation for you?
2. If transformation is about moving from one reality to another, what does that entail?
3. Discuss the relationship enhancements that articulate a new way of working together - what do we have to change about how we relate to one another?


Focus Area #2: Moving Forward Together: Who Does What? - Shared commitment to priority items/role and responsibilities
1. If we are to collaborate on transformation, what's most important to work together on?
2. How do we define our respective roles and responsibilities in taking on these topics?
3. How do we hold one another accountable for our mutual success?


Focus Area #3: Outcome: Support for Moving Forward Together
1. What are some ways ATA, ASBA and Alberta Education can start taking action for transformation?
2. Is a plan required to guide the process? If so, what types of plans/planning are needed and who should lead their development?
3. How, when and at what levels (local/provincial) do we involve other stakeholders in the process?


These questions created great discussion at our table, and, from what we heard back from others, great discussion all around. There is no denying that these three provincial partners have not always played well in the sandbox together in the past, but this "landmark-type" meeting was a step in the right direction, from what we heard and experienced. 


There is still a long way to go, especially with the new Education Act coming out next year and all of its implications, but I strongly believe that if we keep the conversation going and continue to foster our relationships with one another, we can all succeed in building a stronger education system for our children. After all, we all have the same goal of providing the best education for our students.


We will be discussing these questions at our public board meeting tomorrow and will be bringing them forward to our local School Councils. As long as we continue pushing forward the concept of transformation at the grass roots level, I don't think this province has any choice, but to move forward.