NVPAC General Meeting Minutes
Wednesday, January 28, 2015
7:00 pm Mountainview Room, ESC, 2121
Lonsdale Avenue
Chair:
Jane Lagden Holborne (Sutherland)
NVPAC Attendance: Jane Lagden Holborne, Karen Nordquist, Homa
Sorooshi, Debra Dennehy, David Whitehead, Amanda Nichol, Deborah Johnstone, Heather
Skuse
Attendance: 20
Guests: Carol
Sartor - Safe Routes Advocates, Harvey Kooner – ICBC, Tom Walker – North Shore
Safety Council.
Schools Represented: Argyle, Braemar, Brooksbank, Canyon Heights, Cleveland,
Highlands, Lynn Valley, Montroyal, Norgate, Queensbury, Ridgeway, Seycove,
Seymour Heights, Sutherland, Upper Lynn, Westview
Regrets:
Carson Graham
Call to order 7:05
7:06 Approval of Nov minutes: moved: Amanda
Nichol, seconded: Birte Hunter, all in favour, carried
7:08 Board budget discussions: next two
Finance and Facilities standing committee meetings, the board is seeking input
on the 2015/16 budget. NVPAC would like to know from PACs what budget
suggestions NVPAC should be putting forward to the district.
7:12 Treasurer's Report: have
been getting requests for grants but we still have some available. Please
include PAC name and address and nature of request when you email us with
requests.
7: 15 BCCPAC report: AGM
coming up, please contact Debra Dennehy if you are interested in voting information
and proxies. NVPAC will try to coordinate attendees within families of schools.
If you have paid directly to BCCPAC for registration send the receipt to us so
we can reimburse your PAC.
7: 20 3 speakers: Traffic
Safety
Harvey Kooner - Road Safe -
ICBC Youth Strategies. Harvey.kooner@icbc.com
Harvey
is the road safety coordinator locally to promote awareness campaigns,
including enforcement and different ICBC campaigns
·
78% of crashes are human error based. Education is key.
·
Road accidents are #1 killer of children in BC
·
Resources are available from ICBC for traffic safety education in schools
and other stakeholders
·
Free curriculum for teachers for ages K-10 - pedestrian, cycling
and road safety.
·
Presentations in high-schools
·
Approved by ministry of education
·
Gr 11-12 funding for speakers PACs on driving safety issues.
·
Up to the schools / teachers /
to request and deliver the materials
·
Cost-sharing crash reduction funding - depends on the municipality
- ICBC will share a portion of the cost of safety changes for roads
Tom Walker - North Shore Safety
Council.
·
Promoting safety at schools for 60 years, twice a year at
elementary schools
·
Safety council is about preventing injuries
·
Promoting safe cycling, walking, longboarding and other active
transport measures
·
Reduction of traffic volume and speed is critical. Don't drive if
you don't need to.
·
Transit, ride share - anything to drive less.
·
Convenience should not over-rule safety when making traffic
planning decisions: Need to choose safety over convenience.
·
Years of PAC effort to get 1 stop sign in at Highlands. Safety
council wants to be involved in helping PACs advocate for safety. October
meeting focuses on schools. 1st Thursday noon at Delbrook. Looking for
different advocacy issues to help schools with road safety. Would love to help
more PACs with safety issues.
·
Teaching Fall prevention at grade 2 - how to keep grandparents
from falling down.
·
Offer a Bike Rodeo program for schools - teach road traffic safety
in a simulated environment for schools and help kids learn how to navigate
roads safety.
·
Risky play is important, kids need to understand risk learn about
it the right time not avoid it. Physical literacy is important and learned
through stage appropriate risk and learning. Administrators need to understand
that risk is good and, unlike the US, liabilities are very limited in Canada.
·
Street Lighting is an under-promoted issue.
·
Teaching kids to walk safely and cross safely. Eye contact, walk
facing traffic.
·
Slow Down, Take fewer trips. Safety Council will support PACs to
make safety changes around their schools.
Carol Sartor - Safe Routes
Advocates - Montroyal
·
"Walk on Wednesdays"
·
Walking to school is a way to connect with kids
·
SRA presents to council and other meetings to advocate for
planning changes
·
Presents to PACs on how to increase active transportation
options and how to gather data on active
participation to help prioritize District/City changes
·
SRA consultation grant to help plan around trouble areas. SRA is looking
for schools to work with to improve active transportation. Application by Feb
28th if PACs are interested.
8:05 NVPAC Policy Planning:
conflict of interest policy 103
There
is a discrepancy in the policy with constitution. According to the constitution
parents who can serve as NVPAC executive include all parents except employees
of North Vancouver School District or the Ministry of Education. Policy 103
restricts any employee from any school district from representing NVPAC on
school district committees. The two should match.
Discussion:
Should we revise the policy 103 to match the constitution so North Van parents
working in other school districts can represent NVPAC on North Vancouver School
District Committees.
Karen:
concerned that teachers are already well represented, having a parent who is a
teacher on the committee means that parents aren't sufficiently
represented.
Deb
D: they are parents first, teachers second. Having more voices is more
important than having specific voices
Question:
What is the norm for other districts? we
don't know
Amanda:
conflict of interest process is there to deal with specific issues if they
arise. No need for a blanket policy blocking everyone.
Floor: Parents
voice is more important, we need to have that in meetings so parents can share
their views.
Floor:
We currently have a small pool of voices, enabling more people to contribute is
important,
Tanya:
just because you are part of the group doesn’t mean you agree with them. Should
not tar everyone with the same brush.
Jane:
Policy discriminates and reduces the pool of participants.
Dave:
Agree with Amanda, need to apply the conflict of interest policy to specific
issues and not have a blanket policy that automatically excludes anyone.
Amanda:
many NVPAC policies are generally reactionary and many are inconsistent and
need review, rationale behind needing them is unclear. Bigger issue is that we
need more voices.
Recommendation: Executive will take back and propose policy
change for next meeting.
9:05 Parent Survey Results presentation:
David
Whitehead presented the results of the 2014 parent survey. The concerns raised
in the comments and the results were very similar to the first year. Consistent
themes in the results and the comments were.
·
Importance of student-teacher relationship in education success.
·
Parent difficulties related to informal reporting in the classroom
·
Difficulties trying to successfully approach the school when there
are issues When issues arise it can be difficult for parents to see resolution
in what they consider a timely and effective manner.
Major
recommendations from the survey are for NVPAC, PACs, Teachers and
Administrators to work on two things:
·
NVPAC should work with teachers and administrators to define best
practices concerning the informal communications process about ongoing activity
in the classroom so that teachers are aware of the things parents most want to
see on an ongoing basis to be able to help their children.
·
NVPAC should put together a group to work with administrators and
teachers to develop best-practice guidelines to help parents understand how to
approach schools and teachers if there are problems and to understand what is
reasonable to expect in terms of response times and options.
9:35 Motion to adjourn
Next Meeting: General
Meeting
Topic:
Self-Regulation in Students
Jan
28, 2015
7:00
pm
Education
Services Centre, 2121 Lonsdale
