Chair's Annual Report for the 2014/15 school year

The 2014/15 school year was, as is usual for NVPAC, full of activity.

General Membership meetings were held in October, November, January, February, April and May.  Speakers at our General meetings covered a wide range of topics, including the School District’s Assessment Handbook, friendship groups, the Cheakamus Centre, safe and active travel to school, self-regulation, ePact, the online emergency network, and the BCCPAC Spring Conference and AGM.

NVPAC hosted two special events:  the School Trustee all-candidates meeting at Sutherland in November, and a parent education event, “The Problem with Discipline” featuring Christopher Burt, at Argyle in March.  Both events were well-attended.  NVPAC assisted Vancouver Coastal Health in presenting the popular “Foods that Fit” workshop at the Education Services Centre in April.

NVPAC offers several types of grants to support PACs.  Speaker grants assist PACs in engaging high-quality speakers for parent education.  Safety grants assist PACs in acquiring needed safety equipment such as supplies for emergency kits or crossing guard programs.  FoodSafe grants are offered to help support the training of parent volunteers who assist with hot lunch programs.  The Family of Schools grant supports communication and collaboration amongst the PACs within a Family of Schools.  In addition, NVPAC offers grants to support PACs who send representatives to education-related conferences, such as the BCCPAC Spring Conference and AGM.

NVPAC conducted its Annual Parent Perspective survey in June; we are grateful to the School District for distributing the link to the survey to North Van parents.

In my role as NVPAC Chair, I attended all but one of the meetings of the Board of Education, all but one of the Standing Committee meetings, and all meetings of the Presidents Council, as well as the one meeting of the Capital Planning Committee.  In addition, I served on the Emergency Preparedness Committee, the Communications Committee, the Class Acts Committee, and the Policy 412 sub-committee.  I assisted with the organizing of the Foods that Fit workshop, and helped out at the event itself.  I chaired the NVPAC General Meetings and Executive meetings, and acted as MC for our two special events.  I am NVPAC’s representative on the Children and Youth Safe and Active Travel Working Group, an initiative of the City of North Vancouver.

On behalf of NVPAC, I extend sincere thanks to the Board of Education of the North Vancouver School District for their continued and generous financial support of our activities.  In addition, I offer thanks to the School District for providing meeting rooms at the ESC for our General membership and Executive meetings, and for providing the Sutherland Theatre and the Argyle small gym for our special events in November and April.

Respectfully submitted,

Jane Lagden Holborne
Chair, NVPAC