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.