Monday, March 15, 2010

PSSC Meeting Minutes

Nashwaaksis Middle School
PSSC Meeting Minutes
2010-01-11

Attendees:
Pat Campbell
Alan Atkins
Tracy Allen
Carol Coleman (DEC)
Mitch Claybourn
Don Richardson
Tracey Grattan
Sherry Thomson
Shauna Miller
Andrew Rowe
Mary Rowe (FofNMS)
Heather Touchie-Blakely


Guests:
n/a
Regrets:




Anne Small
John MacKenzie




Call to Order

The meeting was called to order at 7:00pm.
Approval of Minutes

Motion to accept the minutes from December by Don, seconded by Sherry.

Call for Agenda Items/Approval of Agenda

Additional Items (identified prior to the meeting):
· Snow Plows/Removal [Mitch]
· Friends of NMS Amendments to Constitution Issues [Mitch]
· Teacher communication home regarding curriculum and how parents can support the learning outcomes at home [Sherry]

Additional Items (added at meeting)
· PSSC Communication [Andrew]
· Report on Achievement [Tracy]
Friends of NMS Update – Mary Rowe
Election
5 nominations were received for the 3 positions of co-chairpersons
Elections will take place on January 13 & 14
The results of the election will be announced at the Annual General Meeting of Friends, which will be held on January 18th
Recent Accomplishments
13 volunteers assisted with supervision at the Christmas dance
Friends decorated the office for Christmas
Friends Constitution
Amendments to the Friends constitution have been proposed
Mitch had initially been concerned about how this was communicated but Mary offered clarification and explained that, although neither the constitution nor the amendments were circulated to all Friends members, there was an email sent out to the Friends’ email list which indicated that the amendments had been proposed and identified the website where more information could be obtained

On behalf of the PSSC, Sherry acknowledged the current executive of Friends for their contributions over the past two years.
D.E.C Report – Carol Coleman, D.E.C. Rep

The first meeting of the DEC for the new year will take place on Thursday, January 14
There will be a meeting of PSSC chairpersons on January 21@6:30pm
Carol mentioned that she is involved in meetings regarding the First Nations Enhancement Initiative, where programs are under development to specifically address needs of first nations students
Action Item Follow-up

Action Item: Alan to arrange for communication home reminding folks about the designated sidewalk area.

Update: Carry-forward. Alan asked for some clarification on what type of information the PSSC would like to have communicated and will take care of this in the near future.

Action Item: Alan to bring a sample of the misconducts.

Update: See ‘Behaviour Tracking’ below.

Action Item: Mitch will contact the police to invite them to come to the next PSSC meeting to facilitate planning this event.

Update: Mitch spoke to Jan Smith but she was unable to attend this meeting. She is very interested in assisting us and will either attend our next meeting or find another representative from the police department who can come speak with us.
Behaviour Tracking (Action Item Follow-up)

Alan handed out two behaviour tracking forms to the group. The yellow form is used by school teaching teams to track minor behaviour issues. In the situation where a misconduct is severe, or there are several less severe issues recorded by the team, the pink tracking form is used. This form is designed to collect data that can subsequently be entered into a software product for behavior tracking that is provided by the district.

Sherry asked which behaviours had the highest rate of occurrence. Alan indicated that bullying was by far the biggest issue and that this mostly takes place outside, on the school grounds.

Alan explained that when pink forms are submitted, parents of both the victim(s) and the perpetrator(s) are contacted. He also explained that at principals’ meetings, statistics generated from the data provided on these forms are review and that Nasis is currently down in incidents reported.

Shauna asked about what information is passed on to high schools as students move on to Grade 9. Alan explained that teachers send the high school individual reports on each Grade 8 student and staff from our school also participate in transition meetings with high school Methods & Resource/Guidance to share information about students that may need extra support upon entering high school. The actual discipline files are not passed on, but are kept here at the school and are available for high schools to refer to, if the need arises.
School Improvement Plan Update & Overview – Alan Atkins

The January 5 Professional Development session was used for school improvement planning. School staff were split into teams and were asked to identified what Nasis Middle is doing well and also come up with a wish list of what they would like to see. The next staff meeting, on January 13, will be used to identify a smaller working committee. Once this committee is established, the PSSC will also be given the opportunity to provide input.
Principal’s Report

Nasis has 9 basketball teams
Snow Plows/Removal

Alan will be speaking to those responsible for snow removal to ensure that they shovel out at the end of the driveway so kids can use the sidewalk beside the driveway. He also explained that we are in need of a path for kids to enter the school after getting off the school buses.
Teacher Communication Home Regarding Curriculum

Alan proposed to talk to teachers regarding sharing team ‘year plans’ with parents. Members agreed that this would be very beneficial and help parents better support the learning outcomes at home.

Action Item: Alan will speak to teachers regarding the proposal to share year plans with parents and will bring back recommendations to the PSSC at the next meeting.
Report on Achievement

Tracy expressed concerns about the numbers reported in the school’s Report on Achievement, which was sent home before Christmas. Although Nasis Middle students are doing well with reading, writing and Math scores suggest there are some issues to overcome.

Sherry asked what the school does with this information. Alan indicated that Nasis is implementing standardized Math and Language Arts testing at the school to help diagnose school-specific weakness and address them. He also mentioned that the Department of Education is currently in the process of changing the Math & Literacy (Writing & Reading) curriculums. In addition, the school has literacy and math mentors who are working directly with marginal students.

Carol mentioned that the DEC will be discussing assessments and what the district will be doing to address identified problems at upcoming meetings. She encouraged members to attend the meetings to hear these discussions.

Action Item: Alan to post an invitation on the school website for parents to see their children’s assessment results.
PSSC Communication

Andrew feels that we as a PSSC need to improve our communication to our school community. The PSSC website has incorrect information about our meeting dates and he suggests that we should be doing a better job at advertising our meetings, especially when we have special guests attending (e.g. Mike O’Brien, city councilor).

Members also identified issues with not receiving meeting minutes and agendas in a timely manner. Tracy suggested that we specify a timeline for each of these to be published, to help those responsible manage their time accordingly. It was agreed that meeting minutes should be circulated to members no later than two weeks after the meeting and that meeting agendas should be sent out at least one week before the meeting.

Members reviewed the published meeting dates and adjusted them to be more consistent, following the ‘1st Monday of the month’ rule, when feasible. Dates for the remaining PSSC meetings are as follows:
Monday, February 1, 2010 Monday, March 8, 2010 Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Monday, May 3, 2010 Monday, June 7, 2010

Don Richardson kindly offered to take minutes at the February 1 meeting.
Miscellaneous
Youth Blast
Mitch was promoting the city sponsored ‘Youth Blast’ events taking place at Nasis Middle on Saturdays between 8:00pm and 10:15pm
These are for middle & high school kids & the cost is $4
Kids spend 1 hour in the fieldhouse and 1 hour in the pool
H1N1 Clinic
Shauna acknowledged Nasis Middle for being very supportive and welcoming to public health staff when they were at the school offering H1N1 immunization
Next Meeting/Meeting Adjournment

Next Meeting: February 1 @ 7:00pm

Meeting was adjourned at 8:25pm

PSSC Meeting Minutes

Nashwaaksis Middle School
PSSC Meeting Minutes
2010-02-15

Attendees:
Don Richardson
Tracey Grattan
Tracy Allen
Carol Coleman (DEC)
Andrew Rowe
Pat Campbell
Alan Atkins
John MacKenzie
Mitch Claybourn
Anne Small
Heather Touchie-Blakely


Guests:
n/a
Regrets:




Sherry Thomson
Shauna Miller




Call to Order

The meeting was called to order at 7:10pm.
Approval of Minutes

Don identified two updates to the minutes from January. Tracy recirculated the minutes and they were approved via email by Alan and Mitch.
Call for Agenda Items/Approval of Agenda

Additional Items (identified prior to the meeting):
· Side Walk Barriers [ Alan]
· Policy 703 [Alan]
· Student Survey [Mitch]
· School Web Site [Mitch]
· PSSC Chairs Meeting [Mitch]

Additional Items (added at meeting)
· n/a
Friends of NMS Update – Alan
Election
Approximately 40 people voted
New co-chairs are Janice MacFarlane, Cindy Chase, Mary Martin
D.E.C Report – Carol Coleman, D.E.C. Rep

PSSC Chair Meeting
Well attended
Discussion of whether the supplementary funding be discontinued due to limited funding and size of requests but the chairs felt that the application for funds was still valuable
Carol suggested that they will probably have the same amount of money but try to cover one major project per year and then divvy up the remainder between other schools

Premier’s Award for Excellence in Teaching
Carol encouraged us to submit a nomination for this award
Members are to forward names to Mitch and Alan by Wednesday, February 17 so they can submit a nomination
School Improvement Plan Update & Overview – Alan Atkins

A committee of 9 school staff members was finalized February 15
Monday, March 8 will be the first meeting of the committee
PSSC & students will be invited in after this meeting
The final SIP will be no longer than 3 pages
Alan will review the current SIP to see if there are items to carry over to the new plan
Principal’s Report

Synervoice
Alan is requesting that the PSSC budget be used to cover the cost of synervoice
This is very valuable, especially in terms of calling home regarding attendance
The proposed school magnets are cost prohibitive
Mitch asked the group if we support synervoice – all present agreed
Miscellaneous Items
Hoping to replace the lights in the theater
The school raised $4500 for ‘Help for Haiti’
Discipline numbers are down significantly from this time last year. Alan feels this is directly related to positive things happening in the school
Position for Grade 6 Math teacher has been filled
Grade 7 classes going to the Legion
January 26/27 – teachers attended ‘Stepping Out’, language arts program aimed at integrating LA into all subject areas, training 1/3 of the staff each time
January 28 – school social, 150 in attendance
February 1 – meeting with the City Police to work on development of a ‘Policemen’s Challenge’, looking at doing this in May
Junior Achievement presentations
Geography challenge
Haiti talent show & other fundraisers
Interim Reports went home on Friday, February 12
Teacher’s Appreciation lunch last Friday put on by Friends of NMS
Students are participating in a UNB Wellness survey

Computers in the class
Alan expressed concern over the aging computers within the school
He is encouraged by positive talks about the 21st century learner
Anne expressed a desire to see a provincial-wide IT strategy
Action Item Follow-up

Action Item: Alan to arrange for communication home reminding folks about the designated sidewalk area.

Update: See side walk barriers discussion below.

Action Item: Mitch will contact the police to invite them to come to the next PSSC meeting to facilitate planning this event.

Update: Mitch indicated that Jan couldn’t make this meeting but hopes to make the meeting in March. Carry forward.

Action Item: Alan will speak to teachers regarding the proposal to share year plans with
parents and will bring back recommendations to the PSSC at the next meeting.

Update: Looking at rolling out the sharing of the year plans in September. Mitch also requested information on the sports schedule be sent home at the same time.

Action Item: Alan to post an invitation on the school website for parents to see their children’s assessment results.

Update: There is still an embargo on some of the results, so Alan can’t share these results at this point in time. Carry forward.

Side Walk Barriers

The district had extra money and agreed to purchase the requested side walk barriers to line the school driveway
35 new barriers are already there and we are expecting 50 extra in April to extend the barriers from the street to the school
Tracy Allen asked if we had ever heard anything back on our request to the city to investigate having a crossing guard at the bottom of the school driveway
There has been no word so Anne will follow-up on this request with the city

Policy 703 – Positive Learning & Working Environment

Available on the District website
The school is required to produce another report related to this policy
Athletics
Anne expressed appreciation to Alan for attending a school basketball game
Anne also asked Alan to pass on praise for Alex Yaychuk in his role as athletic director
Mitch requested that Nasis implement Grade level teams instead of the mixed levels
Anne requested that Nasis find more opportunities for students to participates in athletics
Student Survey

Mitch would like us to implement a student survey to compliment our new SIP
Mitch & Alan are going to work on developing this
School Web Site

Nasis was granted DEC supplementary funding to redesign the school website
Mitch reported that the district is going to be providing support for school websites in the coming school year
All members present agreed that it doesn’t make sense for us to spend the time and money for the web design since we will be able to receive support from the district in the near future
Carol will look into whether the DEC supplementary funding can be repurposed
PSSC Chairs Meeting

21st century learning discussed, student voice considered as part of this
Recycling programs are inconsistent, some schools do, some schools don’t
STEM expo coming up in March, Alan will speak to Science teachers to see if there is interest
April 16/17 - Educating Today for Tomorrow
Agenda Building

Tracey Grattan requested that Alan report on the school budget at a future PSSC meeting
Next Meeting/Meeting Adjournment

Next Meeting: March 15 @ 7:00pm

Meeting was adjourned at 8:25pm