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