Meeting Minutes - October 18, 2007

Nashwaaksis Middle School
PSSC Committee Meeting
October 18, 2007

Members Present
Mitch Claybourn – Chair
Lori MacMullen – Secretary
Karen MacLean
Susan Knorr
Tracy Allen
Lisa Rousseau
Tina Brewer
Theresa Pyke
Deanna Stewart-McGarry
Heather Touchie-Blakely – Teacher Rep

Members Absent

Ex-Officio Members:
Alan Atkins – Principal
Glenda Saint – School Performance Coach

DEC Representative:
Bill Corby (Regrets)

Guests:
Jeff Whipple – Technology Mentor

October – Supporting Effective Communications with Parents

7:00 – 7:05 Welcome and Introductions

Mitch provided an ice-breaking activity to help committee members get to know each other.

7:05 – 7:15 Approval of Agenda

7:15 – 7:20 Planning Document Review

Meeting Schedule: In order to address the conflict with the DEC meetings, the PSSC meetings will be held on the second Thursday of each month. The new schedule will be as follows:

• November 8
• December 13
• January 10
• February 14
• March 13
• April 10
• May 8
• June 12

Budget: The PSSC’s budget is $2400 and must be spent before March 31.

Agenda Building: The School Improvement Plan will be a standing agenda item on each meeting agenda.

ACTION ITEM - Alan – to provide a schedule of when the committee can expect to receive assessment results, TTFM, any other input we will get etc in order to include the discussion as agenda topics in the appropriate months.

Update October: Math assessment results are available now, the schedule for TTFM will be available in November.

7:15 – 7:30 Principal’s Report

• The new School Improvement Plan is currently under development with a small working group which includes Mitch. The plan will be a three year plan and will reflect the results of the internal and external reviews undertaken last year as well as input from staff and other stakeholders including PSSC. A draft plan will be provided to the group at the next meeting. Mitch provided a summary of the results of the internal and external review – an update reflecting the final results will be provided at the next meeting. The school improvement plan will reflect a number, but not necessarily all, of these items.

• Parents, teachers and students will be surveyed at the beginning of November as part of a provincial wide survey.
• Safe School Activities – a variety of activities including fire drills, lock down, evacuations, etc. were undertaken successfully.
• Student Code of Conduct – each classroom has developed a student code of conduct for the classroom using the school code of conduct
• Rev. Robert Jones provided two shows during the Harvest Jazz and Blues festival as part of the Blues in the Schools program.
• Meet the Teacher Night – Alan asked for feedback on the grade by grade approach. There was some confusion with respect to meeting the PRA teachers. This will be looked at for this year.
• Another successful Space Camp was completed in September.
• Field House – new curtains are in the process of being ordered; new bleachers have been identified as the next priority.
• Staff Changes: 2 positions will be vacant at Christmas and replacements are being looked into.
• French Book Fair – This initiative was coordinated by the Friends of NMS. Total amount raised was $10,200 of which 60% is returned to the school in books for the classrooms.
• Terry Fox Run and World Record Walk were undertaken in Sept.
• Magazine campaign underway and going well – goal is to sell $90,000 – which would put NMS in top 3 schools in Canada.
• Partners for Youth – There has been an increase in interest resulting in the need to use a selection process. Students already in the program will be considered first. The program is being delivered by Fred Connors and Michelle Cormier.
• A variety of other program including drama, music, hiking, etc., continue to be provided to students.

• Friends of NMS: Alan provided an overview of the objectives of the group and indicated that he planned to meet with them to discuss and identify possible programs and initiatives that the group may want to undertake during this year and where appropriate over multiple years. This information will be provided to the PSSC for input and comment as appropriate. Operating principles or guidelines for the group include:

• Accountability will be to Alan with respect to how the money is collected and accounted for; all money will go through the school accounting system; Alan will also work with the group to develop a list of priority projects and initiatives and will provide an update to PSSC on a regular basis.

• Band Program: Alan explained that as a result of the district eliminating funding for the band programs, the band program is now funded by a parent committee. Discussions with the band parent committee last year indicated that they felt there could be more support from the school.

• ACTION ITEM: In order to determine if the various programs in the school are receiving the support they need, the committee asked Alan to provide a list or summary of all of the extra and co-curricular activities and programs available in the school indicating if they were parent or teacher led and the amount of support provided (financial and in-kind). This summary will provide the context for further discussions.

Questions for Alan:

• What is happening with respect to the students from McAdam Ave school who participated in the Intensive French program?

• Enrichment programs are planned for these students along with other students in the class who may benefit. Alan indicated that this is a new program for NMS and will be monitored throughout the year along with what is happening in other middle schools in the district.

7:30 – 8:00 Proposed or Planned Information Sessions for Parents

• Meet the Laptop Program Night – Hosted by the Administration of the school with PSSC support – Mitch in conjunction with Gary & Jeff.

Jeff provided background on the one-to-one program (i.e. laptop program) indicating that although the government has put the current program on “hiatus” he expects that it will continue to expand. NMS currently has 570 students with laptops.

Jeff also provided some background on the concept of “21st Century Literary” referring to need to teach our students how to manage the amount of data and information available to them in order to prepare them for their future.

The question posted was do we need to schedule the meet the laptop session every year?

DECISION ITEM: The committee agreed that this event should be planned as an annual event and as early as possible in the school year. The information provided at the session should also be posted on the schools website. The session should cover both the logistics of the program as well as how the use of the laptop supports the curriculum.

ACTION ITEM: Jeff, Mitch and Tracy to coordinate the delivery of the program for Target for early November.

• Technology and Kids - Cyberspace – sponsored by PSSC - what you should know and why do you need to care?

Jeff provided an update on the district initiatives including a project with the leadership students at Leo Hayes to develop an information session on cyber security for middle school students and other initiatives undertaken during safe school week.

ACTION ITEM: Lori & Lisa will work with Jeff to develop the program based on the information from the district and the other programs. It was recommended that this session be scheduled for January in conjunction with the planned session for students.

ACTION ITEM: The material provided by the District will be sent to the committee.

• Discipline Program – an information session for Parents outlining the policy, the process and the principals around the program at NMS (i.e. problem solving, restitution, etc.) It was suggested that an outside speaker be engaged as part of this session – timing will be an issue.

Update: The District was not interested in supporting the engagement of an external speaker at this time. Notwithstanding this, the committee still sees value in holding this session – Alan will discuss this session with Mary Walton and Brent Springer as well as pursue opportunities to partner with other schools to bring in an outside speaker. The target delivery for this session will be late November.

8:00 – 8:30 Items for Discussion

• General Communications Overview – a one pager outlining the various types and means of communication used by the school and for what purposes. This should be provided to the parents as soon as possible outlining the prime and secondary forms of communication. Will we/can we downplay paper and focus on email, web and phone? What are the risks? Is there a way we can set up a hotline for parents to call in for updates, etc?

Update: This issue will be addressed in the School Improvement Plan and will be discussed in that context.

• Parent Teacher Interviews: The number of parents attending interviews is down. One problem is the difficulty to schedule during that time. Team interview versus individual interviews – what are the options - also what about bringing the child to the interview. We need to stress that individual meetings can be arranged at any time throughout the year. Let parents to know that they are available if the times of the interview are not convenient by putting an invitation in the report card letting parents know that other times are available.

Update: We need to look at how this information is being compiled, what it is being used for and is the question really how well is the school communicating with parents?

Follow up for next meeting: To discuss the scheduling of parent teacher interviews and how the time can be better utilized.

The remaining items were deferred to the November Meeting.

• Posting of homework – To address the inconsistency within the school, the PSSC recommends that NMS develop a policy to require teachers to post homework regularly and consistently. The use of email as a prime communications process should also be established and communicated as policy to teachers and students.

• School wide activities, clubs, etc. – what is available for students? Parents are not always aware of what is available, etc. and therefore cannot support or encourage their children’s participation Can we develop a list/schedule of the various options to provide to parents.

• Connecting PSSC to the issues being discussed/addressed by the Admin team – as members of the PSSC, we are often approached by other parents with question or requesting information on a variety of issues including security activities, academic activities, etc. It was suggested that the PSSC members be cc’ed on Alan’s regular updates (via email) to staff. What are the issues, implications? What is the recommended action?

Next Meeting: November – School Improvement Plan