Tuesday, February 10, 2009

January 12, 2009 - Minutes

Minutes of Meeting
NMS – PSSC Committee Meeting
January 12th 2008

Attendees:
Tracy Allen Sherry Thomson Shauna Miller
John MacKenzie Alan Atkins (Staff) Mitch Claybourn
Andrew Rowe Carol Coleman (DEC Rep.) Tracey Grattan
Anne Small Heather Touchie-Blakely

Regrets:
Pat Campbell
Guests:
Mary Rowe (Co-Chair of Friends of NMS)
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Call to Order:
The meeting was called to order at 7:00 pm.

1. Welcome and Approval of Minutes
• Minutes of the December meeting were presented and approved with one change – Update attendees to include Heather Touchie who was erroneously missed from the list of attendees.

Action – Sherry to update the minutes and send them to Andrew for official posting onto the NMS website.

2. Friends of NMS Update- Mary Rowe for Vicky Patterson PSSC liaison
• Annual general meeting is scheduled for January 13th
• Nominations – Vicky Patterson, Mary Rowe , Mary Leo Dick – appointed as co-chairs of Friends of NMS for this year
• Go to http://friendsofnms.blogspot.com/ for more details on the activities of the Friends of NMS

3. Principal’s Report
• School improvement plan update
• Cross grade Math exam this week. Looking for a baseline. The same test will be administered at the end of year.
• Writing code prepared for all subjects (all grades)
• SIP goal – curriculum list for grade 7 teachers.
• Alan at school review at Barkers Point this week.
• Cafeteria usage – allowed some groups to go down early; basically rotating the grade levels to reduce congestion and increase usage of the cafeteria
• Signing by MicroSoft to be held on January 22nd at the school as NMS is the laptop school in the District. MicroSoft will want to see the laptop project. Minister will be here for the signing. No other details on this are available at this time.
• Attendance letters been distributed. NMS has between 10 – 15 students who do not attend regularly. NMS sends out monthly attendance letters and makes calls.
• Gr. 7 classes starting Legion tours which involves going through the museum and then attending a lecture. They also discuss freedoms that we enjoy due to the sacrifice of the veterans.
• Leo Hayes band was here performing before Christmas
• Two Christmas concerts were held involving NMS students
• Alan reviewed current staff changes. See main site for details.
• Cross diagnostic testing scheduled this week.
• HPV testing scheduled this week for girls
• Alan reported that he is attending a middle school developmental assets workshop on Friday.

4. D.E.C Report
• Questionnaire going on line this week

• Action – Alan and Carol to put a note on the BLOG about this. Also a voice mail to be sent out.

• PSSC chairs 2nd orientation meeting to be held on January 15th
• Reviewed operating budget. Supplementary funding approved as requested by various PSSC’s in the district.
• The Laptop Institute has announced that NMS is the 2009 school spotlight Award recipient. NMS is the first public institution to have been chosen as the Spotlight School.
• Refer to attached written update from Carol Coleman for additional DEC activities.

5. Follow up to Previous Action Items

• Glenda Saint report - Executive summary from Glenda Saint report distributed. Alan advised that PSSC members that they can get a copy of the full report from him.
• BLOG Update - BLOG – names have been corrected. Dates for the meeting need to be updated.
• Request to update October 2008 minutes – Protocols state that a change cannot be made to previous minutes that were approved. Correction to the previous minutes (re Home and School) noted in December 2008 minutes.




NEW BUSINESS:

6. Access to feminine protection products
• A parent requested that more efforts be made to provide access to feminine protection products for the girls.
• Currently the guidance councillor or secretary can provide these. As well most teachers have them available in the classroom.

• Action – Alan will talk to the secretaries and guidance councillor and determine how to get the message out to the girls about the availability of these products and how to request them.

7. Access to microwaves. – Particularly for students with health concerns.
• A parent brought up the suggestion to have access to microwaves, particularly for students with health concerns that need to bring in special food.
• It was reported that NMS had microwaves in the classrooms up to last year. However they were removed as they caused electrical overloads and congestion problems in the cafeteria. There is some availability of students to microwaves based on special circumstances but it depends on the teachers. This is done on a case by case basis.

Action – Shauna to advise the parent who approached her on this issue to tell his/her child to discuss this with the guidance councillor.

8. Parity of sports fees between NMS and other schools.
• A parent was inquiring about how schools set the fees for participation in sports activities. Alan stated that the individual school sets their own fees.
• There was a question about the don’t pay, don’t play policy. A concern was raised about how the school will support underprivileged kids under this policy. Alan said there is money that is available, however this is not advertised.

• Action: Alan to get back to Anne about a comparison of sports fees between schools.

9. Discussion held on how NMS could be more inclusive in school sports teams
• Similarly to last meetings discussion, there was a question raised about how NMS could be more inclusive and permit more students to have the opportunity to be on a school sports team. Similar to other schools, there tends to be a small group of students that play on most of the sports teams that represent the school. The question which was raised was, is there something that we can do to have more teams/give every student who wants to, an opportunity to play on a school team not just the more athletic students. There was a suggestion to have some developmental school teams. Unlike drama and band which is completely inclusive, sports teams have very limited spots.

Action – Friends of NMS to spread the word that we need coaches/more parental involvement in order to establish more school sports teams.

10. Schedule for upcoming PSSC meetings
• The PSSC meetings for the year will be held on Feb 9, March 16, April 20, May 11, June 8

Action – Alan to have the meetings dates noted on the BLOG.

Next meeting – February 9, 2009 7pm.

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