February 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
o 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