Minutes of the Ward 10 Council meeting, March 8, 2005
Tuesday March 8, 2005
Ward 10 Council Meeting Minutes….DRAFT…..
In attendance:
Trish Quenneville (Waterfront), Mary Holmes (Palmerston), May Tam (Orde), Caroline Lindberg (OOPS), Douglas Harris (Hawthorne II Bilingual Alternative), Jean Rajotte (Essex), Jim Prince (Dewson/King Edward), Maritza Guzman (Ogden), Georgina Balascas (Superintendent), Christine Lewis (Vice principal, King Edward), Kim Wright (C.A. to Chris Bolton), Cassie Bell (C.A. to Chris Bolton), Chris Bolton (Trustee Ward 10)
1.) Welcome by Chair of steering committee (Jean Rajotte) and introductions by all present.
2.) Overview of King Edward P.S. (host school) by Christine Lewis, Vice-Principal:
- King Edward celebrated its 100th anniversary 3 years ago!
- Kindergarten to Gr. 8 school: 470 students with 4 tracks: extended French, French immersion (gifted), LD program, English (regular) track
- Offers a balanced program with arts, academic and athletic focus (intramural and competitive)
- School has both music, art teachers; also a guidance teacher to help support students through challenging Gr.7/8 years
- There is a strong parent council whose focus this year has been on communication through “parent link” program
- Fundraising is a priority for school- there is an upcoming May Fair (notice of event to go to www.myward10.ca)
- King Edward is an exciting, dynamic school- Principal Janet Philips sends her regrets to Ward Council as she was unable to attend tonight Chair Jean Rajotte thanks Christine Lewis for her enthusiastic overview of King Edward and for helping to host this evening’s meeting.
3.) Approval of Agenda:
Jim Prince raises two issues to be discussed through item #10 (Trustee Report):
(i) discussion regarding ‘out of synch.’ March Break
(ii) synchronizing communication between Board level issues with Council meetings ie. communication to council regarding upcoming issues in a timely way so that Council is able to give input Approval of agenda moved by Douglas Harris, seconded by Caroline Lindberg
4.) Approval of previous Minutes (Feb.16/05): Moved by Mary Holmes; seconded by Trish Quenneville
5.) Website report (www.myward10.ca): Douglas Harris
- no contact yet with former website manager, Adam Chaleff-Freudenthaler, but got “keys” to site through Chris Bolton
- encourage ward council members to go to site and look around- give feedback about what they would like to see/use on site
- content is needed first, therefore person with previous minutes/agendae etc.to forward for posting on site
ACTION: Cassie to send Ward 10 Council minutes and other documents from September 2004 to present for posting on site to ‘site administrator’
- First discussion forum (must register and sign-in to Forum) topic will be: “what do people in ward 10 Want to see on the site?
- Jean Rajotte is presently site administrator, but could ultimately be maintained by many people
- Question: How will site administrator decide if a topic will be posted ? What will the criteria be?
- Answer: Website sub-committee needs to meet and discuss goal of website, guiding principles, criteria for posting topics etc.
- Parent suggests that 2 calendars be developed for the website: 1) a “systems” calendar which shows all TDSB committee and Board meetings, including parent/board liaison groups such as the FSL CLG, and, 2) a Ward 10 calendar, designed for Events (school fairs, special events etc.) occuring In Ward 10.
ACTION: Douglas Harris will call meeting of website sub-committee to write guidelines/criteria etc. for Ward 10 website as soon as possible; Kim Wright will provide guidelines used for Trustee Josh Matlow’s website and forward to Douglas to use a template for www.myward10.ca
Sub-committee will bring back document for Ward Council comments and approval. (Sub-committee consists of: Douglas Harris, Caroline Lindberg, Jean Rajotte, John Benz)
6.) Approval of “welcome” letter to Ward 10 school councils:
- Item deferred as Margot Danard (ward council member who offered to write letter) is away.
7.) Update: “Information Sharing Day for Ward 10”: Jim Prince:
- see attached flyer (in DRAFT format)
- Jim sees this meeting as having 2 main purposes: (i) Mentoring: parents with lots of school council experience come and share what works, and, (ii) best practices in schools themselves (ie. programs, fundraising efforts etc.)
- Parent suggests that each Ward 10 school which attends event comes prepared with brief profile of their school and then talks about ONE very successful program/event/part of school and ONE challenge facing school
- Chris Bolton suggests large chart paper and markers be on hand so that schools can fill in their profiles as they enter event
- another goal of meeting is to engage more schools and more school councils re: Ward 10 Council- therefore, we need as many people from as many schools as possible to attend.
ACTION: Kim Wright and Cassie Bell to contact (via phone) each Ward 10 school to inform them of this meeting and invite people to attend. An approximate idea of attendance would be helpful for ordering food etc. Kim will arrange for translation of pdf flyer regarding event to go on to website asap and post a “RSVP” address through website for event.
ACTION: ALL WARD 10 COUNCIL REPS: please take meeting information back to your school councils (confirmed date and location will follow shortly) to ensure this item goes on next school council agenda for discussion. Goal? To encourage at least 3 parents from your school council to attend event.
Chris Bolton will bring information of event to FOS (Family of Schools) meeting on April 20th and ensure that all Ward 10 principals receive an email notice of event.
8.) Ward 10 Response to “TDSB Parent Involvement Policy”: Jim Prince
- no updates at this time
- Jim took previous (1998) parent involvement policy, which was a fairly good policy, and inserted some of the better ideas to insert into to new policy as recommendations
- upcoming PSSC (Program and school service committee) will see discussion on certain items in new policy
- Parent adds that although new Parent involvement policy is supposed to be a “living document”, there is no proof of this; document is a policy like any other and must now go through Board processes to be changed/amended; therefore, one of Ward 10’s recommendations should be to open up and review parent involvement policy annually- determine what is and what is not working and amend accordingly. This review should be done through broad consultation with parents. Jim Prince takes note of this suggestion and reiterates that he is looking for Ward 10 members to accompany him to present council recom- mendations at PSSC on March 30th (date to be confirmed)
- Another parents requsts that recommendation be added that parents participate in school staffing committees should also be added to Ward Council document and Jim Prince adds this, too.
ACTION: Jim Prince will submit a request for deputation on behalf of Ward 10 Council at the next PSSC meeting (Program and School Service Committee), likely March 30, 2005 (date to be confirmed and circulated by Cassie). Any other Ward 10 members willing and able to attend this presentation should contact Jim at: jim.prince@opg.com / (416) 532-5307
9.) FSL CLG (French as a second language Community Liasion Group) Report: Caroline Lindberg (SW representative for group)
- FSL issues come under umbrella of “PSSC”- Chair of PSSC, Trustee Patrick Rutledge, has confirmed that there will not be a FSL sub-committee established, but that his C.A. (constituency assistant) will attend all FSL CLG in order to keep him apprised of issues
- Trustee Chris Bolton has put motion forward for next Board however requesting establishment of FSL sub-committee
- at this point, FSL CLG does not feel their voice is being heard at PSSC (and hence not at full Board) and feel this needs to be rectified; on a positive note, Senior Staff have undertaken to do a full inventory of FSL resources
- Next FSL CLG (March 10th; 7pm; 5050 Yonge) will deal mainly with new TDSB Parent Involvement Policy and the FSL CLG response to it; also issue of high school FSL credits- TDSB credit require- ments are higher than Ministry’s, there- fore TDSB staff are recommending reduction in no. of credits in order to address high attrition rate of high school intensive FSL students who often have other course priorities; some parents raised point that if no. of credits decrease however, then choice may decrease as well;
- Ward 10 PART (Program Area Review Team): at a recent PART (Winchester/ Market Lane), issues arose concerning parent involvement and communication; a few parents responded by creating an awesome proposal of their own to address declining enrolment which really turned PART process around and looked at issue from different perspec- tive- result? Both communities felt final resolution worked for them; this could impact Ward 10 PART in a positive way; Ward 10 PART is reviewing Gr. 7 Extended French program at King Edward and Lord Landsdown Schools; Caroline is the FSL CLG rep and will give Ward 10 updates on process, but feels it might be a good idea to have a Ward 10 rep there as well;
ACTION: Caroline Lindberg will email Cassie updates of Ward 10 PART for circulation and for posting on Ward 10 website as well.
Caroline will inquire into possibility of Ward 10 rep. also attending PART process at first meeting: FIRST WARD 10 PART MEETING IS: Wednesday March 9th @ Central Tech.
- Chris Bolton points out that when motion went through at Board re: PART he didn’t mean it just to focus on these two schools, because impact is bigger than this both inside and outside of Ward 10- there is “no plan” regarding PART, Chris just wanted to consult Parents and hear what they thought Possibilities were first
ACTION: Superintendent Georgina Balascas will find TDSB policy regarding PART process and forward link/info. to Chris Bolton so we can post it on Ward 10 website as background information.
10.) Trustee Report: Chris Bolton
- motion re: FSL sub-committee
will go forward next PSSC, it is always helpful to have parents there showing support.
- Last Board meeting: motion to maintain 70 EAs (Educational Assistants) in system passed- there are now 715.5 regular EAs for kindergarten and regular classroom support, however some schools are still reporting losses of EAs ie. Hawthorne has been reduced to .5 EA and there is still a total of approx. 23 EA difference across the city- reason given for (-23) is declining enrolment of approx. 4000 students in TDSB
ACTION: Ward 10 School Councils should contact Trustee Bolton ASAP to report loss of EAs in their school; Super. Balascas has new staffing allocations and will forward to Chris Bolton as soon as possible.
- at last Bd. Meeting teacher- librarian allocation was also raised from .3 to .6 per school, therefore each elementary school should have minimum .5 librarian
- teacher allocations are not yet out
- no. of assistants for special needs students is down due also to declining enrolment
- Trustee Bolton took part last night in post-secondary tuition fees discussion, along with MPP Rosario Marchese and economist Hugh McKenzie; excellent turn out for this important issue;
- New item added by parent regarding Human Resource allocation process- concern over staff being added/pulled mid- year leading to huge disruption; ie. last year, this school lost both a new principal and new V.P.! This will impact school as now no new senior admin. person will be familiar with “cluster” programs particular to this school; loss of institutional history and continuity is very disturbing for parent population, especially as there was no formal communication from Board or the trustee regarding this process; Chris Bolton responds that it is typical that Board staff are “seconded” or ‘poached’ by the Ministry of Education on an ongoing basis (about 12 staff so far over the last 6 months); this has been disturbing in the schools, but should subside now Issue of parents having say on Principal/vp selection could be Item for Info. Sharing Day?
ACTION: Jim Prince and other steering committee members will consider this issue as possible topic for “Roundtable” discussion at Info. Sharing Day for Ward 10.
- Two new items added to agenda: (i) March Break Issue Chris Bolton reports that discus- sions between Peel/Durham/ York/Catholic Boards took place around this issue, but TDSB ‘went first’ knowing that co- terminus bussing would cost $340,000! Parent asks why the decision went ahead knowing that the cost was so large? Chris states that the majority of trustees supported the idea, but at the last Board meeting it was resolved to “consult more inten- sively” with surrounding Boards in future regarding calendar changes. Parent adds it would also be good idea to consult with parents who are also greatly affected by calendar changes!!
- (ii) Improved communication timeline between Board and ward council: Parent feels there are important issues which surface which Ward council hears about too late to give trustee feedback/input on; Chris Bolton reports that Board Has recently changed its meet- ing schedule for the FOURTH time since Sept. There is also issue of huge agenda (300 + pages) and it is available only one week prior minimim to Board meetings;
ACTION: If any issue comes up between ward council/Board meetings, contact Trustee Bolton asap so that he can arrange to serve “notice of motion” at Board if necessary; Website should also be used as communication tool (ie. post new and important information so that Ward council knows as quickly as possible about upcoming issues/events)
- NOTE: Trustee Bolton will be away from April 8th- 19th inclusive
ACTION: Discussion of TDSB Ombuds office deferred til next Ward 10 council meeting
Next Meeting: Tuesday April 5th at Ogden P.S. (Maritza Guzman will check with Principal and Cassie will follow up re: meeting location)
ADJOURN