Saturday, December 15, 2012

Dec 11th School Board meeting summary

Improved Aboriginal and Special Needs achievement rates, 5 new board approved Secondary elective courses, stakeholder priorities for educational investment and a need to find $600,000 in budget cuts to fund a 3% CUPE support staff salary increase were the main topics of discussion at the December 11th board meeting.

More Tough Choices
The School District is once again facing tough choices related to budgets outside the normal budget cycle. The Ministry of Education, following its Cooperative Gains Mandate, is anticipating a 3% increase in annual wages for CUPE staff and is asking all school districts across the Province to tell them how they would, without raising fees or cutting core services, achieve budget cuts equivalent to the salary increases by mid-January. For North Vancouver School District this would amount to about a $600,000 budget cut. More discussion on this can be expected early in January but for a District already running a lean operation this will result in some very tough choices.

The Superintendent's Report on Achievement for 2012/13
This annual report looks at a number of comparative indicators such as graduation rates to measure the overall academic success of the School District in a number of areas. It appears from the result that the overall graduation rate for all student's appears to have plateaued at about 84~86% (slightly above the BC average of 82%).

However the District is concerned that while they have had some success with an increase in the Aboriginal completion rates from 49% to 61% this rate and that of special needs students (62%) remains stubbornly below the overall graduation rate for all students.

The full report provides a lot more information on the programs the District is working on to improve the success of our children starting with early literacy support such as the StrongStart centers and continuing with a variety of supports.

The District thinks changes to the community learning program and other recently introduced initiatives will help increase the success of our students and plans to continue monitoring the effectiveness of their efforts through these academic achievement reports.

Board Approved Courses
At the secondary level, the board is able to approve elective courses developed by teachers with particular interests or to support students with specific needs. These courses are for credit courses outside the standard curriculum. For the coming year the board has approved 5 new courses.
  • Improvisation 10 @ Carson Graham Secondary
  • Self-Efficacy 11 @ Mountainside Secondary
  • Sustainable Environmental Education 11 @ Carson Graham
  • Principles of Relational Skills 11 @ All Secondary Schools
  • Peer Coaching and Mentoring 11 @ All Secondary Schools
The board package contains a full description of these courses, the delivery models and curriculum. Seeing theses course laid out the way they are with all the units involved and the expected outcomes defined is very helpful in understanding how education is designed and how courses are assessed before being implemented in the district

Most of the debate around these courses centered on the need to teach students skills such as self efficacy and relational skills at an earlier age than Grade 11. The challenge is where to fit these into the curriculum and there seemed to be a strong case for introducing versions of these courses for earlier grades if they are successful at the grade 11 level.

Priority Educational Needs
The Superintendent presented a summary of the priority educational needs submissions from each of the partner groups (CUPE, NOVA, NVTA and NorthVanPAC). More than anything the summary in the board package shows that there are many areas in need of attention across the District caused largely by many years of very tight budgets. Infrastructure spending, special needs support, the introduction of new technology and providing more time and capacity for teachers, administration and staff to do the work they need to do to maintain quality education are all identified and desired by the groups. How this can be achieved is unclear but people clearly recognize a large set of needs.

Sunday, December 9, 2012

Student Computers and Gaming Grants

I have had the pleasure of attending PAC meetings in different schools recently and a common thread of discussions has been PAC support for tablets, computers and related equipment. As a topic of common concern, I asked the Ministry about the use of PAC Gaming Funds to purchase iPads and similar computing devices for use by students in the school.  

According to the Ministry website, Gaming Grants can be used by PACs for “Student computers: software, hardware, accessories;” so I asked the Ministry what the term "student computers" means. Can it be used to purchase iPads etc.

The Ministry response was that... "The key is that use of Gaming Grant PAC funding is for extra-curricular purposes. In general iPads and related equipment have been considered enhanced educational items and have not been generally approved.

Gaming Grant PAC funding is intended to benefit students by enhancing their extra-curricular opportunities. Gaming funds may be used to pay for goods and services used by students for, or primarily for, extra‑curricular activities. Gaming funds may not be used to pay for goods or services used primarily by teachers to deliver curriculum or by students to complete curriculum requirements.

 Materials that are not required in the teaching or completion of curriculum, but which assist in doing so, such as smart boards and other ‘enhanced educational’ items, are not eligible for PAC funding. A list of eligible uses of PAC grant funds can be found in section 3.3 of the Guidelines: Applying for a Community Gaming Grant,
http://www.pssg.gov.bc.ca/gaming/grants/forms-guidelines.htm#two, and a list of ineligible uses can be found in the Conditions for a PAC/DPAC Grant, http://www.pssg.gov.bc.ca/gaming/grants/docs/cond-pac-dpac.pdf. Both these documents may be downloaded from our website as shown."

I asked if computing devices can be funded if PACs can show their use outside school curriculum for instance how the tablets or other computing devices are being used for extra-curricular activities such as supporting drama clubs, digital media clubs, computer-programming clubs or science clubs or sports training.

The ministry responded that... "The key is extracurricular and the theme related to extracurricular activities such as the drama clubs, is one example and it must not be for curricular based or related to support work related for curricular. That is important for PAC’s to ensure as Government funding is provided through the Ministry of Education related to curricular based. Gaming funds cannot be used for those purposes."

From this discussion I conclude that PACs need to be very specific and provide strong evidence that any technology purchase using Gaming funds will be used to support extracurricular activities and should not assume general purchases or usage outside school or direct purchases for students will be supported.

PACs considering the purchase of tablets etc for extracurricular purposes should contact the gaming branch well ahead of time to find out if your particular application would be supported by gaming funds.

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Nov 15th - North Van PAC meeting summary

The main items on the agenda at our November 15th General Meeting were:
  • "The role of the PAC" by BCCPAC Past President - Ann Whiteaker
  •  2012/13 budget
  • The Parent Priorities Survey
  • ERASE anti-bullying program by Joanna Woronchak and Deborah Johnstone
Nov 15th Meeting Minutes

2012/13 Budget

The Role of the PAC

The presentation by Ann Whiteaker on the role of the PAC was very interesting to as we often get caught up in the day-to-day operation of our organizations and it helps to reflect on your purpose at times to ensure you are moving in the right direction.

The meeting minutes provide an excellent summary of the presentation but a couple of key points really stood out for me.
  • While often perceived as such, the purpose of a PAC is not to fundraise. The goal is to build relationships and community, and not necessarily to make money. PACs should endeavour to get as many people as possible out with their entire family to fun events where the PAC doesn’t lose money.
  • PACs should seek out under-represented parents, especially those of struggling students. Parents of students who struggle are often reluctant to come to PAC meetings and events. Sometimes it is necessary to “dig” for the families who won’t ask for help.
If you need help funding fun community building events within your schools, please make sure you take advantage of our speaker and family of schools grants.

Budget 

Our 2011/2012 Year end financials and 2012/2013 budget were both approved at the meeting. This means we can move forward with all our grants etc. The DPAC Funds page on our blog discusses the available funds and how PACs can access them.

Parent Priorities Survey

We had 40 participants in our online parent priorities discussion and survey. The results of the survey show a mix of priorities but with a clear focus on the need to upgrade facilities, improve special needs education and improve the use of technology in schools.

What was most important to me was the discussion on the process. There wasn't a lot of information or context given to the questions asked and the feedback in the meeting was that as a result it was hard to understand the value of the exercise and respond  apropriately to the questions. This is good feedback and will be incorporated the next time we reach out. Personally I found the process we used of gathering ideas and voting upon them generally better for this type of discussion than others we've tried but I definitely see the need for more effort to help set the context for the discussions.

ERASE Anti-Bullying Strategy

Deborah Johnstone (Boundary) met with District Administrator Brad Baker, and
attended the Safe and Caring Schools Committee meeting. The province’s new
ERASE (Expect Respect and a Safe Education) program will be introduced in the
district. There will be a Professional Day to inform/train teachers and staff about
ERASE, but the program may not actually be implemented until next year.

Joanna Woronchak, (Highlands) attended the ERASE summit in Vancouver on
November 13th and presented a few key points from her Anti-bullying report:
  • On the erasebullying.ca website, there is a reporting tool which can be used by a target of or a witness to incidents of bullying. Reports can be made anonymously or with a name.
  • There will be a professional day each year to deal with anti-bullying education for teachers and administrators.
  • Consideration is being given to integrating anti-bullying training as part of teacher training.
  • A 10 point strategy has been developed outlining protocols re bullying so that there will be consistency across school districts.
  • An RCMP speaker at the summit noted that there are no teeth in current laws,
  • and it is very difficult to prosecute for cyber bullying.
  • Use of correct terminology is being encouraged – assault, extortion instead of bullying.
  • It is important to let children know they are believed and that the bullying is not their fault.
  • A student participant in the summit stated “Bullying needs to be made not cool.”
  • ERASE asks the witness to come forward to report bullying. Witnesses are negatively affected by bullying; they need to feel empowered to speak up.

Nov 27 School Board Meeting - Summary

The November 27th board meeting touched on four main topics. The naming of the new community learning program, board support in principal for covered outdoor areas, a report by the NVTA on last year's professional development activities and the opening of discussions on a District school calendar.

1. Mountainside Secondary

Following the recommendations coming from within the school, the board decided to create a new school identity for the community learning program by naming the school Mountainside Secondary School. By enabling the community to forge its own identity under their own name rather than the rather cumbersome "community learning program at Balmoral" the District marks the end of the transition and a start to a new chapter for the students and staff at the school. Personally I think this is an great step to making the move real and solidifying the new program and community.

2. Covered Areas

Anyone headed outside in November knows that North Van is in a rain forest zone. Yet due to budget limitations many of our elementary schools have been built without covered outdoor areas for students to use during inclement weather. Highlands Elementary PAC have worked hard to raise this issue with the District and last year the District agreed that they needed to look at it properly and see what it would actually take to provide schools with covered areas.

The results of this work were discussed at the last finance and facilities meeting but in general show that it will cost about $150,000 to add covered outdoor spaces at Highlands. There is little disagreement that covered spaces are needed but funding them is the real issue. At Tuesday's meeting the Board agreed in principal with the installation of covered spaces and they agreed to develop a policy related to their installation but have essentially asked the community to work with them to find a way to fund covered areas.

While this falls short of what many would like to see in terms of immediate installation the decision appears positive to me as it suggests that while they may not be able to provide funding for covered areas the District is supportive of their installation if the community can raise the funds and that the school district may help with things such as the design, installation and upkeep of the canopies once installed.

3. Professional Development

The North Vancouver Teachers Association (NVTA) presented their annual report on professional development activities in a new, informative and inspiring fashion on Tuesday night. Few people see what teacher's actually do with those PD days and to rectify this the NVTA had 3 teachers present their stories of how they used their professional development time and funds to improve their teaching.

  • Attending a conference in Alberta helped one North Vancouver teacher learn about teaching techniques from other parts of Canada and the world. 
  • For another teacher, assembling a number of different supports together enabled him to attend an extended student cultural exchange in Ottawa and bring a stronger understanding of how the Canadian government works to his social studies classes. 
  • A third teacher used the support to learn the specialized techniques needed to help students develop the fine motor skills needed to use a pen properly. 

The teachers were far more interesting and inspiring in their presentations than my summaries but it was obvious to me that this sort of professional development helps broaden and inspire teachers in ways that can be brought back into the school system to the benefit of all teachers and students.

4. School Calendars

The Ministry of Education has this year enabled school districts to establish local school calendars. This could mean adjustments to the dates and hours of schooling in the District. At the board meeting Superintendent Lewis announced the plan seek stakeholder input into a new calendar for the 2013/14 school year. NorthVanPAC has been asked to participate in this process and is currently seeking parent representatives to help develop the new calendar.

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

ERASE Bullying Summit

On November 13, 2012 , Joanna Woronchak attended the ERASE Bullying Summit on our behalf and submitted the following report.

ERASE Bullying Summit, Nov 13, 2012

The Erase Bullying Summit was not only a forum to launch the www.erasebullying.ca website, it was also an opportunity to bring together a diverse group of people with a common goal. It is clear that if we are going to make significant changes in the area of anti bullying we must take a unified approach. Kids, parents, schools, police, community outreach workers, government, etc. must work together to create positive change.

Premier Christy Clark said, “When a child is not safe in school they can not learn”. This is so true and when we live in a country that being educated is not just a privilege but a right, collectively we have a responsibility to our students to create a safe place for them to learn

WWW.ERASEBULLYING.CA

  1. Reporting tool 
    • Safe school coordinators manage reports 
  2. Bullying… be in the Know. What is bullying? 
    • Verbal 
    • Physical 
    • Social/Emotional 
    • Cyber 
  3. Information for parents – Warning signs, What can I do to help?, Youth Suicide and Helpful Resources 
  4. Creating Safe School Communities - Bullying isn’t just a child’s issue; it’s a school and community issue, and must be addressed with a school and community solution. Everyone has a role to play in supporting students and preventing incidents like bullying. 
  5. Policy to Action -Every child deserves an education free from discrimination, bullying, harassment, intimidation and violence. 

Erasebullying.ca is a fantastic new website. I encourage you to visit this site and become familiar with the reporting tool and the valuable information on this site. www.erasebullying.ca can only help those that know about it, so please spread the word.


The Government of British Columbia has implemented the following initiatives to help erase bullying:
  • 1 Pro-D day a year will be dedicated to Anti-bullying training. 
  • Integrating training into Post Secondary teacher training. 
  • Introducing a 10-point strategy to all 60 school districts. 
There are 4 Levels of training as part of the ERASE Bullying program that they’re implementing in BC, Canada.
  • Level 1 – One day for Elementary Schools

  • Level 2 – Basic threat and risk assessment for Secondary Schools

  • Level 3 – Next year – advanced threat and risk assessment

  • Level 4 – 2014 – Train the trainer of the work that’s happening now

Barbara Coloroso, Author – The Bully, The Bullied and The Bystander

“You don’t have to like everyone, but you must honour their humanity and treat them with respect and dignity.”

  • Learned behavior
  • The dehumanization must stop
  • The bully circle
  • We need to care

Barbara emphasized that everyone has a responsibility to:

  • Pay attention
  • Get involved
  • Never look away

Merlyn Horton, E.D. - Solos http://www.safeonlineoutreach.com

Find links at:
http://bitly.com/bundles/merlynmerlyn/r

SOLOS’ vision is to positively influence this and future generations to be informed and responsible users of digital technology. Merlyn Horton shared important information about the importance of kids and parents keeping educated. She talked on subjects such as:

  • Keeping passwords secret
  • Establish rules and guidelines in the home
  • Kids need to know how to document abuse
  • Kids don’t have elders to ask for guidance

Sgt. Frank Paulicelli and Cpl. Kurt Neuman, RCMP

There are 3 components in handling bullying:

  1. Prevention
    • Youth Officer Training
    • I – SMART
    • DEAL.org
    • Youth Officer Resource Tool Kit
    • DICE (Digital Investigators Computer Evidence)
    • WITS
    • Development Assets
  2. Intervention
    • School based threat risk assessment
    • Youth criminal justice act
    • Youth mental health & addictions workshops
  3. Enforcement
  4. Bullying is not a legal term. When bullying is being addressed legally the following are terms used:
    • Section 264 Criminal harassment

    • Section 264.1 uttering threats

    • Section 372 (2)(3) harassing telephone calls

    • Section 423 intimidations

    • Section 241 counselling suicide

    • Section 372 false messages

    • Section 347 extortion

    • Section 296 blasphemous libel

    • Section 300 defamatory libel

Student Involvement

There were many students at the summit from different areas in the province. I so value their in-put, their contributions were extremely insightful. The following are some of the concepts they brought forward:

  • The adults in the school building need to connect with students.When a kid feels disconnected they feel unsafe
  • They encouraged kids to get involved in clubs and teams at school.
  • Bullying needs to be made, “Not Cool”.
  • The teachers attitudes highly effect the students. It would be helpful if teachers got to know a students strengths not just weaknesses
  • With bullying issues they felt strongly that it is effective to let older students educate and mentor the younger students

School Initiatives

Teams from Frank Hurt (Surrey) and Timberline Secondary (Campbell River) shared some of the efforts they are making to maintain safe schools.

  • Use Surveys – the kids know way more then the adults do
  • Focus group held by students
  • Safe School workers at school all day
  • Ask and Listen to students
  • Video cameras – kids can report just time and place
  • Teach Stewardship
  • Student Advocate programs
  • Programs pinpointing at risk kids and working with them before issues arise

More Info

This blog only touches on the information. I found a great site, it has fantastic notes on the entire summit, I encourage you to visit:
http://www.5minutesformom.com/67629/erase-bullying/

Monday, November 26, 2012

North Shore Community Wellness Survey

Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) is conducting a survey across the north shore beginning at the end of November 2012 (Nov. 24-Dec 16).

They would like PAC assistance to promote the survey in newsletters etc.

The survey can be found at: www.vch.ca/NorthShoreSurvey

The survey is designed to assess, at a population level, not an individual level, the health and wellness of our community across several parameters. Additionally, and most particularly part of the survey will attempt to elicit the “Child and Family Friendliness” of the north shore community. This is a direct follow on to the municipalities, school boards and other institutions having signed the North Shore Charter for a Child and family Friendly Community in October 2011.

The results of this survey and the results of a second survey that will assess the same issue but from a service provider perspective (under the auspices of the North Shore Neighbourhood House) will be presented at the North Shore Congress in February or March 2013.

The wellness survey will be conducted both “in the field” using volunteer interviewers as well as online. The expectation is to achieve 5,000 respondents and that the sample will be powerful enough to reflect, in some instances, geographic neighbourhood areas. The oversight committee for the survey includes members of the planning staff of the City of North Vancouver, the District of North Vancouver and the District of West Vancouver. This survey approach has been successfully implemented by VCH earlier this year in partnership with the City of Richmond in support of their community wellness strategy.

If you have questions or concerns, please contact Megan Oakey, Healthy Communities Coordinator, Vancouver Coastal Health, North Shore on 604-904-6469 or megan.oakey@vch.ca.

Sincerely,

Brian O’Connor, MD, MHSc
Medical Health Officer, North Shore
Vancouver Coastal Health

Plymouth School Proposals Community Meeting

The School District is holding a public meeting on Dec 4th to present the proposals under consideration for the future use of Plymouth Elementary

Plymouth School Options Discussion
December 4, 2012
7pm at Plymouth Elementary

For more information on the meeting and the options under consideration go to

http://www.nvsd44.bc.ca/en/sitecore/content/Updates/PlymouthMeeting.aspx


Monday, November 19, 2012

Emergency Preparedness, Speakers and other discussions

North Van PAC maintains a discussion forum for all PACs in the District,

The purpose of the discussion forums is to enable PACs to share thoughts on issues of interest to schools and parents District wide.

If you aren't a member, please go to the forum and sign up to participate.

North Van PAC Discussion Forum

Current discussions include:
  • Speaker Recommendations discussing good speakers of interest to parents.
  • Emergency Preparedness discussions on how to ensure staff, parents are students are ready.
Other topics could include
  • The perennial issue of fundraising?
  • Parent Resources for anti-bullying ... what's available, what works and for whom?
  • Traffic Safety, what are the issues around your school, what helped?
  • PAC governance, we all have challenges and successes to share.
  • IT and PACs, what are you using in your schools and what works?
For PACs in North Vancouver, this is your discussion board. Please make use of it to keep the valuable discussions we start in our meetings going. Sharing of best practices and successes will be a big help to everyone.




2012 Fall Educational Leadership Conference


The BC School Superintendents Association's  2012 Fall Educational Leadership Conference was held Nov 15th&16th and attended by North Van educators and two invited North Van parents.

There were many interesting presentations on the current and future of education in BC, too many to attend or to report on.

The website below provides links to many of the conference presentation

http://www.bcssa.org/fallconference.html

Parent Priorities Discussion - Results


At the request of the school board and administration, NorthVanPac conducted an online discussion of parent priorities for funding if the District were to have revenues from the sale or lease of surplus lands using the Thoughtstream system,

Our findings from our parent priorities efforts can be found here

Parent Priorities Discussion Results

We had an initial set of 40 respondents with 23 completing the final ranking. At North Van PAC we always prefer broader input as this better captures the district wide perspective.

From what I can see we've identified a number of options and it seems clear that maintaining our schools, finding a way to provide extra support for special needs and an overall greater investment in education technology are of great interest to parents. This is reflected in both the initial thoughts people provided and the choices made in the rankings.

As discussed at our general meeting, the context for the questions may not have been clear which is a learning we will try to incorporate into future efforts with the system and to gather input.

I would like thank everyone that helped with this effort and I hope those that participated found the effort interesting.

The report includes both the summary of the results and the full set of input gathered as this helps make sense of what is there.

Thursday, November 8, 2012

November 15th General Meeting Agenda

Our November (15th) general meeting features a talk from past BCCPAC President Anne Whitaker on the roles of parents and PACs in the school system and how to effectively advocate for children in the system. More information on this talk can be found below. I hope to see you all next Thursday.

Date: Thursday, Nov. 15th
Time: 7pm - 9pm
Location: Education Services Center, 2121 Lonsdale Ave


Meeting Agenda:
7:00 pm: Demystifying your PAC - Anne Whitaker,

NVPAC General Meeting
8:15 pm call to order, approval of agenda & minutes
8:20 pm: NVPAC budget 2012/13 - Mike Sexsmith
8:40 pm: Parent Priorities Submission to Board - David Whitehead
9:00 pm: Adjourn


Demystifying Your PAC — Working Together
Building relationships requires more than just a common set of values and a desire to see students succeed. We all know parent/community volunteers play a vital role in the success of school-lead initiatives and support student achievement when they are engaged in the school community however what this looks like and how to tap into this resource is not commonly practised or understood.

This workshop will provide a better understanding of the role of parents within our schools, tools to engage this resource to maximize benefits and solutions to common concerns that challenge positive relationships when we engage the greater school community.

Topics will cover the shared rights, roles and responsibilities of PACs, Parents, Administrators, and Staff, how to best support and advocate for students when issues arise and how to gather and create Parent voice through your PAC. Bring your ideas, and challenges for discussion in this lively and fun workshop.

The workshop will be hosted by Ann Whiteaker. Ann was the past president of BCCPAC. She has been actively involved in all school levels: elementary, middle, and high school, as well as the district level for 13 years. She has served as PAC Chair, DPAC Director, and the BCCPAC. Ann was also one of the members on the Panel of CBC On The Coast's live broadcast of "Failing Our Kids? Is BC's public education system broken?” Whiteaker is an experienced advocate for parents often being called upon to assist parents when problems or concerns present themselves to support their student’s success and navigating the system.

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

School District Funding Priorities Discussion


NorthVanPAC has been asked to submit a list of parent priorities for the use of any proceeds from surplus School District properties by Nov.15th.

To facilitate this discussion we are using a system called Thoughtstream which will help us collectively gather, group and vote on everyone's input.

I would appreciate your input into this process to help us understand your thoughts on two questions: 

1. What should the School District do with any funds generated from the sale or lease of surplus lands to best make use of any proceeds?

2. What criteria would you use to assess whether any lands proceeds were being used / invested appropriately?

Once we have gathered people's input we will then use the tool to vote on the suggested priorities.


Please enter your thoughts by clicking on the link below which will start the process

Please complete this process by: Monday November 05, 2012 12:00 PM

David Whitehead
NorthVanPAC Chair 2012/13

Friday, October 26, 2012

Oct 23rd NVSD Board Meeting observations

The Oct 23rd Board Meeting saw the approval of the capital plan prioritizing Argyle and Handsworth for seismic upgrade or replacement, the selection of Queen Mary as an IB candidate school and reports on class sizes and special needs support changes this year.

International Baccalaureate at Queen Mary

Because of the limited opportunity for consultation on the selection, the most contentious decision of the evening was the selection of Queen Mary as the site for the next potential introduction of the International Baccalaureate primary years program (PYP) in North Vancouver.

Since the introduction of IB Primary Year at Capilano Elementary the school's enrolment has grown to the point it is full and no longer has capacity even to accept students within its own catchment. There is no doubt that the program is in demand by parents across the district. As a result the school district determined there was a need for a second elementary school offering the IB PYP program.

The selection criteria for where to site this school were discussed at the October 2nd Toward the Future of Schools meeting. The desire at that time was to locate IB at a school with space to support student enrolment from across the district and that could readily feed students into the IB programs at Carson Graham. At that meeting Queen Mary was identified as the top candidate.

While there was little debate that Queen Mary would be an appropriate site for IB the eventual decision was contentious because of debate whether sufficient consultation had taken place to confirm that the community, staff and teachers supported the introduction of such a program.

The concern at the board meeting was that it had only been 21 days since Queen Mary had been selected as the top candidate and that there had been little time to discuss the option with the community. How much consultation is needed in any situation is always hard to say. The introduction of IB is a potentially major change for the school, for its staff and for its students. However it was also clear that the consultation that was done with the teachers, students and community since Queen Mary was selected had resulted in a clearly supportive response from the community.

Now, with the site chosen, the difficult task of going through the 3 year process to become accredited falls to the district, school, community and staff.

The reality is that many schools would like to offer the IB program and as we see the demand for the program grow the District needs to decide what its long-term plan for IB is and to what degree they should invest in the wider rollout of IB.

Class Sizes

While no longer required by the Ministry, Superintendent John Lewis reported on the class size distribution within North Van schools. Last year's legislation removed district class size averages as a requirement, leaving only maximum class sizes stipulations for schools to work within. The change means that school boards no longer need to have a number of small classes to offset big ones, such as French immersion classes, in order to keep the average under the limits.

With more flexibility to manage class sizes, the school district has elementary class size average has gone up by almost 1 student per class this year from last, this means more classes are operating near the maximum class sizes this year with fewer small classes. Making this change has enabled the District to allocate more teachers to secondary school classes and by doing so eliminate many of the large classes over 30 students in our secondary schools. In our secondary classes, the district is down from 337 classes over 30 students last year to only 100 this year.

Graduation Requirements

The Ministry of Education is conducting public consultation sessions in an effort to revise the graduation requirements for the BC education system. The North Vancouver session will be held on November 19th, 2012. NorthVanPAC will be posting further information on the event once it is available.

Priority Educational Needs

The President's Council dinner is an annual tradition at the school district during which the partner groups (Trustees, School Administrators, Teachers, Staff and Parents) meet to discuss some of the main themes for the coming year. This year's discussion revolved around identifying priority educational needs to which potential funds from any disposition of lands could be applied either as capital or operating funds.

Each partner group was asked to submit our input on the Priority Educational Needs for the District after the meeting but it was generally agreed that we needed more time to consult with our members. A report on the Priority Educational Needs for the District as identified by the different partner groups had been expected at the meeting but instead partners were asked at the meeting to submit our input by Nov 15th.

NorthVanPAC had prepared a rough initial submission which was developed without significant parent input but will try to expand upon this over the coming weeks in order to provide a more representative input to the process.




School IT Plans

http://www.ericsson.com/thinkingahead/networked_society/learning_education

Education is changing, both as a result of technology and changes like those in the BC Education plan that put a greater emphasis on personalized education to provide students with teaching matched to the different ways children learn.

Technology is not essential to personalized learning but it does enable it in many ways and makes it more possible for teachers to incorporate more ways of learning and more flexibility into their interactions with students.

In general the school approach to IT has been very ad hoc. Teachers, schools, students and parents have taken it upon themselves to invest in and explore the use of technology to different degrees. This is generally good but has led to a fragmented set of tools, practices and experience throughout the district. As the needs for investments have increased from PACs in terms of tools, from teachers in learning from the District in infrastructure and training there is a need to put a framework around these investments so we can have a constructive conversation about them, figure out best practices and tie the investments to the results we want to achieve.

A recognition of this need has lead to the introduction this year of a request for school IT plans that are tied to the educational needs of students, the professional development needs of teachers and the necessary tools via the school plans

At our October general meeting we had a presentation from Monty Bell, Director of Learning Services and David Jennings, Director of Information and Communications Technology on the District's efforts to raise the level of technology usage in schools through the newly introduced school tech plans which intend to help schools match their technology needs to the educational goals in the school plans. 

PACs are being asked to play a role here by participating in the discussion to connect the IT equipment support we often provide to the IT needs of the school by ensuring they are matched to educational goals. This is the start of a process across the district. We have a lot to learn from each other about how this could work and it was clear from the discussion that ensued that it is the start of a lot of interesting discussions.



At NorthVanPAC we will be working with the District IT committee to help carry this message to PACs and help us as parents share best practices about the use of technology in schools and how to effectively develop these school IT plans.

We look forward to discussing this effort with PACs and your feedback on how to make IT investments successful for students.

Thursday, October 25, 2012

District Committees Representatives

A key role for North Van PAC is to represent parents within a number of school district committees. These committees involve teachers and administration and discuss many of the issues and help to inform the different policies and activities within the District as they take shape.

North Van PAC is currently seeking volunteers to represent North Vancouver parents on several of these committees, especially those with vacancies and would welcome parents interested in any of the committees with representation to make themselves available as alternates in the case our regular representatives cannot attend.

North Van PAC attends both public committee and representative committee meetings within the District

Any member of the public can attend the public committees and these are listed on the District's calendar. I highly recommend the Education and Programs committee to any parent wishing to understand more about how children are taught within the district while Finance and Facilities tends to discuss expense items and Toward the Future of schools discusses different current and potential programs within the district.

Representative committees involve invited representatives of different groups within the school district relevant to the issues at hand including parents, teachers, district administrators, district staff and school administrators. Our role is to represent all parents across the district within the committee.

Public Committees
Board of Education Meeting: David Whitehead
Education and Programs: Jane Lagden-Holborne, Janice Sardari
Finance and Facilities : Todd Dea, Mike Sexsmith
Towards the Future of Schools: Todd Dea, Mike Sexsmith

Representative Committees
Communication Committee: Jane Lagden-Holborne
Emergency Preparedness: Suzanne Till, Kevin Barefoot
Inclusion Committee: Todd Dea, vacancy
Information Technology Advisory: Craig McMahon, Michael Ouchi
Policy Review Committee: Jane Lagden-Holborne, Vivienne Megas
Safe and Caring Schools: Deborah Johnstone, Joanna Woronchak
School Planning Council: Mike Sexsmith, Vacancy
Education Week Planning: Jane Lagden-Holborne, Vivienne Megas
Outdoor School: Suzanne Till
Middle Years Matter: Vivienne Megas






Oct 18th General Meeting Summary

I'd like to thank all our PAC reps in attendance at our Oct 18th meeting for making it such a lively event full of discussion and interest in the areas of discussion.

Presentations


District Plans for 2012/13

We began the meeting with an introduction from our Trustee Liaison Christie Sacré followed up by a short summary of the main themes for the year from the district perspective from Superintendent John Lewis. Of these the need to re-establish the trusting relationships between the teachers and the school system that was broken up by last years labour action is a key one from my perspective. When we are unable to communicate everything becomes more difficult than it should be and it is very good to have those lines of communication open again, if needing some repair.  Superintendent Lewis' presentation was a shortened version of the one provided at the Toward the Future of Schools board meeting.

School IT Plans

Following this we had a presentation from Monty Bell, Director of Learning Services and David Jennings, Director of Information and Communications Technology on the District's efforts to raise the level of technology usage in schools through EdCamps to help teachers and others learn best practices from each other and the newly introduced school tech plans which intend to help schools match their technology needs to the educational goals in the school plans. PACs are being asked to play a role here by participating in the discussion to connect the IT equipment support we often provide to the IT needs of the school by ensuring they are matched to educational goals. This is the start of a process across the district. We have a lot to learn from each other about how this could work and it was clear from the discussion that ensued that it is the start of a lot of interesting discussions.

EdCamps and Technology Plans Presentation
School IT Plans

North Van PAC plans for 2012/13

North Van PAC has a full schedule of activity for the year with three major themes: PACs and IT, Parent Engagement and a Parent Education.

PACs and IT

PACs and IT is an effort to support the school district in the development of IT plans for individual schools. This will be a challenge for PACs as we'll be asked to tie investments we make to the school plans. From a North Van PAC perspective our efforts will focus on enabling PACs to share our best practices and possibly to pool resources and take more of a district wide look at how we are funding these practices. Expect to hear much more about this as schools work on their plans throughout the year.

Parent Engagement

As the school district has made welcome improvements in their ability to reach out directly to parents via email NorthVanPAC needs to develop new mechanisms to connect with PACs and gain an understanding of parent perspectives on school issues. With our NVPAC school liaisons we are intending to visit PACs and join your meetings more so we have a better understanding of your issues and can help you with district concerns. We are also working with the different partner groups (District, Administrators, Teachers and CUPE) on a parent survey to help us all get a better understanding of parent issues across the district.

Parent Education

Part of our role at NorthVanPAC is to help parent's better understand how to navigate the school system to support their children. Throughout this year we will be presenting a number of speakers of interest to parents. We started with our session on Parents as Career Coaches in October and will be presenting other speakers throughout the year, including Ann Whitaker in November who will be talking about how parents should advocate for their students within the school system. Within this, we will are also inviting speakers to an event later in the year where they can come and explain their services to each of our PACs. We don't know who to invite to this yet so we are looking for PACs to recommend speakers they would recommend to other PACs.


Other Discussions 


School Liaisons

Expect us to contact you and invite ourselves to meet you at your PAC meetings so we can better share district and school ideas and challenges.

District Committees

With the job action over there are a number of committees getting started again this year and we are looking for parent volunteers to represent district parents on these commitees. Please contact us if you are interested but also if you want to find out more about a committee. We had two energetic parents volunteer to represent us on the safe and caring schools committee and another step up to the emergency preparedness committee at the meeting but still need lots of help. See the page on district committees for a list of vacant positions, but even if a committee says it is full contact us as we're always in need of alternates. 

Traffic Safety

Many schools in the district suffer from traffic issues as kids travel to and from school. While the specifics are tied to the school the effort needed to address the issues is often common. Recognizing this we are looking for parents interested in working with us to develop a district-wide perspective on traffic so we can help figure out effective responses. Interested PACs should send an email to Info@northvanpac.org indicating they are interested and include contact information for their rep(s).

Anti-Bullying

Much deeper than the traffic challenges are the bullying issues in our schools and communities. How do we as parents help to manage this persistent issue. Part of the solution is resources but a large part of the solution is communication and best practices. A number of parents would like to setup a committee to look at sharing best practices surrounding this common issue and it makes sense to do this at a NorthVanPAC level. Recognizing this we are looking for parents interested in working with us to develop a district-wide perspective on anti-bullying so we can help figure out effective responses. Interested parents should send an email to Info@northvanpac.org indicating they are interested. 

BCCPAC Memberships

BCCPAC is the Provincial representative of parents to the school system and its voice is stronger if we support them. PACs should make sure their membership forms are completed and let BCCPAC know that NorthVanPAC will pay the membership fees. 

Available grants

We have grants available for Emergency Preparedness, food safe ($50/person up to 3 per school), Parent Speaker grants and Family of Schools event grants. Please let us know if you have any of these expenses coming up and we will help to fund a portion of the costs. North Van PAC will also pay for registration and other costs incurred by parents wishing to attend the BCCPAC conferences.

Upcoming Events/Speakers

Our next North Van PAC general meeting on November 15th is open to all parents, not just DPAC reps, and features Anne Whiteaker speaking how parents and PACs can work effectively within the school system to advocate for their children and schools.. Click for more information.

As the October event was over-booked we are hosting another session of the Parents as Career Coaches workshop in November. Click for more information.

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Towards the Future for Schools 2 October 2012


Enrollment Update:

As of the end of September, 2012, there were 15,874 students registered in all programs.  This includes K - 12 students, as well as individuals enrolled in Continuing Ed and alternate programs.  As predicted, enrollment is down from the same time last year, but not as much as anticipated.  The student population drops by approximately 300 students per year, as about 1,400 students graduate from Grade 12 while only 1,100 register in Kindergarten.  This trend will continue for a few more years, but then it is expected that enrollment will “flatten”.  This means that that the student population will be distributed more or less evenly, with approximately the same number of students in each grade.  This trend is already apparent as the K – Grade 7 population is flat.  The numbers in Grades 10 – 12 are higher, partly because this is where there is the heaviest concentration of International students.

District Priorities for 2012/13:

Superintendent John Lewis gave an overview of District priorities for 2012/13.


International Baccalaureate (IB) Expansion:  Primary Years Program (PYP):

IB Background:
Assistant Superintendent Mark Jefferson provided some background on the history of the IB program in the District.  A study group in 2005/6 resulted in the implementation of the IB program at a few schools in the District.  The PYP program (K – 7) is at Capilano Elementary, while the Middle Years Program (MYP) (Grades 8 – 10) and the Diploma Program (Grades 11 and 12) are at Carson Graham.  The MYP was formerly housed at Balmoral, until that school’s closure and consolidation with Carson Graham.

Enrollment:
Greg Milner spoke about the enrollment and interest in the PYP at Capilano Elementary.  In 2007, Capilano Elementary had 257 students enrolled.  The following year, enrollment climbed to 275.  This was the year that a full-day, “user pay” Kindergarten was offered at Capilano Elementary, and was the year that IB discussions began.  Registration at Capilano has climbed steadily ever since.  The 2012 enrollment is 472, with three Kindergarten classes and 17 Grade 1 – 7 classes.

The majority of students attending Capilano live in the catchment; about 100 live “in the vicinity”, that is, in the catchment of schools such as Norgate and Westview, and others; a further 40 -50 live in other parts of the District.  A few Capilano students reside in other school districts – Burnaby, Coquitlam, West Vancouver and Vancouver.  There are, however, a number of students living in the catchment who do not attend Capilano.  Some attend programs (French Immersion) offered at other schools in the District, while others attend faith-based schools.

Interest:
For the 2012/13 school year, the District received 76 requests for Kindergarten placement at Capilano.  Of these, 53 were placed at Capilano; 41 live in the catchment and a further 12 have siblings already at Capilano.  The remainder of the students do not live in the catchment area, and could not be placed at Capilano.  At the grade 3/4 level, the District received 34 requests for placement at Capilano; 17 were placed at Capilano.  Five students living within the Capilano catchment could not be accommodated at Capilano.  For grades other than K and 3/4, 22 requests for transfers to Capilano were received from within the district.  From this group, only three students, all of whom live in the catchment, were placed at Capilano.  Capilano is at capacity, with all of its 20 classrooms filled.  Since requests for placement at Capilano now exceed its capacity, there is interest in the PYP, and hence a reason to consider expansion of the program.

PYP Theory, Curriculum and Practice:
Jennifer Wilson, Principal of Capilano Elementary, gave an overview of PYP theory, curriculum, and practice.  The aim of all IB programs is to encourage students to be (among other things), internationally-minded, lifelong learners with deep intercultural understanding.  Rather than attempt to replicate Ms Wilson’s presentation, readers are referred to the District's page about the IB Program.

PYP Working Group Recommendations
Mark Jefferson presented the PYP Working Group’s recommendations.  All of the schools which were considered in 2005/6, together with other schools with available space were considered as potential sites for an expanded PYP.  The MYP and DP at Carson Graham are evolving, and there is no need for expansion of these programs at the present time.

The PYP Working Group considered the following criteria, and ranked each of the schools being considered:

 - Geographic location
 - Site space and room for population growth
 - Continuum – students will likely proceed to MYP/DP once they complete PYP
 - Physical plant – condition, need for renovation
 - Public transportation – is the school well-served by public transit?  Access – What does the drop-off zone look like?
 -  Location in relation to Carson Graham.  (See Continuum, above)

Of the schools considered, the top three are:  #1. Queen Mary, #2. Norgate, # 3. Eastview.

The District will hold information sessions at Queen Mary for PAC, parents and staff in the near future.  The PYP Working Group will report to the School Board at its October 23, 2012 meeting.



Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Demystifying Your PAC — Working Together

For our November general meeting North Van PAC is pleased to offer a presentation by Ann Whiteaker, past president of BCCPAC entitled "Demystifying Your PAC — Working Together"
This presentation would be of interest to all parents interested in understanding how to best support and advocate for their students, and create parent voice within the school system.

Date: November 15, 2012, 7-9 PM
Location: 2121 Lonsdale Ave, North Vancouver, BC

This meeting is open to all parents, please RSVP to the Program Facilitator, North Vancouver District PAC (DPAC) at viviennemegas@northvanpac.org

Building relationships requires more than just a common set of values and a desire to see students succeed. We all know parent/community volunteers play a vital role in the success of school-lead initiatives and support student achievement when they are engaged in the school community however what this looks like and how to tap into this resource is not commonly practised or understood.

This workshop will provide a better understanding of the role of parents within our schools, tools to engage this resource to maximize benefits and solutions to common concerns that challenge positive relationships when we engage the greater school community.

Topics will cover the shared rights, roles and responsibilities of PACs, Parents, Administrators, and Staff, how to best support and advocate for students when issues arise and how to gather and create Parent voice through your PAC. Bring your ideas, and challenges for discussion in this lively and fun workshop.

The workshop will be hosted by Ann Whiteaker. Ann was the past president of BCCPAC. She has been actively involved in all school levels: elementary, middle, and high school, as well as the district level for 13 years. She has served as PAC Chair, DPAC Director, and the BCCPAC. Ann was also one of the members on the Panel of CBC On The Coast's live broadcast of "Failing Our Kids? Is BC's public education system broken?” Whiteaker is an experienced advocate for parents often being called upon to assist parents when problems or concerns present themselves to support their student’s success and navigating the system.

Parents as Career Coaches - November Workshop


Our October session of the Parents as Career Coaches workshop is now fully booked, 

If you have been unable to register for the October session please consider attending our November session.

November session:  November 14th and 21st, 2-Wednesday evenings, 6:30 – 9:00 PM
Location: Sutherland Secondary School, 2098 Sutherland Avenue  North Vancouver, BC

A second Fall session is set for November due to the popular demand. If you are interested in learning more about the sessions or registering for the event please send an email with the number of parents attending to the Program Facilitator, North Vancouver District PAC (DPAC) at viviennemegas@northvanpac.org

The "Parents as Career Coaches" interactive workshop (PACC), presented by Marion R. Haythorne of Capilano University, is designed to help parents become more effective career development allies for their children. Parents are introduced to the concepts of career coaching and given practical tools and research skills to assist them as they coach their children. 
http://www.capilanou.ca/pacc/

North Van PAC is offering this free workshop to parents. Please inform parents of the availability of this event, especially those with children in grades 7-9 starting to investigate potential careers. 

We are inviting all parents interested in learning how to help their children select and progress toward their future careers to attend a free two evening training session, in conjunction with Capilano University, to help parents develop their career coaching skills so they can better help their children prepare for their futures.

The workshop has been very well received and we are happy to bring it to you once again.

***Registration is required.  Please contact Vivienne if you are interested in attending the workshop at viviennemegas@northvanpac.org

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Connecting with PACs

The role of NorthVanPAC is to represent parent interests at the District level while keeping parent’s informed on District wide issues. As a small volunteer organization we are always in need of parent input to ensure we are aware of parent interests and therefore able to represent them.

Typically we gain this information through PAC representation at our general meetings, and we hope you’ll join us on the 18th. But we’d also like to get to know our school PACs better, so we’d like to come to your PAC meetings to introduce ourselves and have you help us understand parent issues across the district.

We’d like to get out and visit with parents from all our schools and so members of the Exec will be contacting all our school PACs. We’d like to arrange to join you at one of your PAC meetings to talk about what NorthVanPAC is up to and to find out more about how we could help your school.

I’d like to thank each of our School PACs in advance for welcoming us into their schools.

Monday, October 1, 2012

NVPAC General Meeting Agenda - Oct 18th

Our first general meeting for North Van PAC will feature an introduction to District plans for the school year from Superintendent John Lewis and Trustee Sacré and an introduction to a new Information Technology planning framework for schools from Monty Bell, Director of Learning Services and David Jennings, Director of Information and Communications Technology.

As major investors in school IT equipment PACs should attend this meeting to understand how the School District will be working with schools and PACs to support the use of information technology in schools.

Meeting: October 18th, 7pm to 9pm at the Education Services Centre (2121 Lonsdale ave)

Main Agenda:

  • Welcome from the Board - Trustee Sacré
  • School District Plans for 2012/13 - Superintendent John Lewis
  • Information Technology and School Plans - Monty Bell and David Jennings
  • North Van Pac plans for the new year - David Whitehead
NVPAC Business:

  • School Liaisons
  • District Committees
  • BCCPAC Memberships
  • Budget Update 
  • Available grants
  • Upcoming events/speakers
We look forward to meeting with all the PAC representatives at our meeting on the 18th.




Sunday, September 30, 2012

Considering the expansion of IB middle years programme

Parents interested in the IB program in North Vancouver may wish to attend Tuesday's Toward the Future of Schools meeting as the meeting will feature a discussion of potential expansion of the IB middle years program

Toward the Future for Schools Standing Committee Meeting

October 2, 2012 
4:00 – 5:30 pm
Education Services Centre – 5th Floor, Mountain View Room
2121 Lonsdale Avenue, North Vancouver

AGENDA
Call to Order
School District Enrolment and Organization Update
3 Year Operating Plan: district priorities for 2012/13
International Baccalaureate Expansion - Primary Years Programme:
Table Activity/Discussion: Questions and Comments

Thursday, September 27, 2012

BCCPAC resources

BCCPAC (BC Confederation of Parent Advisory Councils) advocates for students and parents at the provincial level but they also offer a number of resources of use to parent and PACs on their website. 


For Parents useful resources include:
  • Speaking Up! A Parent Guide to advocating for Students in Public Schools
  • Common Education Terms Glossary
  • Common Education Acronyms & Organizations ("ABCDE") 
  • A guide to Individual Education Plans
For PACs available resources include manuals to help you run your PACs including:
  • PAC 101
  • Treasurer 101
  • SPC 101
BCCPAC also host forums for PACs to share and seek advice from others on PAC issues.

NorthVanPac encourages our member PACs to check out their website, to join BCCPAC (BC Confederation of Parent Advisory Councils) and help them advocate for students and parents at the provincial level. We will pay the membership fees for PACs that sign up. Either let BCCPAC know we will pay when you sign up or let us know and we will re-imburse you.

For those interested in "Speaking Up!" for their children, we have invited Ann Whittaker, Past President of BCCPAC,  to speak to us on the subject at our November 15th DPAC meeting.


Thursday, September 20, 2012

North Van PAC Meeting Calendar

We have setup a Google Calendar for all of our events as well as School District events of relevance to parents.

Unless otherwise noted, all North Van Pac general meetings will be held at the North Vancouver Education Services Centre, 2121 Lonsdale.

Meeting times are 7-9pm, 3rd Thursday of each month except December and March

Subscribe to our Google Calendar to see district PAC related events

Web Calendar
Basic Calendar Info
iCal Calendar

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

North Van PAC General Meetings Schedule

North Van PAC is pleased to announce our general meetings schedule for 2012/13 and look forward to working with all our member PACs this year.

After consultation with PACs and discussion with the School District we have decided to stick with our traditional 3rd Thursday meeting schedule for the school year with no meetings in December or March

Our general meetings for this year will be held on the following Thursdays.

  • October 18th, 2012
  • November 15th, 2012
  • December - no meeting
  • January 17th, 2013
  • February 21st, 2013
  • March - no meeting
  • April 18th, 2013
  • May 16th, 2013 (Annual General Meeting)
  • June 20th, 2013

We look forward to meeting with everyone that can join us.

September School Board Meeting Notes

Last Night I attended the September School Board meeting, the first of this school year.

The meeting covered a lot of board business quickly but several items caught my attention including the carbon capital projects, a revised capital projects plan, a board ethics policy and new surplus lands policy.

A new boiler for Brooksbank!
First of these was the $264,000 energy efficiency upgrade to a boiler at Brooksbank Elementary.  This is a significant event because the funds from this have come from the funds the District would have in previous years have to use to buy carbon offsets.  The irony of carbon offsets was that school districts were being required to using their funds to buy offsets, thereby paying for other organizations to reduce their carbon footprint rather than spending those funds on projects that could reduce that of the schools. As a result of lobbying by School District's province-wide, including North Vancouver, the Ministry has changed this policy to enable schools to use the funds for their own carbon-footprint reduction projects. This new boiler is the first of these projects approved under this new policy and we expect we will see many more.

Capital Projects Plan
The School District has been asked to submit its priorities for major capital projects to the Ministry. Due to the timeline for this given by the Ministry, rather than consult first, the board has taken the unusual of approving the tentative list of project priorities at this meeting with a plan to consult with the public to review the list at next Tuesday's Finance and Facilities meeting.  

The Ministry completed a Provincial seismic risk assessment for all schools this summer.
http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/capitalplanning/seismic/ 

The guidance from the Ministry is that they want to focus on smaller capital projects first (buses, mechanical upgrades) and then on high-risk seismic upgrades with a plan to upgrade all high-risk facilities over the next 10 years.

Based on this guidance the School District has moved Argyle and Handsworth upgrades/replacements up to their top priorities while Seymour Heights replacement has moved down to third on the list. The full list will be discussed at the Finance and Facilities meeting and is available in the board meeting package

Board Ethics Policy
The School Board is a public body and has a high behaviour and ethical standards. After long review the board has approved a formal standards document to help everyone understand what the expectations are of board members. This is a very helpful set of guidelines as each new board every few years needs to ensure its members can work together effectively and respectfully and with a document in place it will be easier for each new board to establish its standards of behaviour and for the public to understand what those standards are.

Land Use Policy Revisions
The public land use discussions last year have lead to a revised policy and set of guidelines for how the school board should evaluate the options for the use of surplus lands and facilities.  The new guidelines more strongly reflect a desire to consult with the community, retain the lands if possible and to allow the proceeds to be used for long-term funding as well as capital needs.

REVISED Guiding Principles (September 2012)
The North Vancouver Board of Education will consider the following guiding principles in
the management of its land assets:
1. Recognizing that all School District properties are valued community assets, we
will consult with the community as part of our process to realize the maximum
social and financial value of these assets.
2. Balancing current and future School District needs by aligning our decisionmaking
with our Strategic Plan and implementing options ranging from short,
medium and long-term leases. Retaining properties and limiting outright sales will
provide flexibility to accommodate potential future enrolment growth.
3. Obtaining maximum financial returns while pursuing creative, holistic solutions for
broad-based community objectives of affordable housing, recreation, green
space, childcare and other emerging community needs. We will do this with
consideration of the Official Community Plans of the respective municipality.
4. Repurposing School District lands through the strategic use of long term land
leases to address evolving community needs such as affordable housing,
recreation, green space, and childcare.
5. Giving preference to proposals that support the Board of Education's strategic
goals and priorities, where all other criteria have been met, for the lease/sale of
properties.
6. Managing proceeds from land leases and sales to further enhance the student
learning experience. We will do this, in part, by directing proceeds to support a
significant endowment fund for the School District.
7. Directing proceeds and endowment funds, where necessary, to adequately fund
capital projects that are not eligible for government funding.

Based on my experience of last years consultation process these revised guidelines strongly reflect the community input given to the Board while providing them with the flexibility to consider all options and needs where necessary. With the RFP process underway to find uses for Monteray, Plymouth, Keith Lynn, and Ridgeway Annex the board will soon have a chance to apply these new guidelines.




Sunday, September 16, 2012

North Shore Safety Council - school traffic management

PAC's and/or Traffic and Safety Committees interested in school traffic safety should plan to attend this meeting.

Last November's Safety Council AGM presentation by RCMP Sgt Peter Devries, titled "The Driven Mind", was the impetus for several PAC's to invite this and other parent and student presentations. It also initiated the development of a "menu" of programs and strategies that schools could choose from to deal with the ubiquitous traffic issues in and outside of school zones.

The regular Safety Council meeting of October 4 will be an opportunity to learn more about the strategies that have been tried, and encouragement to choose your next steps in controlling, and hopefully reducing, vehicle traffic while increasing walking and cycling to school.

The meeting will be held at the Delbrook recCentre, 600 West Queens Road, in the Oak Room.

This is a "brown bag" meeting, coffee and tea will be available.

RSVP to:

info@northshoresafetycouncil.ca

or call 604-983-6444 (x7233 - SAFE)


Parents as Career Coaches Workshop


This session is now fully booked, if you have been unable to register please consider attending our November session. (November 14&21 at Sutherland School)


Date:  October 17th; and 24th (2 Wednesdays) at 6:30pm to 9pm
Location:  2121 Lonsdale Avenue, North Vancouver BC

North Van PAC is once again offering this free workshop to parents. Please inform parents of the availability of this event, especially those with children in grades 7-9 starting to investigate potential careers. 

We are inviting all parents interested in learning how to help their children select and progress toward their future careers to attend a free two evening training session, in conjunction with Capilano University, to help parents develop their career coaching skills so they can better help their children prepare for their futures.

The "Parents as Career Coaches" interactive workshop, presented by Marion R. Haythorne of Capilano University, is a two session workshop designed to help parents become more effective career development allies for their children. Parents are introduced to the concepts of career coaching and given practical tools and research skills to assist them as they coach their children.  http://www.capilanou.ca/pacc/

The workshop was full last spring and very well received and we are happy to bring it to you once again.

***Registration is required.  Please contact Vivienne if you are interested in attending the workshop at viviennemegas@northvanpac.org