Wednesday, December 10, 2008

2008 - 2009 Parent School Support Committee

Members:

Andrew Rowe (Chair)
Sherry Thomson ( Secretary)
Heather Touchie-Blakely – Teacher Rep
Tracy Allen
Barb Brittany
Pat Campbell
Mitch Claybourn
Tracey Grattan
John MacKenzie
Shauna Miller
Anne Small

Ex Officio Member:
Alan Atkins ( Principal )

DEC Representative:
Carol Coleman

December 8, 2008 - Meeting Agenda

Nashwaaksis Middle School
PSSC Committee Meeting
December 8th 2008
Agenda



7:00-7:05 Welcome Barb Brittany as new PSSC member, Approval of October’s Minutes and Approval of November’s Agenda

7:05-7:09 Nomination and Election of Officers of PSSC (chair and vice chair)

7:05-7:10 Friends of NMS update- Vicky Patterson

7:10-7:15 D.E.C Report- Carol Coleman

7:15-7:35 Principal’s Report

7:35 -7:50 Action Item Follow-up

1. Provide a copy of the Glenda Saint report to the PSSC (Alan)

2. Provide a copy of the UNICEF program to the PSSC (Alan)

3. Nashwaaksis Middle School Annual report and feedback from Diane Wilkins Provide a summary of the feedback from Diane Wilkins regarding the NMS Annual report (Alan)

4. Nutrition Policy: Policy # 18-711 and Appendix A Provide FAQ’s of different products to Alan (Shauna Miller)
Review vendor machines and advise Alan of items that are in non-compliance of the criteria and suggest options. (Shauna Miller)

5. Talk mail new soft ware (Alan) Check into the system that Leo Hayes and FHS use (Alan)

6. PSSC Blog updated (Alan)


7:50-8:20 New Agenda Additional Items (identified prior to or at the meeting)

1. Email dated November 23rd, 2008, from a parent re: home and school (Mitch)


8:20-8:30 Additional items added at meeting



Adjournment

November 10th Meeting Minutes

Minutes of Meeting
NMS – PSSC Committee Meeting
November 10th 2008

Attendees:
Tracy Allen Sherry Thomson Shauna Miller
John MacKenzie Pat Campbell Alan Atkins (Staff)
Andrew Rowe Carol Coleman (DEC Rep.)

Regrets:
Mitch Claybourn Anne Small Tracey Grattan
Guests:
Mary Rowe (Co-Chair of Friends of NMS)
**********************************************************************************************************
Call to Order:
The meeting was called to order at 7:05 pm

1. Welcome, Approval of Minutes
· October’s meeting minutes were approved as presented. Moved Tracy Allen, Seconded Pat Campbell.

2. Friends of NMS update- Vicky Patterson PSSC liaison
Vicky Patterson gave an update of the Friends of NMS activities from last month. Highlights include:
Received positive media coverage in the Northside News about the Bookfair as well as many favourable calls from parents.
Held Grade 6 Welcome BBQ and Coil Boil on October 2, 2008.
Supported the Magazine Campaign
Held Scholastic French & English Book Fairs – Combined profits $6200. Proceeds to go to the purchase of books for the school and for curriculum resources for the administration.
September Need of the Month – NMS Breakfast Program – Received great response.
October Need of the Month – Fredericton Food Bank – Received hundreds of non-perishable food items.
Held first ever Jack-O-Lantern contest – Profits of $72.52 donated to the Christmas Families Fund at the school.
See written update at http://friendsofnms.blogspot.com/ for more details
Upcoming events for November include
Fire Fighters Challenge, Teacher Appreciation Lunch, Healthy Eating Initiative
Nominations for the positions of the 3 Co-Chairs will be accepted from December 1, 2008 until 3pm December 12, 2008. Nominations forms will be made available just prior to these dates and will be posted on the Blog. Elections will take place on Jan. 7, 2009 and Jan. 8, 2009.

3. D.E.C Report- D.E.C Rep- Carol Coleman
Carol Coleman gave an update from the D.E.C. Two major meetings held:
· Parents Forum held on October 16th – Objective was to gather input from education stakeholders as they develop priorities for their four-year mandate.
· Training/Orientation for PSSC Members – Communications was highlighted as a key area of focus.
Carol gave highlights from the Grade 5 and Grade 8 Mathematics Assessment:
· The briefing note provided by the Department of Education about the Grade 5 Provincial Mathematics Assessment reported that the goal of the government of New Brunswick is for 90% of students to meet or exceed the appropriate achievement level, with 20% of those at the strong achievement level. Provincially, 65% met or exceeded the appropriate achievement level in Mathematics. 68% of District 18 students achieved Appropriate or Strong Achievement.
Go to http://www.district18.nbed.nb.ca/dec.htm for minutes of the DEC meetings. Standard practice is that the meeting minutes will be posted the 1st Thursday of the month. The Podcast is posted the Friday following the DEC meeting.

4. Principal’s Report- Alan
School safety week was held on October 6 to 10. The objective of the school safety week is to help students, teachers, parents and administrators increase their awareness of the need to keep our schools safe. Activities held included fire drills, school bus evacuations, lock down drills, and school evacuation exercises.
Magazine campaign – Was down 25% from last year. This will have an impact on the programs that the school can offer.
Participated in Junior Achievement for Grade 8 (all classes).
Teacher Professional development days are scheduled for October 14 and November 10th. Will be working on school improvement plan (SIP) including incorporating SMART goals into the plan.
Held school dance on October 30th. Over 400 students went to the dance representing ¼ population. The dance went well. However, feedback from the students included the dance was too short and there was too much light.
Installed new seats in the theatre. Thanks to Mr. Springer for his efforts here.
Opened Re-connecting room on October 21st. Purpose of the room is to support students as they transition back to school who have been away for any number of reasons (i.e. sick, disciplined). Three – four students/day are using this service.
Grade 7 LA assessment is upcoming. The assessment will occur over a 3-day period. Expect to have results after Christmas.
Held Bookfares – Alan expressed his appreciation to the Friends of NMS for their great job in organizing the two bookfares.
Held Remembrance Day ceremonies on November 7th. The students were well behaved.

Action: Provide a copy of the Glenda Saint report to the PSSC (Alan)

5. Action Items Follow-up
School Improvement Plan (SIP) (Alan)
· The teaching staff have review this. A new document is expected in the new year. We are in year 2 of a 3-year plan.
Maximizing our outdoor space (Alan)
· Test of the use of new areas will be held in the spring. Students will need to go through the front door to access the new areas.

Action: Provide an update on the UNICEF program to the PSSC (Alan)

6. Nashwaaksis Middle School Annual report and feedback from Diane Wilkins- Alan

Action: Provide summary of annual report to PSSC (Alan)

7. Nutrition Policy: Policy # 18-711 and Appendix A –Alan
New criteria on nutrition was released in August and is available on the website.
Training with Chartwells was cancelled.
Question was raised – Do we provide the students adequate time to eat healthy, since it takes longer to eat healthy food verses fast food? Challenge as contractually teachers must be given 1 hour duty free. Looking at providing a Sub bar.
Concern raised that the pizza and ice cream rewards given to classrooms may be giving the wrong message. Alan will consider option options as opposed to “non nutritional” items.

Actions: Provide FAQ’s of different products to Alan (Shauna Miller)
Review vendor machines and advise Alan of items that are in non-compliance of the criteria and suggest options. (Shauna Miller)

8. Availability of qualified French speaking substitute teachers. –Alan
It is recognized that this is an issue. Retired teachers have a teaching cap of 20 days.

9. PRA Time (practical and related arts) and the Health Curriculum- Alan
Home economics is gone from the curriculum. Health is taught in PRA (some teaching time may be lost due to storm days).

10. Talk mail new soft ware- Alan
Aliant and Rogers are not compatible with the school’s software for Talk mail. We are not able to reach some parents due to the constraints.

Action: Check into the system that Leo Hayes and FHS use (Alan)

11. Dance admittance procedure-Alan
A list was posted identifying the students that were not granted admittance to the dance. There were concerns with this. A new method to be developed. The “no dance” list of students will be made available to screen attendees on the night of the dance.

12. Nomination of new Parent Rep. to PSSC
Barb Brittany was nominated and approved as a new Parent Rep. to the PSSC. Nominated by Andrew Rowe and seconded by John MacKenzie.

Action: Advise Barb of the results of the nomination (Andrew)
Advise Mitch of the results of the nomination (Alan)

13. Nomination of Officers of PSSC
As per the PSSC guidelines, nominations for the Chair, Secretary and Treasurer positions are to be held yearly. Nominations to be held at the next meeting.

Action: Send nominations to Alan by November 24th (current PSSC members)

14. PSSC Blog
The PSSC Blog is not current.

Action: Alan to have the Blog updated.

15. Inclusion of more students on Sports Teams - Shauna
Discussion held on the fact that it is always the same students on the sports teams. Is there a way to ensure better inclusion? It was recognized that this is an issue. However, no feasible alternatives to respond to this were identified, as it would need to be a policy change for all the schools.

Next Meeting – December 8th 7pm - room 200