Royal Bay Secondary School
Parents’ Advisory Council
Minutes:
September 16, 2015 DRAFT
Held at Royal Bay Secondary School - Learning
Commons
1. Welcome
 PAC President Larissa Coates welcomed those present.
 Round circle introductions were completed.
 Meeting called to order at 6:33 pm.
 Present were Larissa Coates (President), Sally Staples (Vice-President), Sarah Melanson
(Communications), Rebecca Chow (Secretary); Kim Stewart (co-Treasurer), Sherri Olsen (coTreasurer), Ami Crooks (SPC Representative), Joanne Arnold (Member at Large), Kimberly
Gantzert, Angela Hasanen, Amber Thompson, Ian and Pam Fraser, Georgina Tran, Madeleine
Manning, Kim Mayoh, Salome Crowley, Georgina Rezk, Leah Dobell, Windy Beadall (Principal)
and Mike Huck (Vice-Principal).
2. Agenda
 Academy Fees was added to the agenda.
 Moved by Sarah; seconded by Kim.
3. Minutes
 Minutes from June 3, 2015 meeting were adopted as circulated. Moved by Sally; seconded by
Ami.
4. Reports
 President/Chair – Exciting to have school open and hosting meeting at the school. Larissa
provided an overview of how and when the PAC was formed, when bylaw and constitution was
developed, elections that were conducted in June of 2015, and those to be conducted tonight.
 Vice-President – Nothing to report.
 Secretary – Society registration still in progress.
 Treasurer –
 Bank account – the co-treasurers opened a bank account at Pacific Coast Savings.
 Gaming money – Ursula Cowland at the Ministry of Finance, Gaming Policy and Enforcement
Branch previously indicated that she had set the gaming money up so that it would be split
between the two schools. Ursula has experience with school district changes (i.e. Cowichan).
Gaming money has not yet been received by any of the Sooke PACs.
 It was confirmed that the Belmont PAC applied using the student head count at Belmont.
Windy noted that student head counts are now different than in the Spring of 2015.
 There may be the need to the two PACs to split the money that Belmont receives.
 Fundraising – COBS program has been established at the Westshore Town Centre.
 Other passive fundraisers were discussed such as DriveWise, Co-op Gas, Pennies for PACs,
Forester’s Bistro (at Olympic View Golf Course). Rebecca to follow-up with Forester’s. Sarah
to write an article for the Raven’s Nest on who these fundraisers work.
 Communications – No communication received up to this point -royalbaypac@gmail.com.
Contact at the office to be Laurie Freer and Mike Huck to remain as contact for Raven’s Nest
submissions. A corner of the Raven’s Nest is available weekly for PAC submissions. Windy noted
that the Raven’s Nest is used to communicate with students, parents and staff.
 SPEAC Representative – Still looking for a representative. Those present provide an overview of
the SPEAC (Sooke Parents' Education Advisory Council – District PAC) meetings. Georgina Tran
noted a parent who is interested but as not in attendance. Leah Dobell expressed interest. Refer
to Election Section below.
 Principal / Vice-Principal
 Welcome!
 Vice Principal Mike Bobbitt sends his regrets as he was unable to attend this evening.
 Windy noted it has been a decent start to the school year. Challenges with IT have occurred
and staff have found the MyEdBC system to have challenges as it was down in mid July and
mid August.
 Mike added that it is amazing that 5000+ students have transitioned to new schools and two
new schools have opened. The school year has had a super start with the kids being very
excited. Considering the previous school, Royal Bay is a pretty good upgrade.
 Enrolment is over 800 students with 50+ international students.
 Construction crews are still on site, working in the early mornings, evenings and weekends.
Staff have been in the school for a week and a half and have been very patient. Most classes
are set-up. Some technical classrooms are not completely finished.
 Books are arriving and book shelves are still be to be installed to display them.
 The school does not have any garbage cans yet and Windy credited and thanked our kids for
keeping the school so clean in the first week and a half.
 Scheduling wise, 95 to 97% of students are in classes. Some changes are needed for classes
with greater than 30 students. Staff have been added as needed. There are currently 70
staff. Some teachers are currently “teachers on call” as schedules are being finalized.
 Issue with buses is being handled by the Sooke School District office. The school is letting
the district office know the number of students left behind on routes each day. Routes are
taking longer than expected.
 BC Transit has added a loop to routes 52 and 59 so as to provide a connecting bus to one of
the two transit interchanges before and after school. Route information was circulated at
the meeting and can be found on Royal Bay’s website and in the News section of the BC
Transit website. These buses have also been full and Windy have been in contact with BC
Transit.
 The Learning Commons is open before and after school.
 Raven’s Nest newsletter is created and posted weekly for students, parents and staff.
 A school planning day already occurred for Royal Bay.
 The Home Room Committee planned the activities for school start-up. Each student has a
home room providing a teacher who can assist with general questions.
 Today lockers were assigned and t-shirts were provided. Not all students received a locker.
Some students decided to share a locker. Some students declined to have one. Windy
advised if any student does not have a locker and wants one go to the office and ask.
Royal Bay Secondary School Parents’ Advisory Council – Minutes – Sept 16, 2015 DRAFT
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“Meet the Staff Night” is planned for Tuesday, September 22 starting at 6:30 pm. The plan
is to have an introduction in the theatre followed by a walk through the child’s schedule.
Plan is to send the information out via email using the district’s email distribution list. If you
do not get an email regarding this, please let the school know.
Scholarships – John Fross is coordinating this at Royal Bay through a scholarship class which
runs at lunch time 2 days per week. The school will be sending out letters to community
members to ensure they are aware of Royal Bay Secondary and solicit scholarships. Students
in Grade 12 are encouraged to start this early as a number of scholarships have fall
deadlines.
Two days will be arranged with Belmont for Universities to come and promote their
programs. One will focus on post-secondary institutions on Vancouver Island and one will
focus on those off the island.
As counsellors are still working with students to finalize term #1 schedules, the school asks
that any concerns with Term #2 are addressed next week.
Students with Individual Education Plans (IEP) should be contacted by the end of the week
by a learning support teacher.
Washrooms are still to be completed. Hand dryers have been installed and the walls have
been reinforced to mount paper towel dispensers if needed. Receptacles are going into all
female stalls.
Open house – the open house that was discussed at the June PAC meeting did not proceed
as the School Board needs to first officially open the school. The date for a ceremony in the
fall is to be confirmed. This will likely include a ribbon cutting ceremony involving the
Ministry of Education.
Graduation will be on the same day as Belmont – Sunday, June 12 at 3 pm. Winter Formal
has been arranged for December 17, 2015 at Bear Mountain.
Grad photos will occur the week before winter vacation.
There are no public phones in the school, but students can ask to use a phone in the office.
Cell service is partial in the school. To address this issue from a safety perspective, the
school is looking at a signal booster.
The Ravenous Café (RBSS Teaching kitchen) will be open soon. Students have 35 minutes for
lunch similar to Edward Milne which also has a teaching kitchen. Plan is to create 150 meals
per day. A coffee machine to sell coffee in the morning is on order.
Computers are not in each classroom as there are 8 laptop cards each with 20 computers.
Some classes are encouraging a BYOD (bring your own device). Additionally there are two
computers labs.
Parents requested that the staff list include email addresses and teacher’s websites.
The school does not have an overall policy on the use of electronic devices. Each teacher is
to establish this in their classroom.
Flow of traffic for drop off. Despite a yellow line being painted in the area in front of the
school, traffic is meant to travel in one direction. City of Colwood planners have visited the
site to review traffic patterns.
Foot traffic within the school gets a bit congested – however this is due to students not yet
realizing there are 4 staircases.
The roof top basketball court will require a few more weeks. The track is still to be lined.
Some chemistry supplies have been received, more are coming.
Use of the weight room before and after school needs to be supervised. A supervisory
schedule is still to be confirmed.
Royal Bay Secondary School Parents’ Advisory Council – Minutes – Sept 16, 2015 DRAFT
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Through the School District office, the school can be booked for events with the exception
of the Theatre which is booked through Melissa Young the Theatre Director.
The Neighbourhood Learning Centre portion of the building is expected to open in October.
A number of rooms and a kitchen that can be booked through Westshore Recreation.
Student parking provides 90 to 100 spots. A parking pass program is being established.
Gates to the school from the adjacent developments are still being pursued.
5. All Old Business was covered in Reports.
6. New Business
 An excerpt from the Division 2 – Parents of the School Act was circulated which outlines the
changes to the School Planning Council structure. No SPC representatives will be elected.
 Elections:
 Vice President – Sarah Melanson nominated Ami Crooks. Joanne Arnold seconded the
nomination. Ami Crooks accepted the nomination. No other nominations were received
after three requests. Ami Crooks is the new Vice-President for 2015-2016.
 Secretary – Larissa Coates nominated Rebecca Chow. Sarah Melanson seconded the
nomination. Rebecca Chow accepted the nomination. No other nominations were received
after three requests. Rebecca Chow is the returning Secretary for 2015-2016.
 SPEAC Representative – Leah Dobell expressed interest in the position. Georgina Tran
advised those present of another parent who was also interested. It was noted that Royal
Bay could have more than one representative. Leah Dobell was confirmed as one of the
SPEAC representatives and the other parent is encouraged to contact the PAC President.
 Sarah Melanson was appointed into the Communications position.
 All present were encouraged to continue to attend the PAC meetings as they are a great
venue to hear about the school and programs. The emphasis for secondary school PACs is
sharing of information, not fund raising.
 Academies:
 Parents asked about the fees for academies. Windy reviewed how academy fees were set
and noted that while some costs are no longer incurred (for example buses), other
opportunities have been identified and the funding has been allotted to those other
opportunities. Parents suggested that the Sooke School Board share the breakdown of the
fees.
 Meeting dates:
 PAC members agreed to meet on the first Wednesday each month with a meeting booked
in March (which may be cancelled depending on need to meet). The meeting dates are
October 7, November 4, December 2, January 6, February 3, March 2, April 6, May 4
(Elections), June 1.
7. Next meetings scheduled for Wednesday, October 7, 6:30 pm at Royal Bay Secondary School Learning Commons. Those present asked that the Agenda be created the week before allowing it to
be posted prior to the meeting.
8. Adjourned at 8:06 pm. A tour was provided after the meeting and during the tour President Larissa
Coates shared a heartfelt thank you to Windy and Mike for their care, dedication and determination
to get the school ready to welcome our kids.
Royal Bay Secondary School Parents’ Advisory Council – Minutes – Sept 16, 2015 DRAFT
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