Trustee Report - February 11, 2015

Calendar Approval: Trustees approved the school calendar for the 2015-2016 year, developed collaboratively with administration, staff, trustees and community stakeholders. The first day of school will be August 31, 2015.

Strategic Planning - April 13 & 14, 2015:  The Board will meet with principals, teachers, students, trustees, and community members to develop its vision and mission statements in keeping with current practices.  Additional information will be provided by the Board.

Division Satisfaction Survey: Every four years, a division satisfaction survey will be administered, to be used by the Board to provide specific direction for the division.  It is distinct to the accountability pillar sent from Alberta Education.  The survey will be completed online by students in grades 4-12 and staff April 7-24.  Parents will receive paper surveys that will be sent home with students prior to Spring break and are appreciated to be returned by April 17.

Forensics 9 Locally Developed Course: Trustees approved this new course, requested in Mallaig School.  Students will gain an understanding of how science is used to solve crimes by looking at evidence, such as fingerprints, trace evidence, blood, DNA evidence, and specific scientific processes that link cross curricular competencies to many Alberta Education core subjects.  AP218 requires schools to seek board approval for a locally developed course and AP291 governs the assessment of the course.

Policy Review:  Policy 12, Role of the Superintendant, was reviewed, with minor housekeeping changes.  Policy 13, Reviews, Appeals and Hearings Regarding Student Matters, was reviewed with no changes. 

Annual Alberta School Council Association AGM Conference, April 24 - 26: Trustees approved sponsoring two parent members to attend the conference.  Additional information will be provided to School Council chairs.

Superintendant’s Report:

myBlueprint Education Planner: This program for students in grades 9-12 offers learning styles and interests assessments, information on career paths for various course choices, and planning and financial information for post-secondary education.  The program will be implemented in September 2015, but schools also have the option to launch the program in February, 2015.

New Employee Assistance Provider: Information about the change in service provider for the Division EAP program was sent to all staff on January 15. Posters and brochures will also be distributed in the schools.

Website Updates: Principals were asked for feedback further to a recent meeting focused on technical support and content standards for Division websites.

Dual-Credit Strategy: Principals were asked to send in information about students enrolled in dual-credit courses from Lakeland College in the second semester. Currently, about 10 students are taking part in the partnership.

Substitute Teacher’s Appreciation Week - March 9 – 13

Student Learning Assessment (SLA) Implementation: Provincial Achievement Tests (PATs) are still evolving into SLAs. Alberta Education has decided that more time is needed to ensure the grade 3 SLAs are a valuable assessment tool before transitioning from PATs to SLAs in Grades 6 and 9. The Grade 6 SLA pilot will be rescheduled, with a target of Fall 2016 for the first administration. As a result, the May-June 2015 and May-June 2016 Grade 6 Provincial Achievement Tests will be a regular, full administration across the province.  Current students in grade 2 will be completing SLAs in September, 2015 when they are in grade 3.  Grade 6 and 9 students will be writing PATs in May/June, 2015. SLAs are expected to be implemented in grade 6 in 2016 and grade 9 likely in three years.

Family Student Liaison Worker (FSLW) Support: FSLW began originally as a FCSS led initiative by the counties and local towns before SPERD took on the program.  Currently about 1,200 students in the division participate.  The Town of St. Paul recently donated $ 10,000 to the program and is utilized by 220 of the town’s students.  The County of St. Paul donated $ 30,000, and is utilized by 320 of the county’s students.

Administrative Procedure 315 - Accident Reports: Medical decisions made at the hospital, when failing to get a hold of a parent or guardian will be made by the medical professional.

Administrative Procedure 351 - School Dress: Ultimately, the privilege to wear headgear, defined as caps, hats, bandannas, or scarves, or the like, except during official gatherings, like Remembrance Day, in a school will be determined by the school’s administration and staff, as advised by school councils.

Financial Report: The division is operating within its budget.  Money not used for collaborative professional development for teachers were re-allocated to the following school year.  Information of the division budget is available on our website.

Capital Projects Report: The Two Hills Mennonite School (THMS) construction project has a projected completion date of September, 2016.  Two modular classrooms for the THMS have been approved and are anticipated to be on site in Fall, 2015.  Meeting dates are forthcoming for project management for the new build proposed for Ashmont.

Alberta School Board Association Division Pupil Teacher Ratio (PTR) Report: SPERD is proud that it has a pupil teacher ratio is considerably lower than other school jurisdictions in the province, with 14.95 pupils per teacher.  The provincial range is 10.40 to 19.90 for the 61 school jurisdictions listed. SPERD places a priority on having more teachers for each student and wishes to continue this practice.  There are instances when we are challenged to keep PTR in a lower range due to programming and building constraints.

Trustee Report - January 14, 2015

Education Act Regulations Review – Alberta Education has released 16 proposed regulations and is looking for further public input. The Education Act Regulatory Review Committee was established in April 2013 to lead discussion on the regulations that will support the Education Act upon its proclamation later this year. The 16 regulations are posted online at http://education.alberta.ca/edu-act and feedback is sought until the deadline on January 31, 2015.

Infrastructure Maintenance Renewal (IMR) Schedule - $1.1 million of general maintenance work on local schools has been approved to take place over the next year, the majority of which will take place during July and August.  The Province doubled the division’s allocation for IMR funding in this year’s budget.

Two Hills Adult Learning Request – The Board waived the fee for the local council to use the school in Two Hills as part of an English as a Second Language program for adults.

Educational Tours Admin Procedure 262 – Due to unforeseen circumstances at the personal and school level, a couple of events have occurred over the last two years where the division had to reimburse funds for cancelled trips. As a result, the Superintendent is strengthening the procedures necessary for school trips abroad.

Students with Severe (Anaphylactic) Allergies Admin Procedure 318 –The Board reviewed the final adjustments to the procedure and commended administration for their due diligence.

Satisfaction Survey – Trustees reviewed further changes to the questions for the upcoming division-wide survey to take place after spring break. The Board approved the questions, the proposed timelines and the communications plan for the survey.

Policy Review – Policy 10 Policy Making and Policy 11 Board Delegation of Authority were reviewed with no changes.

Superintendent’s Report:

Fundraising and gaming regulations – Through some research admin discovered that schools are not eligible to apply for raffle licenses, but schools do not need a license if there is a skill component (ie. how many jelly beans in the jar?). However, parent fundraising societies, registered under the Societies Act, are eligible to apply for raffle licenses.

Education planners – administrators are excited about MyBlueprint.ca and may include it as a division-wide purchase. It allows for student goal setting, career planning and academic tracking. Students can easily research post-secondary opportunities.

Division Calendar – continuing to gather input from draft calendar released in December. Early feedback suggests little to no changes, but feedback will be received until the February board meeting.

Website workshop – staff completed a workshop on Jan. 9 in the ongoing effort to improve the division and school websites.

School Dress (AP 351) – admin doing a complete review of current procedures.

Verification of Bus Driver License Credentials/Demerit Accumulation (AP 555) - This new AP requires all drivers who operate commercial vehicles for the Division to provide authorization for driver abstracts annually and to report any driving infractions to the Director of Transportation within two weeks of the infraction. The AP provides guidelines for drivers who have demerits on their license and will be used as a guideline when reviewing driver abstracts for volunteer drivers who operate non-commercial vehicles.

 All helmets used for school skating activities must be CSA approved.

Financial Report:

Preliminary budget planning for the next school year is commencing; however, the current economic climate is creating some caution at this point.

Capital Projects:

Two Hills Mennonite – Since the project has been suspended for over a year, there are still a few outstanding financial items the government needs to settle with the general contractor. The changes to the original plan, including the structural slab, underslab drainage system and methane ventilation system, have been approved.

Ashmont Schools – will continue the planning process as previously announced.