NVPAC General Meeting Minutes: April 23rd, 2014

NVPAC General Meeting Minutes (DRAFT)

Wednesday, April 23rd, 2014

7:00 pm Mountainview Room, ESC, 2121 Lonsdale Avenue

Chair:  Jane Lagden Holborne (Sutherland)

NVPAC Attendance: Jane Lagden Holborne, Karen Nordquist, Debra Dennehy, David Whitehead, Mike Sexsmith, Amanda Nichol, Debra Johnstone, Alex Best

Regrets: Joanna Woronchak

Attendance: 19

(DPAC Reps & PAC Chairs):

Guests:  Jane Thornthwaite

Schools Represented:  Blueridge, Braemar, Brooksbank, Carson Graham, Cleveland, Cove Cliff, Handsworth, Montroyal, Queen Mary, Queensbury, Ross Road, Seycove, Seymour Heights, Sutherland, Upper Lynn

1.   Welcome & Introductions:  Jane Lagden Holborne called the meeting to order at 7:08pm

2.   Jane Thornthwaite – ERASE Anti-bullying

• www.reportbullyingbc.ca
• www.erasebullying.ca
• Producing video of Jesse Miller talks to students. Presenting to students what they are saying online, that everyone already knows.
• All schools in all districts to receive training.
• Program designed to encourage communication on bullying and reporting of bullying incidents.
• In the 2^nd year of 5 yr plan
• Cyber-bullying challenge: kids have the tools but not the social skills and life experience to understand what they are doing online and its potential impact down the road.
• Brad Baker – NVSD representative to the program
• Scheduled coverage and training for schools, teachers, staff and students. Every school to have it. Talk to Brad to understand the schedule in North Van.
• Cyberbullying is afterhours – but do the schools still need to step in?
• Erase encourages the schools to take responsibility to react to what is happening online or outside school and bring in other help outside the school district if needed – Request for partner help go through Brad Baker.
• Comment: This is a shift in expectation is that schools should be acting related to bullying outside of school and not yet followed at all schools.
• Very difficult to balance the privacy issues to enable sharing across ministries education, health, police but working on it.
• Comment: Culture shift is needed, should be ok to move things up the chain, not a signal of failure if you ask for help, signal of responsibility.
• Comment: For new families, info on the cultural expectation related to bullying would be very helpful for parents entering the school system.

3.   Approval of Minutes: Shandra (Brooksbank), Seconded by Mike Sexmith (Lynn Valley), moved that the minutes of the January 2014 General Meeting minutes be accepted as written.  All in favour; carried.

4.   BCCPAC AGM & Conference – Debra Dennehy

BCCPAC's Conference & AGM will be held at the Radisson Hotel in Richmond from Thur May 29-Sun Jun 1

Conference:

Thursday evening, May 29 at 5:30 pm (networking event and keynote speaker Steve Cairns)

Friday, May 30^th (conference all day) 8:00 am-4:30 pm; evening 6:30pm-9:00pm

AGM

Saturday, May 31^st (AGM all day) 8:00 am-4:30 pm; evening 7:00

Sunday, June 1^st (Partners Breakfast & Panel Discussion 7:00 am and half day AGM 10-12:30)

VOTING PROCESS

• this year I would like to organize the voting process into Families of Schools.  The plan is to have at least two delegates from each Family of Schools attend the AGM and share voting duties.  
• sent out email asking PAC’s if they are sending a delegate or not and if they are, who
• for those PACs not sending a delegate, I will let you know who will be attending the AGM from your Family of Schools and who is available to carry proxies for your PAC
• did everyone receive my email as I have only had one response?
• BCCPAC members in good standing (meaning if dues have been paid by December 15) are entitled to cast votes at the AGM

RESOLUTIONS

• resolution book sent out by BCCPAC (20 resolutions in book; 2 more online)
• some of the resolutions put forward:  funding, math curriculum, learning conditions; teaching standards
• please have your PAC review the Resolutions and fill in your choices in the voting forms
• once delegates have been confirmed and you know who will be voting for your PAC please fill in the proxy form and send to the BCCPAC office no later than May 23, 2014 at 4:30 pm
• also send a copy of the proxy to your representative along with your voting instructions

NOMINATIONS

• voting for BCCPAC exec
• positions – President, 2^nd Vice, Secretary, 2 Directors
• please have your PAC review the nominations and fill in choices in the voting forms
• send voting instructions to representative
• NVPAC has limited funding available to cover the cost of the registration fee.  Please contact Joanna Woronchak at treasurer@northvanpac.org to apply
• if you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me at ddennehy@northvanpac.org
• looking forward to seeing many of you at the AGM

Please let me know what your PAC is planning by answering the following questions:

FAMILY OF SCHOOLS NAME:

PAC NAME:

WILL YOU BE SENDING A DELEGATE TO THE AGM?:

NAME OF DELEGATE ATTENDING AGM:

EMAIL OF DELEGATE ATTENDING AGM:

MAY I SHARE DELEGATE EMAIL ADDRESS WITH OTHER PACS?:

More information on proxy voting may be found at What the Heck is a Proxy? on the BCCPAC website.

5.   Student Information System: Karen Nordquist

New online system for attendance, record keeping, marks, teacher blogs and all student information. Rollout is coming Sept 2014. Family portal, when available, will enable parents to access their children’s records, courses, assignment. One set of field trip forms (and there was much rejoicing!). May be next year.

Question: How is online access being secured?  

Question: How is parent access allocated / determined (custody issues)?

Report from Karen:

Our school district will be switching from the current student information system to a new SIS by a company called Aspen.  In BC, the new system in called  MyEducationBC and by September 2, 2014 it will be implemented in all schools in our district.  The system is apparently very user friendly.

This link provides a good overview of what the new system will be able to offer Teachers, school admin and senior admin : http://sisimplementation.ca/

The new SIS also offers a Family Portal, which the NV school district plans to implement as well.  The Family Portal, which should be fully operational by September 2015 if not sooner,  can offer parents and students a wide range features including the ability to access their children’s grades, attendance and conduct records, track homework, request courses, upload and submit assignments, access monthly calendars and events,  fill out field trip forms, pay fees and more.

This link provides information on how students and parents will be able to use the new SIS:

http://www.follettsoftware.com/_files/fsc/pt_external/Aspen%204.8/QRC/Aspen%20Student%20Family%20Summary%20Doc.pdf

As the parent representative on the committee, I’ve been asked to provide this information to parents and bring back any questions to the Advisory Group,  and I encourage you to send me any feedback or questions you have.  Please email me at knordquist@northvanpac.org.

6.   Safe Routes Advocates:  Carole and Jeneen  (Montroyal)

Presentation on how SRA from Handsworth and their family of schools developed an advocacy plan for their area to improve walking safety. 

• Identification of safe routes and problem routes
• Held an event to gather parents and discuss the issues –attendance was low but the interested came out.
• Better pedestrian planning can help DNV and CNV deal with their expected growth without creating traffic chaos
• Too dangerous for kids to walk is a common refrain from parents
• Group wrote a collaborative report with contributions from all schools in the family. Listed both easy and more ambitious goals. Included the school initiatives to show how parents were involved in promoting active transportation and safety planning.
• Helped gather more ideas around other issues and better collaboration overall as a family of schools, not just an improvement in traffic safety.
• Parents and schools need to speak out or nothing will happen. Single schools aren’t enough, need to have a larger voice.
• Having kids walk school is the best way to improve the issues. 
• Presentations to DNV and SD44 are available online.
• Would like to have a safe routes person in each PAC.
• The process from founding to presentation to DNV was less than 6 months.
• PACs should participate in North shore Safety Council. Their October focuses on school safety.

•  Carol Sartor and Jeneen Sutherland Twould be willing to answer questions or help other Families of Schools to set up their own Safe Routes groups.  Carol Sartor: kcnr3911@gmail.com, and Jeneen Sutherland:  jeneensutherland@hotmail.com.
  
  
  Links to SRA's presentations:  
  District of North Vancouver Council  on 20 January 2014 - Pp 11 - 37
  North Vancouver School District Board of Education on March 11 2014 - Item A5, Pp 11 - 40

7.   Meeting adjourned at 9.01 pm.

Next Meeting:     AGM & General Meeting

May 28, 2014

7:00 pm

Education Services Centre,

2121 Lonsdale Avenue