NVPAC Executive: 2012/13

I'd like to thank all of those that came out to our 2012 Annual General Meeting. 

For those that missed it, we're sorry to have missed you all. 

The meeting summarized a number of issues and events over the past year and discussed some of our plans for next. For next year, 3 of our initiatives will look at delivering Parent Education seminars, conducting a Parent Survey and working on a District-wide look at PAC supported IT in Schools.

I would like to thank all of the volunteers that have stepped up to help us with these initiatives and I look forward to working with all of them and all North Van PACs on these next year.

NVPAC Executive: 2012/13

Chair: David Whitehead

Vice-Chair: Todd Dea

Treasurer: Mike Sexsmith

Secretary: Jane Lagden Holborne

Registrar: Janice Sardari

Program Facilitator: Vivienne Megas

Member at Large - Parent Survey: Judy Clarke

Member at Large - IT initiatives: Michael Ouchi

Member at Large - IT initiatives: Craig McMahon

Member at Large - Outdoor School: Susanne Till

BCPAC Liason: Open Position

Arrangements still need to be made but look for our first general meeting and our first parent education seminar in October. 

The DNV needs to work with NVSD not block them

The District of North Vancouver Council have decided to block any use of school lands for non-school purposes. The DNV needs to work with the NVSD rather than block them.

In response to the School Board opening discussions on what to do with its 11 surplus properties the District of North Vancouver Council has effectively decided that school property in the DNV may only be used as a school, in perpetuity, end of discussion. 

As reported in the North Shore Outlook.

http://www.northshoreoutlook.com/news/150803845.html

As a result of this the School District now has very few options for its assets, assets that could be used to renew the schools required by North Van students. So instead of the North Vancouver School District using sales or leases of some of its properties to improve and provide good school environments for our students the District of North Vancouver has decided to block most of the options the School District has to raise funds. Without the capital needed to sustain them this may lead to the slow decline of our existing schools.

If the Outlook's report is correct, the councillors were concerned that the School District might act without consulting them first. What the DNV needs is a consultation process rather than a rule that effectively eliminates any option for future discussion. With this move, Council have effectively lost the ability to work with the School District without first repealing the bylaw. 

The NVSD needs to sort out what to do with its surplus properties. All sides of these plans need to be considered and the DNV should weigh each issue individually. A blanket ban does not help. This new policy is a recipe for declining public school facilities, private school expansion (as the only permissible tenants) and vacant lands. 

Rather than this unproductive policy, the DNV should get back to working with the School District and the community to sort out a plan that meets the capital and operational needs of the School District while maintaining as much flexibility and value for the land as possible. It will be a difficult discussion but this topic needs to be discussed fully rather than avoided.

Parent Education, PACs and IT, Parent Surveys

NVPAC is looking to fill our executive positions (chair, vice-chair, secretary, treasurer) for next year at our upcoming AGM (May 17th @ Lucas Centre)

But we are also looking for parents helping us with 3 different initiatives next year: Parent Education, Information Technology Leadership and Parent Surveys.

Parent Education
Working in conjunction with the families of schools, NVPAC would like to organize elementary and secondary parent education sessions similar to the recent Parents as Career Coaches workshop that taught parents how to help their children research and prepare for their future careers. We are looking for interested parents that would like to help us source and organize these events.

Information Technology Leadership
This years survey of PACs and IT in schools revealed significant variation and fragmentation with regard to information technology in schools across the district, some of which has been caused by the varied of approaches used by PACs at individual schools. NVPAC is looking for someone to take on a role of liaison between the different PACs, to keep the schools aware of what other schools are doing, share it with others and to help PACs take a less fragmented approach to the evolution of Information Technology in their schools.

Parent Surveys
NVPAC is looking to work with the School District and other stakeholders to develop an annual district wide parent survey to understand parent priorities and impressions of the school district to help us provide guidance of areas of particular appreciation or concern that the district should be aware of. To do this we need parents interested in working with stakeholders to develop, refine, conduct and report on the survey.

If you or anyone you know is interested in helping NVPAC with these projects next year please let me know chair@northvanpac.org or even better, come out to our AGM on May 17th and join the team.

What to do with surplus property

It is perhaps fitting that so many suggestions at this past weeks School District open house concerned turning vacant schools into housing and recreation options for seniors as so many North Van schools were built to meet the needs of the baby boomers in the first place.

School Board - Surplus Land Planning & Consultations

School Board - Surplus Land Strategy

Next Meeting: May 29th @ Lucas Centre. Time TBD.

The School District held an open house this past week to gather ideas from the public on what to do with the 12 surplus properties it currently has spread across North Vancouver. As demographics and land use have changed the needs of the school district have followed but what to do with these properties raises many issues.

Of these issues, the most important one not really discussed at the open house is what the current needs of the district are and are anticipated to be. Why does something need to be done with these properties?

The answer is that the School District has a lot of surplus property but it also needs to operate numerous schools across North Vancouver and most importantly, needs to provide a quality education in a welcoming environment for its current and future students. The school district needs more funds than it has, both operating and capital funds to keep its operating (and aging) schools running properly. At the same time it is costing the school district various amounts to keep all of its surplus properties in their current state.

The public comments reflected what we would all like to see, the maintenance of the North Vancouver we all know and love. People want the property to stay as it is, to provide recreation facilities, playing fields and to not have it taken over with traffic generating high-density development. People listed many things they don't want the land to become. The potential of future need was raised repeatedly. And these are all true.

But the other side of the equation was not discussed. What options are there for using land. What does the School District need to continue to deliver quality education in the schools we have and what potential good could come from using these lands.

If we must do something with these properties it is best to understand what we need to achieve through them and use that to help us understand the choices and options in front of us. At the next public meeting on this issue, coming up Tuesday May 29th, it would be good to ask these questions and get a better understanding of this critical side of the issue.

NVPAC Annual General Meeting - 7pm, May 17th, Lucas Centre

This years North Van PAC Annual General Meeting will be held Thursday, May 17th at the Lucas Centre (note the change of location)

North Van PAC Annual General Meeting
when: 7pm. May 17th, 2012.
where: William Lucas Centre, 2132 Hamilton Ave. North Vancouver

Elections

• All executive and member at large positions will be elected at the meeting: Chair, Vice-chair, Treasurer, Secretary, Registrar, Members at Large
• Nominations for executive positions will be accepted from the floor
• All PACs in attendance are eligible to vote.
• Any parent of a child in the school district in 2012/13 is eligible to run for the NVPAC executive

Parent Involvement Needed
Parents and PACs, without you we cannot keep you informed and we cannot move forward. Parents and PACs this is a chance to help us build the team who will be representing you at the district level next year. We are looking for people to help us represent parents on district committees including potentially such issues as surplus land, 21st century learning, new programs and others. We also have a number of plans that can only move forward with your involvement including a district parent survey and parent education sessions on career coaching, student evaluation and others.

NVPAC Executive Roles

Together the executive act as parent liaison's with the School district. We attend, report on and provide parent input into the various School District committee meetings throughout the year including the NVSD Board meeting, Finance & Facilities, Education & Programs, Toward the Future of Schools, and various ad hoc and on going district committee meetings that occur throughout the school year. The executive also meet monthly as an executive and at the PAC general meetings. Commitment levels vary but executive should expect to attend 3~4 meetings a month over the school year.

Specific positions available include:
Chair
Vice-chair
Treasurer
Secretary
Registrar
BCCPAC Liaison
Members-at-Large

I hope you can join us for our yearly wrap-up and an opportunity to offer advice to the new executive and let them know how they can assist your PAC next year.

Inquiries to NVPAC: info@northvanpac.org

April NVPAC meeting summary

Thanks to all those that attended our April general meeting. These aren't the minutes but I thought I'd post a quick summary on what you missed.

1. Job Action
The BCTF has voted to withdraw all extra-curricular support as a response to the government's decision to limit contract negotiations through Bill 22. What this means for PACs is a need to work with your administrators to see understand the impacts on you schools and if you can, to see what opportunity parents may have to help out vs lose the different activities the extra-curricular support enables. Clubs, sports, sporting events, field trips and other school events will likely be impacted and only be continuing to work with your administration can you be sure of the impact. At this point its probably best to verify what will be impacted at your school.

One particular issue is the number of school trips to Outdoor School. NVTA are currently working out how the job action may impact Outdoor School events. NVTA have told me that whatever decisions are made the changes won't come into effect till May 1st, but trips after that date may be impacted. PACs should definitely be verifying the impact on this program for their schools.

2. Upcoming NVPAC AGM and Recruiting
NVPAC's AGM is coming up May 17th (at the Lucas Centre) and we are seeking parents to help us out at an executive level, am members at large and as committee representatives. We are asking PACs to please help us identify parents interested in working with us on district level issues as our team defines our ability to inform and contribute. North Van PAC represents the needs of PACs and parents to the district and the are many ways parents could contribute to this initiative.

We particularly need team members to help represent parents and report on what happens at the different District committee meetings. To keeping parents informed we need to be involved. This year the number of committee's has been reduced by the BCTF job action but there have still been discussions on new programs (soccer academy), changes to schools and learning programs (Balmoral) , covered play areas and the start of discussions on surplus land. District plans and policies are often developed through these committees and the more involved parents we have the better we can contribute to these decisions that impact students across the district.

3. Career Coaching and other Parent Education Events.
We had a very successful "Career Coaching" parent education seminar this month with 72 parents in attendance. This seminar on how parents can help coach their children in their career planning demonstrated the power of pooling our resources to offer district wide events for parents. We had to turn people away from the event and will offer it again in the fall.

Working with PACs, we would like to be able to offer this and other programs more often if we have people to help us organize. Some ideas discussed for next year included sessions on how to evaluate your child's learning styles, the school curriculum: what is it and what parents should expect at different grades. If parents are interested in helping us put together these events or others we'd be glad to put them on.

4. NVPAC Survey.
NVPAC is working on an annual district wide survey of parent satisfaction which can be used to help us and the district understand and provide more comprehensive input related to parent impressions and priorities. We are seeking parent and PAC input into the survey to ensure it is meeting their needs for information and asking the questions we think need to be asked. If parents are interested in helping us to develop this they should email chair@northvanpac.org

Parents as Career Coaches - Update

The first session of the Parents as Career Coaches Workshop was well attended with a full house of 72 parents. People were very engaged with a lot of conversation among themselves, and sharing information.  The feedback from parents was all positive: causal, stimulating and fun, and well organized. The second session goes this Monday and I'm sure everyone will be back with their homework complete.

Unfortunately we had to turn a few unregistered people away at the door, it was hard to turn them away.  There is clearly a lot of interest in this topic.

Due to the high level of interest in the topic we've asked Marion to do another workshop for us in the fall. We don't have the dates arranged yet but please keep an eye out in the fall for our invitation.