NVPAC Meeting Summary - Jan 19 - Art, Fundraising, Technology

Meeting Summary: North Van PAC meeting - Jan 19, 2012.

Next meeting:  Feb 16, 2012 - "IT Resources in Schools Discussion" 

January's NVPAC Meeting was an interesting mix of discussions. 

Artists for Kids

The meeting started with an introduction to North Vancouver's "Artists for Kids" Art Enrichment program. During a tour of the current gallery we learned about the visits to the gallery students make in Grade 5, and the use of the art to encourage discussion, understanding and then practice of art principals. 

We then discussed the new gallery space opening on Lonsdale this year and other Artist for Kids enrichment opportunities such as the after school programs and summer camps. It's a great program for connecting kids to art and unique as the program is primarily funded through print sales, 75% of which are apparently to teachers. 

The Artist for Kids trust also offers a number of joint sales programs for PACs to assist with joint fundraising. PACs interested in fundraising through print sales or auctions should contact the Artist for Kids trust. Similarly, if PACs are interested in after-school art programs they should contact the Yolande Martinello, Principal Fine Arts District 44 and Director Artists for Kids.

Fundraising and Planning for Big Projects

Our next discussion was on the challenge of fundraising and planning for big projects. A common situation for PACs is a challenge with knowledge transfer through the regular cycle of parent experience. When parents get involved with a big project they are often new to the challenge and must learn the ins and outs of fundraising and project management within the school system. And then once the project is complete they often move on to other schools in short order, there comes a recovery phase and the cycle begins anew with the next set of parents. 

Addressing this challenge had been a potential workshop topic for the February meeting and our discussion revolved around what sort of a workshop if any we could do to help PACs with this issue. Feedback in the room was that each of the projects and school situation is so unique that it would be very difficult and perhaps of limited value to do such a workshop. 

But discussion did reveal two areas in which schools share a common challenge. Emergency Preparedness, which we discussed at our October meeting, and IT policy and resources in schools. 

Emergency Planning

From our discussion its clear that schools continue to experience a wide range of levels of emergency preparedness, from well established manuals to barely existent emergency kits. North Van Pac strongly encourages schools to develop and dry run their emergency preparedness plans and resources. North Van PAC offers grants toward emergency preparedness efforts, currently these are not well defined but if your school has a need please contact us about it as that would help us understand how best to help PACs with this important issue. We also strongly encourage schools to contact the North Shore Emergency Management Office as they offer a wealth of resources and planning assistance to help you prepare your school for emergencies.

IT Resources in Schools

While each school has a different situation, IT resources in schools appears to be a common topic of interest to all PACs. Different schools have different current tools, different acquisition plans, in some schools PACs have big plans to help purchase various things (tablets, laptops, smartboards) while in others PACs are told not to provide anything. Some want the latest, some find the rate of change too fast for it to be worth buying anything. 

Once past the acquisition of tools, schools have concerns about the usage of the tools. Are tablets in Kindergarten helpful? Are teachers ready to use the tools? Are students learning or distracted? Do they have the skills to evaluate online materials and resources? How do PACs successful adopt and use these new tools for their own needs.

It was clear from the meeting that there are a lot of questions around this topic. So many that we aren't even sure what questions we should be asking as PACs and parents as schools and society as a whole incorporates and adapts to these tools. As we heard at the November meeting, the ministry have vague plans to increase the use of IT in schools (although not necessarily budgets), so as PACs we can only expect this issue to get more complicated. 

Its an important discussion and one in which all PACs can help each other. Coming out of this we'll be asking our members in the coming weeks to help us with survey on the current state of IT resources in their schools and what, if anything, PACs are planning in this area. We will follow this up with a longer discussion of PAC/IT related issues at our February meeting with the overall objective being to gain a better understanding of the key issues and questions all PACs should be considering with respect to IT resources in schools.

NVPAC response to the Job Action

We finished the meeting with a question on a potential response by NVPAC to the current job action. But other than wishing the sides would find a way to resolve the issue and get everyone back to work normally there wasn't a consensus on what that response should be. The only significant consensus was that principals and other senior admin in the schools are bearing much of the brunt of this job action and deserve a lot of credit for how the schools continue to function.